Egypt: Young Christian arrested for "showing contempt for Islam"

World Watch Monitor reported on 20 July 2015 that a young Egyptian Christian and two of his friends have been arrested in Alexandria, allegedly for showing contempt for Islam because of his evangelistic outreach. One of them had been handing out bags of dates together with evangelistic tracts during Ramadan. The young men were released on bail, each paying 10,000 Egyptian pounds (about $1275), and await further investigation. Dennis Pastoor, persecution analyst for World Watch Research, comments: "It may not have been wise for these three Christians to openly evangelize during Ramadan, since that can easily be interpreted as a provocation by Muslims. This being said, these men were using their constitutional right to religious freedom. This incident can only be considered as yet another sign that religious freedom is not being upheld and the Egyptian legal system is biased against non-Muslims. This incident comes only weeks after charges against a Muslim accused of killing a Christian have been dropped, by conveniently declaring the suspect insane."