Two children arrested in Egypt for insulting Islam

Egyptian authorities have arrested two Egyptian boys in the town of Beni Sueif for insulting Islam, local newspaper Al-Ahram reports.

Both boys, 9 and 10 years old, are from Christian families, the newspaper notes.

The children were arrested following a complaint from a local imam, who saw the children tearing pages of the Koran. The imam initially took the children to a local church and demanded that the priest punish them. However, the cleric refused, and the imam, dissatisfied with his decision, went to court.

The father of one of the boys made a public statement calling on the authorities to release the children. He explained that the children were illiterate and could not have known that they were tearing the pages of a book sacred to all Muslims.