The Volokh Conspiracy

Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent

Free Speech

Algerian Islamic Scholar Gets 3 Years in Prison for "Offending Islam"

|The Volokh Conspiracy |


So reports the BBC:

[Said Djabelkhir] was tried after seven lawyers and a fellow academic lodged complaints against him for disrespecting Islam.

Mr Djabelkhir had said the animal sacrifice during the Muslim festival of Eid was based on a pre-Islamic pagan ritual.

He also suggested that parts of the Quran, such as the story of Noah's Ark, might not be literally true and criticised practices including the marriage of young girls in some Muslim societies.

[Algerian] law imposes a fine or prison sentence on "anyone who offends the Prophet or denigrates the dogmatic precepts of Islam, whether it be by writings, drawings, a statement or another means"….

[Djabelkhir] recently told AFP that "the traditional readings [of the Quran] no longer meet the expectations, needs and questions of modern man".

Eugene Volokh is the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA and a Visiting Fellow (Senior Fellow starting May 2024) at the Hoover Institution (Stanford). Naturally, his posts here (like the opinions of the other bloggers) are his own, and not endorsed by any educational institution.