6 Christians arrested in Egypt over TikTok video deemed offensive to Islam
Six young Christian men have been jailed in Egypt for more than two weeks over a TikTok video that authorities deemed offensive to Islam.
State security prosecutors started questioning the six on Oct. 10 and ordered four days of detention pending investigation, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. The next morning, a judge at the Tagamoa court added 15 days to their detention.
Prosecutors accused the men of blasphemy, contempt of religion, and using religion to spread extremist ideas, saying the video made fun of Muslim prayer.
The case, No. 8430 of 2026, is with the Supreme State Security Prosecution.
The men are aged between 17 and 23, according to the legal advocacy group ADF International, which said they remain in custody. The youngest is a minor.
The six live in Ezbet Tanious, a hamlet in Taha al-Aamida village in Minya's Samalout district. Their clip copied a scene from “Khalawis,” a comedy that opened in theaters in Egypt in 2018, in which inmates try to pray with no knowledge of the required Quranic verses.
The film still runs on satellite television, and state censors cleared it before shooting began.
The men told prosecutors they made the video on impulse and put it on TikTok on Oct. 4. They took it down within hours after friends warned them to remove it. By then, a village resident had shared it again with comments condemning it.
Hostile comments followed, aimed at the six, their relatives and every Christian in the village. Some users urged the Interior Ministry to detain the six, and others called for violence against the men and their relatives. Some villagers reported them to the authorities.
On Oct. 6, relatives and church representatives took five of the men to the police station in Samalout, residents told the rights group. They did so to keep sectarian tensions from growing, and police promised to free the men once things calmed down.
One of the six told prosecutors he had hidden from police. He gave himself up after officers took his mother into custody as a substitute.
On Oct. 9, village elders, clerics from the Ministry of Religious Endowments and priests from the Diocese of Samalout, held a traditional reconciliation meeting in the village. The diocese formally apologized to the village's Muslim residents.
The later move to state security prosecutors came as a shock to the families.
The rights group said the video is one of hundreds on TikTok that restage the same scene with the same soundtrack. A search for the Arabic phrase “straighten the rows” brings them up. In the rights group’s opinion, a comedy clip posted online gives no legal grounds for detention.
It said the arrests worsen tension between Muslims and Christians in the village and signal that the church’s apology did not settle the case. It said security agencies often resolve local disputes by satisfying the stronger side at the cost of the rights of weaker groups.
The group has recorded at least 111 people targeted for voicing their religious views. It called for the release of the six and of everyone held for expressing their beliefs.
Kelsey Zorzi, ADF International’s senior counsel and vice president of international advocacy, said such cases are “tragically common in Egypt,” where Christians “face threats, discrimination, and ultimately imprisonment for speech that is only seen as problematic because they are not part of the majority religion.”
She urged officials to free the young men and close any investigation into them.
Christians account for roughly 10% to 15% of Egypt’s population.
The constitution protects religious freedom, and laws against blasphemy and insulting religion remain in use.
In the past year, dozens of religious minorities have faced prosecution or prison over social media posts said to be blasphemous.
Most attacks on Christians in Egypt happen at the local level, including mobs forcing out Christians after claims of blasphemy, according to Open Doors, which supports persecuted Christians. It said church building remains restricted, though the president has promised a church in every new neighborhood.
The state refuses to record conversions officially, and security services detain people who leave Islam for Christianity. Christians in rural areas face the highest risk of violence.
