By Ahmed Mansour
A man who burned the bible should have his citizen revoked, according to the founder of Egyptian Coptic Coalition.
Fadi Youssef filed a request to the Egyptian government to withdraw the citizenship of Ahmed Abdullah, also known as Abou Islam, who is under court investigation for burning the bible and defaming Christianity.
The owner of Al-Auma Channel and Saot Beladi newspaper, Abou-Islam burned the bible and threatened to urinate on it at recent protests in front of the American embassy.
“These actions that Abou Islam took should not be taken lightly and he should be severely punished for it by depriving him of Egyptian citizenship and also all those who follow him should be punished as well,” Youssef told Daily News Egypt.
Abou Islam is unrepentant however, saying On Al-Mehwar TV channel, “what I have done [burning the bible] I should have done long time ago, and I won’t apologise for expressing my feeling to the public about the Copts in Egypt, and if I had to I would do it again.”
Youssef also accused Abou Islam of “jeopardising public safety,” and asking people to send donations for his channel and news paper to help him “erase Christianity from Egypt.”
“As a human rights activist and the founder of Egypt’s Copts coalition I think this is a suitable punishment that the court should consider in the trial that is taking place, because these are not the actions of an Egyptian; we always tried to keep the good relation between Muslims and Christians, but such actions done by Abu Islam will ruin it,” Youssef said.
A meeting will be held by the Egyptian Coptic Coalition legal committee to discuss Youssef’s request.
In contrast, the official representative of Al-Nour Salafi party Nader Bakkar this week said the court should deprive Egyptian Copts of their citizenship, based on their alleged involvement in producing the recent anti-Islam film which has enraged Muslims worldwide.
