The mouthpiece of the Islamist hardline Salafi movement in Egypt, the daily Sout Biladi (Voice of my Country) is back on track deriding the Christian religion
The mouthpiece of the Islamist hardline Salafi movement in Egypt, the daily Sout Biladi (Voice of my Country) is back on track deriding the Christian religion. The paper is a non-licensed, non-periodical publication which hits the newsstands on any sporadic Friday. In its 4 May edition, the journalist Abu-Islam Ahmed Abdullah used the page dedicated by the paper for “other religion” to wage a sarcastic battle against Christian beliefs.
Under the theme “Ten questions Christianity cannot and will not answer”, Abu-Islam—the name Abdullah goes under—poses such queries as: Was the serpent forgiven? Are there serpents that eat dirt? Did Christ commit suicide or was He killed by His father? Is Satan more powerful than God? This latter query in specific was used to ridicule the concepts of Salvation and Redemption.
Even though the queries are too ridiculous to take seriously, the attitude of Abu-Islam and the paper he writes in reeks of disdain of Christianity. Egyptian law bans ridicule of religion; an article that has lately been used to clap harsh sentences on Copts for non-substantiated charges of commenting on something Islamic.
Last March Watani wrote of two Copts in Assiut, Upper Egypt, who were harshly penalised for allegedly disdaining Islam. In a judicial system notorious for extended periods of trial—cases may drag on for years on end—both men were tried and sentenced in less than one week. Makarem Diyab Saïd, a 49-year-old teacher from the town of Abnoub in Assiut, was sentenced to six years in prison—even though the maximum sentence stipulated by the law for disdaining religions is a three-year imprisonment—for questioning whether the Prophet Mohamed had had some 40 wives.
And Gamal Massoud, 17, from Manqabad, Assiut, was sentenced to three years for allegedly posting an entry on Facebook that insulted the Prophet. Massoud is almost computer illiterate and has no Facebook account; he is moreover a minor under Egyptian law and, as such, may not be imprisoned. He is appealing the case.
At the same time, several legal complaints filed against Abu-Islam and others for deriding Christian were never seen in court.
WATANI International
8 May 2012
