ICC Note: Three Christians in Alexandria were detained for passing out dates with written messages that said, “God loves you.”One man was involved in passing out the dates while the remaining two were detained after they went to the police station to get more information regarding their friend. All three were charged with insulting Islam, which is illegal under Egyptian blasphemy laws. Though they were released on a bail of 10,000 Egyptian pounds, the prosecutor can call them back for trial if he pleases.

07-14-2015 Egypt (Mad Masr): Three Christians were detained in Alexandria on Monday and forced to pay bail of LE10,000 each on charges of insulting Islam by placing Christian messages in packages of dates.

One of the messages read, “The Lord knows all that occurs, for He is the mighty knower, He can carry on his shoulders all that is oppressive and exhausting and bring comfort and joy, for He loves you very much,” according to Mina George, who posted a picture of the date packaging on Facebook.

George captioned the image, “The most expensive bag of dates in the country. This bag of dates cost a young Christian man LE10,000, along with two of his friends, who were also Christian. Each of them was fined LE10,000, because they were trying to distribute dates to people in the street. Egypt is beautiful.”

Ishak Ibrahim, freedom of belief officer at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), said that a Muslim man found the message inside the packaging offensive and took the young man to a police officer, who remanded him in custody.

Stephen Botros Fayed, one of the men who was detained, then got a call around 8.30 am, informing him that a friend of his had been detained, at which point he and a friend went to help.

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