Of slippery slopes and the thought police: Al Azhar has presented its “anti-hate crime” legislation to President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed El Tayeb announced yesterday, Al Shorouk reports. The bill would somehow ensure that religiously motivated hate speech does not enjoy protection under the constitution’s freedom of expression provisions and would bar media outlets from discussing contentious elements of religious beliefs, according to Al Ahram, which has the full text of the law. The bill would also ban discrimination on the basis of religion, which we had always thought was already covered under that thing called a “constitution.” Media and educational institutions that violate the law would see their licenses revoked.

A better alternative: A similar bill is being drafted by MP Mohamed Abu Hamed of the Support Egypt Coalition, but his version is meant to replace the (fatuous) clauses of the criminal code dealing with “contempt of religion.”