Religion
Related: About this forumEgyptian student given prison sentence for atheist Facebook posts
Suez Canal University President personally filed legal case against student Sherif Gaber, who claims he was tortured in custody
Emir Nader / February 17, 2015
A student from Ismailia was given a one year prison sentence by a court Monday for contempt of religion relating to activities on campus and atheist statements online.
Sherif Gaber, 22, was studying at Suez Canal University in 2013, when teaching staff and fellow students reported him via a petition to the institution’s President. They said he had made posts supporting atheism on Facebook, and suspected him of being behind a page called ‘The Atheists’.
Subsequently, the university’s then-president Mohamed A. Mohamedein personally filed a legal complaint against the student to the local prosecution on the grounds of contempt of religion. Monday’s verdict on the case allows Gaber to avoid the prison sentence on a bail of EGP 1,000. However, a retrial that could increase the sentence to over two years is due to take place in the coming weeks.
Speaking to Daily News Egypt, Gaber said how he was a “good student… top of his class”, but that his run-in with the university began after he challenged a science teacher. This arose over the teacher calling homosexuality a sin, and for homosexuals to “be crucified in the middle of the streets”.
http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2015/02/17/egyptian-student-given-prison-sentence-for-atheist-facebook-posts/
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cbayer
(146,218 posts)This whole thing is just wrong.
rug
(82,333 posts)If you exercise your constitutional right to a trial, instead of pleading guilty, they'll hammer you if you lose.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)Did he not have a trial already that resulted in this sentence?
I hope someone grants him asylum.
rug
(82,333 posts)cbayer
(146,218 posts)rug
(82,333 posts)Looks like the crackdown in Egypt is real.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)I wonder what has happened to the others.
rug
(82,333 posts)The politics in Egypt now is Byzantine.
edhopper
(33,606 posts)Or religion?
rug
(82,333 posts)As are sedition laws, obscenity laws, and mandatory loyalty oaths.
edhopper
(33,606 posts)Huh?
I guess there's no religious offense behind the laws and no one thinks this has anything to do with their God.
Okay, I'm out here.
rug
(82,333 posts)the treason being adultery against the King.
edhopper
(33,606 posts)That people act on deeply held religious beliefs.
That laws are put in place because people think their religion and their God demand it.
You see there are books called the Bible and Koran......
But go on denying the role of religion and beliefs all you want.
rug
(82,333 posts)Their primary purpose is to maintain order - and control.
Blasphemy laws are no exception.
You see, there are things called the ruling class, and courts, and prisons, and police.
Isn't it odd that governments have blasphemy laws criminalizing defamation of the religion of the majority?
Now why would that be?
Oh, it must be the priests and imams pulling the puppet strings of the government.
The puppeteers are not who you think, ed.
Politics 101.
edhopper
(33,606 posts)The role of religion in things.
It's really something.
rug
(82,333 posts)If you put aside your ideology of antitheism -"religion poisons everything" - you may see it too.
The religious leaders have their share in this, their willingness to put their organizations at the service of political rulers for a political privilege, but that's not what's driving this train.
Marx saw this clearly. He also saw that the economy behind this is what drives it. Ideologies, religious, irreligious, racist, nationalistic, misogynist, xenophobic, homophobic, to name only a handful, are what flow from that fundamental fact of human civilization.
Fact.
