Allegedly insulting Islam — including speaking the truth about its teachings that justify violence and oppression — already gets people vilified, ostracized, and marginalized in the U.S. and Europe. How long before it becomes a criminal offense? What has happened to Fady Yousef will be happening to Americans and Europeans before too long.
“Coptic Christian Arrested for Allegedly Insulting Islam on Facebook in Egypt,” Morning Star News, June 18, 2019:
CAIRO, Egypt (Morning Star News) – A young Coptic Christian man has been arrested near Cairo, Egypt for allegedly insulting Islam after a hacker posted material on his Facebook page, he and family members said.
Fady Yousef, 25, was arrested early in the morning of June 11 in Giza, southwest of Cairo, despite having posted a video explaining that hackers had placed the offending material on his Facebook page, according to the Coptic Bishopric of Maghagha and El Edwa in Minya.
The previous night (June 10), Muslim extremists angry over the offending material attacked his parents’ home in Eshneen el Nasara village, near Maghgaha in Minya Governorate, about 260 kilometers (160 miles) south of Giza, according to a statement from the bishopric.
“On Monday [June 10] some extremists reaching a few hundred from Eshneen el Nasara village and the villages around it attacked the home of Yousef Todary,” the statement from Bishop Anba Aghathon read. “They entered and destroyed the contents of the house, then moved to the house next door where his brother lived and attacked it from the outside. They were shouting against the Christian religion and the Copts of the village.”
Yousef Todary, his wife and daughter were able to escape minutes before the Muslim extremists broke in and destroyed the refrigerator, television set, mattresses, furniture and windows, according to the bishop.
Stating that Muslim extremists alleged the post was insulting to Islam, the bishop defended Fady Yousef, reiterating that he said his Facebook was hacked.
The young Copt posted an apology on the page saying he would never do such a thing, and that people who knew him know this well. His sister, Nermeen Yousef, also posted a clarification, saying her brother apologized not because he did anything wrong, but because people mistakenly believed that he was the author of the post, according to Copts United….
Shirley Ann says
How Easily, the Muslims are Offended “EveryWhere” & are able to take the Law into
Their own Hands, with Tacit approval from the
Authorities, who only show up after the Destruction has been Completed.
The Muslims are very successful in Setting People
Up, almost as good as our FBI. The Christian Copt was Set-Up, the same as all the other OFFENDERS OF ISLAM. This MO must be taught to these Barbarian Savages by their Tender Mamas.
CRUSADER says
Precisely why Mark Gabriel, the former Imam who converted to Christianity,
was compelled to leave Islam…. He found it unbearable and deceitful and cruel!!!
t. says
Do you mean Mark Christian?
gravenimage says
Here’s information on Mark Gabriel, t.:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_A._Gabriel
t. says
Thanks, gravenimage.
gravenimage says
Thank you, t..
Paul says
The problem with residents in Egyptian villages mainly Muslims is that they have been inbreeding for centuries and have a high rate of interbreeding and are mostly illiterate.
gravenimage says
I *wish* that were the main problem–the main problem is Islam.
Type says
I agree a100% that the problem with the Islam itself,it’s a diabolic teaching full of hate toward the non Muslims
mortimer says
Response to Shirley Ann (‘How easily the Muslims are offended’) … IT’S THE IDEOLOGY.
From Sharia manual Reliance of the Traveller’ Chapter ‘O’ 11.10.05:
“The (DHIMMI) agreement is also violated (A: with respect to the offender alone) if the state has stipulated that any of the following things break it, and one of the subjects does so anyway, though if the state has not stipulated that these break the agreement, then they do not; namely, if one of the subject people:
-5- mentions something impermissible about Allah, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), or Islam.”
Furthermore, Sharia law allows the private Muslim to commit vigilante violence and assassination on the basis of the above Chapter ‘O’ 11.10.05.
It’s the IDEOLOGY of Islam, rather than simply ’emotion’. Allah requires the vigilant murder of blasphemers.
David says
This is what the Chinese are doing: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-china-48696184/faith-in-ruins-china-s-vanishing-mosques
CRUSADER says
Mark Gabriel on the Nature of Islam – Inspirational Videos
Islamic scholar and former Imam trained at Al-Azhar in Egypt
Mark Gabriel speaks against Islam being a religion of peace….
(video interview begins at 00:00:50 marker)
https://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=KLPZZLNX
t. says
Thanks, CRUSADER, for the link.
Angemon says
Wasn’t it supposed to be something about a post on Facebook?
gravenimage says
Egypt: Christian arrested, Muslims trash home over claim he insulted Islam on Facebook
………………….
