Egyptian Blogger Jailed for Insulting Islam

Abdel Kareem Nabil is a 22-year-old former blogger and student at Egypt's al-Azhar University. He was jailed today; his crime, "insulting Islam and the country's president". If I was an Egyptian citizen, they'd have to jail me too. And thousands of other bloggers and students from around the Muslim world, who are also, similarly sick and tired of their dictatorial governments and so-called religious leaders, and are on the World Wide Web, speaking out against it.

Human rights associations around the world have condemned the action in the name of suppression of freedom of speech. One campaigning group in Egypt itself, where a number of bloggers were arrested, of which Nabil was the only one to be convicted, has identified the Internet as the "new front in the battle between those who want to speak out and those who would stop them".

But that is just on the face, deep down this battle is another facet of a relentless internal struggle in the Muslim world, where its youth are trying to get the real Islam back from its self-proclaimed defenders.

These events in Egypt's are sadly the norm rather then the exception, governments in many Muslim countries have Internet watchdogs which constantly monitor all traffic, in Pakistan for instance, at least two blogging domains, and with them millions of blogs, were permanently banned after the Danish Cartoons controversy.

What such evictions and bans reflect is more then just an inability on the part of these governments to respect difference of opinion and take criticism positively, but it shows how despite all their apparent power and authority these oppressive governments are really quite insecure underneath.

A young man critically writing about one of the country's top universities, the government and conservative Muslims generally, after all, can hardly bring much difference to their power-status. But what it did do was allow some one to stand up and speak up against them. Call their wrongs wrong and do so without fear. And that hit the core of their insecurities.

The same insecurity that all autocratic rulers are wary off, for they realize how human history is filled with examples of what collective civil up-rising can do to even the most powerful of regimes. There is not much, otherwise, that could explain such open display of totalitarianism.

What is most ironic however is how the judge had imprisoned Abdel for three years, on the charge that he "insulted Islam", when Islam's own history is replete with examples of extremely contrasting forbearance. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, during his life time, on countless occasions ignored the abuse that was hurled at him by the Arab pagans.

On one occasion the Prophet inquired of the well being of an old non-Muslim women who would throw trash on him every day, when on one day no trash was thrown on him. When he learned that she was ill, he went to visit her, and ask of her well being, the women was so overwhelmed she converted.

One another occasion, the Prophet received a divine revelation from Angel Gabraeel, notifying the Prophet of Allah's willingness to stone down a group of people in the city of Taif, after they had caused the Prophet's feet to bleed in a violent response to an invitation to Islam. The Prophet turned down this offer, instead choosing to pray for the forgiveness and guidance of what he called "his ummah". Many centuries later, the Prophet's prayers for these people were heard and Mohammad bin Qasim, the man who brought Islam to the sub-continent hailed from that same city of Taif where Qasim's ancestors had once brutally rejected the Prophet's call to Islam.

And yet here, we see the self proclaimed defenders of Islam imprisoning ordinary citizens speaking against their injustices, in the name of the same Islam they are so grossly misrepresenting. If these defenders of Islam think such imprisonments will stop the Muslim youth's quest to throw them out of power and rescue the true Islam from their quenches, they're mistaken.

It might have destroyed one young man's career and life, but it will not dampen or suppress the spirit and the will of an entire generation determined to break through from the shackles. We will fight on.

A Detailed Analysis of Abdel Karim's blog posts