"The Salman Rushdie of Iraqi Kurdistan" convicted of blasphemy.

As reported by United Press International, Mariwan Halabjaee,* "the Salman Rushdie of Iraqi Kurdistan," was was sentenced in absentia in Iraqi Kurdistan to prison for blasphemy. A court in Halabja sentenced Halabjaee to six months behind bars. The allegedly "blasphemous" book, Sex, Sharia and Women in the History of Islam, is about how Islam is allegedly used to oppress women. "I wanted to prove how oppressed women are in Islam and that they have no rights," said Halabjaee. "My book is based on Islamic sources such as the Holly Qur'an, Muslim and Bukhari books and many more." Halabjaee was forced to obtain political asylum in Norway after the Islamic League of Kurdistan issued a "conditional" fatwa to kill him if he did not repent and apologize for writing his book. The "conditional" nature of the fatal fatwa was uncertain. Halabjaee reported that "the mullahs and scholars said if I go to them and apologize they will give me 80 lashes and then refer me to the fatwa committee to decide if I am to be beheaded. They might forgive me, they might not." Halabjaee received telephone calls saying, "Now, in 10 years or 15 years, we will kill you." Another time, Halabjaee reported, "the Islamists said once from the radio, if they found out where I was, they would blow themselves up with me." The worse thing was realizing that his wife and children were in danger. "With that book I wanted to defend women but the first thing I did was hurt my wife." As a result, Halabjaye went into hiding with his pregnant wife and three children. A dedicated website, Sex, Sharia and Women in the History of Islam, was created to facilitate Internet distribution of the book. The book can be downloaded in Adobe Acrobat PDF format, compressed zip format, compressed rar format, and as jpeg graphic files for each individual page. The website Sex, Sharia and Women in the History of Islam was founded on the belief that the best way to respond to those who try to suppress publication of an academic book is to increase publication, promotion and distribution of that book. The most efficient way to do that was on the Internet. It was also based on the belief that the only thing that should be accomplished by those who seek to suppress publication of the book Sex, Sharia and Women in the History of Islam was to cause it to be published to the entire world. * Mariwan Halabjaee (sp. Marywan / Halabjay, Halabjayee, Halabjaye, Halabjayi)