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Egypt: Christian teacher gets six months jail for insulting Islam

Jun 15, 2014 5:07 pm By Robert Spencer

Demiana EmadThe Muslim Brotherhood may be out of power, but clearly numerous Egyptians share their sensibilities. This case is reminiscent of the many blasphemy cases in Pakistan that were clearly exercises in harassing and intimidating that country’s non-Muslims. The al-Sisi government would do well to quash such prosecutions, but if it did, it might end up being toppled from power itself.

“Coptic teacher gets 6 months in jail for ‘insulting Islam,'” Ahram Online, June 15, 2014:

Demiana Emad, a 23-year-old social studies teacher, was arrested on 9 May 2013 after the head of the parents’ association of Sheikh Sultan Primary School in Luxor filed a complaint accusing her of insulting Islam.

In June 2013, Emad was sentenced to pay a LE100,000 fine. Sunday’s jail sentence was ordered by the court in response to an appeal filed by the defendant on last year’s fine.

According to a year-old report by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), Emad didn’t insult Islam, only “presented a comparison between religions in ancient, middle and modern ages as mentioned in the curriculum”.

The report, which warned of similar cases becoming “a tool to oppress minorities“, added that during investigations the majority of Emad’s students denied that she had insulted Islam in her class.

Charges of insulting religion go back to the regime of ousted president Hosni Mubarak, widely used then as a pretext to crack down on political activists. However, occurrences of the charge significantly rose under the rule of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who was removed from power last July.

A report issued by the EIPR last September revealed that since the 25 January 2011 revolution until the end of 2012, a total of 63 citizens, both Muslims and Christians, were charged with insulting religion.

Article 98 of Egypt’s penal code says anyone convicted of offending religion in any form can face up to six years in prison.

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Filed Under: blasphemy, Coptic Christians, Egypt, Muslim persecution of Christians


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Comments

  1. Slobbering Fits says

    Jun 15, 2014 at 5:42 pm

    She got off light . Sounds like a model for the USA.

    • eib says

      Jun 16, 2014 at 8:17 am

      Yes.
      Thanx to Madam Hillary and the Istanbul Process.

  2. voegelinian says

    Jun 15, 2014 at 6:25 pm

    The polls taken of the Egyptian People not long before they ousted the Muslim Brotherhood showed statistics of over 80% supporting fanatical Sharia. People — particularly Muslims — don’t change overnight.

    • Jay Boo says

      Jun 15, 2014 at 7:31 pm

      A more recent poll seems to have similar numbers
      If we can believe MSM polls?

      Egyptians-love-sharia or do they not ???
      http://www.westernjournalism.com/poll-egyptians-love-sharia/

      • RodSerling says

        Jun 16, 2014 at 9:23 am

        That’s not a more recent poll.

        • Jay Boo says

          Jun 17, 2014 at 12:23 am

          @RodSerling
          Am I misreading what voeg wrote”
          “The polls taken of the Egyptian People not long (BEFORE) they ousted the Muslim Brotherhood ”
          or this poll not correct as dated?
          You did not say why you believe it is not a more recent poll
          you offer no evidence for your statement

          My link is to
          April 30, 2013
          http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-overview/

        • Jay Boo says

          Jun 17, 2014 at 12:25 am

          The original page link references April 30, 2013
          The link on the page references April 30, 2013

      • RodSerling says

        Jun 17, 2014 at 8:49 pm

        JayBoo,

        Voeg alluded to the Pew April 30 published poll (summary of polls). You said the one you cited was more recent. It’s not more recent, because you are referring to the same poll Voeg alluded to.

        April 30 is “not long before” the MB were ousted.

        • Jay Boo says

          Jun 18, 2014 at 1:12 am

          You are correct
          I must be getting senile
          I was thinking Morsi and the MB was ousted in 2012
          I was off by a year

    • Angemon says

      Jun 16, 2014 at 5:30 am

      IMO, those numbers may be puffed up by people afraid of retaliation if the wrong people hears them admitting they don’t support sharia. The snitching and popular justice elements in sharia are more than enough to turn the average person into a paranoid scaredy-cat.

