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Tunisia: Court charges blogger with “inciting hatred between religions” for parody of Qur’an

Jun 8, 2020 3:00 pm By Robert Spencer

Yet another 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 already excoriated as “inciting hatred” and smeared as racist, bigoted “Islamophobes.” 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?

“Prosecution of blogger over Quran parody ignites renewed fears of censorship,” by Barrett Limoges, Al-Monitor, June 2, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Protesters assembled at a courthouse in central Tunis on the morning of May 28, waving placards as preliminary hearings got underway in a highly charged and unusual criminal case of blasphemy.

On May 6, the Tunis prosecutor for the Court of First Instance charged blogger and student Emna Chargui, 27, with “offending authorized religions” and “inciting hatred between religions” after a Ramadan Facebook post ignited furor across Tunisian social media. The case has roiled Tunisia’s largely conservative society, igniting impassioned protests among human rights activists and exposing deep cultural divides in a nation that has been widely regarded as a bastion of free speech in the Arab world.

Chargui uploaded a satirical image earlier in the month to her Facebook profile titled “The Sura of Corona,” a post that seemed to imitate a Quranic verse in diction, flow and visual appearance. Lyrically invoking events of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that has swept the world in recent months, the verse described a virus from China that will eliminate the differences “between kings and slaves,” slipping in a final line about washing your hands with good soap. The piece was reportedly penned by a friend living in neighboring Algeria.

Online reaction to the post was swift and overwhelming, as enraged messages lit up social media during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, even drawing condemnation from Issam Chebbi, secretary-general of the Al-Jomhouri party. In a Facebook post, Chebbi urged the judiciary to prosecute Chargui, claiming that “the state is charged with protecting the sacred and prohibiting any infringement.”

According to her lawyer Ines Trabelsi, death threats also swamped Chargui’s inbox.

Amid the furor, public prosecutors quickly took notice. On May 4, two days after the post appeared online, judicial police summoned Chargui for the first in a series of questioning, which culminated in formal charges later that week. She now faces up to three years in prison, and a fine of 2,000 Tunisian dinars ($700)….

The trial of Chargui echoes a similar case from 2012, when Tunisian bloggers Ghazi Beji and Jabeur Mejri were charged with “transgressing morality” after they posted naked caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad online. Mejri was ultimately sentenced to seven years in prison, while Beji escaped to claim political asylum in Europe and was convicted in absentia.

Some fear that blasphemy allegations can also be used to silence dissenting voices in the political arena. Fearing prosecution and violence, LGTBQI rights activist and openly gay former presidential candidate Mounir Baatour fled to France late last year, claiming an organized defamation campaign had spread rumors that he insulted the prophet online.

“Freedom of expression is still not totally protected in Tunisia, and there are existing gaps and contractions between good intentions and reality,” Amna Guellali, the deputy director for North Africa at Amnesty International, told Al-Monitor. “This case has a chilling effect on freedom of expression in Tunisia and says that people who even ironically touch on religion, or do so in a way that isn’t linked by the majority, can be liable to prosecution.”…

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Filed Under: blasphemy, Featured, free speech, Tunisia Tagged With: Emna Chargui


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Comments

  1. Wellington says

    Jun 8, 2020 at 3:12 pm

    Didn’t Barack Obama have America co-sign with Egypt UN Resolution 16/18 which would criminalize incitement to religious violence? And since Mohammedans are incited to religious violence by most anything, including calling a teddy bear Mohammed or drawing cartoons of this 7th century brutal, narcissistic psychopath (guess I’m guilty for saying this per Resolution 16/18), criticizing that wretched hate manual known as the Koran, etc. then Obama betrayed the First Amendment right to free speech by going along with this freedom-killing resolution because it effectively acts as a blasphemy law.

    • Brian Ozzy says

      Jun 9, 2020 at 5:41 am

      Spot-on Wellington. Couldn’t have put it better.

  2. Dude says

    Jun 8, 2020 at 3:20 pm

    Can we get away with just quoting directly from the Qur’an, Hadiths, or Sunnah?

    That should get the message through quite effectively. More effectively.

