In “reformist” Saudi Arabia, which continues to fund Wahhabi madrassas in Pakistan and export Wahhabism globally, “a Saudi court sentenced a Yemeni man to 15 years in prison for apostasy on October 21, 2021, based on comments made via two anonymous Twitter accounts.”
Ali Abu Luhum joins scores of others who offended Islam in Saudi Arabia, including human rights defender Raif Badawi and his sister, who were among many women’s rights activists arrested, belying Saudi claims of modernization .
“Saudi Arabia: Yemeni Man Sentenced for Apostasy,” Human Rights Watch, December 20, 2021:
(Beirut) – A Saudi court sentenced a Yemeni man to 15 years in prison for apostasy on October 21, 2021, based on comments made via two anonymous Twitter accounts, Human Rights Watch said today. The court found that the tweets were promoting “apostasy, unbelief, and atheism.”
Saudi authorities arrested Ali Abu Luhum, 38, on August 23, and are holding him in Najran prison in southern Saudi Arabia. The sentence has been appealed, and a final judgment must be approved by the Supreme Court.
“Saudi authorities are sparing no expense to portray the country as tolerant and reforming, but contradicting state orthodoxy on religion still results in a decade-and-a-half prison sentence,” said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Performers involved in events supported by the Saudi government should think long and hard about whether they are helping to whitewash the government’s abuses.”
An informed source told Human Rights Watch that on August 23, Abu Luhum’s Saudi employer called, asking him to come to a brief meeting, after which he left his home and never returned. The source later learned that Saudi authorities had arrested him and were holding him at the police criminal investigation department.
The source said that Abu Luhum called his family the next day and told them his location and that the basis of his arrest was his social media activities. In early September, his family was allowed to visit him in prison for five minutes in the presence of security guards. On September 23, Saudi authorities transferred him to Najran prison, after which he was able to call his relatives more often. Saudi authorities did not permit Abu Luhum to have a lawyer during his initial detention and interrogation. His family was finally allowed to arrange for a lawyer a month after his arrest.
On October 10, the criminal court in Najran held Abu Luhum’s first trial session, during which he learned his formal charges. On October 19, the court held a second trial session during which Abu Luhum’s lawyer asked to review the alleged tweets and call witnesses. On October 26, the judge announced the ruling and sentence without hearing the defense witnesses.
Based on court documents reviewed by Human Rights Watch, Saudi prosecutors contended that the anonymous Twitter accounts in question were registered with phone numbers tied to Abu Luhum. Prosecutors charged Abu Luhum with a host of apostasy and blasphemy-related charges, including denial of the existence of God; impersonating, doubting, and mocking God, Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, and the day of resurrection; promoting atheism; and publishing and promoting that which prejudices public order, religious values, and public morals on social media.
Abu Luhum’s confession, which forms the basis of the prosecutors’ case against him, was coerced by prosecutors, the source said, by threatening to also indict his wife if he did not sign the confession. Prosecutors demanded the death penalty for Abu Luhum based on hudud, crimes that carry specific penalties under the country’s interpretation of Islamic law.
However, because Abu Luhum retracted his confession in court, the court rejected the hudud claim and sentenced him to 10 years in prison based on the Islamic law principle ta’zir, under which judges hold wide discretionary power to determine punishments in individual cases, and five years based on article 6 of Saudi Arabia’s anti-cybercrimes law. The court also ordered the Twitter accounts closed.
Saudi authorities regularly pursue charges against people based solely on their peaceful exercise of freedom of expression, in violation of international human rights obligations. With few exceptions, the government does not tolerate public worship by adherents of religions other than Islam. It systematically discriminates against Muslim religious minorities, notably Twelver Shia and Ismailis, including in public education, the justice system, religious freedom, and employment.
revereridesagain says
No one who has been paying attention should expect to see any spotless leopards holding power in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the near future. By which I mean the remainder of the century.
MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!
gravenimage says
Too true, revereridesagain.
And Merry Christmas to you!
Keith O says
And this is a country that gets, year after year, billions of dollars from around the world through oil.
If it wasn’t for that, they wold still be riding camels and little boys out in the desert somewhere.
All the trappings of a civilised society doesn’t make for civilisation.
gravenimage says
+1
Infidel says
This sorta fits w/ my theory of what’s going on there. They’ve ended dawa on non-Arabs as that would dilute the Arab dominance of islam, but they’ve not released the stranglehold on Arabs into islam. Hopefully, this country will become more relaxed once MbS actually becomes the ruler: his dad still has veto powers over some policies
gravenimage says
Infidel–with the greatest respect–I don’t see that your theory that Saudi Arabia is battling agianst non-Arabs converting to Islam makes sense. Saudi Arabia funds Da’wa all over the world, including Mosques, Imams, and the use of Saudi textbooks.
