Egyptian Blogger Sentenced for Writings

[Dive-Baum]

Seems a young blogger in Egypt was Sentanced to 3 years for insulting Islam and the prophet and an additional year for insulting the President of Egypt, Husni Mubarrick (sp?) Good thing insulting W doesn't cary a prison term or the US would have the same population walking the streets as the Bahamas.

The thing I just love here is the fact that Egypt is supposed to be this shining jewel in the Arab world for freedom and democracy. So much for tollerance and ANYTHING resembling free speech there.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/02/22/D8NET5UG1.html

 

[eaeolian]

Unsurprising. The *only* Muslim country that seems to have any speech rights is Turkey. Otherwise...

 

[distressed_romeo]

Very, very disturbing. I suppose it must be a small consolation to him that everything he said has subsequently been vindicated by the court's sentence.

Unsurprising. The *only* Muslim country that seems to have any speech rights is Turkey. Otherwise...

My (religious studies student) brother was telling me about that a couple of nights ago.

 

[Makelele]

The speech rights in Turkey aren't that good either. A Finnish journalist got thrown out of Turkey because she was doing research for a book about the Kurds and their political rights (which aren't that good).

 

[eaeolian]

The speech rights in Turkey aren't that good either. A Finnish journalist got thrown out of Turkey because she was doing research for a book about the Kurds and their political rights (which aren't that good).

Oh, they're still not up to US/Euro standards - but they're better than Egypt.

 

[Dive-Baum]

The crazy thing is that the president of Egypt is an elected official...It's not like he is a huge advocate of the islamist movement either. He has actually been at odds with them quite a bit during his presidency since he decided to cooperate with the US for the War on Terror. Also sounds like he started to get beaten as soon as he set foot in the van to prison.

You are right though, he indeed has had his opinion vindicated, small consolation though.

 

[Rebelyellz]

Write something bad about Islam or the Mormans that pisses them off, and see how quick they will put a bounty on your butt!!This has happened in the US and Europe! DONNIE

 

[Lozek]

Well, Turkey is a country that's really divided on a lot of issues relating to religion and culture. There was massive reform under Ataturk which sought to bring the country to a more 'Western' outlook if you will, however it was embraced by some and deplored by others. As a generalisation, you will find that people in the West of the country (the European side) are very interested in Western ideals and generally wish to conform to them in a very materialistic way (although their traditional values with regards to things like the family unit are still very much in evidence), but the further East you travel towards the Asian side then generally you will find the more traditional Eastern outlook. As you can imagine, that causes a lot of internal conflict in the country.

 

[Dive-Baum]

I always thought of Turkey as a transitional nation. Seems like they are really pulled to the east and the west. Not suprising that they are more socially conservative than their Islamist neighbors.

 

[Korbain]

god damn some beliefs are messed. I'd hate to live in a country like that knowing you gotta watch everything you say