Egyptian writer to face trial for 'insulting Islam'
Sat, 27/12/2014 - 18:00 AFP
http://www.egyptindependent.com//news/egyptian-writer-face-trial-insulting-islam

Egypt's prosecutor has referred a female writer to trial for allegedly
insulting Islam by criticising the slaughter of animals during a major
religious festival, a judicial official said on Saturday.

"Happy massacre," Fatima Naoot wrote on her Facebook page in October during
Eid al-Adha, the Muslim feast of sacrifice.

Animals are slaughtered during Eid to commemorate the willingness of Abraham
to fulfil God's command to sacrifice his own son, although in the end God
provided him with a sheep.

"Massacre committed by men over the past 10 centuries and followed by men
each year with a smile," Naoot wrote at the time.

"Annual massacre observed because of a nightmare of one (prophet) about his
son... ," she wrote in Arabic.

"Although the nightmare has passed for the prophet and his son, each year
helpless animals pay with their lives the price of this sacred nightmare."

Naoot, who is Muslim, deleted her posts from Facebook after controversy
erupted about them.

But a judicial official said on Saturday that she admitted during
questioning that she had written them.

The 50-year-old columnist denied she had any intention to insult Islam, the
official told AFP, adding she had also been charged with "making fun of the
right to sacrifice".

"It is the price paid by those who carry torches of enlightenment at every
age," Naoot wrote on Friday after having been informed of her trial which is
due to start on January 28.

She said that in October she had posted messages on Facebook to congratulate
Muslims for Eid al-Adha but "urged them to respect the offering and not
humiliate it by flooding the ground with animal blood".

Egypt's constitution outlaws insults against the three monotheist religions
recognised by the state -- Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

Earlier this year a female Coptic teacher was jailed for six months after
parents of her students accused her of evangelising and insulting Islam.

In June, in a separate case a Coptic Christian man was sentenced to six
years in jail for insulting Islam.

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