Kurdish author convicted of blasphemy
While British legislators discuss scrapping blasphemy legislation once and for all, the Kurdish author of Sex, Sharia and Women in the History of Islam has been convicted in absentia (via) in Iraq for blasphemy.
A court in Halabja sentenced Mariwan Halabjaee - who is currently living in Norway after having received death threats over the book - to six months behind bars for claiming in his book the prophet Mohammed had 19 wives, married a 9-year-old when he was 54 and committed murder and rape. The sentence states that he will be immediately arrested if he returns to Iraqi Kurdistan.
Sunday 13 Jan 2008 | Paul | Iraq
[...] living in hiding in Norway for a year and a half, and has been granted political asylum. He was sentenced to jail in absentia in Iraq last year for suggesting that the prophet Mohammad had 19 wives, [...]