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The ordinary understanding of slander in the West is that it involves making false charges that defame another person. But in Islamic law, the definition of slander doesn't involve falsehood. The Shafi'i manual of Islamic law 'Umdat al-Salik defines "slander" as "to mention anything concerning a person that he would dislike." Nothing is said about whether or not what is said is true -- only that the person would dislike it. And this is based on a statement of Muhammad to the same effect.
Once one understands that concept of slander, it is easier to see why Muslims in the West so quickly and easily characterize speech about the jihad and Islamic supremacism as slanderous and insulting to Islam, even when what has been said is demonstrably accurate: one notable case was CAIR's war against National Review, and another was Al-Arabiya's attack on my book The Truth About Muhammad, but the crowning example is the response to Geert Wilders' film Fitna.
In any case, it is not surprising that Kuwait would criminalize "insults" to Islam, but it is just another step forward for those forces that are pushing for the same kind of measures in the West.
"Kuwait prepares web law," from AMEInfo, July 29:
Kuwait's prosecutor general, Hamed al-Othman, has said that he has finalised a Bill that will criminalise the promotion of vice, incitement against the country's leadership and insulting Islam on the internet. In an interview with Al-Qabas newspaper he said that offenders would face up to a year in prison and/or a fine. If the victims are minors the prison term rises to seven years.
Posted by Robert at August 3, 2008 2:02 AM
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Wow, censorship of the "truth" in a muslim country. Imagine that.
I wish them luck. We already know the truth about islam and muhammed (maybe waaayy too much.)
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at August 3, 2008 2:33 AM
Islam sucks...
There...how's that?
Search "Christianity sucks" and see how many hits you get.
Any rioting or beheadings as a result? No.
Islam really does suck.
Islam is a lie and truth is killing it.
Posted by: Alaskan at August 3, 2008 2:34 AM
They should ban the Quran and the Hadith in the first place. These pieces, in particular what's written the first 300 years after Mo lived his, ahm, 'unusual' life, represent a deeply evil and insulting body of litterature about the man.
Islam really does suck.
Posted by: Henrik at August 3, 2008 3:02 AM
Why do minors get a longer sentence? I don't know, but perhaps it is to allow time for their minds to be formed in a more reliably Islamic direction.
You've misread it. It says that offenders get a longer sentence if the victims are minors, which is not so crazy.
Posted by: billposer at August 3, 2008 3:53 AM
Billposer:
Quite right. That's what I get for posting at 2AM.
Thanks -- I will take out that last line.
Cordially
Robert Spencer
at August 3, 2008 7:34 AM
We might as well have let Saddam's invasion remain undisturbed. Fighting for the freedom of Kuwaitis has proven to be of zero value for anyone in the West. Protecting the Saudis from Saddam didn't do us much good either.
Saddam would have sold us the oil himself.
at August 3, 2008 8:02 AM
hahahaha... They could not even dream of coming up with the internet and now they want to make insulting Islam a crime. The thing is we know that everything to the Mohammedans belongs to them even though they never ever invented it. The whole world is Islam even though not yet in reality.
Posted by: savsiv at August 3, 2008 8:19 AM
So if al-Qaeda is recruiting its five-year-olds via the internet (see following thread) then its leaders are facing seven years in the cooler? Sounds good to me. If training little kids to be killers isn't a vice, I don't know what is.
Posted by: ebonystone at August 3, 2008 8:29 AM
Wow, censorship of the "truth" in a muslim country. Imagine that.
Now imagine it gaining influence here in the US, Canada and Europe.
Worth a plug for Free speech in an age of jihad
This is no joke. Get it . . .read it. . .fight to keep freedom of expression unmolested.
Posted by: heroyalwhyness at August 3, 2008 9:03 AM
What's it like being in an Islamic prison?
Posted by: silent_rage at August 3, 2008 9:18 AM
Nothing is said about whether or not what is said is true -- only that the person would dislike it.
Doesn't seem that different from the British system of prosecution for slander.
Posted by: Concerned Citizen at August 3, 2008 9:32 AM
Holy crap! There goes my vacation plans to Kuwait. That, and islam sucks the big one.
Posted by: PorkFatRules at August 3, 2008 3:37 PM
Posted by: boneshack
Wow, censorship of the "truth" in a muslim country. Imagine that.
Well we can see we are heading in the say direction, we only have to see You tube
Just hope this is not a new trend
Alarming
http://illustratedpig.blogspot.com/
at August 3, 2008 3:44 PM
"promotion of vice, incitement against the country's leadership" then ..."insulting Islam on the internet". Sounds like a pork barrel project.
