Twitter Blasphemy Watch: 26,000 Now Call for Death of Hamza Kashgari

As of this morning, over 26,000 Facebookers are calling for the death of poet and feminist Hamza Kashgari for Twitter blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad. The number has been steadily climbing over the past week.

If you find this as distressing as I do, and would like to offer some pushback to it, I received the following email today from Petitionsite.com, and now forward it to others who might want to have a look at the site and sign a petition circulating on behalf of Hamza Kashgari’s release from Saudi detention. Should he be convicted at trial for blasphemy, he is likely to be beheaded.

Tell Your Friends: End the Death Calls for Saudi Poet and Blogger! Forward to a friend >> Reread the petition >>     Dear Santi, Thank you so much for signing the petition demanding the release of Saudi Arabian blogger Hamza Kashgari and standing up for every citizen of the world’s universal human right to free expression. Tell your friends and family to defend the basic human right to free speech by signing this petition!» Please urge your friends and family to take action. You can send your friends a message with our tell-a-friend tool, post the petition to your Facebook profile, tweet it or copy and send the sample message below: Sample email: Hey! Hamza Kashgari, a blogger from Saudi Arabia, was threatened with death this week for a couple of tweets regarding the Prophet Muhammad. He has since apologized and deleted the tweets, but his foes remain incensed. I recently signed this petition to urge the Saudi government to let Kashgari go, and you can, too. http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AGCir/zmd4/B0Efk Kashgari’s persecution by the Saudi Arabian authorities violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which gives individuals the right to their own opinion and freedom of expression. Every individual reserves the right to retain their own opinion even if it differs from their government, but some governments will do anything to stifle them. Join me and stand up for human rights and free speech! http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AGCir/zmd4/B0Efk Thanks! Thanks for taking action!Rachel