On May 11th, Mohamed Hisham, an openly self-identified ‘Egyptian atheist’ launched a GoFundMe campaign to finance his asylum outside of Egypt. The campaign was launched through Troy Garnaut, after what Mohamed described as ‘house beatings’, and ‘death threats’ which jeopardizes his freedom to safely express his beliefs in Egypt. On an interview that went viral, Mohamed was hosted on an Egyptian show called Alhadath Alyoum on February 11th where he was both challenged by both Mohamed Ashour, a Sheikh from Al-Azhar, and the show host about his atheist beliefs. Mohamed was met with non-stop interruptions, derailment and personal attacks whenever he attempted to present his views or elaborate on his beliefs. By the end of the interview, Mohamed was advised by Sheikh Ashour to seek psychological help. He was subsequently asked to leave the show mid interview, as according to the host, Mohamed’s atheist views “corrupts Egyptian youth”. The host then apologized to his viewers for bringing Mohamed to the show. The show then received phone calls from the audience where Mohamed’s ideas were called “intellectual terrorism” and one of the callers even advocated that atheists like him should be…
