Foot in mouth disease

Some European countries have laws constricting freedom of speech when it comes to religion for reasons related to their guilt over the holocaust, but why is the Egyptian government doing this now? Could it be that it was the natural step for it to take after the hooplah it helped create over the Danish official inaction over the cartoons? First our scholars had to quit writing and renounce their works on inspiration from the death threats they received from fundamentalists, and now the government is relieving the terrorists from the extra effort they had to put in making the phone call or sending the email, and enforcing the threat themselves. And it is important to note that it is enforcing this ammendment on recommendation from an MB. (Member of Brotherhood instead of Member of Parliament, this interesting and accurate.) Nobody is saying that it's ok for people to go around insulting others' religious beliefs, but I don't see what will stop groups such as the brotherhood for example from using this law to fight scholars and their genuine research, and in this way establishing themselves officially as the country's religious keepers.

One of the main claims of legitimacy of our government is its supposed role as protector of secularism in society, why instead is it leading the way for us towards the gutter?