Egyptian Christian Students to Stand Trial over Video Mocking Muslim Prayers
Three Egyptian Christian students are set to stand trial on Thursday after they appeared in a video last year showing them mocking Muslim prayers.
The 30-second clip, which was recorded by their teachers, shows one of Coptic Christian students pretending to pray while reciting verses from the Quran, and the two others laughing behind him. One of the students also gestured to convey the sign of beheading, according to The Washington Post.
The video first surfaced in April 2015, after the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) beheaded dozens of Coptic Christians in Libya. Atty. Maher Naguib said that the teacher had already been given a three-year jail sentence after being tried separately over the same charges, the report relays.
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The said video angered Muslims and prompted them to have the teacher and the three students to be evicted from their village. The village elders told the teacher and his family to leave, while the students were detained by authorities, the report details.
"The students couldn't attend school and remained indoors to avoid insults, beating and harassment," said Atty. Naguib. "This is all because of random and spontaneous action by some youngsters inside a bedroom and for only few seconds."
The case reflects the ongoing religious intolerance and tension between Muslims and Christians in Egypt. Christians only make up 10 percent of the population of the country and have long decried the discrimination they are experiencing from the majority, Morocco World News reports.
When President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi vowed to modernize Egypt's attitude toward religious freedom, he gained the support of Christians during the ouster of Mohammed Morsi in 2013. And now, Christians have yet to see a glimmer of that promise.
In June 2015, human rights organization Amnesty International called out el-Sissi for failing to deliver his promised increase in religious freedom. The Egyptian leader explained that he is trying to establish stability and trust, but Mubarak's three-decade term has left traces of "violence and repression" in the country.
