Indeed, some of the strongest criticism of Mr Morsi has come not from fearful secularists but from Egypt’s religious right. Demonstrators at the American embassy on September 11th vented anger not only over a shoddy, obscure film shot in California that slanders the Prophet Muhammad, but at Egypt’s government for failing to do much about it. This may partly explain Mr Morsi’s slow and tepid condemnation of the anti-American rioters, which has disgusted many Americans. Meanwhile, the Nour Party, which represents hard-line Salafists and came second to the Brotherhood in parliamentary elections, complains of being offered too few posts in government and of not being properly consulted.

http://www.economist.com/node/21562962

CAIRO — Maria TV, a new Egyptian channel that solely features veiled women, might be the first in the industry without a makeup room.

The satellite television project debuted this summer, and the women who work for it say they hope their images on TV will empower like-minded women across the region who adhere to a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam known as Salafism.

But there is also a big role for men at the channel. Maria TV’s owner, Ahmed Abdallah, is a prominent Salafi preacher, well known in Egypt for his anti-Christian rhetoric. Abdallah and his son Islam, the channel’s chief executive, were arrested last month for burning a Bible during a protest outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo on Sept. 11.

And while the women who work for Maria TV said they want to promote their belief that all Egyptian women should be covered, the channel also serves as a vehicle for what the CEO said was an effort to dim the influence of Christianity in the Muslim-majority region.

Those views would have met strong resistance during the rule of President Hosni Mubarak, who kept a tight lid on fundamentalist ideologies until his ouster in February 2011. But Islamists have perhaps reaped the most benefit from the country’s revolution, and with a new Islamist president, varying segments of society, including Salafis like Abdallah, are competing to define the role of religion in Egypt.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/egypts-maria-tv-pitches-strict-vision-of-islam/2012/10/02/273f4e04-f122-11e1-b74c-84ed55e0300b_print.html

A Salafi (Arabic: سلفي‎) is a Muslim who emphasises the Salaf ("predecessors" or "ancestors"), the earliest Muslims, as model examples of Islamic practice.[1] The term has been in use since the Middle Ages but today refers especially to a follower of a modern Sunni Islamic movement known as Salafiyyah or Salafism, which is related to or includes Wahhabism (a name which some of its proponents consider derogatory, preferring the term Salafism), so that the two terms are often viewed as synonymous.[2] Salafism has become associated with literalist, strict and puritanical approaches to Islam and, in the West, with the Salafi Jihadis who espouse violent jihad against civilians as a legitimate expression of Islam.[3] It has been noted that the Western association of Salafi ideology with violence stems from writings done "through the prism of security studies" that were published in the late 20th century, having persisted well into contemporary literature. [4] More recent attempts have been made by academics and scholars who challenge these major assumptions. Academics and historians use the term to denote "a school of thought which surfaced in the second half of the 19th century as a reaction to the spread of European ideas," and "sought to expose the roots of modernity within Muslim civilization."[5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salafi

See toon at top...

CAIRO - Two Coptic Christian boys have been put in juvenile detention after locals accused them of urinating on pages of the Islamic holy book, an Islamic cleric and prosecutors say, in the latest in a series of legal cases in Egypt against alleged contempt of religion.
The incident with the two boys took place in the village of Ezbet Marco in the southern province of Beni Suef.
Sheik Gamal Shamardal, a Muslim cleric and the local leader of a hardline Islamist group, said residents saw the boys bring pages of the Koran behind a local mosque and urinate on them.
Police arrested the boys and a crowd of angry residents gathered outside the police station. Fearing violence, security forces have surrounded the village and the boys were taken to a juvenile detention facility.

Police officials confirmed that the complaint was made and said they were investigating to determine what happened. Local security chief Attiya Mazrou told The Associated Press the boys were caught with the tarnished pages of the Koran with them, but no one saw them urinate on it.
"They could have found them that way. We don't know. No one saw them do it," he said. The boys are to appear before prosecutors again on Sunday.
Accusations of insulting Islam have increased in Egypt - particularly against Christians - since last month's fury over an anti-Islam film produced in the United States. Such cases occurred in the past, but the flurry to prosecute in recent weeks has raised concerns over freedom of speech and over the power of ultraconservative Islamists in the country

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/boys-9-and-10-detained-in-egypt-for-insulting-islam-20121004-27092.html#ixzz28HVfp6s8

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May be I should not admit to it though I may have related this story before on this site... One of my uncles was a printer... He was in charge of a huge machine that printed bibles... He used to bring the proof-sheets and overprints home... There, a proud non-god fearing atheist, my uncle used these as dunny paper... Not the most practical paper mind you... We had no choice but to use it as well... "Bible paper" then was very thin, though super strong and kind of semi-glossy...

This uncle of mine died young... not because of god's wrath in relation to His loo paper, but because he used to smoke the equivalent of two packs a day, of ciggies he used to roll himself... The concept of filters was unknown then...