Millions of people rallied to the support of Raif Badawi – who will care for a poor young man in Mauritania? - Comment - Voices - The Independent

I will admit, I had to look it up.  I have never heard of the West African country of (Islamic Republic of) Mauritania.  According to what I could find, they still have slavery and are a major player in human trafficking. The current government is hugely corrupt, with rampant misogyny (female genital mutilation was only recently outlawed) and child labor.  Sounds like a bad place to be anything but Islamic, let alone a writer who criticized the ‘prophet’ Mohammed.

Know just that little bit make the following plea from the pen of Ensaf Haider, wife of imprisoned blogger, Raif Badawi, all the more poignant.

During December 2013, a young Mauritanian blogger called Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mkhaitir wrote a blog where he defended the rights of his people in Mauritania, who are used and exploited based on their history when they were slaves.

In the article he referred to the double standards used by the prophet Muhammad himself when he dealt with the Jews and the Arabs. He said that the prophet killed the Jews but forgave the Arabs because they are his blood. In his blog, he tried to show how religion plays a role in the social hierarchy and discrimination between social classes.

Some people in Mauritania took to the streets demonstrating against the article, shouting “death to the blogger”. It was considered a blasphemy towards the prophet, because it showed the prophet as an unjust person who preferred his tribe over others.

The authorities arrested Mohamed Cheikh on 2 January 2014 and he appeared in court in December, which sentenced him to death on the same day. Before the announcement of the sentence, he pronounced the Shahada and made clear that he was a Muslim, explaining that his intention was not to criticise the Prophet. He also apologised for what he wrote.

Millions of people rallied to the support of Raif Badawi – who will care for a poor young man in Mauritania? - Comment - Voices - The Independent