This poor man and his family. And it sounds as though even this was a set up.
CRUSADER says
Copts might find it more worth their while to move away from Egypt and to set up their lives in Greece, where there are large areas of land quite under-populated ….and Christianity is promoted and embraced. Very different than what’s going on in Spain, for instance. Greece is on the front lines and has rich memory of how Turks despicably treated them. Cyprus was invaded by Turks in an attempt to take over, and fill in the island population with little support by the global establishments to counter the Turks.
“The Promise” is a movie about the modern time period when Turks 100 years ago pressed against Christians with might, in order to persecute them and to expel them….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwut1DUXaZc
gravenimage says
Yes–we should take in Christian refugees.
Battle says
Free Giza. Free Egypt.
mortimer says
Attacked for comments FACEBOOK ??? Soon FACEBOOK itself will be conscripted to ANNOUNCE TO THE ISLAMIC AUTHORITIES if a dirty KAFIR has ‘mentioned something impermissible’ about Islam or its false prophet. Then the mullahs will send out their vigilantes.
FACEBOOK is cooperating with totalitarianism because it is led by very NAIVE POLLYANNAS who think they are know-it-alls, and yet, they have not read the primary sources of Islam and would flunk the most elementary examination of their Islamic knowledge. They know more about advanced thorium fuel cycles than they do about Islam.
MESSAGE to FACEBOOK EXECTUTIVES: IT’S THE IDEOLOGY, STUPID.
J D S says
This happened in a muslim country..a country where free speech, especially any negative speech about muhammad and his fake religion, is non existent. And guess what?
The loss of free speech is creeping into our American way of life. .Even our Supreme Court is refusing to hear Pamela Geller’s case for banners depicting muhammad, on public transportation in D C, or any other city for that matter.
Interpretation of FREE SPEECH is being let loose on many sides today and some interpretations May be wrong..for instance..filthy language in movies,books and how about pornography, etc.? How can that be free speech as established by our founders. Our founders would not have allow such to be considered free speech
CRUSADER says
Aren’t we supposed to see “revolts” occur every generation, as Jefferson said…
….being a healthy thing for democratic republics?
glendl says
Jefferson did make that comment at one point, but I am not sure when. However, Jefferson was afraid that one such revolt would break out before the Missouri Compromise in 1820. Things change.
However, a revolt would be the wrong move for Patriots. because that would leave us facing the full weight of the Government with the allied forces of the left at our back, the Democrats (Antifa, etc), BLM/Black Panthers, La Raza/Illegal Alien lobby, Moslems, maybe the Chinese, who knows who else. (There was a time when I would not even mention those 3 groups uniting against the whites. It will be billed as a class war, but to be white is to be rich.
We need to wait until attacked and hope the govt backs us or we know we face all comers.
CRUSADER says
South of Egypt there is this news, along with video postings by FRANCE24:
https://www.france24.com/en/20190619-sudan-rape-reports-militia-protest-justice
Sudanese activists are struggling to document reports of mass rapes during a June 3 paramilitary crackdown on a Khartoum protest camp. But security fears coupled with Internet cuts are making it an uphill task.
On the morning of June 3, Nahid Jabrallah was at a sprawling sit-in outside Sudan’s army headquarters in Khartoum when paramilitary troops descended on the protesters, marking the start of what has since been dubbed the “Ramadan massacre”.
More than two weeks after the crackdown – which occurred in the final hours of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan – Jabrallah is desperately trying to soldier on, battling anguish, guilt, blocked Internet and phone services while coping with a fractured foot.
The veteran women’s rights activist was with a group of protesters when members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group born out of the Darfur conflict, stormed the sit-in, triggering a panicked rush of fleeing protesters.
“They separated us into groups of men and women and they threatened to rape us. They said, ‘We will f**k you’ and things like that in a very, very bad way in the local language,” she recalled in a phone interview with FRANCE 24 from Khartoum.
“They were whipping and kicking us. I have bruises on my body, I have a crack in my foot. But they released our group because the massacre did not happen in our area. They kicked us out one-by-one and asked us to run. I managed to run for a long distance and went to a hospital where I was treated for hypertension and got painkillers. I have a crack in my foot, I have to take care, but I’m fine…may be I’m traumatised, but I’m continuing,” she insisted.
The physical pain and emotional trauma will not stop the seasoned human rights defender from doing her job because Jabrallah – like many of her fellow activists – have a new, harrowing mission: to demand an independent international investigation into numerous reports of mass rapes during and after the June 3 crackdown.
