Six young Christians aged between 17 and 23 remain imprisoned in Egypt for posting a humorous TikTok video that authorities consider offensive to Islam. One of the detainees is a minor. The six were arrested on October 6 in the province of Minya, in the center of the country, and remain deprived of their liberty while being investigated for alleged crimes related to contempt for religion.
The religious freedom advocacy organization ADF International denounced the case on October 22 and demanded the immediate release of the young men, as well as the closure of the investigations opened against them. The organization maintains that the detainees did nothing more than reproduce a comedic scene from a well-known Egyptian film, content that other users had previously shared on the same platform.
A scene from a comedy film that ended in prison
The six young men are neighbors of Ezbet Tanious, in the village of Taha al-Aamida, belonging to the district of Samalut, in the province of Minya. On October 4, they posted a video on TikTok using the audio from a scene in Khalawis, an Egyptian comedy film released in 2018 in which several prisoners show their ignorance of Quranic prayers.
According to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), the young men deleted the post a few hours later, when friends warned them that it could cause problems. However, a neighbor re-shared the video accompanied by condemnatory comments, which triggered a wave of hostile messages, some of them with threats of violence against the boys and their families.
On October 6, the six were handed over to the police for questioning, with the expectation that they would return home once tensions in the locality had calmed. This did not happen.
On October 10, they appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecution, which opened case number 8430 of 2026 and ordered four days of detention. The following day, a judge extended their imprisonment for another fifteen days.
The Prosecution attributes to them alleged crimes of exploiting religion to promote extremist ideas, contempt for religion, and blasphemy.
The EIPR has emphasized that hundreds of videos reproducing the same scene from the film circulate on TikTok and considers that sharing a humorous fragment does not constitute grounds for detaining its protagonists or subjecting them to criminal investigation.
ADF denounces the judicial persecution of the young Christians
Kelsey Zorzi, senior legal counsel and vice president of International Advocacy at ADF International, denounced that the case reflects the difficulties faced by Egyptian Christians when accused of offending the majority religion.
“This is tragically common in Egypt, where Christians face threats, discrimination, and ultimately prison for speech that is only considered problematic because they are not part of the majority religion,” she stated.
Zorzi insisted that the young men merely participated in a common social media trend using a scene from a popular film.
“These young men did nothing more than share a lighthearted video with the voice of a popular and uncontroversial film, as many others have done on the platform. There is no reason to charge or imprison them,” she added.
ADF International has called on Egyptian authorities to end the proceedings and allow the six detainees to return to their families. The organization has also denounced the threats received by the young men following the video’s dissemination.
Blasphemy laws in Egypt
Although the Egyptian Constitution recognizes freedom of belief, criminal provisions relating to contempt for religion continue to be used in proceedings against citizens accused of offending Islam. Christians, mainly belonging to the Coptic Church, represent approximately 10% to 15% of the population, according to estimates cited by ADF International.
The organization has recalled other cases of Christians prosecuted for their religious expressions. Among them is Augustinos Samaan, sentenced to five years of hard labor for content explaining the Christian faith, and Abdulbaqi Saaed Abdo, who was imprisoned for posts made in a Christian Facebook group before regaining his freedom with ADF’s support.
Added to these cases is the trial against Said Abdelrazek, an Egyptian convert from Islam to Christianity facing a possible life sentence, whose trial resumed this October.
Both ADF International and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights have demanded the release of the six young men from Minya. The organizations question whether a humorous post, based on a widely circulated cinematic scene, can justify a blasphemy charge and the deprivation of liberty of its authors.
The six have remained detained since October 6, including the 17-year-old minor, while their families await a resolution that will allow them to return home.