Coptic teens, teacher await charges in Egypt over anti-ISIS video

Egyptian authorities continue to detain a Coptic Christian teacher and four teenagers in Al-Nasriyah, for “insulting Islam.”

During a May 7 hearing, the judge ordered they be held 15 more days for investigation, according to Todd Daniels, International Christian Concern’s regional manager for the Middle East.

During a field trip, five teenage boys were filmed on a cell phone mocking the Islamic State militant group (ISIS). In the video, they pretended to be ISIS members praying, and one boy mimicked slitting another boy’s throat, similar to the recent murder of 21 Christians.

“They use some words that are used in Muslim prayers, but they are in no way being disrespectful to Islam,” Mina Thabet, a Coptic activist and researcher at the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, told Fox News. The commission is one group calling for the teens’ release.

According to World Watch Monitor (WWM), the memory card with the video was misplaced and discovered by a Muslim, generating a complaint to the police on April 7. Teacher Gad Younan was quickly arrested, but it wasn’t until after Muslims marched through town attacking Coptic homes and businesses on April 8 and 9 that police arrested four of the boys. The fifth boy had left the village.

Tensions remained high as Muslims continued to threaten the Coptic Christian community and protest through April 16.

“The situation is still so bad for us here,” Coptic priest Rev. Azer Tawadros said, according to WWM. “We are still receiving threats from the militants here, and we are afraid that it will be violent attacks against us in the coming days.”

Younan and the four boys remain in jail awaiting formal charges. Article 98(F) of Egyptian Penal Code criminalizes insults against a “heavenly religion or a sect following it,” for the purposes of inciting strife. But Daniels didn’t think they should be able to be charged under that definition.

Even so, Christians have been convicted under the blasphemy law in at least three cases in just the past year, Daniels said. Often popular outrage or the judge has more to do with the outcome than the details of the case. And in this instance, “popular violence resulted in charges being brought.”

These arrests could have a broad implication, Daniels said, because Egypt has an important role within the region in countering groups like ISIS: “When you’re imprisoning people for speaking out against those kinds of things it only strengthens the grip of that kind of extremism ideology in Egypt.”

By law, the five prisoners must be charged or released following the investigation, but in practice, prisoners often are detained illegally. If convicted, the penalty for blasphemy is five years in prison, more if additional charges are added.

Even if released, Younan will have to relocate. Christians in the village of Al-Nasriyah agreed to banish him in an attempt to appease the local Muslim community, WWM reported.

The banishment agreement read in part, “We, the signatories … avow … the banishing of Gad Youssef Younan from Al-Nasriyah village in order to preserve his life and to calm the situation in the village.”