CAIRO, Sept 25, 2012 (AFP)
CAIRO, Sept 25, 2012 (AFP)
Egypt’s prosecutor general has referred to court the owner of an Islamist television station and his son over accusations they burned a copy of the Bible, state media reported on Tuesday.
Al-Omma TV owner Ahmed Mohammed Abdullah, known as Abu Islam, and his son Islam, face charges of “insulting the Christian faith” along with journalist Hani Yassin Gadallah of the independent daily Al-Tahrir, said the official MENA news agency.
Abu Islam and his son are specifically accused of tearing up and setting on fire a copy of the Bible during protests this month outside the US embassy in Cairo against a US-made film mocking the Prophet Mohammed.
Abu Islam is also accused of having made insulting remarks against Christianity in an interview with the Al-Tahrir journalist, the state news agency said.
A mob stormed the US embassy in Cairo and tore down the US flag on September 11 in a protest sparked by the low-budget film mocking Islam and portraying the Prophet Mohammed as immoral and violent.
The “Innocence of Muslims” movie was apparently produced by a US-based Coptic Christian.
Egyptian Christians, who have long complained of discrimination, have said they fear the film will lead to further persecution at home.
The Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the highest authority of the Coptic patriarchate, issued a statement slamming the film’s release as a “malicious plan aimed at defaming religions and causing divisions among the Egyptian people.”
Last week, the public prosecutor ordered the trial of seven Egyptian Copts living in North America over their alleged role in the film.
They are accused of “insulting the Islamic religion, insulting the Prophet and inciting sectarian strife.”
Egypt’s Christians make up between six and 10 percent of the country’s 82 million people, and have long complained of discrimination and marginalisation.
On September 18, a court in Egypt jailed a Christian for six years for mocking the Prophet Mohammed and for insulting Islamist President Mohamed Morsi on social networking sites, a judicial source said.
Press reports say many Copts have emigrated or are looking to leave the country since Islamists came to power in the parliamentary and presidential elections.
