I had written an article 7 years ago on our beloved news website (Copts united) about the story of the 9 years old child Abd al-Masih who was acquitted by Beni Suef misdemeanor court from charges of stealing 5 loaves of bread from a bakery. The owner of the bakery filed a lawsuit against the child and got a ruling to place him in a juvenile rehabilitation centre. The child was in fact working at the bakery and the rules allow him to take the bread he needs. This case revealed corruption of our rules since some people claimed honor and justice to condemn the child, and others took it as a sectarian case since the child name is Christian and translated slave of Christ!
I call those who claim being religious to remember that Islam prevented the application of Islamic criminal law in certain conditions like starvation. The Holy Quran says: Prohibited to you are dead animals, blood, the flesh of swine, and that which has been dedicated to other than Allah, and [those animals] killed by strangling or by a violent blow or by a head-long fall or by the goring of horns, and those from which a wild animal has eaten, except what you [are able to] slaughter [before its death], and those which are sacrificed on stone altars, and [prohibited is] that you seek decision through divining arrows. That is grave disobedience. This day those who disbelieve have despaired of [defeating] your religion; so fear them not, but fear Me. This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion. But whoever is forced by severe hunger with no inclination to sin - then indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.
I recall here the words of writer Munir Bishay who said that Jesus Christ has blessed the five loaves of bread to feed thousands of people and our prayers that God will bless those breads of Abdul Massieh to feed all starving people. We should offer our children love and mercy instead of cruelty and hatred.
