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A Report on Inquisitions in Egypt 2014
During the Inquisitional trial in
which I was accused of derogating religions, I began with proving my presence,
and the trial opened with my constant annunciation: "Stop the Inquisition
in Egypt!" . (1) (2)
Despite this, inquisitions have not
decreased, and below I present a list of some of the major Inquisitional Trials
that took place in Egypt in the year 2014:
On
the 5th of February, 2014, famous journalist Ibrahim Issa was found
innocent after an Islamic lawyer filed a case against him for derogating
religions.
Note: A great deal of well-known
artists, journalists, writers, and businessmen have been accused of the same
crime and were freed thanks to public and international efforts. (3) (4)
On the 13th of February, 2013, the Police
broke into the home of Mahmoud Abdul-Khaliq Mahmoud (a 61-year-old retired
Shiite Doctor) from Talkha, Dakahlia, and proceeded to
confiscate a photograph of Hasan Nasrallah, which was framed in wood inside the
house, along with a number of Shiite books and CDs, and 18 round stones. He was
convicted with Derogation of Religions solely for being a Shiite. (5) (6)
On the 26th of February, 2014, Amr
Abduallah's sentence of five year imprisonment was upheld. This marked the
first verdict on Derogation of Religions in Egypt since the declaration of the
new constitution. Amr Abdullah is an Egyptian Shiite who appeared on a number
of TV channels advocating the rights of Shia in Egypt. He is also a student,
and the son of the former Egyptian Ambassador to Sudan. On the 14th of
November, 2013, an extremist TV-known Salafist called ‘Waleed Ismail’ gathered
a number of like-minded individuals to plan an assault on Amr Abdullah in the
area surrounding Al-Hussein Mosque in Cairo. Upon spotting Amr near that
location, they assault, and physically abused, him only to later turn him in at
a Police Station. The Police, in turn, accused him of Derogation of the Islamic
Religion, and on the 3rd of January, 2014, Amr Abduallah was sentenced to
prison for five years solely on the basis of him being a Shiite- since the Shia
is fundamentally different from the Sunni one. (7)
(8)
On the 29th of March, 2014,
university student Amr Sa'd (20 years) was assaulted by a number of colleagues
for being an atheist. When he got to the police to report the incident, the police
discovered he is an atheist, leading them to torture him and lock him up, as
well as force him to perform the Islamic prayers – stating that he would not be
released unless he fully performed them. (9)
On the same day (29th of March,
2014), Maryam Hamdi (a student and former Muslim, aged 18) suddenly disappeared.
It was discovered later on that her father put her under house arrest after discovering
her beliefs and doubts about religion, forcing her to take psychiatric
medication and drugs. Maryam is forbidden to leave the house or communicate in
any way with the outer world. She is forbidden to use phone or internet. When
her fiancé attempted to help her, they physically assaulted him as well, as he belongs
to a different religious sect. Despite reporting this incident to the police
and attempting to remand it to the department of the Public Prosecutor, Maryam
is still imprisoned in her own house as we speak. Unfortunately, the law gives the
legal guardian full control over her until she reaches 21 years of age.
Note: due to the torture Maryam has been forced to undergo, she attempted suicide on the 23rd of March, by jumping off her house’s balcony. (10)
Note: due to the torture Maryam has been forced to undergo, she attempted suicide on the 23rd of March, by jumping off her house’s balcony. (10)
In April, 2014, Al-Azhar
Institution called for a ban on the movie "Noah", claiming that it is
offensive to the ‘Aqeeda’ and the fundamentals of Islamic Sharia, labelling it
‘Haraam’ (forbidden), and stating that it is a defilation of the fundamentals
of Islamic Sharia, which are mandated by law by the constitution, which also
states clearly that Al-Azhar Al-Sharif is the only reference when it comes to
Islamic Affairs. (11)
On the 6th of May, 2014, a group of
anonymous persons assaulted Ali Amr Kamal using switchblade knives right at his
front door for being an atheist, which left him with a number of incised wounds
and bruises. He went to the hospital to receive medical treatment for his
injuries, where he was terribly mistreated. He was abandoned by his lawyer and
his police report was shredded to pieces by the police upon discovering he is
an atheist. On the 17th of May, 2014, after his recovery, and on his way to
work for the first time after the incident, he was shot – again – in front of
his house, which resulted in severe bleeding. Ali had to be hospitalized in
Damanhur Public Hospital, where was forced to undergo a blood transfusion.
