CAIRO: One of Egypt's best known actors, Adel Imam, has been handed a three-month hard labor sentence and a fine of about $170 for insulting Islam in roles he portrayed in film and on the stage. The films include “The Terrorist,” “Terrorism and the Kabab,” among others. Egyptian author Alaa al-Aswany, whose international best-seller “The Yacoubian Building,” was turned into a film co-starring Imam, said the court ruling sets Egypt back to the “darkness of the Middle Ages,” according to a report in Al Ahram. “[The court's ruling] is an unimaginable crime of principle in developed nations,” he tweeted on his Twitter account. The impetus behind this, and another case featuring the founder of Mobinil telecom, Naguib Sawiris (who tweeted an image of Mickey Mouse with a beard, and his lovely consort Minnie Mouse, wearing a face veil), are indicative of the growing draconian influence of the ultra-conservative Salafists in Egypt. The Salafist Nour party won 25 percent of seats in Egypt's first democratically elected parliament, emerging as the second political party in Egypt, after the comparatively moderate Muslim Brotherhood's political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party. One Salafist MP, Mamdouh Ismail, interrupted the inaugural session of parliament by shouting the call to prayer, which did not go over well. Sawiris was acquitted by two courts of his charge of blasphemy. Iman, is not so fortunate. Imam, 71 years-old – and with a career that spans nearly half-a-century of cinematic portrayals – was found guilty of blasphemy in February. He was retried, as he had been tried in absentia the first time around. He did not appear in court Tuesday either, although his lawyers were there to represent him. Imam can appeal. Under the decades-long rule of military strong-man Hosni Mubarak, government censors controlled cinema. The films Imam had starred in, were approved by those censors. Bizarrely, there has been no legal action against the writers, directors or producers of the films that are considered blasphemous.