      • RodSerling says

        Jun 16, 2014 at 10:46 am

        Angemon,

        I don’t think that’s a significant factor in regards to those polls.

        1. Majorities and large minorities of Muslims in the Western world support sharia. Indeed, about a third of British Muslims support the death penalty for apostasy. The majority of Muslims in the Western countries surveyed for example want criticism of Islam and Muhammad to be a criminal offense.

        2. You have to take into account how these polls are conducted. The polls, e.g., by Pew and others, showing high levels of support for elements of classical sharia among Muslims in many Islamic countries (and low and medium levels of support in other Muslim countries), would be conducted so that respondents were given assurances of the privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity of their responses. That is standard for this method.

        Some respondents may not believe the assurances, but I suspect most Muslims in these countries who participated in the Pew poll have done at least some polls before and know that it would be wildly unlikely for their responses and personal identifying information to be leaked. If there is a case of a Muslim who got punished for not supporting sharia on an anonymous questionnaire, I’m not aware of it.

        3. Let’s look at an example of the support for elements of sharia: In Egypt, according to the Pew polls summarized and reported last year, 88% of Egyptian Muslims support the death penalty for apostasy (see p. 219 in the link below). The question was simple, straightforward, and unconditional. There were no sharia conditions specifying that the apostate had to be adult, male (according to some schools, females are not executed), sane, unrepentant, and publicly self-declared. If an apostate doesn’t meet any one of those criteria, a sharia-supporting Muslim has a legitimate sharia excuse for answering “no” to the question.

        I don’t think any significant percentage of that 88% support is accounted for by the factor you suggest. It’s not the case that Muslims in the Muslim world have to fear their families, neighbors, and governments for not supporting the unqualified unconditional death penalty for apostasy. They have reasons to fear becoming apostates, and of announcing their apostasy, and maybe even to some minor extent of denying that apostates should be punished in some way. But I don’t think they have to fear disagreeing, even publicly, with an unqualified death penalty for any and all apostates.

        4. Muslims who don’t support sharia on the questionnaire (given by a Western organization) have yet another sharia and Islam-inspired excuse for their response: deception of a non-Muslim entity.

        5. Your suggestion seems to overestimate the importance, to would-be jihadists, snitches, etc., of one person’s, out of thousands of persons’, private, confidential, anonymous responses on a questionnaire. At the same time, you seem to be underestimating the cost, the trouble, and difficulty, of obtaining private protected secured information from the independent polling organizations. It is not that such highly motivated sharia busybodies don’t exist. They do. But they likely focus more on other more worthwhile targets, especially public ones, ones worthy of opposing; and on more available contexts, e.g., within their own daily lives or within their own reach.

        6. In light of your suggestion, How do you account for the variation in views across the Muslim world found by these polls? The views of Muslims in the Muslim world, overall, vary from country to country, with less support for hard-line sharia in places like Kazakhstan, Lebanon, and Turkey, “moderate” (as in medium) level of support in Indonesia, and high levels of support in much of Islamicate central (i.e., Middle East and North Africa).

        • RodSerling says

          Jun 16, 2014 at 10:58 am

          re “the link below” to the Pew poll:
          http://www.pewforum.org/uploadedFiles/Topics/Religious_Affiliation/Muslim/worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-full-report.pdf

          p.s., and re #6, above, it’s not as though there aren’t plenty of wild-eyed jihadists and sharia enthusiasts in Lebanon who might intimidate someone into responding a certain way, if they could. Yet in the Pew poll, 81% of Lebanese Muslims opposed the death penalty for apostasy. Even in Jihad Central, the Palestinian Territories, 29% opposed the death penalty for apostasy, in the Pew poll.

        • RodSerling says

          Jun 16, 2014 at 11:05 am

          Another p.s. point:
          To the extent that Muslims perceive the poll as conducted by a Western entity, there might be some amount of bias in the opposite direction to the one you suggest: They may downplay their support for sharia to promote a palatable view of Muslims and Islam. They would be familiar with this approach from da’wa, for example.

