A Yemeni man in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 21 years in prison after being found guilty of questioning fundamental Islamic tenets and insulting the Saudi monarchy.

The Riyadh criminal court stopped short of imposing the death penalty usually given for apostasy on the unnamed Yemeni resident of the kingdom after he rennounced his views in court.

Reports on social media suggested that the Yemeni citizen had made the offending statements in posts from his Facebook account.

Among his apparent crimes is calling Muslims “filth” and describing the Sahih al-Bukhari, a collection of hadiths or sayings about the Prophet Muhammad's life, considered by many Sunni Muslims to be the second most important text in Islam, as “fables”. The Yemeni was also found guilty of insulting companions of the Prophet and suggesting that “God should send a new prophet”.

The Yemeni reportedly suggested that the Saudi rulers were oppressive and that Mohammed Abdul-Wahhab, founder of the fundamentalist “Wahhabi” school of Islam prevalent in Saudi Arabia, is a “takfiri”. This term traditionally refers to Muslims who accuse their fellow believers of apostasy, but it has increasingly emerged as a sectarian insult in recent years.

Unlike in Saudi Arabia, where Sunnism dominates, nearly half of Yemenis are Shia. A Saudi-led coalition is currently fighting Shia Houthi militias loyal to the ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen. Over 10,000 people have been killed there since Saudi-led forces began air strikes in March 2015.

Saudis on social media have expressed their support for the punishment:

He deserves it.

@SaudiNews50 السجن قليل في حقه .. يستحق اكبر من السجن .. فالمسلمين والصحابة والسلف خط احمر — محمد الرحماني (@gh17mr) January 16, 2017

Prison is too little… he deserves greater [punishment] than prison… Muslims and companions and the pious ancestors are a red line.

Under the ultraconservative country’s strict interpretation of Islam, apostasy is one of a number of crimes punishable by the death penalty. In February 2015, a man was sentenced to death after he filmed himself tearing up a Qur’an. Later that year, a poet was given a death sentence for apparently blasphemous comments made during a discussion group.

RA

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