Four Egyptian teenagers face trial for 'insulting Islam' - by making fun of ISIS
Teenagers could face up to five years in youth detention centre for the clip
Their teacher, 42, who filmed them faces a jail term of up to seven years
Group were arrested last month and have been in prison cells ever since
Film shows them imitating an ISIS beheading, and kneeling to pray
By Thomas Burrows for MailOnline
Four Egyptian teenagers and their teacher have been detained for poking fun at ISIS in a harmless video.
The teenagers, aged between 15 and 16, could face up to five years in a youth detention centre, while their teacher faces a potential jail term of up to seven years.
The group were arrested last month and have been stuck in police holding cells ever since.
In the video, one of the teenagers imitates the terrorist group by pretending to slit his friend's throat
During a faith-based excursion in February, Gad Younan, 42, allowed the boys to shoot a video on his mobile phone in their hotel room.
In the clip, the boys appear to mock the terrorist organisation by kneeling on the ground to pray hysterically and by imitating a beheading.
After filming the lighthearted video, Mr Younan misplaced his phone's memory card and it was picked up by a Muslim neighbour in Al-Nasriyah village in Upper Egypt.
Following the discovery of the video, a group of Muslims filed a complaint with police. Younan was then arrested and charged.
Article 98(f) of the Egyptian Penal Code criminalises a series of faith-related comments, including 'insulting a heavenly religion or a sect following it.'
Mina Thabet, a Coptic activist and researcher of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms told Fox News: 'They are some kids who decided to have fun in a private place..
'They were on a trip with their teacher, but somehow rumour got out that they'd thrown down the Koran, and had insulted Islam, so that led to their arrests.'
He added: 'They used some words that are used in Muslim prayers, but they are in no way being disrespectful to Islam.'
In the clip the teenagers are also shown kneeling on the ground and pretending to pray and shaking hands after completing an 'execution' - they have now all been detained and continue to be held in prison
More than 2,000 Muslims then marched through Al-Nasriyah and neighbouring villages, attacking Coptic Christian homes and businesses.
Ashraf Salah, the owner of a computer repair shop, told Cairo-based Coptic newspaper, Watani: 'They were chanting slogans against Christians and Christianity. They were chanting: "With our souls and blood, we will defend you, oh Islam! We will not leave you; we will take revenge for you!"
'They were pelting Christian homes with stones, pounding threateningly on doors and windows, attacking shops owned by Coptic Christians.
'They destroyed the door of my shop and they destroyed a photo studio owned by the father of one of the boys.
'For three days we were living in terror and panic. We stayed in our homes and our children didn't go to their schools.
After filming the lighthearted video, Mr Younan misplaced his phone's memory card and it was picked up by a Muslim neighbour in Al-Nasriyah village in Upper Egypt (highlighted on this map)
Frightened and bullied, the parents of the boys handed them over to the police on April 9 while one of them fled to Egypt's western resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
But rather than quelling the anti-Christian fervour, the Muslims continued to protest and there were reports Christian students had been sent home from local schools after receiving death threats.
A reconciliation meeting in the village helped defuse some of the tensions, but a judge this week denied the boys leave to take their end of year exams.
The teenagers and their teacher have been remanded in custody for a further fortnight pending a continued investigation.
The International Christian Concern group is currently monitoring the case, and have long held that the Sunni Islamic majority in Egypt use their blasphemy laws to persecute religious minorities.
In Egypt, Christians are estimated to make up about 10 per cent of the country's 88 million people.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3074717/Four-Egyptian-teenagers-face-trial-insulting-Islam-making-fun-ISIS.html#ixzz3ZgL6svzQ
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