        • RodSerling says

          Jun 16, 2014 at 12:01 pm

          Another factor that suggests that support for sharia, including its hard-line elements, is underestimated by the Pew polls: Pew has overall a pro-Islam, Islam-apologetic view, which can be gleaned from reading the verbal/prose portions of their reports, and on the questions asked and not asked. For example, the apostasy question probably produced less responses in support of the punishment because it was unconditional. Consider a conditional version of the question, more in line with strict sharia: “Do you favor or oppose the following: the death penalty for adult males of sound mind who leave the Islamic religion freely and sincerely, who announce this publicly, and who refuse to repent and return to Islam when given ample opportunity to do so?”

          The levels of support for that proposition would probably be higher than for the unconditional proposition that was actually put to them by Pew:

          “Do you favor or oppose the following: the death
          penalty for people who leave the Muslim religion?”

          Also, consider a question of major importance that Pew has not asked of Muslims in the Islamic world thus far (except in Pakistan), namely, of whether or not they support criminal prosecution and punishment of people who criticize Islam and Muhammad. Since we already know from other polls (not by Pew) that the majority of Muslims in the West favor criminal prosecution and punishment of those who blaspheme against Islam and Muhammad, we can reasonably infer that the overall level of support would be higher in the Islamic world. If Pew asked that question, you’d probably see large majorities of support in almost every (if not every) Muslim majority country. Thus, we would have strong evidence against the ideas that the majority of Muslims are moderate or that sharia as most Muslims envision it is moderate and limited. We don’t have that evidence, because Pew didn’t ask, despite having the perfect opportunity to do so, and despite their having asked many questions of lesser importance.

        • Jay Boo says

          Jun 17, 2014 at 1:20 am

          @RodSerling
          Interesting But
          Everything you just wrote is wrong and non-factual

        • RodSerling says

          Jun 17, 2014 at 9:17 pm

          Jay Boo,

          “Everything you just wrote is wrong and non-factual”

          What specifically are you talking about? My comments above contain factual statements, arguments, opinions, etc. An example of a factual statement: 88% of Egyptian Muslims surveyed by Pew indicated that they favored the death penalty for apostasy (again, see p. 219 in the above link).

          Are you claiming that the Pew report to which I linked does not show this?

        • Jay Boo says

          Jun 18, 2014 at 1:16 am

          @RodSerling
          Please disregard my incorrect analysis

  3. Jay Boo says

    Jun 15, 2014 at 7:23 pm

    Islam has but one god, so it is written
    There used to be three daughters of Allah but Muhammad honor-killed them all off of his script for the sake of Allah when he was caught in a big lie saying, “inshallah”
    Mo however did not kill off his leading character, Allah
    unfortunately

  4. Kings says

    Jun 15, 2014 at 11:28 pm

    Shameless religion in Shameless country

  5. Eddie says

    Jun 16, 2014 at 1:43 am

    Talking about dis-honest media, please note that:
    1- Al-Ahram online is a state-owned publisher.
    2-Demiana did not insult Islam. She happened to have few kids in her class whose parents are salafists /Brotherhood members & average Fanatic Muslims. They did nit like that their kids are being taught by a non-muslim, non-hijab wearing woman.
    3- There is no evidence whatsoever. It is the kids word against the teacher. There was no one else in the classroom at the time.
    4- Under Egyptian law (usually ignored for the sake of Sharia), kids can not be witnesses in court
    5- The 100K Bail is the equivalent of Damian’s salary for around 8 years. The amount of the bail is bail is unusual for Egypt.
    6- Demiana’s case has been going on over a year, with death threats to her and her family, persecutions, etc.. This 23 year old has already been punished merciless physically and psychologically.
    6- The article mentions “a total of 63 citizens, both Muslims and Christians, were charged with insulting religion”. The writer failed to mention:
    6-a This is about insulting Islam. No other religion.
    6-b All 63 are Christians, ex-Muslims or Atheists.
    6-c The only person who was

  6. Eddie says

    Jun 16, 2014 at 1:54 am

    7- The only person ( Sheikh Abo-Islam) who was brought to trial for repeatedly insulting Christianity, Burning and urinating on the bible in public places ( in front of the American Embassy in Cairo), with tons of evidence ( video, photos, witnesses etc..), nothing happened to him so far. his verdict is “ink on paper” as Egyptian say. Video is still available on you tube.
    8- Christianity and Christians are being insulted daily on over a dozen TV channels since over 30 years. No a single trial.
    9- Christianity is been insulted and hatred against Christian is part of the government official curriculum for elementary and middle school. General Sis, just ordered a task-force to review these books and “clean” them.
    10- It seems that, there is no end to Islamic Taqqeya and Western naiivety.

