EGYPT

Note how the second paragraph nullifies the first of the government declares an emergency. This is a trick that is very common in constitutions.

This is a typical statement of human rights policy by many countries. Essentially, some controlling authority states that rights are guaranteed except when it is “dangerous” or contrary to the country’s “best interest”. Of course then anything the authorities want to censor is classified so that it is an exception. To be a right, it must be guaranteed even when hateful, insulting and/or dangerous.

On the surface, this reform seems to contradict Sharia – Islamic religious law -- where religion permeates all of politics.

Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, 1943-2010, was an modernistic Egyptian Islamic Scholar and a Professor at the University of Cairo. One of his writings argued that the discriminatory tax that the Koran specified for Christians and Jews in an Islamic nation was not fair or consonant with modern thought regarding freedom of religion and the rights of minorities. Some fundamentalist were outraged and charged him with Apostacy for criticizing a Koranic prescription. He was convicted and lost his professorship. That was the least of his problems. Since he was an apostate, he was not a Muslim the Egyptian Courts ruled, and therefore his wife, a Muslim, could not legally remain married to her. His marriage was legally dissolved and he was threatened with death by fundamentalists forcing him and his wife to go into exile in Holland where he taught at the Utrecht University. He never returned.

Egyptian law prohibits anyone from assaulting anyone else. Under this provision for example a man who has beaten his wife senseless, has not committed a crime if he was disciplining his wife which is allowed under Islamic law. This Article allows Egypt to pass all kinds of modern laws, none of which will apply if the transgressor claims his rights under Islam.

This prevented a woman from leaving her husband and taking the children to another country, where she might get a divorce and custody. The Egyptian woman may get a divorce but for narrow grounds which she must prove before the court. A man can unilaterally divorce a woman and need not go before a judge or court—just file his papers.

There is relatively little freedom of speech in Egypt and most Islamic countries where the traditional Sharia laws prohibiting blasphemy and the tradition of not publicly embarrassing the Caliph or the Sultan, combine to protect the modern Islamic state from criticism. Turkey, Tunisia and a few other Islamic states are exceptions. Under this Egyptian law anyone could be jailed for bringing “shame” to national and Islamic values. On September 6, 1981, the Egyptian Director of Public Health, Dr. Nawal El Saadawi was actually arrested and jailed for three months for saying that women were ill treated in Egypt and the rest of the Arab world. See {586710} for the kinds of statements for which Egypt would jail leading citizens.

There is relatively little freedom of speech in Egypt and most Islamic countries where the traditional Sharia laws prohibiting blasphemy and the tradition of not publicly embarrassing the Caliph or the Sultan, combine to protect the modern Islamic state from criticism. Turkey, Tunisia and a few other Islamic states are exceptions. Under this Egyptian law anyone could be jailed for bringing “shame” to national and Islamic values. On September 6, 1981, the Egyptian Director of Public Health, Dr. Nawal El Saadawi was actually arrested and jailed for three months for saying that women were ill treated in Egypt and the rest of the Arab world. See {586710} for the kinds of statements for which Egypt would jail leading citizens.

This prevented a woman from leaving her husband and taking the children to another country, where she might get a divorce and custody. The Egyptian woman may get a divorce but for narrow grounds which she must prove before the court. A man can unilaterally divorce a woman and need not go before a judge or court—just file his papers.

Egyptian law prohibits anyone from assaulting anyone else. Under this provision for example a man who has beaten his wife senseless, has not committed a crime if he was disciplining his wife which is allowed under Islamic law. This Article allows Egypt to pass all kinds of modern laws, none of which will apply if the transgressor claims his rights under Islam.

On the surface, this reform seems to contradict Sharia – Islamic religious law -- where religion permeates all of politics.

Note how the second paragraph nullifies the first of the government declares an emergency. This is a trick that is very common in constitutions.

Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, 1943-2010, was an modernistic Egyptian Islamic Scholar and a Professor at the University of Cairo. One of his writings argued that the discriminatory tax that the Koran specified for Christians and Jews in an Islamic nation was not fair or consonant with modern thought regarding freedom of religion and the rights of minorities. Some fundamentalist were outraged and charged him with Apostacy for criticizing a Koranic prescription. He was convicted and lost his professorship. That was the least of his problems. Since he was an apostate, he was not a Muslim the Egyptian Courts ruled, and therefore his wife, a Muslim, could not legally remain married to her. His marriage was legally dissolved and he was threatened with death by fundamentalists forcing him and his wife to go into exile in Holland where he taught at the Utrecht University. He never returned.

This is a typical statement of human rights policy by many countries. Essentially, some controlling authority states that rights are guaranteed except when it is “dangerous” or contrary to the country’s “best interest”. Of course then anything the authorities want to censor is classified so that it is an exception. To be a right, it must be guaranteed even when hateful, insulting and/or dangerous.