Egypt president Sisi bans offensive images, urges religious moderation

(The Christian Science Monitor) Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi issued a decree January 13 allowing his government to ban any foreign publications it deems offensive to religion. The move came days after his foreign minister joined the Paris solidarity march in support of Charlie Hebdo’s right to offend.

This and other contradictions lie at the heart of his approach to religion, 18 months after he overthrew an Islamist president in the most populous Arab country.

Sisi’s so-called religious revolution is “part and parcel of a broader and more traditional statist project,” said Michael Hanna, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation think tank. “This is why both religious expression and religious immoderation are to be tightly controlled, as they are understood as potential sources of instability that could disrupt public order.”