The Islamophobe blogosphere is raging fire and brimstone over the prosecution/persecution of Islam-hating Dutch politician Geert Wilders. The story has even made it to the main stream media in some parts of the world.

The Wilders case brings up a difficult conundrum for western societies namely how to protect free speech while at the same time preventing incitement to violence. I wrote about this very conundrum back in March 2008 with a post entitled “Freedom of expression: Geert Wilders versus Bruno Guigue.”

For all the attention that the case is getting it seems to be muddying the waters. Anti-Islam bigots the world over would have you believe that through the case Islam is trying to silence any criticism directed towards it.

This may or may not be true but one only has to look at Holland to see that the type of atmosphere that has been created and lead to an increase of violent attacks against Muslims. Many of these anti-Islam bigots jump up and down like crazed neanderthals on speed hoping to use Wilders and others to demonstrate the superiority of Christianity over Islam.

As the Wilders case drags on thousands of miles away in the Middle East another conflict between religious sentiments and freedom of expression is taking place.

Coptic Christians in Egypt are trying to ban a film still in production. The Coptic Church has warned it will sue film makers and the government if the production is not stopped or the film censored.

The film Wahid Sifr (One Zero) looks at the difficulty surrounding Christians getting divorced and then being granted permission by the Coptic Church to re-marry:

“A controversial movie still in production about a Coptic Christian woman in Egypt who has a baby out of wedlock after the church’s refusal to grant her a divorce has come under fire from Coptic activists who are seeking to ban the movie for insulting Christianity.

Coptic lawyer and activist Nabil Ghobrial warned in an official filing Monday that the Coptic church would sue those involved in the film as well as governmental authorities if production was not halted or the film censored….

…”The film is about the difficulties Copts face to obtain divorce and get a permission to remarry,” Scriptwriter Marian Naaoun told the Egyptian magazine Rose al-Youssef….

…The movie follows three interwoven stories, one of them about a Coptic woman who is not granted permission by the church to remarry because her divorce was not recognized as valid. Though her friends urge her to convert to Islam to be granted the divorce the observant Christian cannot deny her faith and ends up having a baby out of wedlock.

The Coptic Church grants divorce only in two cases: adultery and conversion to another sect.” (Source: Al-Arabiyah)

The above case is not the first time that modern Christianity has tried to censor freedom of expression. For more examples see:

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