Egyptian teacher is arrested for offending Islam on Facebook.
Bishoy Kamel, a Coptic-Christian teacher from the Upper Egyptian Governorate of Sohag, was arrested on Monday for sharing cartoons on a Facebook page that allegedly defamed the Islamic faith and the Prophet Muhammad.
Mohamed Safwat, an Egyptian citizen who has pressed charges against Kamel, also claimed that the latter had insulted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and members of his own family.
Kamel, who has been detained for four days pending investigation, has admitted to managing the Facebook page in question. He claims, however, that he was not responsible for the content of the page, which, he said, had been hacked on Saturday.
In June of last year, Naguib Sawiris, Coptic billionaire and founder of the liberal Free Egyptians party, was severely criticized after posting a cartoon of Disney characters Mickey and Minnie Mouse dressed in Islamic garb.
Several Islamist lawyers subsequently lodged a complaint with Egypt’s attorney-general against Sawiris, whom they accused of offending Islam.
Thousands of men and women all over the world have been arrested, imprisoned, exiled, killed for criticizing Islam. Most people shut their mouth out of fear. Hamza Kashgari in Saudi Arabia who posted blasphemous messages on Twitter was arrested and deported. Indonesian atheist Alex Aan has been sentenced to two and a half years for saying ‘There is no god’ on Facebook. Muslim Brotherhood already started working for ethnic cleansing of non-Muslims and talibanization of Egypt.
No progress in society is possible if there is no freedom of expression. Islam, like all other religions, is not compatible with democracy, human rights and women’s rights. Millions of people should commit blasphemy against Islam for the sake of humanity. How many blasphemers will corrupt and repressive regimes arrest?
Then, they say religion is tolerance.
BUT, you can’t think from your own, believe what you want or say what you want.
Religion tells you what to think/believe/say/do etc…
And if you don’t, you go to jail or get beaten or even worse, you get killed.
How can it be compatible with democracy ? Impossible !
“ethnic cleansing of non-Muslims”
Can I be a terrible pedant, and suggest that ‘ethnic cleansing’ is the wrong phrase where it is on religious lines, rather than ones based on ethnicity, that the ‘cleansing’ is being done? After all, we already have to contend with bogus charges of racism from Muslims who assume (or pretend) that, when someone criticises their beliefs, they are really objecting to their colour.
That could be a grammar issue. Consider that they might be leaving ethnically egyptian non-muslims alone. This doesn’t strike me as incredibly likely, however, and conflating religious and ethnic groups is detrimental to efforts against the religion.
Ethnic cleansing requires an ethnicity. However, one could apply words like eradication, elimination, annihilation or similar words for the same effect.
While you make a fair point that ethnicity may not correctly describe such an action, it also may, as ethnicity is strongly correlated with religion in traditional and largely monolithic cultures. And ethnicity != race, even though both may apply to and define each other as well as a group of humans. Who may also mostly live in certain fairly well-defined geographic areas – countries, regions, or towns, or what the European-spawn might call quarters of a city.
So ethnic cleansing may, but not necessarily, be perfectly accurate er, nomenclature. I wouldn’t know unless I looked into whether some or all of such groups targeted as being not-appropriately-Islamic are considered to be ethnicities or not.
And I don’t think Taslima is intending that you take the people mentioned, or the category of not-Muslim, as representative of an ethnic group.
It is Muslims themselves who began equating Islam with ethnicity. Absolute rubbish, of course. The policy was first mooted prior to 9/11 but wasn’t pushed hard by the Organisation of Islamic Conference until after that atrocity. That the policy has worked is now evident by Islam being so closely associated with race and ethnic identity in the minds of many in the West.
The fact that Muslims themselves are so often the target of the those who bear false witness against their neighbours in reports to the murderous religious police, or whatever they are called in the state concerned, should give rise to suspicions that ethnicity has been falsely associated with the religion. However, it is too late for much to be done by the secular world; so many in the West are so scared of being labelled racist that they allow Islam to commit atrocities for which it would otherwise be rightly castigated.
It is all so very reminiscent of the Catholic Church before the Enlightenment forced it to submit to secular human rights and desist from the murder and expulsion for which it was so feared. And as with the murderous Catholic Church, it is from within Islam that change must come. Only by Muslims themselves rejecting the extremes of Islamism can Muslims begin to emulate the human rights of the secular world. Regrettably, it seems from the experience of the Arab Spring that Islam is unlikely to humanise at any time in the near future.
There’s a question I’ve posed to those selling every brand of religion, but they’re afraid to answer:
“If your ‘god’ is powerful enough to create the universe, why is it not powerful enough to deal with me itself? If it can create everything, then it shouldn’t need you to defend it.”
The lack of response by their “god” proves one of two things:
(a) Their “god” isn’t offended by what I say, so the believers shouldn’t be offended either.
(b) Their “god” doesn’t exist.
The violence of the religious isn’t about “defending god”, it’s about dictating to everyone, believer and non-believer alike. This is about controlling society.
One thing I don’t get is people speaking as if only muslims were guilty of this. The christians did the exact same things over the past 700 years. They killed, imprisoned, exiled or forced the conversion of as many non-christians as they could, whether atheists, “pagans”, jews or muslims. The only thing new about the islamic inquisition is who’s doing it, not what’s being done.
Ah, that’s because their God leaves it them to prove their devotion to Him by killing infidels. It’s their way of impressing the omnipotent bastard.
Yeah, I know, the temptation to write ‘
omnipotentimpotent’ was very strong.Something that most people misunderstand – is that Religion is not belief – it is an organisation , with the one aim, of using peoples beliefs to control them. In other words Religion is simply a power base.
Islam should be insulted? Ok. Allah doesn’t exist, Mohammed was a fraud, whoever claims Islam is a religion of peace is a liar. All of the above also applies to Christianity as well. Anyway, there, I’ve insulted Islam. Let em try me if they have the nerve.
Islam is a silly belief with silly practices concerning a Meccan meteorite. Also, Mohammed was a weird fellow with strange sexual behaviors attributed to him by his own followers. How peculiar.
Great article!!!
Big ups to Thunderfoot for organising the Draw Muhammed Day protests!!! and a big Fuck You to all the whinging bleeding heart liberals that tried to fight against it or called it racism
Why this writer supports terrirism and wants to disturb the peace of the world by writing such a stupit things which he has nothing to do.
Who ask this writer to dishoners, disrespect the feelimg of 1.5 billion muslim in this word.
HE IS CRAZZY AND DISPARATE person.
HE should consult Dr.of Mindness.
FUCK ISLAM, FUCK MUHAMMAD AND ALLAH, FUCK MUSLUMS, YOU AND ALL YOUR GODS SUCK COCK!!!!
Please choose another ‘nym – you’re embarrassing the rest of us.
A muslim/religioud troll? Seen alot of these, trying to prove to others that atheism is bad.
Muslims keep telling the world how stupid barbaric they are that it’s ok to kill if they feel offended, it’s so horrible, here’s what i have thought:
– if i insult their beliefs, they will reply in the craziest way ever as defense
– if i said it politely or politically correct, they’ll just ignore
– if i try to convince that they’re wrong, they will accuse blasphemy
– if i told them they should get laid more often, they say it’s a lustful sin
– if i’m silent then they will push sharia law or else world war is holy duty
I can’t believe how messed is the world today, idk