Egypt student gets 3-year jail term for atheism -- An Egyptian court has sentenced a student to three years in jail for announcing on Facebook that he is an atheist and for insulting Islam

sigh

I can't believe, as an atheist, that I am providing the following explanation...

There is a rationale for jailing or otherwise punishing an atheist in a Muslim country, as there would be in a Christian country, or punishing a Christian in a Muslim country or vice versa. I'm speaking of the narrower case where that country's laws are based upon a religion or where the authority for the laws and/or ruler are based upon a religion.

In the US we've separated religion from the rule of government. Our government claims that derives it's authority from 'natural' law and from the consent of the governed and so we can afford that particular luxury. Not all countries have made such a claim though. Many governments source their claim to authority in religious tradition, the blood of a royal family or something else. Where religion is the source of authority, to directly challenge that religion is to challenge the source of the government's authority. That is the equivalent of treason and is punishable everywhere, by every government.

And, to be fair, while we might disagree with the particulars of how another country is run or how it was created or whatever, there are still considerations of maintaining a safe and civil society. A bad but stable government may be reformed over time, through the good efforts of both members of that government and of outsiders. But to sow civil discord and threaten something other than a peaceful transition... well, there's a reason that treason is considered one of the worst crimes there is by almost all governments. It isn't just the selfish punishment of a threat to personal power, it is the protection of an entire society. After all, we form societies for just that reason; nowhere in history have people honestly attempted some libertarian utopia.

I don't like to see someone jailed just for the thoughts in their head, but, don't we have to grant that when he published those thoughts they became something else?

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