By Katherine Weber
An Egyptian Christian teacher has been convicted of insulting Islam, receiving a large fine instead of being sentenced to jail time.
Dimiana Abdel-Nour, a 24-year-old history and geography teacher of the Sheikh Sultan Primary School in Luxor, was not present in court to hear her verdict, which found her guilty of insulting Islam in an incident back in May and sentenced her to pay a fine of 100,000 Egyptian pounds ($14,000).
In May, Abdel-Nour was accused by three students in her fourth grade classroom of insulting the prophet Muhammad by saying the late Coptic Pope Shenouda performed more miracles than the prophet, and reportedly feigned nausea while talking about the prophet Muhammad.
The parents of the three children reportedly filed a complaint with the school, and days later Abdel-Nour was arrested, although she was released shortly after posting a bail of LE 20,000 ($2,870), which permitted her to stay out of prison during a pending investigation.
Abdel-Nour argued that she was being falsely accused of insulting Islam, saying that Muslim extremists reportedly convinced the school children to make slanderous claims against the teacher because of her Christian faith.
The young teacher argued that the fact that many of the students denied she had ever insulted Islam proved the other claims to be false.