call to release jordanian poet
a photo of Islam Samhan by Salah Malkawi (2008)
Since October, 2008, Islam Samhan remains in jail, accused of writing love poetry using quotes from the Koran. This BBC article:
Writers in Jordan are calling for the immediate release of a poet charged with insulting Islam in love poetry.
Islam Samhan's recent collection, Grace Like A Shadow, includes phrases from the Koran, viewed as sacrosanct by Muslims as the literal word of God.
One of Jordan's leading religious figures, the grand mufti, has accused Mr Samhan of blaspheming against "God, the angels and Prophet Muhammad".
Jordanian law bans publication of any material seen as harmful to Islam.
The BBC's Arab affairs analyst Magdi Abdelhadi says poetry lovers hailed this first collection by Mr Samhan - whose name ironically translates as "tolerant Islam" - as a breakthrough, calling it innovative and beautiful.
However, despite the critical praise Mr Samhan has now been remanded in custody for two weeks while awaiting trial.
Grand Mufti Nuh Qdah said in a recent radio interview that poetry in which words from the Koran were combined with sexual themes was "a type of atheism and blasphemy", the AFP news agency reports.
The penalty in Jordan for insulting Islam or the Muslim prophet is up to three years in jail.
Of the many things I do not understand how can poetry threaten a person's belief system? I can only assume the Grand Mufti has spent some time and energy thinking about his personal beliefs in order to rise to the position of Mufti; are people in Jordon so weak that a simple poems, a love poem, can break their faith and require the arrest of the author? I pity Nuh Qdah, he seems like a sad, broken man to have so little faith as to let verse about love do this and I pity the people of Jordon; it is indeed a land where faith can sway and fall with the reading of a poem.
So tell me why is it that the zealot
always has the weakest faith? How can words
shake god and the angels and the prophet
Mohammad? Truly, you are all cowards,
faithless to begin with, to give poets
so much power. Why? The poet hazards
so much and receive so little. Couplets
are poor exchange for walking in orchards
with the angels, for dinner with the saints,
for a glimpse at the Prophet. Would you kick
beggars? Would you jail the faithful at prayer?
But you do jail poets. All your complaints
come down to this: you're a faithless cleric
indeed to give poets so much power.