ICC Note: A justice minister in Egypt was fired for saying “he would arrest Prophet Muhammad if he committed a crime” because those remarks were considered “blasphemous.”  Never mind the fact that a blasphemy allegation in Egypt is one that results from saying or freely expressing ANY opinion that an Islamist might think is a negative comment about Islam – or in this case, the Prophet Muhammad.  Egypt’s vague and poorly defined blasphemy laws directly contradict with President Sisi’s various attempts to create a unified Egypt with tolerance for all religions and minorities.  

3/15/2016 Egypt (ABC News) – Human Rights Watch on Monday called on Egypt to drop prison sentences against four Coptic Christian teenagers convicted of blasphemy, an appeal made one day after the justice minister was sacked for saying he would imprison the Prophet Muhammad if he committed a crime, remarks widely seen as blasphemous.

The teenagers’ Feb. 25 conviction was based on a video in which they intended to mock the extremist Islamic State group after its Libyan affiliate beheaded a group of Egyptian Christians last year.

The 30-second clip showed the students pretending to pray, with one kneeling on the floor while reciting Quranic verses and two others standing behind him and laughing. One ran his hand on another one’s throat, mimicking a beheading. The video was filmed on a mobile phone by a teacher, who is also a Christian. He was sentenced to three years in prison for insulting Islam in a separate trial.

Rights groups say a flurry of recent blasphemy cases in Egypt is part of a culture of intolerance within the judicial system at a time when President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is seeking to position himself as an advocate for religious reform.

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