Egypt blasphemy law sends Muslim to trial

Egyptian prosecutors referred to trial Tuesday a well-known radical Islamist who tore up an English copy of the Bible during a protest outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo against an anti-Islam film produced in the United States.

The case against Ahmed Mohammed Abdullah is a rare example of Egypt's blasphemy laws — often condemned by rights groups as restrictive of freedom— used against someone who allegedly insulted a religion other than Islam.

Abdullah, also known as Abu Islam, was filmed during a protest outside the embassy two weeks ago as he stood before the crowd and ripped up the holy book. "Next time I will urinate on it," he says in another video. Both videos were posted online.

The subject of the protest, the film "Innocence of Muslims," has enraged many Muslims for its portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a child molester. At least 51 people, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, have been killed in violence linked to protests over the film, which also has renewed debate over freedom of expression in the Middle East, U.S. and in Europe.

Contempt towards "heavenly" religions — a term usually taken to include Christianity, Islam, and Judaism — is punishable by up to five years in Egypt. But lawyers and rights groups say the definition of contempt of religion is vague and has been used frequently against critics of Islam only, not other faiths.

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Evermyrtle

You will notice the law is not usually vague when against Christians. It is so plain that we are wrong, usually. It is vague when other religions are attacked. This wonderful news and I hope this is a sign of great changes in Egypt and will be continues in other nations, who are normally anti-GOD.
- aceituna
  
  Don't count on it!
aceituna

Or, are they just trying to get the sympathy of non Muslims outside the Middle East?
aceituna

Forgotten is that this violence was planned long before the video that castigated the Muslims was aired, that the attack was really another piece of planned terrorism against us. Nothing to do with this video.
Devasahayam

Newsflash, Islam is not a heavenly religion (as one can easily figure by reading through a Pickthall Quran one time and comparing it with a KJV or NASB Bible) but hellish (which I can also prove from the Bible, and have more than once–to which Muslims cannot answer cogently but do shill plenty like drunks) — their "allah" is Satan (ID'd in Isaiah 14:14), who "revealed" the rubbish known as the quran to an unremorseful paedophilic brigand!
Devasahayam

Or another way to put it — Islam being based on two denials:
(1) Isaac being the child of Promise rather than Ishmael
(2) divinity of Jesus Christ (who proved it with comment to Pharisees "before Abraham was, I Am")
is itself a blasphemy–and every case of "blasphemy" in an Islamic court is bakvaas (as how do you blaspheme against a blasphemy?)!