Atheist Ghazi Beji, who was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison in absentia last March for insulting Islam has written an apology to Muslims. Beji, who fled the country before being sentenced for publishing a satirical book entitled “The illusion of Islam, published the apology on his Facebook page and in an interview with Nawaat.org this week:

I belong to a very conservative family. At 12, I used to recite Quran. I took part in a Quran recitation competition at the Grand Mosque of Mahdia, and I won the first prize. When I mixed with Muslims, I discovered catastrophes and I was very disappointed. I saw them boasting about an external appearance of Islam, either clothes or utterances…But, in action they were faithless to God’s book…I was thinking about it and I wanted Muslims to wake up from their slumber. They would talk about truth but would never utter it if it harms their own interests, they would pray but would not care about garbage next to the mosque, and they would preach about justice but would not put it into practice. My idea was to provoke Muslims.

Asked whether he thinks Tunisians will believe his apology, Beji answered:

I really want people to believe me. I wanted to unsettle them, to wake them up. I had never thought, that I would be sentenced to seven and half years in prison, especially that my book was published on my own Facebook page, and Tunisians can already read everything on the Internet.

Ghazi Beji now lives in Romania, after obtaining asylum. Meanwhile, his friend Jabeur Mejri is still behind bars after an appeal court upheld his conviction, Mejri was also sentenced to seven and half years in prison over the publishing of Prophet Muhammad cartoons. The defence will now appeal to the Cassation Court, which is the highest court of appeal.

Journalists, activists, lawyers and citizens have created a committee to support the two friends.  In a statement released on 21 July they announced, on behalf of Beji and Mejri, intentions to lobby the government and the National Constituent Assembly (NCA), the body responsible for drafting Tunisia’s new constitution:

The committee has noticed the lack of attention given from the international community, and the local civil society components to a case, which promises a comeback of the wave of shutting people’s mouths, and of suppressing their right to freedom of expression. Thus, the committee has decided to keep putting pressure on national associations, contacting NCA members, and petitioning the Human Rights Ministry to raise their awareness about the gravity of this case, which represents a violation to Tunisia’s commitment to international conventions, and a step back from the Tunisian Revolution’s gains, topped by the right to freedom of expression to all citizens without discrimination

“We support the prisoner Jabeur, and the refugee Ghazi judicially, and morally”, said Henda Hendoud a journalist and a founding member of the committee. Henda has also expressed her concern that a possible “vengeance act” might take place against Mejri while in prison.