This happened while I was living in Alexandria, Egypt, also the home of the blogger, Abdel Karim Suleiman. It was a huge story there, with a lot of international media attention. Which didn't do a bit of good.
He was sentenced to 3 years in prison for insulting Islam, and 1 year for insulting (ex!) President Hosni Mubarak. IIRC, his insult to Islam was pretty mild - he said the Koran appeared to be written by ordinary human beings, not an angel dictating to some crazy old bugger in a cave.
The linked article doesn't mention this Fun Fact, but the Egyptian papers did - at his trial, Suleiman's father said his son should get the death penalty for insulting Islam.
From the article:
Suleiman, a Muslim and a liberal, has not denied writing the articles but said they merely represented his own views...
One of Suleiman's articles said that al-Azhar in Cairo, one of the most prominent seats of Sunni Muslim learning, was promoting extreme ideas. Another article, headlined "The Naked Truth of Islam as I Saw it", accused Muslims of savagery during clashes between Muslims and Christians in Alexandria in 2005.
He was sure right about that. I saw some of those riots and they WERE savage. As were the Alexandria Good Friday riots in April 2006, which happened uncomfortably close to my neighborhood.
He has also described some of the companions of the Muslim prophet Mohammad as "terrorists", and has likened Mubarak to dictatorial pharaohs who ruled ancient Egypt.
"I was hoping that he would get a harsher sentence because he presented to the world a bad image of Egypt. There are things that one should not talk about, like religion and politics. He should have got a 10-year sentence," said lawyer Nizar Habib, who attended the trial as a member of the public.
http://wwrn.org/articles/24306/?&place=northern-africa§ion=mass-media
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