Egyptian Blogger Jailed For Insulting Islam

In Egypt on Thursday, Abdel Kareem Nabil, 22, a former law student at Al Azhar University, was sentenced to 3 years in prison for using his blog to insult Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, and inciting sectarian strife. He was sentenced to an additional year for insulting Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak. The Herald (Glasgow, Scotland) today reports that Nabil, blogging under the screen name Kareem Amer, strongly criticized conservative Muslims after a 2005 Muslim attack on a Christian church over a play that Muslims found offensive. In March, Nabil was expelled from Al Azhar where he had been a law student. He has called Al Azhar the "other face of the coin of al Qaeda" and has called for the University to be dissolved or secularized.