"Hisba" Lawsuits Growing In Egypt

A story in last Thursday's Middle East Times discusses the growing use of "hisba" lawsuits in Egypt and elsewhere in the Muslim world against bloggers, journalists and intellectuals. As explained in another Middle East Times article last August, hisba lawsuits are an invention of Islamic jurisprudence that permit private individuals to defend matters of faith to hold fellow citizens and the state accountable for upholding religious principles. Egypt's Decree Law 78 gives individuals the right to file lawsuits in cases where an exalted right of God has been violated. Increasingly however political critics are being charged with apostasy under these laws.