    Let them try to argue against their own scripture, which is what they should be doing anyway.

    • James Lincoln says

      Jun 8, 2020 at 7:08 pm

      Dude says,

      “Can we get away with just quoting directly from the Qur’an, Hadiths, or Sunnah?”

      There is a double standard:

      imams can quote violent islamic scripture with impunity.

      If a non-muslim quotes the very same scripture, it is considered to be – take your pick – blasphemy, islamophobic, a breach of the peace, an incitement of hatred between religions, etc.

    • gravenimage says

      Jun 8, 2020 at 9:14 pm

      Even quoting the Qur’an, Hadith, and Sira can be criminal if it is quoted with critical intent. We’ve seen this over and over.

  3. Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says

    Jun 8, 2020 at 6:42 pm

    The reporter Barrett Limoges writes for a newspaper called Al-Monitor whose subtitle is “The Pulse of the Middle East”, but herefer to “the Muslim holy month of Ramadan”. Why is he so ignorant of the Islamic calendar? It has twelve months; four of them are holy. Ramadan is not among the four holy months.

    Emna Chargui is charged with “offending authorized religions” and “inciting hatred between religions”. Where can we find the list of religions authorized in Tunisia? Do they include Shia Islam, Mormon Christianity, and Scientology (Hubbardism)?

  4. Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says

    Jun 8, 2020 at 6:44 pm

    Correction: herefer –> he refers

  5. gravenimage says

    Jun 8, 2020 at 9:10 pm

    Tunisia: Court charges blogger with “inciting hatred between religions” for parody of Qur’an
    ………………

    Could you imagine someone being prosecuted for a parody of the Bible? Of course not.

    And Tunisia is supposed to be “moderate”…

  6. FYI says

    Jun 9, 2020 at 7:59 am

    All religions deserve to be parodied:Dhimmi christians too.

    muhammed must never be ridiculed of course.

    But you see…….. islamic sources ridicule muhammed.

    muhammed ,according to islamic sources was a …

    FAT,CROSS-DRESSING,ILLITERATE,POLYGAMOUS,PEDERAST,TERRORIST, RAPIST DWARF

    islamic sources which confirm this astonishing picture of the “Perfect man”:I invite muslims to check these sources themselves.Fiddling the Arabic won’t work.
    alhamdullilah for the internet,islam’s nemesis.

    Abu Dawud 40:4731 the prophet was fat and a dwarf
    Sahih Bukhari 54:7:2442 the prophet like to wear Aisha’s dress
    Sahih Bukhari 1:5:268 the prophet had many wives including a 9 YEAR OLD GIRL.
    Musnad Ahmad 16245 the prophet liked to suck the tongues of little boys
    Sahih Bukhari 5:58:236 the prophet rapes a little 9 year old girl
    Sahih Bukhari 4:52:220 the prophet admits to being a TERRORIST and admits to being a FALSE PROPHET{Al Tabari 6:111}

    He also had a magical WINGED FLYING DONKEY WITH A WOMAN’S FACE AND A PEACOCK TAIL called buraq:now THAT wouldn’t ridicule muhmmad would it?

    “And all allah’s ‘scholars’ and all islam’s men
    couldn’t put the koran back together again”

    • Michael Copeland says

      Jun 9, 2020 at 8:20 am

      And a white owner of black slaves.

      • FYI says

        Jun 9, 2020 at 8:23 am

        Yes ,but you see we’d be here all day listing perfect mo’s foibles.

        Say,should we tell BLM about muhammed the White Arab supremacist slave trader in Black Africans?
        Probably not:then the MUSLIMS will have to be bending their knees..

    • gravenimage says

      Jun 9, 2020 at 10:34 pm

      Religious people from most faiths do not turn violent when made fun of. Would that this were true of Muslims–Islam calls for its followers to murder people who mock this foul creed.

      • Dude says

        Jun 10, 2020 at 12:20 am

        True dat!

        If we believe our religion, know it is real, then we will just pity dem fools. Let them waste their lives – punishment enough, as God banishes them. Rarely are they worthy or even capable of handling The Truth anyway.

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