Blasphemy law in Saudi Arabia

[1]Saudi Arabian authorities use the kingdom's laws to repress all forms of public religious expression other than one school of Sunni Islam, namely, Salafism or Wahhabism.

Persons accused of blasphemy may be subjected to torture or to cruel and degrading treatment as well as to prolonged and solitary detention.

"[3] In 2008, Human Rights Watch reported that Saudi Arabia frequently convicts persons for alleged insults to religion.

[4] In 1999, the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Commission expressed concern about the lack of response from Saudi Arabia to inquiries about the circumstances of detained persons.

The authorities held Quwai for thirteen days because, by articles posted on the Internet three years earlier, he had warned that religious extremists in Saudi Arabia could be considering an attack on Riyadh.

[9] In 2005, a Saudi sharia court found Dr. Hamza Al-Maziani, a linguistics professor at King Saud University, guilty of "mocking religion".

One report says Al-Maziani had published an article lamenting the deteriorating quality of education at the university due to the influx of foreign Islamists.

Court documents charged Al-Sahimi with declaring listening to music, smoking, adultery, homosexuality, and masturbation as permissible under Islam.

[2] On 3 September 1992, Sadiq 'Abdul-Karim Malallah was publicly beheaded by sabre in al-Qatif in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province after being convicted of apostasy and blasphemy.

Malallah, a Shia Muslim from Saudi Arabia, was arrested in April 1988 and charged with throwing stones at a police patrol.

He was reportedly held in solitary confinement for long periods during his first months in detention and tortured prior to his first appearance before a judge in July 1988.

Malallah may have been involved in efforts to secure improved rights for Saudi Arabia's Shia Muslim minority.