Two arrested for threats against columnists planning to file defamation of religion case

AMMAN — The lawyer of two men who were summoned by the police last week for allegedly posting direct and indirect threats against two Jordanian columnists on social media, said his clients are examining the idea of filing a defamation of religion case against the columnists.

“We are discussing the idea of filing a case against the two columnists Zuleikha Abu Risheh and Basel Rafayeh for defamation of our religion, instigating sectarism and slandering God and the religions,” lawyer Taher Nasser said.

Columnist Abu Risheh and Rafayeh filed a complaint over the weekend against Ahmad Zyoud and Ibrahim Abu Zeid after the two men reportedly posted several statements on their Facebook pages, which the columnists deemed as "life threatening".

Zyoud and Abu Zeid were questioned by the police on Monday and referred to the administrative governor the following day for further legal action, Nasser told The Jordan Times.

“The administrative governor questioned my clients and they left. No action was taken against them,” Nasser added.

Abu Risheh and Rafayeh, both liberal columnists, filed the complaint shortly after Abu Zeid posted on his Facebook page the following statement: “A phenomenon: Are Basel and Zuleikha practising their atheist ideologies only against the Islamic religion or it includes other religions?”

Meanwhile, Zyoud reportedly wrote on his Facebook page addressing them: “Zuleikha Abu Risheh and Basel Rafayeh do not provoke people with their religion. We have advised Nahed [Hattar not to do so] a lot.”

Hattar, who was standing trial for sharing a caricature considered insulting to religious beliefs and feelings, was on his way to attend a hearing, accompanied by family members, when he was assassinated in front of the courthouse last September by Riad Abdullah, 49, who was executed in March.

Shortly after his post went online, Zyoud took it down from his Facebook page, instead saying that he planned to file a defamation of religion case against the pair.

Abu Risheh and Rafaeh said the alleged threats against them surfaced on Facebook shortly after they both wrote statements on their respective pages criticising the newly elected Mayor Ali Abul Sukkar, an Islamist, whose one of his first official actions was to post God’s names on poles and signs in Zarqa.

“Describing us as atheists is a dangerous accusation because in our society’s beliefs, atheists and infidels should be killed. This is a direct threat to our lives,” Abu Risheh had told The Jordan Times recently.

Rafayeh also told The Jordan Times that he “received private threatening messages on his life for the past week, mainly for his writings on the God names in Zarqa”.

But Zyoud told The Jordan Times that, although his post was “indeed in reaction to what the two wrote about God’s names in Zarqa, it was not meant to provoke anyone or a mean to threaten anyone”.

“I was just advising them to respect the religion and not to provoke people because God is sacred and I have advised Hattar with the same thing because I knew him personally for a long time.  I was misunderstood unfortunately,” Zyoud said.

Abu Zeid also had similar views, stating that “he had no intention of harming anyone but had to state his opinion about something that he disagreed with.”

“I have been monitoring the writings of Abu Risheh and Rafayeh and these two are only against the Islamic religion and have criticised the fact that God’s names were posted on poles and streets of Zarqa. God is sacred and no one should make fun of that,” Abu Zeid said.

He added: “I only called in my post to form a national entity that includes community leaders and other figures that would work to form a code of honour whereby people would respect the opinions of each other.”