Why Are Saudis Tearing Up the Quran?

Looks like the kingdom's atheists have finally found their voice

AUTHOR: Rachael Levy
POSTED: Mar 24, 2014 08:52 EDT

Saudi Arabia is not the go-to country when you think of atheism, being one of the world’s most repressive Islamic societies. Turns out we may have them pegged all wrong. A 2012 Gallup poll revealed that there is a similar proportion of atheists in Saudi Arabia as in the United States and parts of Europe, and what’s more, those atheists are being increasingly vocal, despite the threat of violence against them.

Atheists in Saudi Arabia tend to keep a low profile (because beheadings), and because Islamic law is the law of the land, they often maintain a semblance of religious observance in public. Not so online, where they’re skirting danger and expressing their atheism via anonymous accounts. The dual existence makes for some incongruous posting—like the user below, defiantly declaring atheism from Mecca, with the holy Qabaa stone in the background.



Twitter profiles dedicated to atheism in Arabic have large followings—the Twitter handle @Atheistguide has more than 30,000 followers, primarily from the Middle East. In the last month alone, the hashtag #Atheist in Arabic was tweeted more than 70,000 times.

When Saudi Arabia issued a decree criminalizing the practice of atheism this month, it sparked a blasphemous campaign in response. The hashtag #CampaigntoTearTheQuraninSaudiArabia was tweeted more than 7,800 times in the span of a week, circulating images of protest.

http://www.vocativ.com/world/saudi-arabia-world/blasphemy-land-two-holy-mosques/

https://twitter.com/atheistguide