Egyptian Teacher Gets 6 Month Sentence for Alleged Insults to Islam

Religion Clause has a post about a Coptic Christian elementary school teacher in Egypt who was sentenced to six months in jail for allegedly insulting Mohammed by saying that a late Coptic Pope was better than him.  An appeal is likely.

Insulting Islam Gets Egyptian Christian Three Years in Prison

Reuters has reported that a 17-year-old Christian youth in Egypt has been sentenced to three years in prison for mocking Islam and Mohammad on his Facebook page. The youth, Gamal Abdoud Massoud, drew cartoons to post on the website and also allegedly shared some with his friends in a village near the city of Assiut. In December, word that the cartoons had been distributed led to violence in Massoud's community, as several Muslims attacked Christians and burned their homes.

Thanks to Religion Clause Blog for first bringing this to my attention.

Egyptian Arrested for Insulting Islam on Facebook

A 23-year-old Egyptian man has been arrested in Cairo for postings on Facebook that allegedly insulted Islam and Mohammed, and may be charged under a law that penalizes "insulting religion."

HatTip: Religion Clause Blog

New Report on Blasphemy in Seven Countries

As noted in Howard Friedman's Religion Clause Blog, an organization called Freedom House has issued a major report titled Policing Belief: The Impact of Blasphemy on Human Rights. The report examines blasphemy in seven countries (Algeria, Egypt, Greece, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Poland) and concludes that such laws severely impact freedom of expression and religion. I haven't yet read the report, but I hope to do so and discuss it in more depth in a future post.