Egypt Coptic youth to protest jailings

ICC Note:
“Egypt’s influential Maspero Youth Union – a Coptic Christian youth organization – has announced it is to demonstrate against a recent spat of rulings that have jailed Christians in the country for allegedly ‘insulting’ Islam and illegal construction of churches,” Bikya Masr reports.
By Joseph Mayton
3/11/2012 Egypt (Bikya Masr) – Egypt’s influential Maspero Youth Union – a Coptic Christian youth organization – has announced it is to demonstrate against a recent spat of rulings that have jailed Christians in the country for allegedly “insulting” Islam and illegal construction of churches.
The group told Bikyamasr.com on Sunday morning that they will take to the front of the general prosecutor’s office at the Supreme Court building to demand Priest Makarious Boulos be freed.
Boulos was given a 6-month prison sentence on charges he violated construction regulations in the country, but the Maspero Youth Union says this is a double-standard that must not persist as Egypt’s transition to civilian rule takes place.
According to the court ruling, the church was a few meters higher than the Egyptian government permitted.
It comes less than two weeks after Egypt jailed a Christian man for 6 years on charges of showing contempt of religion and insulting the Prophet Mohamed.
The court, in the southern Egyptian province of Assiut, said that Makram Diab, a school employee, had made offensive remarks against Islam’s prophet, according to the report.
The remarks infuriated Diab’s Muslim colleagues, who went on strike until he was arrested and prosecuted.
The sentencing comes after a Cairo court earlier this week dismissed a lawsuit against the Christian business tycoon, Naguib Sawiris, who was accused of insulting Islam by tweeting images of Mickey Mouse with a beard and his counterpart Minnie wearing a veil.
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