Taking to the streets: How women led the protest movement against Sudan’s president al-Bashir
“There are many testimonies and eye witnesses of sexual violence, including gang rapes,” said Jabrallah. “But it’s very difficult to reach people, victims feel insecure and traumatised. We need help from the international community.”
The founder of the Sima Centre for Women and Children’s Studies has faced arrests and imprisonment since her student days and is not one to back down under pressure. But it’s been very hard to continue with her work since the Ramadan massacre.
Armed soldiers are out in numbers on the streets of Khartoum, according to several activists who spoke to FRANCE 24 on condition of anonymity. Communication is difficult with the Internet cut or blocked for extended periods. A number of well-known opposition figures say their international phone calls are abruptly cut, which further fuel a climate of fear.
‘Toxic criminality’
Reports of mass rapes started circulating shortly after the RSF crackdown on the Khartoum sit-in, which killed more than 100 people, according to opposition leaders. A number of bodies were dumped in the Nile, according to witnesses. Sudan’s health ministry has put the June 3 death toll nationwide at 61.
Activists and journalists on the ground have been receiving witness accounts of mass rapes of women and men by RSF troops. An image of militias displaying a pole strung with underwear of presumed rape victims circulated on social media sites although its authenticity could not be verified. Another unverified image showed a room full of women’s clothing, presumably of rape victims.
“We have heard cases of sexual harassment in detention to ‘break the girls’ since this revolution began [in December 2018] although the reports have multiplied since June 3. They [RSF troops] were asking girls to take out their underwear as a humiliation, it shows the extent of the toxic criminality here,” said an activist who wished to be identified only as “Huma”.
Huma is part of a group of Sudanese women’s rights activists who are “trying to document cases of rape and sexual harassment” on and after June 3. But given the restrictions on communications and security fears, it’s been an uphill task. “Unfortunately many of the cases we’ve heard of are not able to reach us or are not able to talk. We have managed some interviews, we are trying to at least confirm the numbers and start reaching out to survivors so we can provide medical and psycho-social support,” she revealed in a phone interview with FRANCE 24 from Khartoum.
Estimates of the number of rapes by Sudanese security forces are hard to establish. Doctors from the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors, which is part of the umbrella Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), told reporters that 70 rape cases were recorded by Khartoum hospitals in the immediate aftermath of the June 3 crackdown.
The actual figure is likely to be higher. RSF troops arrested doctors in at least one Khartoum hospital and ordered the staff to evacuate wounded protesters shortly after the clear-up operation. Many cases are also likely to go unreported due to the social stigma, especially among male victims of sexual violence who do not have access to NGOs and specialised services catering to women.
‘A raped woman is never a hero’
Sexual violence cases are difficult to document and prosecute in the best of times and they can be particularly hard to collate during conflicts or political crises.
“It’s important to differentiate sexual violence from other crimes – not because they are more important, but because sexual violence needs special expertise,” said Celine Bardet, an international criminal lawyer and founder of the NGO, We Are Not Weapons of War. “Survivors often don’t come out and talk about it, so we need to be more proactive to give them a path to expression, particularly in countries where women are not used to talking due to societal organisation.”
Sudan was a repressive place for women during former president Omar al-Bashir’s 30-year-old Islamist reign. Women bore the brunt of the regime’s violations, ranging from vaguely defined public morality laws that limited their movement without male guardians to corporal punishment such as lashings for “honour” violations.
The abuse was particularly severe in the troubled hinterlands such Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan, where human rights groups accused Bashir’s forces of using sexual violence, including rape, as a weapon of war to intimidate communities.
“The symbolism behind the rape of women is very substantial, it’s aimed at breaking society. You rape 80 women, you rape the whole village,” said Dalia El Roubi, an activist and member of the opposition Sudanese Congress Party who worked with Darfuris displaced by the conflict. “It also breaks the men. A mass rape is basically telling them you can’t protect your own. In a way, it has more of an impact than death: a killing can make icons or heroes. A raped woman is never a hero.”
…
gravenimage says
Yes–this is what rape is intended to do. That this is a core part of Islam is appalling.
CRUSADER says
…
Janjaweed methods in Khartoum
While Bashir was ousted on April 11, the country’s ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC) – backed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt – has so far refused to hand over power to a civilian-led transitional body.
Power has instead shifted from Bashir to one of the former president’s most reviled henchman, who is the deputy head of the TMC.
Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo – widely known by his nickname, “Hemedti” – was a commander of the Janjaweed militias accused of committing war crimes in Darfur before he was appointed head of the RSF when the force was formed in 2013 in a bid to unify militia groups.
