Editor jailed over Muhammad cartoons
Now Belarus is the sort of authoritarian state that you would expect to implement and use laws banning “incitement of religious hatred” and other inconvenient speech. And, sure enough, they have (via).
Aleksandr Sdvizhkov, an editor at the now-shuttered independent weekly Zgoda (Consensus) newspaper, has been sentenced to three years in a high-security prison for reprinting the Muhammed cartoons back in 2006.
Sdvizhkov was arrested on November 18 and his trial began on January 11 in Minsk, according to local news reports. He was tried behind closed doors.
“Clearly this is just a pretext to punish an independent journalist even after shutting down his publication,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “We call on the Belarusian authorities to immediately release Aleksandr Sdvizhkov.”
Belarusian Islamic leader Ismail Voronovich said he wanted authorities to reprimand the journalist, not jail him. “I thought that this case was closed and the newspaper was back working,” The Associated Press quoted Voronovich as saying today.
Sdvizhkov reprinted the controversial cartoons in Zgoda in February 2006. A month later the paper, hich had also given coverage to an opposition candidate in the 2006 presidential election, was shuttered.
Tuesday 22 Jan 2008 | Paul | Belarus
Islamofascist-Dhimmi Axis Assault on Free Speech
Muslims Against Sharia strongly denounce President Lukashenko and his KGB thugs for imprisoning Alexander Sdvizhkov. While most of the former Soviet Republics are embracing Democracy and Reform, Belarus continues to enforce fascist rules of communist era. Muslims Against Sharia demand immediate release of Alexander Sdvizhkov and reinstatement of “Zgoda” newspaper.
Mr. Sdvizhkov is convicted for incitement of religious and national hatred. We already know that Islamophobia or even mere criticism of Islam is racism, because Islam is a race. And thanks to the Dhimmis from Belarus, now we’ve learned that Islam is also a nationality. We should expect Islam to be declared a gender any day now.
Alexander Sdvizhkov is not alone. The latest casualties of Islamofascist-Dhimmi Axis Assault on Free Speech include Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, Fouad al-Farhan, Joe Kaufman, Paul Ray, Michael Savage, Mark Steyn, TomaShot, Andrew Whitehead, and many others. Are you going to be next? http://muslimsagainstsharia.blogspot.com/2008/01/islamofascist-dhimmi-axis-assault-on.html