Saudi faces beheading for apostasy

Kashgari, age 23, drew the apostasy charges after he posted the three Tweets, which combined both praise and criticism, addressed to the Prophet on his traditional birthday.

In the first, Kashgari declared

“I have loved the rebel in you, that you’ve always been a source of inspiration to me,” but then added: “I do not like the halos of divinity around you. I shall not pray for you.”

He followed that with a second tweet,

“I will say that I have loved aspects of you, hated others, and could not understand many more.”

In a third, Kashgari said:

“I shall not bow to you. I shall not kiss your hand. Rather, I shall shake it as equals do, and smile at you as you smile at me. I shall speak to you as a friend, no more.”

Can anybody explain to me just how this is worthy of a death sentence.

The response was massive and virulent. Within 24 hours, it had elicited more than 30,000 tweets accusing him of blasphemy and calling for his death. Someone posted Kashgari’s home address in a YouTube video, which friends said led vigilantes to come looking for him at his local mosque. A Facebook pagedemanding retribution garnered more than 18,000 members. Information Minister Abdul Aziz Khowja banned Kashgari’s local newspaper column and barred outlets across the country from publishing his work.

But perhaps most dangerous of all for Kashgari was remarks by Nasser al Omar, an influential cleric, who called for him to be tried for apostasy, a crime punishable by death. In a YouTube video Omar can be seen weeping as he calls for Kashgari’s execution, saying he is crying because Muslims are not doing enough to defend the honor of their faith.