Jordanian poet and journalist Islam Samhan was arrested on Tuesday and charged with insulting Islam for using verses from the Quran, the Muslim holy text, in love poems from his recently published collection Grace Like a Shadow, the Associated Press reported. Jordanian law prohibits any writing deemed offensive to Islam or the prophet Muhammad.
Samhan is also accused of violating Jordanian press and publication law for releasing the collection without government approval. Nuh Qdah, a top religious authority in Jordan, called Samhan’s use of the holy text “a type of atheism and blasphemy,” according to Agence France-Presse.
But Samhan, whose name translates as “tolerant Islam” according to the BBC, denies the charges, asserting that he did not mean to insult Islam or the Quran. If convicted, the twenty-seven-year-old poet faces up to three years in jail and a fine of up to twenty thousand dinars (approximately twenty-eight thousand dollars).
Writers and artists in Jordan have defended Samhan’s right to creative expression, sending a petition to the government demanding Samhan’s immediate release and calling for an end to “intimidation practiced against intellectuals.”
“Our solidarity with Samhan is not that we agree or disagree with him. It is all about the freedom of expression,” said Soud Qbeilat, president of the Jordanian Writers Association, in an interview with the Jordan Times.
Government censorship in Jordan made international news in 2006 when newspaper editors were sentenced to prison after reprinting a Danish cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammad.
