An Egyptian court has banned a liberal literature journal for running a poem two years ago likening God to a villager who feeds ducks and milks cows, an Egyptian paper reported Wednesday.

The Tuesday ruling by Egypt's administrative court came after a lawyer filed a lawsuit against the journal Ibdaa, or Creativity for publishing a poem titled "On the Balcony of Leila Murad" by a well-known poet Helmi Salem, according to the Al-Ahram daily.

The court said the poem carries "insulting expressions" about God.

The poem, which led Ibdaa to be briefly censored in 2007 when it was published, reads in part: "God is not a policeman, who catches criminals from the back of their neck. He is a villager who feeds the ducks and feels the cow's udders and squeezes them with his fingers and yells: 'Plenty of milk.'"

A second part of the poem compares God to a traffic cop.

Judge Mohammed Attiya said in his ruling, "freedom should be responsible in serving society and should not be misused," the paper reported.

The journal, while published by the government's ministry of culture, has a reputation for its independent, liberal tone. Ibdaa has been censored on other occasions since it was first published in 1984.

The head of the journal's publisher, Waheed Abdel Maged, said he would appeal the verdict.

The rise of conservative Islam in Egypt has dampened the art scene in a country that was the hub for Middle Eastern artists in the 50s and 60s. Popular art _ including cinema, music and literature _ is closely watched by Islamic institutions and scholars.

Novels and films have been banned or censored after charges of blasphemy, for challenging Muslim thinking or for touching on sacred symbols in Islam, specifically the Prophet Muhammad or the holy book, the Quran.