CAIRO: Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud on Monday referred the publisher of Islamic books to a State Security Court on charges of contempt of the Christian religion. Publisher Ahmed Abdallah Abo-Islam, was charged for accusing Christians of fabricating the Bible and threatening social stability and security. The decision was a response to a complaint filed by Coptic lawyer Naguib Gobrael, head of Egyptian Union for Human Rights, who accused Abo-Islam of contempt for religion when he published a copy of the Bible with an introduction attacking the church and accusing it of forging the Holy Book. In his complaint, Gobrael said that “defamatory” copies of the Bible published by Al-Tanweer Center (The Enlightenment Center) “included allegations by Abo-Islam that that this is not the authentic Bible and that the current Bible used among Christians is fabricated, modified, and full of contradictions." Gobrael told Daily News Egypt that Abo-Islam attacked Christianity and mocked Christians. He added that the copy he published in unlicensed since any copy of the Bible must be authorized by the Church. "The introduction of the book presented by Abo-Islam said that the Bible is not and has never been a Holy Book at all, and that the Church is deceiving Christians by labeling it ‘The Holy Book' in gold," said Gobrael. “We are against any religious defamation whether Islamic or Christian, and Abo- Islam defamed a religion that is acknowledged by the Quran and the constitution, which is illegal according to Article 98," he added.
