Hamroush appears to relish in the sheer stupidity of this latest attack on personal freedom: “The phenomenon is being promoted in society as freedom of belief when this is totally wrong . . . It must be criminalised and categorized as contempt of religion because atheists have no doctrine and try to insult the Abrahamic religions.”
He is being supported by equally clueless clerics like Mohamed Zaki, the head of al-Azhar’s Supreme Council for Dawa, who insisted that the law was necessary to “deter people from violating the natural instincts of man and punish those who have been seduced into atheism.” Of course, if it was such a “natural instinct of man” one would hope that you would not have to threaten people with prison in order to instill basic faith in an almighty. Zaki however is quick to remind people that “The deterrent must be harsh and impeding to suit this malicious call and stop this poisonous thinking from spreading among Muslims and young people.”
Islamic countries often impose long sentences or death on those accused of apostasy, as we have previously discussed. Muslim leaders have called for atheists to be hunted down.