You may not have heard of Waleed Al Husseini, a Palestinian atheist living in Jerusalem, but many Middle Eastern atheists and Muslims have. I opened the newspaper a couple of days ago to see a story announcing Waleed's capture! Having a sense of duty I felt that I should write about Waleed and tell his story.
Waleed is a 26 year old unemployed computer science graduate. Day to day he would help his father with a one chair barber shop in the West Bank.
Nowadays Waleed (pictured above) is portrayed as a demon. There is a Facebook page dedicated to his vilification. He is facing charges of defaming religion according to a 1960 Jordanian law that is still valid in the west bank. His crimes are the creation of a controversial blog and two Facebook pages.
Here is the blog that Waleed used to post his arguments against Islam: -
http://noor-alaqel.blogspot.com/
What infuriated the Islamic world most is the fact that this blog is written in Arabic; the language of the Koran and in such a logical, reasonable way.
It illustrates mistakes (in his opinion) that enraged Muslims across the land, triggering them to ask for his execution. He went on to make a facebook page that advertised his blog and gave it further recognition. Here he allowed and encouraged people to debate him, but instead they were more interested in cursing him. Waleed then created a facebook page entitled “Allah”, branding himself the Muslim god and writing new verses as additions to the Koran, which were highly poetic and sarcastic. This infuriated Muslims even more.
I had the honour of speaking to Waleed one day on Facebook chat. I told him that I admired his work, but warned him that he’d be hunted down and it wouldn’t be long before they’d put him in jail, even worse kill him. He replied that he was sick and tired of people thinking that all Palestinians were religious and that they must know that there are atheists in the Arab world. He told me that he was trying to put a message out there…
”People are not forced to read my blog, they have to search for it.” He added “People can easily not like my page on Facebook and never hear of it again”
I happen to think that he had a point.
He also said that he was not using the internet from his home and that he was at an internet café. Sadly that’s how he got caught…
The internet cafe owner suspected that Waleed wasn't an ordinary client because he didn't play online billiards and look at pictures of girls. He grew even more suspicious when Waleed wouldn't let anyone come close and see what he was doing. (Statement from the owner of the internet cafe Mr. Ahmad Abu Asab)
So Mr. Asab used software that allowed him to check the websites that his clients were using. Low and behold he found the Facebook page “Allah”. Mr. Asab stated that only he and three other people knew of his finding and that “maybe somebody informed the authorities”
Then of course being the good guy he is, Mr. Asab kept copies of the pages and the Palestinian authorities downloaded the material. The next day they arrested Waleed.
He has been detained by Palestinian authorities since end of October. Palestinian human rights groups have remained silent. The Facebook pages have been deleted, but the blog remains. Atheists around the world should be told. We should defend him with what little we can. His story must reach every corner of the world!
Please help.
Free his free mind.
Free Waleed...
Source: International Herald Tribune: A blasphemous blog enrages Muslims