Consequently, he had to move to an unknown location and keep a low profile to
move on with his life and avoid death threats or further attempts to take his
life. (12)
During the last days of May, 2014,
numerous people sieged the house of 30-year-old Christian Cyrils Shawqi Atallah,
in Al-Aqsar area. According to the attackers, Attallah had insulted Islam, and
had confessed to following an anti-Islamic Facebook page. The six persons who
took part in the assault were released, while he was held captive at the Police
Station. On the 24th of June, 2014, he was sentenced to prison for six years
and a fined 6,000 EGP. (13) (14)
On the 2nd of June, 2014, Islam
Al-Mahlawi, a 17 year old student in Dimyat, left his house to sit for a school
exam at 10 AM, only to find a number of his friends accompanied by others
claiming they heard rumours that he had left Islam. "That is none of your
business,” replied Islam, but they responded angrily by stating that he should
not enter their school nor walk in their country. They attacked him using
knives, and it is said that even his peers who tried to break up the fight
joined in upon discovering he is an atheist. He was physically assaulted not
only with fists, but also with wooden planks. The assaulters proceeded to
abduct him using a motorcycle, and physically abused him every time he attempted
to scream for help. He was taken to pray and forced to re-convert to Islam; “You
are now one of us again!” they stated, and carried him to a nearby hospital. At
the hospital, Islam attempted to report the incident to the Police, but was met
with harsh treatment not only from Policemen, but also from Police Officers,
who locked him up for about ten hours, where he was forced to reveal the e-mail
address and password associated with his personal Facebook account. They asked
him to provide them with the name of an atheist he is personally familiar with
and refused to return his I.D card. The next day, Islam went to school to sit
for another exam, only to be kicked out by the teacher. This caused him to miss
yet another yearly school test, and fail the entire school year which had to be
redone later. Islam found he was unwelcome in the area in which he resided;
especially that news of his atheism had spread all around. Due to his feelings
of insecurity, he left the city altogether and moved to Cairo to work and lead
a financially independent life. (15)
On the 5th of June, 2014, writer
and novelist Karam Sabir was sentenced to five years in jail over a complaint received
from a Salafist, accusing him and his story collection entitled "Where is
Allah?" of Derogation of Religions. (16)
On the 15th of June, Dumyanah Abdulnur,
a 23-year-old Christian young woman and teacher, was sentenced to six months in
prison in Al-Aqsar after a number of parents filed a complaint to the Police
against her, where the Public Prosecutor called for her arrest for derogating
religions and inviting people to Christianity. On the 14th of May, she had been
released with a fine of 20,000 EGP, and was convicted on the 11th of June, 2014
with a fine of 100,000 EGP. (17)
On the 12th of July, 2014, a number
of Islamists attempted to force the Minister of Culture Jabir Asfourto to give
up his positional and dragged him to court for Derogation of Religions and
encouraging Fitnah (a word in Islamic Fiqh meaning ‘to entice temptation’) among
Egyptians. Abbas Shoman, Al-Azhar’s Deputy, accused him of calling for an atheistic
mentality. (18)
On the 16th of October, 2014, a
number of Islamists called for the firing of Dr. Jabir Asfour from his position
for contradicting the Islamic Sharia, as claimed by them, and contradicting the
Institution of Al-Azhar and the Egyptian constitution in his public statements.
(19) , All these reports were issued because he had previously
criticized the unreasonable actions and statements of radical religionists.
On
the 16th of September, 2014, a personal female friend of mine, Y. Th. (19
years), sent me a letter from Al-Sa'eed in Egypt, stating that her father had
been planning on marrying her off and forcing her to drop out of college. When
her father revealed these intentions, she came out about her atheism and her
desire to finish her studies to become an independent woman. This lead her
father to secretly prepare marriage documents without her knowledge, and then
physically assault her and tie her up in her room, while giving her the option
of either living as a prisoner, or marriage. She refused to be married off, and
vowed not to let any future husband lay hands on her, which drove her father to
lock her up at a Nunnery. The next day, she wrote to me again saying that her
father had indeed sent her to a Nunnery and had registered her as “a person
vowed to serve religion only”, that she is in a confined place with locked
doors, is being monitored by a number of women, and is unable to message me without
difficulty. On the next day, when her father arrived for a visit, she told him
she reconverted to Christianity, and after a lengthy discussion, her father
agreed to take her back home and postpone the marriage arrangements until she
finishes college. Indeed, on the 19th of September, 2014, she wrote to me again
telling me her father agreed to have her back at the house after nullifying all
Nunnery papers. My friend returned to studying while avoiding any further
incident that might tempt her father to lock her up again.
