The Volokh Conspiracy - Azerbaijani Journalists Being Prosecuted (and Being Targeted With an Iranian Ayatollah's Fatwa)

for Publishing Article Critical of Islam and (Possibly) Mohammed: An article by the Committee to Protect Journalists, on the Today.Az site reports,

Editor-in-Chief Samir Sadagatoglu and reporter Rafiq Tagi of the independent newspaper Senet were arrested on November 15, after publishing an article that alleged Islam's influence was hindering Azerbaijan's economic and political development. The Nasimi District Court initially ordered that Sadagatoglu and Tagi be kept in pretrial detention for two months with a trial expected to begin in mid-January, according to international press reports.

But on Thursday, Nasimi District Court Judge Gulnar Tagizade extended the pretrial detention for another two months, according to CPJ sources and local press reports....

The journalists are charged with inciting national, ethnic, or religious hatred under Article 283 of the penal code, which could bring up to five years in prison upon conviction, according to international press reports.

Tagi's article provoked outrage among hard-line Islamists in Azerbaijan and Iran, who called for the journalists to be executed, according to local press reports. Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Fazel Lankarani, one of Iran's most senior clerics, issued a fatwa calling for the deaths of the two journalists. After the article was published, Tagi and his family were placed under police protection, according to local press reports....

An International Herald Tribune last month reported similarly on earlier phases of the story (so did the New York Times, but that story is now behind a pay wall). According to the Tribune story, "The article blamed Islam for Azerbaijan's meager development and likened the Prophet Muhammad to a used handkerchief," but other news sources also cast doubt on whether the article in fact insulted Mohammed, or just blamed Islam for Azerbaijan's backwardness.

The Chairman of the Islamic Party of Azerbaijan has demanded that the law "punish these provocateurs severely" (full interview available here; it seems to be the same text as what I found in the BBC Monitoring Trans Caucucus file on NEXIS). The Iranian ayatollah's death sentence is available in English on the cleric's own site. The ayatollah is the same one who responded to the Pope's recent quotes of criticisms of Islam by saying that "We can easily prove for [the Pope] that Islam is the religion of peace and mercy." Okay then.

Can anyone, by the way, point me to a copy of the article, apparently titled Europe and We and published in the Sanat newspaper? I'd naturally prefer it in English or Russian, but if I get an Azeri copy I should be able to get it translated.

	[Eugene Volokh, January 18, 2007 at 1:00pm] Trackbacks Azerbaijani Journalists Being Prosecuted (and Being Targeted With an Iranian Ayatollah's Fatwa) for Publishing Article Critical of Islam and (Possibly) Mohammed: An article by the Committee to Protect Journalists, on the Today.Az site reports, Editor-in-Chief Samir Sadagatoglu and reporter Rafiq Tagi of the independent newspaper Senet were arrested on November 15, after publishing an article that alleged Islam's influence was hindering Azerbaijan's economic and political development. The Nasimi District Court initially ordered that Sadagatoglu and Tagi be kept in pretrial detention for two months with a trial expected to begin in mid-January, according to international press reports. But on Thursday, Nasimi District Court Judge Gulnar Tagizade extended the pretrial detention for another two months, according to CPJ sources and local press reports.... The journalists are charged with inciting national, ethnic, or religious hatred under Article 283 of the penal code, which could bring up to five years in prison upon conviction, according to international press reports. Tagi's article provoked outrage among hard-line Islamists in Azerbaijan and Iran, who called for the journalists to be executed, according to local press reports. Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Fazel Lankarani, one of Iran's most senior clerics, issued a fatwa calling for the deaths of the two journalists. After the article was published, Tagi and his family were placed under police protection, according to local press reports.... An International Herald Tribune last month reported similarly on earlier phases of the story (so did the New York Times, but that story is now behind a pay wall). According to the Tribune story, "The article blamed Islam for Azerbaijan's meager development and likened the Prophet Muhammad to a used handkerchief," but other news sources also cast doubt on whether the article in fact insulted Mohammed, or just blamed Islam for Azerbaijan's backwardness. The Chairman of the Islamic Party of Azerbaijan has demanded that the law "punish these provocateurs severely" (full interview available here; it seems to be the same text as what I found in the BBC Monitoring Trans Caucucus file on NEXIS). The Iranian ayatollah's death sentence is available in English on the cleric's own site. The ayatollah is the same one who responded to the Pope's recent quotes of criticisms of Islam by saying that "We can easily prove for [the Pope] that Islam is the religion of peace and mercy." Okay then. Can anyone, by the way, point me to a copy of the article, apparently titled Europe and We and published in the Sanat newspaper? I'd naturally prefer it in English or Russian, but if I get an Azeri copy I should be able to get it translated.