An Egyptian Muslim cleric has been barred from preaching and is set to appear before a court for saying Christians and Jews followed corrupt religions and would not go to heaven.<\/p>\n
Salem Abdel Galil, a former religious endowments ministry official, had made the remarks on a television show he hosts, sparking a backlash in a country reeling from deadly church bombings by Islamist extremists.<\/p>\n
The endowments ministry, which controls the country’s mosques, said Abdel Galil would not be allowed to preach Friday prayer sermons unless he retracts his comments.<\/p>\n
Naguib Gobrail, a lawyer and Coptic Christian activist, told AFP that a misdemeanor court scheduled a hearing for June 24 to look into his complaint against the cleric.<\/p>\n
“This is slander of religion and threatens Egyptian unity,” Gobrail said, referring to a law that punishes perceived insults to religion that has been used to imprison both Christians and Muslims.<\/p>\n
Abdel Galil had criticised Muslim clerics who say Christians and Jews are “believers,” adding that the non-Muslims were “kuffar” — an Arabic word for disbelievers denied heaven.<\/p>\n
“Yes they believed in Jesus and in Moses, and then they disbelieved in Mohammed,” Abdel Galil said on the show aired by the private Mehwar broadcaster, which subsequently apologised.<\/p>\n
His comments prompted the endowments ministry to “prevent him from ascending the pulpit unless he remedies the concerns and tension caused by his comments,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Abdel Galil apologised for his remarks on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“As some considered it hurtful to Christians, I apologise for the hurt feelings,” he wrote in a Facebook post.<\/p>\n
“The religious view of the corruption of non-Muslims’ faith, in our opinion, is the same as them viewing our faith as corrupt,” Abdel Galil said, adding that did not mean Christians should be attacked.<\/p>\n
The controversy over his remarks comes as Muslim institutions in Egypt are pressured to take a tougher stance against Islamist extremists following the church bombings.<\/p>\n
Suicide bombers from the Islamic State group had killed dozens of Coptic Christians in three church attacks in December and April.<\/p>\n
The group has threatened more attacks on the community, which makes up about 10 percent of Egypt’s 92 million people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An Egyptian Muslim cleric has been barred from preaching and is set to appear before a court for saying Christians and Jews followed corrupt religions and would not go to heaven. Salem Abdel Galil, a former religious endowments ministry official, had made the remarks on a television show he hosts, sparking a backlash in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":9292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7863],"tags":[7899],"class_list":["post-9291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-section","tag-egyptian-muslim-cleric-court"],"yoast_head":"\n