  7. farouk says

    Jun 16, 2014 at 8:04 am

    This speech, which she said this lady is absolutely not true. Because the whole Egyptian people hated Brotherhood criminals unwillingly very large. Because the Egyptian people will not forget the crimes of the Muslim Brotherhood against the people who were killed by the Brotherhood. It has killed all people of Christians and Muslims. Therefore, the state led by Sisi emphasizes the Brotherhood, it will fight the law and eliminate them till the end, because the whole Egyptian people request it from Sisi during the elections and stand with him in all the actions fought by the Brotherhood law. Because we are a state of law in the foundation. Egyptians and Christians have so much freedom here in Egypt. And take all their rights. It is incredible that he has to come to Egypt and see it for himself and particular and will teach this proven fact. As for the words of this lady’s words is all a lie, because there are American and European organizations have paid the money until you say it and the White House have also pays even say such a thing false. Therefore the whole Egyptian people hated organizations and associations of civil society because they are taking money from America and Europe in order to fight for their homeland and give a false picture and is good for the nation. So these traitors and working with money and hate the world, such as the Brotherhood of criminals. And once again confirm that we are a state of law applies to everyone and every people Muslim or Christian without discrimination. It is subjected to injustice, for example, the Egyptian judiciary exists and preserves the rights of all people, Muslims and Christians, and given all the rights of the people do not differentiate between them. And once again confirm that the words of this lady is absolutely false, a lie for the continuation of aid money and its American and European organizations and associations that work with them. And once again confirm that the entire Egyptian people hated these organizations and these among its because they take money from abroad in order to stand against Egypt and against the people of Egypt

    • Eddie says

      Jun 16, 2014 at 9:59 am

      Replying to Farouk,
      I can not follow your logic. I am sure, I am not the only one. You are mixing evrything together to get away from the issue at hand.
      2 simple questions:

      1 – what did Demiane say or write? That got her a 6-month prison sentence
      2- what evidence did the court have for this allegation?

      Please stick to these 2 questions first.

    • Eddie says

      Jun 16, 2014 at 1:38 pm

      Since Farouk did not answer yet, here is a cut&paste quote of what he wrote to refresh his memory. This a nother example of the DENIAL by most Muslims of the persecution Non-Muslims suffer from daily since 14 centuries.

      Farouk rushed to support the verdict on the innocent 23 year old, without even knowing what the issue is all about.

      farouk wrote :
      “This speech, which she said this lady is absolutely not true. Because the whole Egyptian people hated Brotherhood criminals unwillingly very large. Because the Egyptian people will not forget the crimes of the Muslim Brotherhood against the people who were killed by the Brotherhood”

  8. eib says

    Jun 16, 2014 at 8:16 am

    The woman is innocent.
    The law under which she was prosecuted is contemptible.
    The religion that is privileged by the law is profane.
    End of story.

    • John C. Barile says

      Jun 16, 2014 at 10:07 am

      Amen.

  9. Mirren10 says

    Jun 17, 2014 at 9:42 am

    ”According to a year-old report by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), Emad didn’t insult Islam, only “presented a comparison between religions in ancient, middle and modern ages as mentioned in the curriculum”.

    The report, which warned of similar cases becoming “a tool to oppress minorities“, added that during investigations the majority of Emad’s students denied that she had insulted Islam in her class.”

    **Any** blasphemy law, anywhere, at any time, can, and will be used as a tool to oppress minorities, and to provide a raison d’etre for personal vendettas.

    Any blasphemy law, anywhere, at any time, is anti-free speech, anti human. It is spiritual fascism.

  10. JeffS says

    Jun 19, 2014 at 1:04 pm

    An accusation is as good as a conviction.

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