Eating in public during Ramadan fast in Egypt not a crime: Interior ministry
Recent arrests of a group of people for eating during daylight hours
provoked debate
Ahram Online , Sunday 28 Jun 2015
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/133949/Egypt/Politics-/Eating-in-public-during-Ramadan-fast-in-Egypt-not-.aspx

A senior interior ministry official said on Sunday that there is no law in
Egypt's penal code that criminalises those who publicly eat or drink during
Ramadan fasting hours.

The issue has been heavily discussed in the Egyptian media over the past few
days after a report that 25 people were arrested in the upscale Fifth
Settlement district just outside Cairo for eating and drinking in public.

Prosecution sources said they were arrested because "they didn't take into
account the feelings of other [fasters] and didn't respect the holy month of
Ramadan."

Able-bodied, observant Muslims refrain from eating, drinking or smoking
during daylight hours during the month of Ramadan, which started on 18 June
this year.

Those arrested were released on Saturday.

The interior minister's deputy for public relations and media, Abu-Bakr
Abdel-Kareem, told private satellite channel ONTV that the Quran permits
Muslims to not fast during Ramadan for a number of reasons.

"We can't put in place a law that contradicts the Quran," he said.

Abdel-Kreem seemed unaware of the reported arrests, saying that he would
check the details, and that the group might have been arrested for another
reason.

However, Abdel-Kareem added that if they were in fact arrested for eating
and drinking in public then there would be "an investigation into the
matter."

Public eating and drinking in the daylight hours of Ramdan is a recurrent
subject of media debate, and each year brings reports that in some areas,
police have shut down cafes that operate during fasting hours.