Composer Ahmed Hegazy (Al Jazeera)
An Egyptian court ruled to imprison composer Ahmed Hegazy for 6 months on charges of contempt of religion, according to what local newspapers reported today, Sunday, January 28.
The Nozha Misdemeanor Court also allowed the accused to pay a bail amounting to two thousand pounds to get out of prison, until the rest of the litigation levels are completed.
Lawyer Mahmoud Al-Samri filed a complaint against Hegazy accusing him of contempt of religion, following the spread of a video on social media in which the Egyptian composer appeared teaching a young man to recite Surah Yasin to the tunes of the oud.
The video, which spread in late August 2023, sparked social media users’ dissatisfaction with Hegazy for combining Quran reading with music, and some demanded the intervention of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif.
As the situation escalated, the Egyptian musician published a statement of apology in which he said, “I apologize to all those who are jealous of the Holy Qur’an, led by Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, the Syndicate of Holy Qur’an Readers, and the sheikhdom of all Egyptian reciters, and to the Muslims of the world for the mistake I made, and I affirm that the Holy Qur’an has its sanctity and dignity.” And His majesty, and it is not permissible for anything to be composed of it at all, for it is the word of God Almighty and our miraculous heavenly constitution.”
He concluded, "I did not mean the meaning that appeared in the clip spread on social media."
It is noteworthy that Hegazy owns an academy that teaches music, shrines, and religious chanting.
Source: websites