Karim, a student, announced his atheism, resulting in his arrest and sentencing to three years' imprisonment.
In January 2015, Egyptian authorities sentenced Karim al-Banna, a 21-year-old engineering student, to three years’ imprisonment on blasphemy charges. Karim’s crime was to openly proclaim on Facebook that he was an atheist, which, according to authorities, itself amounted to an insult of Islam. In his trial, his own father testified against him, fearing that he “was embracing extremist ideas against Islam.”
"It's OK to burn a woman … but it's NOT OK to burn a book. Something is wrong with your priorities." - Karim al-Banna, Facebook post
His arrest came with a slew of others at a café he frequented, a so-called “atheists’ café” which authorities contended was a reputed “place for Satan worship, rituals, and dances.” This occurred as part of a wider campaign to crack down on atheism and anti-religious attitudes in Egypt.
Egypt has a general blasphemy law that prohibits disparaging “the heavenly religions.” While the law ostensibly targets no religion in particular, in practice it is usually used against religious minorities and those who blaspheme Islam. Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority has particularly borne a disproportionate weight of blasphemy prosecutions. In addition to the relatively aggressive efforts of Egyptian authorities to prosecute such cases, blasphemers and atheists must also contend with social pressure, coercion, and the risk of vigilante violence.