better be careful on facebook in egypt.

[doggie]

So much for freedom of belief. I bet if he mocked Christianity nothing would have happened.

 

Egyptian sentenced to 3 years for insulting Islam

 

Published: Oct 22, 2011 6:58 AM

CAIRO (AP) - Egypt's state media says a Cairo court has sentenced a man to three years in prison for postings on Facebook deemed to be inciting sectarianism and in contempt of Islam.

 

The MENA state news agency said Saturday a the misdemeanor court found Ayman Mansour had intentionally mocked Islam and used "outrageous and scurrilous" language in describing the religion's holy book, the Quran, and its prophet and believers.

 

The court said freedom of belief doesn't excuse contempt that may offend believers and "subject the regime and the country's security to serious dangers."

 

Egypt is grappling with an increasingly assertive ultraconservative Islamist trend, and recent clashes between the military police and Coptic Christians have heightened fears of increasing sectarian strife.

[JesusFightClub]

On facebook anywhere, doggie. I cannot stress this highly enough, FACEBOOK IS NOT SAFE.

I have my account set to friends only, and I barely use it now. Not after one guy was sentenced to four years in jail for posting "Let's start a riot" which stayed up all of 20 minutes (he was drunk) before he took it down. There's also been a rash of convictions for posting sectarian stuff on the site.

The police have warned here that FB is being monitored for sectarian behaviour. This sort of shit makes me very nervous. I had someone post a pro IRA (Irish Republican Army, that is) comment on my wall once and I deleted it because I thought "sectarianism". They couldn't prosecute the guy for it as he's not within Scottish or UK jurisdiction, but could they get me? It seems like everything is sectarian nowadays so maybe leaving the comment up would imply approval...

Veering wildly OT but loads of things are getting regarded as sectarian which shouldn't be and it really bothers me. For example one particular song was quoted in Parliament the other day as being sectarian. This is not a very nice song, and it is a pro IRA song (it's also annoyingly catchy and I now have it stuck in my head) but I know all the words to it and it has nothing about Protestants at all. It is distinctly anti British as you'd expect but how can singing a song be a crime? And how a sectarian one at that when it doesn't deal with Protestant vs Catholic?

I'm most definitely not saying anyone should run around singing it, unless they like getting beaten up (and you will if you try in parts of town...). However it is a political song. The fact that someone regards it as mean to Protestants doesn't make it so. And it is troubling as we are veering into thought crime legislation.

[emmiedahl]

Is being sectarian illegal in the UK? I think that would be okay in the US.

[JesusFightClub]

Is being sectarian illegal in the UK? I think that would be okay in the US.

In Scotland, yeah. New and stronger legislation is going through Parliament as we speak on this, but at the moment you can be charged with a crime with religious aggravation (like you could be charged with a crime with racial aggravation).

I'm not saying Scotland doesn't have a problem with sectarianism, we do. A bad one. But this approach is not the answer IMO.

[emmiedahl]

Interesting. In the States, we just say all kinds of crap with no consequences (in case you have not noticed from these fundie blogs). Outside of threats, slander and treason, we can run our mouths all we want.

I sometimes wish this was not the case, but on the other hand I am glad I can say whatever I personally want to.

[JesusFightClub]

Interesting. In the States, we just say all kinds of crap with no consequences (in case you have not noticed from these fundie blogs). Outside of threats, slander and treason, we can run our mouths all we want.

I sometimes wish this was not the case, but on the other hand I am glad I can say whatever I personally

want to.

We don't have your First Amendment and IMO working out acceptable speech is something we struggle with. I don't mean at all to suggest we are a police state or the likes but I am very uncomfortable with increasing political use of the law.

A couple of examples. I was on a demo once and someone had a flag they were going to burn. I think this is generally daft in the UK as well as technically difficult. Made out of plastic, flags are, and don't burn well, plus not the same significance it has in the US.

But the coppers policing the demo came running across and told the person if he did it they would arrest him for violent disorder! If he was convicted that carries a serious jail sentence. But in the US burning a flag is free speech.

Another thing is the coppers saying they are monitoring FB for sectarianism. If I had a public FB and I posted the aforementioned song, I could get arrested. Even on my private FB I could get reported by someone. They've been doing dawn raids on people for sectarian behaviour. As someone who has been marched away in handcuffs and stuck in a police van I like to avoid that sort of thing, or at least be prepared for it.

[Guest Anonymous]

On facebook anywhere, doggie. I cannot stress this highly enough, FACEBOOK IS NOT SAFE.

I have my account set to friends only, and I barely use it now. Not after one guy was sentenced to four years in jail for posting "Let's start a riot" which stayed up all of 20 minutes (he was drunk) before he took it down. There's also been a rash of convictions for posting sectarian stuff on the site.

I think that a lot of the sentencing was seriously disproportionate in the aftermath of the riots but as far as I can see from the news reports, the people sentenced for "Facebook crimes" did actually start new pages dedicated to inciting riots at a time that the country was in a very heated state. They made it very easy for the police to find them; their comments weren't buried in their own personal pages. That they were young and drunk is unfortunate and that they were jailed is really, really sad, IMO, but I don't think the story is enough reason to extrapolate that 'Facebook is dangerous' generally in the UK.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/1 ... r-facebook

I keep my own facebook page locked down for all sorts of personal reasons, though.