Note: the Egyptian Constitution
states that a father has legal custody over his daughter until the age of 21. (20)
Sherif
Gaber , an Egyptian student aged
20, born date February 10, 1993.
He
is studying Arts Department at Suez University,and lives in the city of
Ismailia, Egypt , He was arrested at 3 o'clock a.m. from his home on Sunday,
October 27, 2013
In the beginning of April 2013 ,
some students submited papers published by Sharif on his FB. One of the
lecturers intervened and deliberately insulted Sharif during a lecture in front
of the students and promised to escalate the matter to the head of the
department and the university president, and start collecting signatures on a
petition to remove Sharif from the university. And indeed, the head of the
department summoned Sharif and spoke with him to understand Sharif's thinking
and promised Sharif to stand by him. But the institute filed a complaint with
the Attorney General and the State Security arrested Sharif at his home at 3
a.m , Sunday and on Wednesday,
October 30 , 2013 a judge renewed his imprisonment for 15 days , And he was released on December 5, 2013 with a bail of 5000 Egyptian
pounds. He is still under trial, the last court session was on September 27,
2014 and was adjourned until December 20, 2014. (21) (22) (23)
On
the 25th of October, 2014, a number of individuals came up to testify against
Ahmad Hussein Harkan, a 30-year old atheist from Alexandria, for the crime of Derogation
of Religions. Protective Security Forces planned an ambush against him, disguising
as civilians and assaulting Ahmed and his pregnant wife in front of their own place
of residence. When both Ahmed and his wife visited the closest Police Station
to report the incident, they were assaulted again and sent to the Dakhila
Police Department and later to the Department of the Public Prosecutor. The
same fate met their friend Karim Jimmy, until all three arrived at the Public
Prosecutor’s office where they were treated with great disgust and disrespect;
things were so terrible that the Public Prosecutor’s agent forbade their
private lawyer from speaking and kicked him out of the building. They were then
transferred back to the department and released on the afternoon of the next
day. Later, the District Attorney issued an order to continue the hearing at
the Public Prosecutor’s Office. At this time, Ahmed lives under constantdeath
threats, where radical extremists have pledged to either succeed at legally
prosecuting him, or end up taking his life. (24) (25) (26) (27)
(28) (29)
Forms
of discrimination against atheists by the authorities:
Advocates: “Arresting atheists is
against the constitution and a disgrace to Egypt” - 27, March, 2014
“The Government rages a war against
Atheism” - 11, July, 2014.
“Egypt fights Atheism” - 1, August,
2014.
Sheikh Al-Azhar: “The atheism phenomenon
is a great ordeal facing this country and corrupting its youth” - Friday, 10th
of October, 2014.
“Sheikh Al-Azhar warns the country
of the spread of Atheism.” - Tuesday, 14th of October, 2014.
Summary & Conclusion; problems
and solutions:
This issue can be summed up as
follows:
- First: The Law; the first and
foremost problem for religious minorities in Egypt is the constitution that
proclaims Egypt as an Islamic country, where Islam is the source of legislation.
Following the constitution, numerous over-generalized laws were created, which
allow the state to go after any persons opposing them. The most common of these
laws is Article 98, which states that criticizing religion or religious figures
is an act of extremism, a ‘Fitnah’, and a threat to national security. Despite
that the article states that the punishment should not exceed a maximum of five
years of imprisonment and a fine of 1000 EGP; we often find that Judges sentence
those found guilty with six years of imprisonment and a fine of 100,000EGP.
Additionally, the constitution and
law do not allow civil marriages, but force couples to get marriages through
religious institutions only. Moreover, new-borns are given the religion of the
parents the moment they are born, and it is forbidden by law to wipe religion
off a person’s I.D card or convert to another religion. It is evident that
Egypt is still lingering in the MiddleAges while the rest of the world has already
hit the 21st century.
Second: The Police; Policemen treat
religious minorities in a violent and uncivilized conduct due to decreased
awareness and tolerance levels. Such behaviour was very clear in the cases of
Amr Kamal, Amr Sa’d, Ibrahim Al-Mahlawi, and Ahmed Harqan.
Third: The Media; visual media has
sadly been reporting news on atheist and Shia with discrimination, bias, and
disdain. The media has portrayed atheists as mentally-troubled sociopaths, and
have publicly mocked them on TV shows with targeted hate speech. Some
presenters even called for their arrest and trial on air. Print media has not
treated them much differently, putting great pressures on news reporters, as
well as firing and arresting a number of news presenters, writers, and
journalists. This reflects the country’s decline in rights in general.
