Seeker Of Truth

I will continue calling him Karim Amer because that’s the name he chose for himself. In case you haven’t heard, he’s the Egyptian blogger sentenced to 4 years in jail for his opinions. Three years for insulting Islam, one for insulting the president.

Did they get him because he used the phrase “imaginary creature” to refer to god? Hmmm… I don’t think he ‘insulted’ Islam, though even that should not be a crime. I think he just openly disagreed. But if what he did indeed ‘insults’ Islam, then insulting Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Satanism or any religion for that matter should not be a crime. If a group of people choose to believe in something that is not proven, why is it a crime to question it? If someone chooses to worship the sun, which is their right, does then become a crime to show how ridiculous that is? If someone chooses to worship rats, like in Karni Mata, does it become a crime to tell them that rats are just rats? What if someone claims to be a god, does it become a crime to show how baseless their belief is? I don’t think so.

You can believe in whatever you want and worship whomever you like, it is your right, but don’t make it a crime for me to disagree… and to tell you why I disagree. If I ask a Muslim today to prove to me that Allah exists and that the Quran is his word, they won’t be able to. If I ask a Christian to prove to me that Jesus is the Lord, they won’t even come close. That is why religion requires faith; to believe in the unproven and the disproved.

I don’t know if Karim is an atheist or what, but if they think he is a criminal, then they better start looking for atheists too. Me being an atheist, for example, automatically means that this is what I'm saying: There is nothing divine about Allah, Mohamed, Jesus, the Quran, the Bible, etc. Ooops, have I just insulted Islam?

And as for insulting the president, why is that a special crime? Why is insulting “el bawab” (the doorman) any different than insulting the president? They are both human. Being the president is a job not a title. Hosni is not a king, he is a president and his job is to make country better. The doorman’s job is to watch for who is coming and going and run different errands. One job obviously has far greater consequences than the other, but that doesn’t mean that they should have different rights. Punishment for insulting a doorman should be just the same as insulting Hosni. That would be true democracy.

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* In one of the interviews that I saw for Karim, the Coptic interviewer called him a philosopher and a thinker. Karim responded by saying that he is only a seeker of truth.