No turning back“IF THERE is a God, atheism must seem to Him as less of an insult than religion,” Edmond de Goncourt, a French writer, once said. He would not find much agreement in most of the Islamic world. In late February a Saudi Arabian man in his 20s was sentenced to ten years in prison, a hefty fine and 2,000 lashes for professing his atheism on Twitter. He could well have fared even worse. In 2014 Saudi Arabia passed a law equating atheism with terrorism. When last year another young man uploaded an online video of himself tearing up a Koran, Saudi courts sentenced him to death.
According to the International Humanist and Ethical Union, a pressure group, Saudi Arabia is one of only 19 countries in the world that criminalises apostasy, the turning away from one religion to another one, or to none; it is one of 12 countries where it is punishable by death. All but two of the latter group are in the Middle East and Africa. In practice, the death sentences are rarely carried out; more commonly, apostates are merely thrown in jail and tortured.
Even countries with civil laws that do not expressly outlaw...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/22w3BZo
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