12 Shiite Muslims Arrested In Egypt For Insulting Islam

Freedom of speech doesn't exist outside the Western world, and even here our freedoms are slowly being whittled away. Saying something that might potentially offend someone can cause you to get fired, and there will always be someone with a thin enough hide who will find everything offensive. We have to go around muzzling ourselves so as not to get in trouble. What happened to being able to debate, to be able to hold a civil discourse on everything from politics to religion? Most of us will disagree with each other at some point in time, about some thing or other, but at least at the end of the day we could shake hands and still be friends. Now we just have to hold our tongues, because things have changed.

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It gets even dicier when you live in countries like Egypt and you happen to believe in two different forms of Islam. There you can actually get arrested and jailed for saying something someone doesn't like. Twelve Shiite Muslims found out the hard way that it's best to keep your mouth shut when you are talking religion. The men, including an Australian and several Iraqis were arrested because they supposedly offended and insulted Islam, well, the Sunni version of it. Apparently, no-one knows exactly when the men were arrested but the Australian Embassy in Cairo confirmed that one of their own, Safaa al-Awadi, had been arrested.

In a statement sent to The Associated Press, the embassy said that consular officials visited al-Awadi at a Cairo prison on Oct. 10, and later while he was being questioned by state prosecutors.

Relatives of al-Awadi, who is from Perth, Australia, have told media in his homeland that al-Awadi didn't return home in August as planned.

Egyptian media reported that al-Awadi and an Egyptian Shiite lawyer took part in a talk show in late August on a Saudi-owned religious channel before their arrest. During the program, they reportedly differed with a Saudi cleric on who should have succeeded the Prophet Muhammad as the leader of Islam. That question forms the basis of the Sunni-Shiite split.

A leading Shiite activist in Egypt, Ahmed Rasim el-Nafis, said those who have been arrested are not part of the small mainstream Shiite community in predominantly Sunni Egypt.

"Nevertheless, people should not be arrested for expressing their opinions," he said.

Egyptian authorities have detained several Shiites in the past year. They have been charged with forming a group trying to spread Shiite ideology that harms Islam.

I realize that the Shia and the Sunni have different tenets, but bottom line is, they are both of the Islamic religion. The Qu'ran is the Holy Book of both sects, and they both believe in Mohammad. If they can't even get along how can they expect to get along with anyone else?