Egypt: Prison Awaits Those who don’t Fast in Ramadan · Global Voices
Marwa Rakha

Fasting in the holy month of Ramadan is the 4th pillar of Islam where Muslims are expected to refrain from eating and drinking from dawn to sunset as an exercise of self-discipline and penance that has a deeper spiritual level. Some Muslims do not fast … prison time and fines await those who eat in public.
For the first time in Egypt, the Ministry of Interior arrests Muslims who eat and drink in public during Ramadan. Hassan El Helali wrote a post titled:
He goes on listing the arrests:
El Helali quotes Gamal Eid , the General Manager of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), saying:
Khawater posted opposing reactions:
On the Christian front:
The Salafi Sunni front says:
Hide and Seek commented on the arrests saying:
Bikya Masr said that the Egyptian government denied the arrests:
In an exclusive statement to Egyptian newspaper al-Youm al-Saba’a, Assistant Interior Minister General Nagi al-Hasi denied the reports, which were reported by Bikya and the Egyptian newspaper.
He said that police crackdowns in Aswan were not part of any “government campaign” to arrest those who publicly broke the fast. He argued that people had “mixed things and were confused over the matter, since the security measures taken are to follow-up on field activities of all police departments to combat crime in general and drugs.”
Hasi added that police arrested those who were acting “suspicious” to police.