Algerian author Said Djabelkhir sentenced to three years in jail for offending Islam
Mr Djabelkhir had said the animal sacrifice during the Muslim festival of Eid was based on a pre-Islamic pagan ritual.
He also suggested that parts of the Quran, such as the story of Noah's Ark, might not be literally true and criticised practices including the marriage of young girls in some Muslim societies.
Islam is Algeria's religion of state. The law imposes a fine or prison sentence on "anyone who offends the Prophet or denigrates the dogmatic precepts of Islam, whether it be by writings, drawings, a statement or another means".
Muslims believe in slaughtering an animal during the annual Eid-al-Adha festival to remember, they say, Prophet Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his son, Ismail, when God ordered him to.
Rights group Amnesty International's deputy regional director Amna Guellali described the three-year sentence as "outrageous" and a "chilling setback for freedom of expression" in Algeria.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56847448.amp
Mr Djabelkhir had said the animal sacrifice during the Muslim festival of Eid was based on a pre-Islamic pagan ritual.
He also suggested that parts of the Quran, such as the story of Noah's Ark, might not be literally true and criticised practices including the marriage of young girls in some Muslim societies.
Islam is Algeria's religion of state. The law imposes a fine or prison sentence on "anyone who offends the Prophet or denigrates the dogmatic precepts of Islam, whether it be by writings, drawings, a statement or another means".
Muslims believe in slaughtering an animal during the annual Eid-al-Adha festival to remember, they say, Prophet Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his son, Ismail, when God ordered him to.
Rights group Amnesty International's deputy regional director Amna Guellali described the three-year sentence as "outrageous" and a "chilling setback for freedom of expression" in Algeria.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56847448.amp
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"