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Egypt
Christians held in Egypt for work on Web site
Thu 9 Aug 2007, 8:46 GMT
CAIRO, Aug 9 Reuters and Middle East Times- Egyptian police have detained two Egyptian Christians for their work on the Web site of a Christian Arab group based in Canada, police sources said on Thursday. Named as Adel Fawzi and Peter Ezzat, the two worked for the Middle East Christian Association, which has its headquarters in Ontario and has a Web site with the address www.m-e-c-a.com.
Unnamed lawyers had complained to the prosecutor general that the organisation and its Web site "insulted Islam and the prophet Mohammad on behalf of diaspora Copts", said one police source, who asked not to be named.
It was not immediately clear what kind of work Fawzi and Ezzat did for the organisation which has a mission statement calling for secularism, and equality and full citizenship for Christians living in the Middle East.
Headlines on the Web site include: "Islam began alien and will revert to being alien", "Is Mohammad a messenger from God?" "This Web site reveals the true face of Islam."
Copts living abroad, especially those in North America, have tended to be more hostile towards Muslims and towards the Egyptian government than Copts living inside Egypt.
An Interior Ministry spokesman said he had no information on the detentions.
"The Egyptian public prosecutor ordered Fawzi and Ezzat arrested for publishing articles and declarations that are damaging to Islam and insulting to Prophet Mohammed on the United Copts Web site," the source said. "These arrests follow a complaint about the two people who run the site made by two lawyers who felt offended by the publication of these articles," he said.
"The Egyptian public prosecutor ordered Fawzi and Ezzat arrested for publishing articles and declarations that are damaging to Islam and insulting to Prophet Mohammad [PBUH] on the United Copts website," the source said.
"Police ransacked Fawzi's home and took his computer and his published book Persecuted Copts," the United Copts Web site said.
The Web site says that its aims include "exposing the injustice the Copts suffer" and "promoting constructive dialogue with the Egyptian government agencies and moderate Muslims."
Copts are estimated to form 6 to 10 percent of Egypt's 76 million people and are the largest Christian community in the Middle East. They frequently complain of alleged discrimination and mistreatment at the hands of Egypt's majority Muslims, especially in cases of religious conversion.