Fourth: Society; the Egyptian
society still suffers from a general atmosphere of ignorance and illiteracy,
and a sharp decline in the levels of intellectuality and the quality of school
curriculums. The constant bias presented through media outlets has caused the
masses to attempt to murder and torture ‘the other’, whether in the year 2014
or as far back as 2011. This is shown clearly in many cases, including one
incident where the Shiite Sheikh Hasan Shihate was physically assaulted,
dragged, tortured, and killed, followed by the maiming of his body.
Some individuals seek fame and
media exposure by reporting famous figures or common people and accusing them
of derogating religions. The crime of Derogating of Religions is used as a
weapon against any person they may find unfavourable or may disagree with.
Unfortunately, all cases of Derogating of Religions are investigated directly
after someone issues a complaint to the Police or the Public Prosecutor, where
the Public Prosecutor’s Office directly orders the arrest of the accused
persons. Usually, if the ones accused are well-known figures, they walk free
after paying a fine, while common citizens are not released, but kept
imprisoned until trial. We only have very few cases where common citizens
walked free before the day of their trial. This gives haters the chance to lock
undesirable people away from society with great ease, using a single meaningless
piece of paper or sending a complaint to the Public Prosecutor, turning this
unethical law into a weapon that could be used against anyone.
Fifth: Religious Minorities; as an
outcome of the constant intolerance, discrimination, and violence faced by
these minorities, they have developed feelings of insecurity and lack of
belonging, and live in constant fear of being beaten up, tortured, imprisoned,
or murdered. This has led many to leave the country or stay on a low profile to
avoid trouble, and many are forced to endure depression and psychological
illnesses initiated by these ordeals.
2- A number of proposed solutions
in my personal opinion:
First: The Law; Derogation of
Religions should be removed from the Egyptian Law, for it has turned into a
weapon readily available for radicals and moderates alike to strike down their
opponents, who are fined very small amounts of money in cases where they
verbally abuse those whom they issue complaints against. Such fines do not
exceed the limit of 100 EGP in case they were proven guilty of this minimal
crime.
Moreover, all articles stating that
any sort of religion can rule the lives of citizens should be removed as well,
as it has turned into a tool of discrimination against citizens on the basis of
religion and/or creed. The Law should instead criminalize any act of hate
speech or discrimination.
Religion should be wiped off I.D
cards and legal documents – as these are used to discriminate against citizens
on the basis of religion. Civil marriage should be made legal, and the country
should abide by the International Human Rights Treaties it had previously
signed, as well as elevating the role of the civil society.
Second: The Police; there is an
urgent need to change the Police’s approaches toward establishing safety in the
community, and end the prosecution of those who hold uncommon ideologies or
belong to different religions or religious denominations. The Police should
abide by International Standards of Human Rights, and protect the dignity and
humanity of citizens, which can be established through intensive training
courses held by legal experts, trainers, and institutions specialized in law.
Third; Media, the Ministry of
Education, and Religious Institutions; it is the duty of the Government, Civil
Society organizations, and political parties to nurture an atmosphere of social dialogue which aims
to educate society on tolerating cultural, religious, or intellectual
varieties, and raise awareness on why different people should not be excluded
from society and labelled ‘traitors’, ‘infidels’, ‘spies’, ‘mentally ill’, and
whatever other labels previously advertised by authorities. These institutions
should approach this issue with an open mind and heart.
Thank you for your attention .
Thank you for your attention .
Written and documented by: ALBER
SABER
©ALBERSABER.COM
http://www.albersaber.com/2014/10/report-inquisition-in-egypt-2014-ar.html
©ALBERSABER.COM
http://www.albersaber.com/2014/10/report-inquisition-in-egypt-2014-ar.html
Twitter : @ALBERSABER
Email : ALBERSABER85@GMAIL.COM
Email : ALBERSABER85@GMAIL.COM
References :
(12)
http://www.albersaber.com/2014/05/amr-kamal-en.html
(13) http://www.elwatannews.com/news/details/509551
(14)http://www.masralarabia.com/%D8%AD%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%AB/280097-%D8%A5%D8%AE%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%B3%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%84-6-%D8%A3%D8%B4%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%B5-%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%AC%D9%85%D9%88%D8%A7-%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%A8%D9%8B%D8%A7-%D8%A8%D8%B3%D8%A8%D8%A8-%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%8A%D9%83-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%B3-%D8%A8%D9%88%D9%83
(13) http://www.elwatannews.com/news/details/509551
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