Yes, I’m a blasphemer. Get over it.

[cleanhippie]

On October 7, 2012, the office of the Egyptian General Prosecutor decided to start an official investigation accusing me of "blasphemy" -- or, as they call it, "insulting Islam." My crime was expressing my atheist beliefs on my Twitter account. The Egyptian authorities also arrested my friend Alber Saber on similar charges. He remains in jail to this day.

Egypt has signed many international treaties that ensure freedom of expression, but the Egyptian penal code still has approximately 20 laws that make certain opinions a crime.

The specified offenses include criticizing the president, the parliament, the military, or the judiciary. Criticizing a foreign president, such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Bashar Al-Assad, is also a crime, punishable with a three-year term in prison.

When I learned of the charges against me and Saber, I remembered my friend Kareem Amer, a famous Egyptian blogger who was sentenced to four years in prison in 2007 for insulting both Islam and then-President Mubarak. Kareem suffered a great deal in prison. He was tortured several times, and spent a long time in solitary confinement under horrible conditions.

The latest threat of legal action against me has also stirred up memories of my previous imprisonment last year, when I was imprisoned in Egypt for 10 months for the crime of "insulting the institution of the military." Since then, two corrupt police officers, Sayyed Abdel-Kareem and Mohammed Abdel-Rahman, have declared that they want to file an additional case against me. They're both accusing me of insulting Islam during my imprisonment in El-Marg Prison. They've tried to use this new case as a form of blackmail to keep me from speaking about the torture I faced while I was there. (Their accusation is entirely separate from the case brought against me by the prosecutor, by the way.)

Alber is not the only opinion prisoner in Egypt accused of criticizing Islam. There are at least six Christians (three of them under the age of 18), four atheists, and one Shiite who now face the same charges, and it is no surprise that not one of them is a Sunni Muslim. It's a new Inquisition happening in Egypt in the twenty-first century while the whole world remains silent.

http://transitions.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/10/19/yes_i_m_a_blasphemer_get_over_it

More at link...

[stopbush]

1. Isn't blasphemy the definition of a victimless crime?

[cleanhippie]

2. Well, many feel that insulting the sensibilities of a believer is a crime, with the believer being

the victim.

[stopbush]

3. And do those "many" also feel that it's a crime to insult a person's political/ideological

sensibilities?

Are you a "victim" if I say your political views are based on fantasy?

What's the difference? Politics or religion, they're both ideas, and ideas are open to criticism.

[cleanhippie]

4. That is a great question. One that believers never seem to want, or are able, to answer.

[snagglepuss]

5. Blasphemy laws and the arrogent attitudes of oh so pious believers who kowtow to

such contemptible laws have resulted in me despising Islam, I rate it no better than Scientology.

[cleanhippie]

6. By what measure do you rate any religion?

When you say that you "rate it no better than Scientology", that implies that were it not for the things you listed as making you despise islam, it would rate better than scientology. So by what measure do you rate the different religions, and how do they rank?

[uriel1972]

7. As far as I can tell

each religion is blasphemous to someone elses religion. The whole idea is ridiculous.

[ButterflyBlood]

8. I've often wondered why people get offended over claims of "false religion" or "false prophet"

If you don't believe in a religion, you believe it's a false religion. Period. And you believe its founder was a false prophet. If you aren't a Muslim, but don't believe Mohammad was a false prophet and wasn't delusional, then your position makes no sense. Same with non-Mormons and Joseph Smith.

I'm a Christian and I have no problem saying that I believe that Islam, Mormonism, Scientology, etc. are false religions and their founders false prophets (or calling the Catholic Church a false church since I don't recognize its authority or office of the Papacy.) And no, I would not be offended by an atheist saying the same thing about Christianity or Jesus. For an atheist to NOT believe that would not make any sense. Atheists (as well as non-Christian religion followers) are free to blaspheme my beliefs all they want, or even make movies mocking it, I guarantee that I'm not going to riot, call for anyone's death, or ever favor criminalizing said activity (and if anyone ever did, I would be as staunchly opposed as one could be.)