Meanwhile... A Twitter User Has Been Jailed For Using 'Allah' In His Handle
The user was accused by prosecutors of "writing harmful content" embodying the name of God and the Prophet.
By Sadho Ram — 30 May 2014, 02:53 PM — Updated over 10 years ago
On Thursday, a Turkish Twitter user was sentenced to 15 months in prison — for using a handle that was deemed "religiously offensive"
A Twitter user in Turkey has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for using the nickname “Allah C.C.” on the popular micro-blogging website, on charges of “humiliating the religious values accepted by a part of the people.”
The user Ertan P., who works as a teacher, was accused by prosecutors in the eastern province of Muş of “writing harmful content” embodying the name of God and the Prophet.
yahoo.com
Prosecutors in Muş province went after the user for using the name of God in his Twitter handle and for tweeting messages against the government
At times, the user spoke in the voice of Allah while criticizing Turkish officials. In reference to a police crackdown against massive protests opposed to the government in June, 2013, Yahoo News reports that @CenabiAllah wrote "Here [Heaven] is very safe because there is no police."
mashable.com
C.C is the abbreviation of the honoric Arabic phrase "Celle Celaluhu" which means, "[Allah's] glory is so almighty."
The user reportedly claimed that the account had been hacked at the time of the anti-government tweets, but the court did not buy the argument
“The suspect has accepted the use of the nickname and the posts, but in order to avoid the crime, he said posts could have been written after the account was hacked. It is understood that this claim is unfounded and the investigation files prove him guilty as charged,” the indictment said.
alarabiya.netHowever, this is not an isolated incident
In a case that drew much public attention, Turkish pianist Fazıl Say was sentenced to 10 months after retweeting several lines attributed to the poet Omar Khayyam.
Sevan Nişanyan, a writer and linguist of Armenian origin, was also convicted to 58 weeks in prison for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a blog post.
yahoo.comTurkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pledged to "eradicate" Twitter this past March, as officials said the site was being used to spread messages of dissent. But the government managed to block the site for just two weeks after the nation's highest court said the ban violated the rights of citizens.
mashable.com