Egypt minister in trouble after comments on Prophet Mohammed

The controversial comments of Egypt’s justice minister Ahmed el-Zend who remarked about imprisoning “the prophet” in an interview has landed him in hot soup.

Moment after he made the remarks, it went viral on social media and the minister received a backlash of comments from many who considered his statement to be blasphemous.

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While fielding questions from an interviewer of a private Egyptian channel, the minister was asked whether he will imprison journalists and he replied thus:

“Even if it’s the prophet – peace and prayers upon him,” Zend said before quickly repenting. He then added that anyone who is at fault will be imprisoned “regardless of their stature.

“Even judges get imprisoned. I don’t want to discuss imprisoning a journalist or a teacher, I’m talking about imprisoning the accused, don’t give them a title,” he said.

Earlier on Sunday, Egypt’s al-Azhar, Sunni Islam’s highest seat of learning, released a statement on Sunday warning against any blasphemous comments surrounding the prophet “even if it were a mistake”.

 

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