Egypt blogger jailed for 'insult'

An Egyptian court has sentenced a blogger to four years' prison for insulting Islam and the president.

Abdel Kareem Soliman's trial was the first time that a blogger had been prosecuted in Egypt.

He had used his web log to criticise the country's top Islamic institution, al-Azhar university and President Hosni Mubarak, whom he called a dictator.

A human rights group called the verdict "very tough" and a "strong message" to Egypt's thousands of bloggers.

Soliman, 22, was tried in his native city of Alexandria. He blogs under the name Kareem Amer.

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.

No such thing as free spech I guess huh. Well, not for egyptian bloggers...

I'm not saying anything about Islam in general, but here is evidence of the spreading of extremist Muslim values.

I suppose it could all be down to the horrendous corruption and "imprisoned"-speech (as it were) that seems to always be present in African countries.