Posted by: ethoman at August 3, 2008 4:56 PM
How ironic - as Islam is the "insult" here. They are an insult to the truth, and to anything that is good & right; and Islam is an insult to Webster's Dictionary, too. They must use some backwordstionary to look up definitions.
Posted by: champ at August 3, 2008 5:06 PM
Infidel I think you are right about YOUTUBE. One visit there was enough for me. I got tired of reading "die americans!" and "americans are the real terrorists" interjected in between every other comment, even on videos that were not political in nature. I was starting to feel brainwashed.
Posted by: charlie at August 3, 2008 6:07 PM
Robert Spencer points out that the Islamic position on slander of Islam is based on the hadith recorded by Sahih Muslim: "Abu Huraira reported Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) as saying: The servant (who conceals) the faults of others in this world, Allah would conceal his faults on the Day of Resurrection."
But my plain reading of this, supported by such as David Pryce-Jones' "Closed Circle", is that it relates more to an individual Arab's shame and honor than to a belief system.
When and how did this conceptual leap occur?
Posted by: MBR at August 3, 2008 6:43 PM
It won't be long before the "international community" has similarly outlawed expositions of Islam that are unflattering.
Posted by: Cornelius at August 3, 2008 7:11 PM
MBR, I also am hoping to understand what that hadith has to do with slander.
at August 3, 2008 7:32 PM
InfidelK9,
I don't know if you realize, but your website is being blocked.
It says "Violation of the Terms and Services" yada yada yada...
at August 3, 2008 10:43 PM
I stand corrected Ummah. From this day forward it shall be known as...the great JIHADTUBE.
Posted by: charlie at August 4, 2008 12:15 AM
StillBreathing, I'm less concerned about the different takes on slander, whether slander in part depends on the truth or falsity of a statement (Western) or just on feeling offended, that is, feeling shamed or dishonored whatever the facts(Arab). Here yet again we see apparently simple words used in very different ways - peace, suicide and truce are just three. And few in the West are awake to these differences, whereas I believe most Muslims who use these words are so aware.
Perhaps I did Robert an injustice in saying he pointed out that the hadith is the basis for the Islamic position on slander of Islam. He merely suggested a possible connection. Rather, I would like to see whether there is any evidence for such a connection, such an application from the personal to the political.
It unfortunately gets ready traction in some quarters in the West that are eager to charge group defamation arising out of perceived slights on an individual member of a victimized identity group - think gender/race/sexual orientation.
If that hadith or one like it is the connection, it is further confirmation that Islam is the worst thing that ever happened to the inhabitants of seventh century Arabia and their descendants. Being such a rule-based prescription for all of life it has set their culture in concrete for more than a thousand years.
Posted by: MBR at August 4, 2008 12:30 AM
Is this such a big surprise? The Danish newspaper's cartoon in 2005 sparked riots around the world. Apparently, we can't say what we want even in our own countries, let alone theirs. So them telling you what you cannot say on the internet isn't such a big leap. If they are criticized anywhere however, it's racist and intolerant. The only thing that will wake the sleeping west is the sound of their guns on main street.
Posted by: OldDannyboy24 at August 4, 2008 2:23 AM
I wonder if there is need for a new English-Arabic dictionary, because the conventional translations of some critical words for discussion between Islam and the West are clearly wrong:
Martyr/martyrdom
Peace
Suicide
Truce
and now Slander.
No wonder Muslims say that you can only truly understand the Koran in the original Arabic, when the conventional translations are so erroneous. And no wonder Muslims get so grumpy when we don't understand what they are saying in English!
Posted by: Socrates at August 4, 2008 3:04 AM
Posted by: boneshack
I don't know if you realize, but your website is being blocked.
It says "Violation of the Terms and Services" yada yada yada...
I know it is blocked, and that is what I am referring too by alarming.
at August 4, 2008 4:57 AM
Nothing is said about whether or not what is said is true -- only that the person would dislike it.
Let's see, the crimes being: (1) vice; (2) criticizing the government; and (3) insulting islam.
(1) Minors who are victims of vice, maybe, whatever that is. You mean, Kuwait has not, until now, had any vice laws? Do drugs/prostitution in public, pedophilia human trafficking etc. without impunity? Move over Amsterdam!
More likely (2) they are protecting all those minors who hold major positions in government.
Or possibly (3) minors are known to be highly sensitive to insults against Islam.
at August 4, 2008 5:48 PM
Maybe they don't want the minors asking them questions about all the #!*# they've been indoctrinated with since the age of .... getting kidnapped from 12 year old mothers.
Posted by: charlie at August 5, 2008 12:20 AM
Exposing islam = "insulting" islam = that is US.
SCREW THEM!!!!
Posted by: Ummah Gummah at August 5, 2008 2:29 AM
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