In the West Bank town of Qalqiliya, 26 year-old Walid Husayin was arrested for not believing in God. While the West Bank is predominantly Muslim, the Palestinian Authority which governs the region is known as being one of the most liberal in the Arab world and supports a more secular government and yet now Husayin faces life in prison and possibly the death penalty for being an atheist.
Walid Husayin is a blogger and has created a facebook account under a false name in which he wrote some critical things about Islam and Allah. He even created several facebook groups mocking the dominant religion in his town. In one group, he jokingly claimed to be God and instructed followers to smoke marijuana.
Husayin has been charged with, “insulting the divine essence” and many people in the region actually want him to be put to death in some rather graphic ways. Some have called for him to be burnt to death while others want his execution to be public as an example to others. The surprising thing is that this isn’t coming from Islamic extremists nor is it happening in a fundamentalist Islamic nation like Iran. These are Islamic moderates calling for his public execution and a more secular Palestinian Authority which has arrested him.
So while many liberal Muslims in the United States talk about Islam being a religion of peace, they fail to mention that in cases like this, Islam can also be the religion of heavy handed censorship. It is also important to note that Christianity was little different a few hundred years ago. It has only been the emergence of modernity and secularism which came out of the Enlightenment which forced Christianity to be more tolerant of non-believers and dragged the western world to embrace science with the religious mostly kicking and screaming much of the way.
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Comments
Stuff like this just drives me crazy. Is this the 21th century B.C.?
Ya, but even that tide seems to be rolling back out here in America. Don't be surprised at our current pace, if in another 50 years we might all be under the same scrutiny as Mr. Husayin. We are already in the throws of fundamentalizing our school texts, and in denial of scientific evidence, in favor of God's will to allow corporations to rape and rob our natural resources and environment. Mr. Husayin may simply be the canary in the coal mine.
A Christian woman is facing similar penalties in Pakistan for publically dissing the Prophet Muhammad.
there's no such thing as "moderate Islam". I wish editors and reporters would stop using this oxymoron. It's like saying "moderate Nazism". If this is happening under so called secular regimes then you can't imagine what goes on elsewhere. Now that might offend some people but the truth hurts sometimes and can't be ignored.
Simon: what you say doesn't offend me, but you are an idiot.
We're doing a campaign to release him, please help by signing and sharing the petition. All help is needed.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/free-waleed/
Right now - in the 21st Century, Islam is a death cult!
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