Who's Insulting Islam: Fazil Say or His Punishers?
The conviction of composer Fazil Say for blasphemy based upon a series of tweets has elicited outrage among pro-democracy advocates, writes Orhan Kemal Cengiz.
On Monday, April 15, I sent out a tweet: “In 21st century’s Turkey, someone received a prison sentence for citing a poem written in the 11th century.”
I was but one of those tens of thousands who were protesting the prison sentence given to internationally renowned pianist and composer Fazil Say. Say has received a postponed 10-month prison sentence for blasphemy for allegedly “denigrating religious values,” which is a punishable crime under Article 216/3 of the Turkish penal code.
Thousands and thousands of people were protesting Say’s prison sentence on Twitter just because he received this punishment for the remarks he quoted in his tweets and re-tweets.
Last autumn, prosecutors introduced an indictment against Fazil Say, claiming that he insulted Islam and religious values with nine tweets he either himself made or re-tweeted. Here are some of the tweets prosecutors cited: “I am not sure if you have noticed, but where there is a louse, a non-entity, a low life, thief or fool, they are all Islamists. Is this a paradox?”; “The muezzin recited the evening prayer in 22 seconds. Pretissimo con fuca!!! What is your hurry? A lover? Raki?”; “I am an atheist, and I am proud to say this with such ease”; “You say that the rivers flow with wine, is heaven a tavern? You say that you will give every believer two very beautiful women, is heaven a brothel?”
