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Somalia: Influential academic in hiding after calls for his murder for alleged “blasphemy”

Mar 15, 2020 1:00 pm By Robert Spencer

A glimpse into the future of the U.S. This can’t happen here, you say? We respect the freedom of speech, you say? Maybe that was true at one time, but it is no longer. Cowardice is pandemic. Newspapers all over the country refused to republish the notorious Muhammad cartoons out of a newfound “respect” for Islam that they never showed for negative portrayals of Christianity, which they hailed as “courageous.” Those who call attention to the ideological roots of jihad violence are excoriated as racist, bigoted “Islamophobes,” and most organizations on both the Left and the Right would never dare feature such people as speakers. Any organization that does is immediately denounced and called upon to apologize, and it usually does. So given that this is the climate today, what do you think the situation will be like in ten or twenty years?

“Influential Somali academic in hiding after ‘blasphemy’ death threats,” The New Arab, March 12, 2020:

An influential Somali academic and social reformer is in hiding due to threats to his life, after one of the country’s leading Muslim scholars called for his killing over allegations of blasphemy.

Prof. Mahmoud Jama Ahmed was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail in 2019 for “blasphemy” but was released in January after a presidential pardon.

Activists say Ahmed was forced into hiding after prominent imam, Adam Sunna, threatened his life during Friday prayers on 6 March.

“Killing this apostate is bad for him in this life but he will benefit from it in the afterlife,” he said, according to Humanists International.

Ahmed is unable to leave his hideout to work due to the dangers if he appears in public, having to rely on financial assistance from Humanists International to survive.

The advocacy group considers the 34-year-old intellectual to be at “extremely high-risk of a violent attack”….

In 2019, Ahmed authored two books – one called “Are You Free?” and another on freedom of press – which received a hostile reception from some Somalis due to contentious nature of some of the content.

Allegations of blasphemy relate to a Facebook post when he questioned the validity of rain prayers – known as Salat Al-Istisqa in Islam – in Somalia.

Police then detained Ahmed for a month, where he said he was subjected to ill-treatment and death threats by officers.

In April, he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail for blasphemy but was eventually released after spending 307 days behind bars and banned from teaching for five years….

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Filed Under: Apostasy, blasphemy, Featured, free speech, Jihadist intimidation and thuggery, Somalia Tagged With: Mahmoud Jama Ahmed


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Comments

  1. mortimer says

    Mar 15, 2020 at 1:21 pm

    Prof. Mahmoud Jama Ahmed is a martyr for academic freedom and free speech in general.

  2. elee says

    Mar 15, 2020 at 1:54 pm

    The thug of religions is the religion of thugs. Choose your ruler wisely.

  3. CogitoErgoSum says

    Mar 15, 2020 at 2:00 pm

    How would killing a person benefit him in the next life if people are judged by what they do in this life? Following that line of reasoning all people should be killed before they have time to do anything bad that could be held against them in the next life. Yeah, while we are at it let’s go all the way and kill everyone who reaches the age of puberty before they have time to do too many bad things as an adult (wasn’t that a Star Trek episode?). A short life here on Earth would be of benefit to our soul in the next life to come? I don’t think so. Killing people so it will benefit them in the next life is just a load of, what’s the word, Joe? Oh yeah, it’s a load of malarky.

    • elee says

      Mar 15, 2020 at 2:33 pm

      You have independently invented exactly the line that Persian and other Muslims have used to justify (1) sending their own children to the front lines and (2) killing kafir children. They go to Paradise before they have sinned, what could be a greater gift! Allah Malarkey hu Akbar!

  4. Ray Jarman says

    Mar 15, 2020 at 2:43 pm

    Robert Spencer commented:

    “Newspapers all over the country refused to republish the notorious Muhammad cartoons out of a newfound “respect” for Islam that they never showed for negative portrayals of Christianity, which they hailed as “courageous.” Those who call attention to the ideological roots of jihad violence are excoriated as racist, bigoted “Islamophobes,” and most organizations on both the Left and the Right would never dare feature such people as speakers.”

    This statement is so true and I remember when a jar filled of urine with a cross inside was considered the height of artistic freedom and extreme courage. Never mind that the cross is one of the holiest symbols of Christianity, I certainly don’t remember any Christian leader calling for the person to be put under arrest much less advocating the killing of the person.

    • Bud says

      Mar 15, 2020 at 8:43 pm

      I remember that, as well, Robert. It was a Crucifix, a cross with the image of Jesus Christ on it. The media and critics defended it as ‘artistic expression’. I believe the Catholic League or some similar organization made protestations, suggesting it was blasphemous, but it was like yelling into the wind. No one wanted to hear from them.
      You are right, as well, that no one ever suggested any physical harm to the artist. Personally, I found it highly offensive, but was told to pray for that person and the conversion of their soul.
      As much as I disliked it, I understood that they had that freedom of expression under our Constitution.

  5. Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says

    Mar 15, 2020 at 3:46 pm

    ==QUOTE==
    Ahmed was forced into hiding after prominent imam Adam Sunna threatened his life during Friday prayers on 6 March. “Killing this apostate is bad for him in this life but he will benefit from it in the afterlife,” he said.
    ==UNQUOTE==

    Sorry, but I’m having trouble following this reasoning. Where did Imam Sunna go to imam school? What is the name of this doctrine he is invoking? If you kill Ahmed, he he guaranteed to get into heaven? Please cite the Scripture passages that assure his salvation.

    Also, following Islamic science, we can stage an experiment to compare the rain-invoking efficacy of
    https://www.prayerinislam.com/guide-to-prayer/nafl-prayers/prayer-for-rain/
    versus (interesting cloud formation at 7:00)

    • Cicero says

      Mar 15, 2020 at 9:34 pm

      Beautiful haunting music from a dispossessed people who survive at the margins of Great American Society . This Somalian is probably an atheist. Hindu atheists also vociferously decry the Tantric Sanskrit Slokas BUT not one Hindu calls for their beheading or dismemberment. Their are actually Sanskrit chants for rain making also.

  6. chas says

    Mar 16, 2020 at 1:44 am

    Death threats, intimidation, etc. Try walking around NYC in the evening wearing a MAGA hat and see what happens.

  7. Giacomo Latta says

    Mar 16, 2020 at 9:19 am

    According to Wikipedia, Humanists International is ”an umbrella organisation made up of more than 160 humanist, atheist, rationalist, secular, skeptic, freethought and Ethical Culture organisations from over 80 countries.” So why would they state that ”Killing this apostate is bad for him in this life but he will benefit from it in the afterlife.” That is a stupid thing for anyone to say but especially from a group that supposedly includes atheists. Something isn’t kosher.

  8. infidel says

    Mar 17, 2020 at 10:37 am

    Already India has become this way… In another 20 years as Muslim pop crosses the critical mass of 33% (read 1 in 3), India and its Hindus are finished for good.. There is NO ESCAPING THIS FATE… Hindus are cowards and Hindus are happy to play Dhimmi (of course with very very rare exceptions) And Hindus are only interested to educate themselves and become CEOs and make money.. Education is good.. but cowardice kills..

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