The family and friends of the Saudi poet, Hamzah Kashqari, asked me to share this with readers:
"A
"A
young saudi writer, Hamza Kashgari, has fled the country for fear for his safety after receiving many death threats through the social media (twitter, youtube, facebook...etc.) Hamza is now detained by the Malaysian government after Saudi Arabia's request of sending him back to Saudi. We beg of you to help us with all you can to prevent his extradition to Saudi, as this may threaten his life.
The story started on Saturday, when Hamza wrote three tweets on the event of the Prophet Mohammed Birthday (considered a religious day, albeit one frowned upon by the Wahhabi establishment).
Translation
of his tweets:
1-
On your birthday, I will say that I have loved the rebel in you, that you've always been a source of inspiration to me, and that I do not like the halos of divinity around you. I shall not pray for you.
2-
On your birthday, I find you wherever i turn. I will say that i have loved aspects of you, hated others, and could not understand many more.
3-
On your birthday, I shall not bow to you. I shall not kiss your hand. Rather, I shall shake it as equals do, and smile at you as you smile at me. I shall speak to you as a friend, no more. Anger quickly exploded on twitter with people claiming how offensive these tweets were
to the prophet (insulting the prophet is crime punishable by death in islamic law) Within the same day Hamza had deleted the tweets and apologized if his tweets offended anyone, and expressed that he only meant good. The next day, with death threats mounting, Hamza issued a letter of full repentance, renouncing all his former beliefs that he was accused for. link: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/fp0ie3
After that he fled Saudi, managing to beat the warrant for his arrest by a few hours. He remained free as of my last contact with him 12 hours ago. The issue has gotten public in Saudi since the beginning through many popular religious figures calling for his prosecution and more and calling for people to send telegrams to Prince Naif and Prince Salman complaining that something must be
done.
I
would add to his story the following points:
-
First, I paraphrase the arabic commentary of Bader al-Ibrahim, a saudi opinion writer in the lebanese Al-Akhbar. He nailss the bigger context to this story
exactly link: http://goo.gl/QQAm1
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I will add myself that they have successfully embarrassed the government into taking their side. there is a warrant for Hamza's arrest. and the saudi permanent fatwa council (one of the most respected govt religious bodies in Saudi) issued a statement calling Hamza an apostate and infidel and that his prosecution by the government is a religious duty. link to document: http://sabq.org/9xcfde
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This comes after several losses for the religious right in Saudi: a law recently mandated that women must work as saleswomen in public lingerie stores. the King replaced the head of the religious police (commission for the promotion of good and prevention of vice) with a moderate. This new head immediately ordered many restrictions on how the religious police operate.
-
The organized attack and the instigators behind the escalation. Hamza has been watched and ear-marked as a target for months. Several religious tweeps have been targeting him for many months, trying to gain traction for hashtag vilifying his name. (Public shaming through hashtags is now a common Saudi pressure tactic, especially against public officials and government scandals).
This is merely the first time they succeeded, not the first time they tried. Islamic fanatics had unearthed tweets of Hamza's -many of which make reference to the likes of Neitzche and Voltaire- which playfully question theological absolutes showing how effective they are at monitoring electronic activity without the help of the government.
Publictions
in media on Hamza:
The
Wall Street journal's story: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203315804577211131772266506.html
The
Daily Beast's story:
I
apologize for such a long message. I once again beg you to pursue this story. As much as i wish that it would die down, i know it is inevitable that this story is going to get even bigger before a resolution is reached. And i have a sinking feeling that it will not end well for Hamza.
Feel
free to contact me at any time for more details, but please keep my name
private.
With
thanks,
Hamza's
friends and family"
