Six young Christians in Egypt have been held in custody for more than two weeks after posting a TikTok video that authorities claimed insulted Islam by ridiculing Muslim prayer.
According to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), state security prosecutors interrogated the six on Oct. 10 and initially ordered their detention for four days while the investigation continued. The following morning, a court extended their custody for another 15 days.
The young men face allegations of blasphemy, insulting religion and exploiting religion to promote extremist ideologies. ADF International, a religious freedom advocacy organization, said their ages range from 17 to 23, with the youngest being a minor.
The six come from Ezbet Tanious, a small community in Taha al-Aamida village in the Samalout district of Minya province. Their controversial video recreated a scene from “Khalawis,” an Egyptian comedy released in 2018 that depicts prisoners attempting to perform Islamic prayers despite being unfamiliar with the required Quranic passages.
During questioning, the men reportedly explained that they had filmed the scene spontaneously and uploaded it to TikTok on Oct. 4. After receiving warnings from friends, they deleted the recording within hours. However, another villager had already reposted the footage alongside comments condemning its content.
The reposted video sparked angry responses on social media, with criticism directed not only at the young men but also at their relatives and the wider Christian community. Some commenters demanded police intervention, while others reportedly threatened violence against the men and their families.
As tensions intensified, family members and church representatives accompanied five of the Christians to a police station in Samalout on Oct. 6. According to residents cited by EIPR, the decision was intended to prevent further religious conflict, and police initially indicated that the men would be released once the situation stabilized.
The remaining man later turned himself in after authorities detained his mother while attempting to locate him.
Efforts to ease tensions continued on Oct. 9, when village leaders, Muslim religious officials and priests representing the Diocese of Samalout participated in a customary reconciliation meeting. During the gathering, the diocese issued a formal apology to Muslim residents of the village.
Despite these efforts, the case proceeded under state security prosecutors, and the six remained in detention.
Kelsey Zorzi, senior counsel and vice president of international advocacy at ADF International, condemned the detentions as another example of religious discrimination against Christians in Egypt.
Zorzi described such incidents as “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 called on Egyptian officials to release the six Christians and terminate the investigation against them.
