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By Luiza Oleszczuk , Christian Post
Reporter
Kuwaiti authorities arrested a man
Tuesday for insulting the Prophet
Muhammad via his Twitter account,
based on a Sharia-based blasphemy
law, which is highly regarded in
the mostly Sunni Muslim country.
The incident reportedly drew calls
for the man’s death.
The unidentified man defamed the
Islamic faith and slandered the
Prophet Muhammad, his companions
and his wife, the Kuwaiti Interior
Ministry said in a statement issued
on state-run news agency KUNA. It
was not immediately clear what the
comments were. The ministry said it
regretted the abuse of social
networks by "some individuals" to
offend basic Islamic and spiritual
values and declared zero tolerance
in combating such "serious
offenses."
The man, remaining anonymous in
media reports, denied the
accusations. "I will never attack
the Holy Prophet," he reportedly
said and suggested someone hacked
his account to post the comments.
The man is reportedly being
interrogated while awaiting
judicial proceedings.
Although imprisonment is possible,
Kuwait does not usually punish
blasphemy with death, as is
possible in neighboring Saudi
Arabia, where a journalist was
accused of tweeting comments
offending the prophet, which drew
calls for his death.
However, several members of the
Kuwaiti parliament called for the
offending man to be killed, and
some even suggested that people
would take justice in their own
hands if the government fails to
deliver a death sentence, reported
the Arab Times.
"This is an attack against the Holy
Prophet, his wife — the Mother of
Believers and his companions, so we
demand urgent action from the
[interior] minister," one
parliamentarian was quoted as
saying.
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In 2009, a Special Forces officer
had reportedly been arrested and
sentenced to six months in jail for
defaming Prophet Mohammed.
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In 2005, an appeals court sentenced
a journalist to a one-year
suspended sentence for a 2004
article deemed to defame the Quran,
according to the U.S. Dept. of
State. The publication’s editor
received a $170 fine in 2004. Three
Islamist activists filed the
complaint resulting in the court
case, the department said.
Blasphemy laws, prohibiting offense
to Islam and Muslims in any way,
are, alongside apostasy, the most
controversial codes of Sharia,
based on teachings of the Quran.
Sharia codes have been known to be
used as a political weapon against
religious minorities, academics,
and journalists.
"The law requires jail terms for
journalists who defame religion,"
reads the International Religious
Freedom Report 2005. "Academic
freedom is limited in practice by
self-censorship, and academics,
like journalists, are legally
prohibited from criticizing Islam.
The law also provides that any
Muslim citizen may file criminal
charges against an author if the
citizen believes that the author
has defamed Islam, the ruling
family, or public morals."
Blasphemy laws have been on the
rise in recent years, and are
increasingly posing a threat to
free speech and human rights as
well as religious freedom across
the Middle East as well as,
occasionally, in the West, some
experts have been arguing. Some
also argue that Islamic law is
increasingly used by authoritarian
governments and extremist forces in
the Muslim world commonly not for
religious reasons, but to acquire
and consolidate power.
The Christian Post
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