“Extremism Is Riyadh’s Top Export”
Saudi Arabia is fighting for a dangerous monopoly on Islamic thought.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/24/farah-pandith-saudi-how-we-win-book/
Infidel says
No, but they banned dawa recently in their country, as well as the Tablighi Jamaat. The links you provide are from 2 years ago, whereas the reforms that we’ve been hearing about – the introduction of other religious and cultural studies, the ban on dawa, their major break w/ Pakistan and so on – have been since last year. The old Saudi Arabia of kings Fahd and Abdullah used to fund dawa, mosques and imams all over the world. Since King Salman took over as king, and MbS as crown prince, Saudi Arabia has quietly but completely cut off all foreign funding for that due to their budget issues due to the fall in oil prices. In fact, things became so bad that Saudi Arabia had to contemplate an income tax for their citizens, who basically are all on the dole on oil money. Not sure whether they implemented that, but I did read and hear that they’ve stopped funding islam outside their country, or maybe outside the Arab world
The Turkey vs Saudi Arabia contest over who leads islam is what has driven this. Turkey got support from the likes of Malaysia and Pakistan, the Muslim Brotherhood and even a couple of Arab countries – Yemen and Somalia (I think they ultimately lost Libya). The Turkish message to the rest of the ummah is that Arabs don’t have that special place – and indeed didn’t, during the Ottoman caliphate. The Saudis obviously don’t agree w/ that, and even if they did, they don’t want their rapidly decreasing oil revenues to go into black holes like Pakistan, Bangladesh and so on
I share the general sentiment that Saudi Arabia is suspect, but I do think that MbS is serious about de-islamizing his country in as stealthy a way as possible. But it will take a generation or 2 for that country to be really transformed, assuming that MbS lasts and manages to do something like what Sultan Qaboos did in Oman
gravenimage says
Infidel–again with respect–Saudi Arabia has not banned Da’wa–the preaching of Islam, especially for conversion to Islam or greater devotion for those already Muslim. Instead, they have just banned this group:
“Explained: Saudi Arabia’s ban on the Tablighi and Da’wah group”
https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-saudi-arabia-ban-on-tablighi-dawah-group-7670780/
They just worry that this group is a danger to the royal family’s own rule there.
gravenimage says
Saudi Arabia: Ex-Muslim gets 15 years in prison for ‘apostasy,’ contradicting claims of reform
……………..
I guess Ali Abu Luhum is lucky that he isn’t being beheaded–unless the poor man is killed in prison, of course. In Iran, political prtisoners are often abused by violent felons, with guards and prison staff cheerinng them on.
Rafael says
Yemeni people are clever, I guess it’s because the region is pre-Islamic Arabian religion’s birthplace. There are some maybe many crypto-atheists in Yemen. You can look at the page of Irreligion in Yemen on Wikipedia.
I also anonymously expressed criticism of Islam on two platforms like Youtube. But I’ve stopped using youtube few months ago. I had many comments that I criticized Islam. Jihad Watch is the only place that I am expressing myself. I hope the Turkish authorities cannot find me. I would end up in a jail, and maybe get murdered there.
gravenimage says
Rafael–with all respect–I don’t consider many Yemenis all that clever. Yemen is one of the worst Islamic hell holes on the planet, and its population is almost 100% Muslim, save for a literal handful of Jews and some very scared secret Christian apostates from Islam. The country’s literacy rate is only 54%.
We love hearing from you here, but *please* stay safe, especially while you are still in Turkey. A Happy Christmas to you if you celebrate today!
Rafael says
Thank you, Gravenimage, for the correction, information, and good wishes. I believe I can stay safe here at some point. Anyway I’m thinking of leaving Tutkry in a few years, so I hope my path is clear. Sadly, I could not celebrated Christmas this year, because of some reasons, but, happy Christmas to you too!
OLD GUY says
Saudi Arabia is the money supporting the Jihad around the world. They spread billions of dollars throughout our education system and political leaders.to purchase favors and spread propaganda. Our political leaders and educators are selling us out, oh I know that little favor I did for them won’t change anything. And maybe thats true your little favor did’t do much, but when you put all those favor together it makes a difference.
jewdog says
Here’s a question: Is the KSA really reforming or is the leadership merely adopting Chicom-style safety-valve liberalizations in order to keep people quiet while ensuring the continuation of their iron rule? In the Soviet Union, that attempt by Gorbachev got out of control. It could lead to rebellion in the KSA as well. Time will tell.
Infidel says
Jewdog
My reading on it – and time will tell whether I’m right – is yes AND no
I do think that MbS is serious about reform. In 2017, he was there during the Trump visit where the president called on his hosts to drive out extremists out of their mosques,… Since then, Saudi Arabia has done things that others couldn’t have dreamed of during Kings Fahd and Abdullah. Allowing women to drive was one thing, but ordering the imams to stop Judeophobic sermons b’cos Saudi Arabia wanted Israeli support against Iran was another. But beyond that, they’ve done things like starting to teach their kids about other cultures and that too not in a derogatory way as they usually did, stop financing foreign mosques, imams and dawa projects, ban dawa activities as well as the Tablighi Jamaat, removed the ‘Muslims here’ sign on the road from Jeddah to Mecca, and also discussed deleting all hadiths underlying the qur’an, which is still their ‘constitution’
All that said, I don’t believe that the Saudi population is there w/ him. These sort of changes are generational, and the kids who’re being taught today this new curriculum will only surface in mainstream thought in some 20 years. So we should remain suspicious about the Saudis at large, in general. For instance, we should not have their military train at our facilities, since there are likely to be consequences like in Pensacola. I would still avoid Saudi Arabia, and any muslim country, like the plague
I also think that Saudi Arabia is doing what Egypt used to do during the regimes of Nasser and Mubarak: provide leadership to the Arab world. After Gen Sisi took over, Egypt went into an inward mode, and stopped acting or claiming leadership of the Arabs, and let the Saudis take over. That was about the time that King Salman and MbS came to power. Unlike the Saudis of the past that used to be about pan-Islamic leadership vs the Ba’athists/Socialists who used to be about pan-Arabism, today’s Saudis are more interested in just the Arab states, and less in non-Arab islamic pretenders like Turkey, Iran and Pakistan
gravenimage says
It *is* true that Saudi Arabia is now discouraging Mosques preaching hatred of Jews and Christians, a good thing–but only in a place like Saudi Arabia would this be revolutionary.