이집트 기독교 학생 4명 ‘이슬람 모욕했다’ 5년형 선고받아

* ‘아시아엔’ 연수 외국기자가 작성한 기사의 한글요약본과 원문을 함께 게재합니다.

[아시아엔=라드와 아시라프 기자·번역 최정아 기자] 이집트의 콥틱계 기독교 학교 학생 4명이 이슬람교를 모욕했다는 이유로 수감됐다.

이집트 미니아시(市) 청소년 법원은 만 15~16세인 콥틱계 기독교 학교 학생 무엘러 아테프, 알버트 아시라프, 바셈 암가드, 클린턴 마그디가 이슬람교를 모욕했다는 이유로 5년형을 선고했다. 이번 판결은 여성작가 파티마 나웃이 이슬람 종교행사에서 가축의 도살을 비판해 3년형을 선고받은 지 한달만에 이뤄진 것이다.

현지 언론 <알-아흐람>(Al-Ahram)은 2015년 미니아시의 나시리야 마을에 살고 있는 무슬림 거주민들이 해당 학생 4명이 이슬람교를 모욕했다며 법원에 소송장을 제출했다. 이들은 지난해 2월 교회 수련회에서 촬영한 비디오를 증거로 제출했다. 이 비디오에서 학생들은 이슬람국가(IS)가 무슬림들을 참수형하는 장면을 따라하며 웃었던 것으로 알려졌다. 지난 1월30일 이 비디오를 촬영한 교사 가드 유세프 요우난은 같은 죄목으로 3년형에 처해졌다.

이집트 헌법은 ‘유일신교’인 이슬람교, 기독교, 유대교에 대해 모욕해서는 안된다고 규정하고 있다. 콥트계 기독교인은 이집트 9천만 인구 중 10%를 차지하며, 이는 중동국 가운데 가장 많은 숫자다.

Egypt jails Christian students for insulting Islam

Four Coptic Christian school students, ages 15 and 16, have been sentenced on Thursday 25th February by a Minya court to five years in jail on charges of contempt of religion.

Minya’s Juvenile Misdemeanor Court sentenced Mueller Atef, Albert Ashraf, and Bassem Amgad to five years in jail, and Clinton Magdy to juvenile custody for five years. Those verdicts can still be appealed.

According to Al-Ahram, the case against the four boys stems back to a legal complaint filed in 2015 by some Muslim residents in Nasiriyah village in Minya which accused a Coptic teacher and five of his students of insulting Islam.

The court convicted four of the five boys on the contempt of religion charges based on a video clip shot of them by their teacher in February 2015 during a trip organised by the Evangelical church.

In the video, the boys are seen mocking members of the Islamic State group beheading an individual after the militants finish Islamic prayers. One teenager can be seen kneeling on the ground and reciting Muslim prayers while others stand behind him, laughing.

On 30 January 2016, the boys’ teacher, Gad Youssef Younan, was concicted of contempt of religion for shooting the clip, and sentenced to three years in jail.

Egypt’s constitution outlaws insults against the three monotheist religions recognised by the state, Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

Copts, who comprise up to 10 percent of the country’s 90-million population, are the Middle East’s largest religious minority. They have long suffered sectarian violence including attacks on churches.

In 2014, a Coptic Christian teacher was jailed for six months after parents of her students accused her of evangelising and of insulting Islam.

In a separate case the same year, a Coptic man was sentenced to six years for insulting Islam, after posting a picture of Mohammed on his Facebook page with an insulting comment.

Thursday’s judgement comes a month after female writer Fatima Naoot was jailed for three years for insulting Islam after she criticised the slaughter of animals during a major religious festival.

And in December, an Egyptian court jailed controversial Muslim scholar Islam al-Behairy for one year for remarks he made on his television programme, in which he called for reforms in “traditional Islamic discourse”.