On Wed, 1 Sep 2010 13:51:24 -0700 (PDT), Rich Rostrom
wrote:
>Pete Barrett wrote:
>> On Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:31:54 -0700 (PDT), Rich Rostrom
>> wrote:
>
>> >The Egyptian government has announced
>> >the prosecution of a Moslem ultra for
>> >defaming Christianity. While this is not
>> >the same as a prosecution for Christian
>> >apostasy, it shows IMHO the sort of
>> >thinking I suggested above.
>>
>> I'm not sure that Egypt has apostasy laws.
>
>I didn't say it did.
>
>> Certainly, the current
>> Egyptian government (not popularly elected, of course)...
>
>It claims to be though.
>
>> has opposed militant Islam...
>
>Yes and no. Egypt has cracked down on the
>Moslem Brotherhood and similar organizations.
>OTOH there is a lot of Islamist bullying with
>apparent state approval - note the harassment
>of Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz.
He was given police protection. Not very effective, granted, but it
doesn't suggest state approval of theassination attempts on him.
Which given his support for democracy and free speech, is perhaps
surprising,
>
>> I'd suggest this is more likely to be the Egyptian regime finding an
>> excuse to pick on one of their high profile and popular political
>> opponents.
>
>My point is that it is a Moslem government
>which is prosecuting for defamation of
>Christianity, not a Christian government.
>The parallel is that ISTM to show that a
>Moslem government would be more likely
>to prosecute for Christian apostasy than
>a Christian government.
But you were suggesting it as an example of a Muslim state using
something like this a window dressing to justify also using the law
against opponents of Islam. I don't think it is that, and since
neither of us is privy to the thinking of the Egyptian government (at
least, I'm not, and I don't expect you are), we may have to leave it
at that.
Pete Barrett |
