Personally, I have no problem with proselytizing. As long as the courteous Mormon boys don’t kill me after I decline to convert, I don’t mind talking with them — and they never have so far. But in Libya there reigns supreme an altogether more insecure religious culture — and here again is another example of how some Muslims, as they do with the blasphemy laws in Pakistan, make use of Islamic law to gain personal advantages.
Islamic Tolerance Alert: “Egyptian Man Imprisoned on Charges of Proselytizing Christianity in Libya,” from AINA, May 7:
In an embarrassing situation, the Libyan authorities arrested the Copt Gergis Massoud Hanna, 41 years old, accusing him of proselytizing and detained him in prison.
According to Dr. Naguib Gibraeel, President of Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organization EUHRO, an attorney and a Copt himself, Mr. Hanna was publishing purely Christian spiritual contents on his electronic website, which the Libyan authorities considered to be “Proselytizing Christianity in Libya”.
“Hanna has not been proselytizing Christianity on his website, the matter is simply that a Muslim Egyptian named Saad el-Din Saad, who is the detainee’s partner in a small business for recycling used manufacturing oil, denounced him to the Libyan External State Security. The Muslim partner wanted to get rid of him by being sent back to Egypt, so that he can put his hand on the whole business” Gibraeel commented….