An Insult

Kareem the Egyptian blogger was sentenced to 4 years in prison yesterday. His crime? BBC:

A former student at al-Azhar, he called the institution "the university of terrorism" and accused it of suppressing free thought.

The university expelled him in 2006 and pressed prosecutors to put him on trial.

During the five-minute court session the judge said Soliman was guilty and would serve three years for insulting Islam and inciting sedition, and one year for insulting Mr Mubarak.

Al-Azhar is the country's "top Islamic institution". How much foreign aid do we give Egypt? On a hopeful note, al-Azhar's grand sheik agrees to meet with the pope in Rome. This should be on the agenda.

UPDATE: WaPo:

Egypt arrested a number of bloggers last year, most of them for connections to Egypt's pro-democracy reform movement. Nabil was arrested in November, and while other bloggers were freed, Nabil was put on trial _ a sign of the sensitivity of his writings on religion.

Hafiz Abou Saada, head of the Egyptian Human Rights Organization, described the verdict as "very tough"