The RSF’s break-up of the Khartoum protest camp bear the hallmarks of the Janjaweed’s scorch-and-burn pacification measures once reserved for the country’s hinterlands. The brutality of the crackdown in the heart of the capital has led many Sudanese elites to note that “Darfur has come to the streets of Khartoum”.
“On June 3, they had a glimpse of what’s been happening in Darfur,” said Roubi. “Can you imagine what happened to that society? It literally broke so many communities there. I’m sure the RSF thought this is the way to go, this is how we respond to trouble.”
‘Kandakas’ turn victims
When the latest round of anti-regime demonstrations broke out in December 2018, the protest movement was marked by an exceptional mobilisation of women, who were at the forefront of Sudan’s campaign for democratic rights.
Video clips of an architect student leading a protest song at the Khartoum sit-in dressed in a traditional taub – or Sudanese robe — and sneakers went viral. “Kandaka power” — a slogan paying homage to Nubian queens who ruled the region centuries ago – became a catchphrase adopted by Sudanese of different ages, particularly the youth.
“Young women have shown so much resilience and courage, mobilising and campaigning,” said Roubi in an April interview with FRANCE 24. “Our voices now are louder and we’re being heard.”
Barely two months later, Roubi worries that the mass rape reports will affect women’s participation in the anti-junta protests.
Since the June 3 massacre, opposition supporters have been taking to the streets at night in cities such as Khartoum and Omdurman since protesters fear violent crackdowns during daylight hours.
ICC charges fail to prevent a repeat
Meanwhile the chief prosecutor on the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday urged the TMC to hand over or prosecute Bashir and four other Sudanese officials who were indicted in 2009 for alleged war crimes in Darfur.
“Continued impunity is not an option,” said ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. “The victims of the Darfur situation deserve to finally have their day in court.”
But a decade after the ICC indictment, Bashir has still not had his day at The Hague, and that, activists say, has already sent a message of impunity to his henchmen who continue to hold the reins of power.
“It was a great step to have Bashir indicted, but look what happened. The ICC didn’t create anything that could prevent it from happening again,” said Bardet. “I hope Sudan will move forward because after so many decades, so many crimes committed, there has to be a process, in whatever way, may be a transitional justice, or else it will just feed the next round of violence.”
Rape as a weapon of war
It’s too early to say if the alleged mass rapes during and after the June 3 massacre could constitute a use of rape as a weapon of war.
“Sexual violence becomes a tool of war if it is systematic, targeted and has a specific objective,” explained Bardet. “The conflict need not be just a military war, it also applies to political crises. In Sudan, this could be the case. We’re getting information of a fair amount of sexual violence which is an element that can be used, along with others, to constitute an international crime.”
Last week, the UN’s top official on sexual violence, Pramila Patten, said a UN human rights monitoring team should be quickly sent to Sudan to “examine the situation on the ground, including alleged cases of sexual violence.”
But there has been no public response from the TMC. A FRANCE 24 follow-up email to Patten’s office went unanswered.
Collecting testimonies of sexual violence that can be admissible in national or international courts is an extremely sensitive job that requires special training, according to experts.
Volunteers may document cases in good faith, but if they are not properly trained, they may omit tiny, but important details needed in a court of law. “When victims have to repeat their testimonies, it re-traumatises them and can create polluted testimonies not because they are lying, but sometimes they say what they think is expected of them or will get them help,” noted Bardet.
Testimonies should not only be collected by professionals, they need to be given as soon as possible before traumatic events are forgotten as a coping mechanism.
For the activists in Sudan struggling against the odds to document cases of the latest horrific crimes, attracting and maintaining international attention is of vital importance.
“I’ve been at the sit-in since it was set up on April 6 until the massacre. During almost two months I felt I was their mother and that this was my family. I feel this loss personally, like I couldn’t help them,” said Jabrallah, breaking down into sobs over a fading phone connection from Khartoum.
“They’re trying to block us. Please focus on us, please don’t forget us.”
(FRANCE24)
glendl says
Every Moslem could kill a dozen Christians and they would still want more Christians to kill to avenge the honor of Islam even though there was no insult.
No one speaks for Christians, the leaders of most Christian churches have nothing to say but appease Islam in ways that it would have made Chamberlain jealous.
Jacinte says
Wait a minute. They arrested the wrong man. They have to arrest the 100 extremists who did vandalism; stole from the innocent man; that is where the big fault is. They have to learn that they dont make the law.
gravenimage says
No one in Egypt is going to learn this–it goes against Islam.
Paka says
How do you insult an insult?