Religious Intolerance

The BBC reported the other day that an Egyptian blogger - Alber Saber - has been sentenced to three years in jail for blasphemy and contempt of religion.

Apparently Alber Saber - an atheist and non-believer from a Coptic Christian background - was arrested in September after neighbours accused him of posting links to a film mocking Islam - presumably the one that led to staged protests recently across the Muslim world.

So having taken to the streets to free themselves of one dictator - Hosni Mubarak who ruled Egypt with a rod of iron for forty years - a new tryant seems in danger of springing up in the guise of Islamic religious orthodoxy.

Many liberals, secularists and minority groups such as Coptic Christians are complaining that the new draft Egyptian constitution - fails to protect basic rights - and that the assembly which approved the draft document last month was dominated by Islamists.

Now the Muslim Brotherhood may be the majority party in Egypt - which is fair enough and the voice of the Egyptian people obviously deserves respect.

But majority rule is about respecting not trampling over the rights of minority groups - or so you would hope anyway - democracy, for those who are supporters of the concept, is about more than simply winning a majority at the ballot box.

After all, Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Party at one time won the support of German citizens in democratic elections - before going on to become a fully fledged Fascist party which had no respect for minority groups.    

Back in Egypt the blogger Alber Saber faced charges of making critical statements about Islam and Christianity - and there has been a proliferation of such prosecutions for blasphemy since Hosni Mubarak was overthrown nearly two years ago.

Human rights activists in Egypt say that while Articles 43 and 45 of the new draft constitution guarantee freedom of belief - and freedom of thought and opinion - Article 44 contains a specific measure to prohibit insults against prophets.

Doesn't take a genius to work out which of the articles will be given greater weight - if the courts, judiciary and the police are all ruthlessly controlled by religious zealots.

Heba Morayef, a researcher with Human Rights Watch in Egypt told the New York Times:

"Expect to see many more blasphemy prosecutions in the future now that it's embedded as a crime in the constitution."

I think he's right you know which begs the question why should the UN and the western world support the overthrow of dictators - if all that happens is that the victorious side replaces one form of tyranny with another?

A referendum on the draft Egyptian constitution is being held next week and - at the moment - the opposition groups seem torn between campaigning for a No vote or boycotting the process altogether.

On the bright side the human spirit is a wonderful, indomitable thing.

Because just stop and reflect - that only fifty years ago there were strident, respectable voices in the UK - jumping up and down about Monty Python's 'Life of Brian' which they denounced as blasphemy. 

OK, the Pythons didn't end up in jail for three years I have to admit - but as a concept 'blasphemy' is now largely irrelevant in the UK - unless religion and religious differences are abused in the context of someone committing a hate crime. 

Rightly so, I would say.