Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Jailed Egyptian blogger to go on hunger strike

Hani Nazeer an Egyptian blogger was jailed in October 2008 for speaking out against islam. Nazeer has never been charged with anything and the courts recently rejected his application for release. Now Nazeer has vowed to go on a hunger strike. Pure Content

A 28 year old blogger imprisoned in Egypt for posting material on his site that was highly critical of Islam and occasionally of the Coptic Orthodox Church’s hierarchy has decided to go on a hunger strike, so as to raise awareness of freedom of speech. Egyptian legislation allows for the justice system to strike down on those who publically insult religion or religious groups. Hani Nazeer worked as a secondary school social worker in the Egyptian town of Qena and while he himself is a Coptic Christian, the blogger has been critical of both the country’ majority religion, Islam, as well as the leadership of his own church. Nazeer was actually arrested in October 2008, after writing an online fictitious novel which was highly critical of Islam’s growing role in Egyptian civil society, and uploading this to his blog.

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