It penalizes: "whoever exploits and uses the religion in advocating and propagating by talk or in writing, or by any other method, extremist thoughts with the aim of instigating sedition and division or disdaining and contempting any of the heavenly religions or the sects belonging thereto, or prejudicing national unity or social peace.
"[1] The blasphemy laws have frequently been invoked against religious minorities such as Coptic Christians, as well as Islamic sects viewed as heretical by mainstream Sunni Muslims and atheists.
Under the Emergency Law, the security forces arbitrarily arrest and detain persons, mistreat them, and torture them.
[8][10][12] In the Emergency or military courts, the accused has no right of appeal but the sentence is subject to confirmation by the President.
[8][10] Article 98(f) of the Penal Code, as amended by Law 147/2006 states the penalty for blasphemy and similar crimes: The "heavenly" religions are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Sometimes, in place of, or in addition to, blasphemy, the courts hold an accused guilty of "incitement to hate Muslims," "defaming the President of the Republic," and "insulting Islam.
[17][18][19] Those most frequently accused of "insulting Islam" are scholars, publishers, bloggers, human rights activists, political commentators, novelists, education reformers, professors, theologians, artists, filmmakers, politicians, Muslim liberals and dissidents, members of disfavored religious groups, converts to Christianity, and members of faiths that originated after Islam.
[7][17][20] From 1985, Al-Azhar University's Islamic Research Council (IRC) has been an active advisor to the government on religious matters.
[21][22] On 1 June 2004, Minister of Justice Faruq Seif al-Nasr gave clerics from Al-Azhar University authority to confiscate books and audio and videotapes that they believe violate Islamic precepts.
In May 1998, Didier Monciaud, an instructor from France at the American University in Cairo, learned through the press that his use of Maxime Rodinson's biography Muhammad gave offense to the parents of some of his students.
[26] However, in December, a court reduced his sentence to one year in jail.,[27][28] he was later pardoned by the President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
[30] On 21 October 2014, ex-Muslim atheist activist Ahmed Harqan (or Harkan) featured in a debate on the popular Egyptian talk show Taht al Koubry ("Under the Bridge").
[31] Four days later, in the evening of 25 October, he and his pregnant wife Nada Mandour (Saly) Harqan (also an atheist) were attacked by a lynch mob, and escaped assassination by fleeing to a nearby police station.
[32] Instead of taking action to help Harqan and his wife, the police officers further assaulted them and they were imprisoned, charged with blasphemy and "defamation of religion" under article 98 in the Egyptian penal code for asking "What has ISIS done that Muhammad did not do?” on the talk show.
Harqan's appearance provoked weeks of outcry from Islamic religious broadcasters and prompted much-watched follow-up shows.
[34] In November 2012, seven Egyptian Christians were reportedly sentenced to death in absentia for their role in the anti-Mohammad movie Innocence of Muslims.
The court held that "The sin that he committed ... against God and against society, challenging its traditions and religious beliefs should fail the sum total of his work, rendering him ineligible for any state honor or prize.
"[17][19] In October 2008, the authorities arrested a blogger, Reda Abdel Rahman, who was affiliated with a religious group: the Quranist movement.
[8] In 2007, Egyptian police arrested Adel Fawzy Faltas and Peter Ezzat, who work for the Canada-based Middle East Christian Association, on the grounds that, in seeking to defend human rights, they had "insulted Islam".
An engineer by profession, El-Akkad became a sheikh (a Muslim religious leader) during more than twenty years as a member of a fundamentalist Islamic group: Tabligh and Da’wah.
Al-Azhar University expelled Amer in March 2006 after its disciplinary board found him guilty of blasphemy against Islam.
On 18 January 2007, Amer stood trial for "incitement to hate Muslims," "defaming the President of the Republic," and "insulting Islam."
[20] In 2001, an Emergency court sentenced Salaheddin Mohsen, a writer accused of blasphemy, to three years in prison with hard labor for writings deemed offensive to Islam.
On 1 July 2000, Muhammad Hasanain Haykal, a prominent journalist and a former advisor to President Nasser, declared that the furor was a farce.
A lawyer made application to have Abu Zayd divorced from his wife on the ground that a Muslim woman cannot be married to an apostate.
[49] In December 1991, an Emergency court convicted Alaa Hamed (or Hamid) for violating Egypt's anti-blasphemy law by publishing The Void in a Man’s Mind.
[3] The public prosecutor contended that Hamed's novel was "a serious threat to the fundamental beliefs of Egyptian society and, in particular, those connected with the person of God most Almighty and the heavenly religions, .
Five days later, two assassins from the group al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya shot Foda dead and wounded his son and several bystanders.
[53] Al-Azhar's Sheikh Muhammad al Ghazali had previously declared Foda an apostate, and said that Islamic law justified his killing.
[3][54] In 1959, officials at Al-Azhar University succeeded in having banned from Egypt Children of Gebelawi, a novel by Naguib Mahfouz, an Egyptian writer.