Upper Egypt: two Coptic children arrested for blasphemy
Cairo (AsiaNews) - Two Coptic children
were arrested yesterday in Upper Egypt for having desecrated
the Koran. Nabil Nagy
Rzik, 10, and Mina Farag Nady, 9, both
illiterate, were playing near a garbage can with some
papers. They were stopped by the local
imam and accused them of having urinated on the pages of the Koran. Before calling the police, the Muslim
cleric led Nabil and Nady to the church asking the pastor
to punish them. At the priests refusal
the Imam took the
two children and went to the
court house with three other Muslims of the village. Now the two children are
in the juvenile prison in Beni
Suef.
The father of Nabil
Nagy Rizk has
defended the children saying that they can not read. They could not have known what was written on the pages found in a bag near a rubbish heap.
The case of Beni Suef comes after a wave of dozens
arrested for blasphemy that
has intensified with the spread of
anti-Islam film "The innocence of Islam" and
the cartoons of Mohammed published
by the French weekly Charlie Hebdo. The majority of those being
arrested are Copts. At the beginning of September in Sohag, Bishoy Kamel,
a Coptic religion teacher, was sentenced to six years for the publication of blasphemous
cartoons on Facebook and insults
against President Mohammed Morsi. On September 13, police arrested Saber Albert,
a young Coptic of 25 for posting the anti-Islam film on the internet which caused demonstrations all over the world. Saber is still in
custody awaiting trial.
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