The General Court in Jeddah is to consider a series of lawsuits brought by members of the public against a Saudi writer accusing him of “mocking the Prophet” by calling a prophetic Hadith “barbaric”. Al-Madina Arabic daily reported Thursday that Jeddah's District Court had a day earlier referred the case to the General Court, and the newspaper cited sources as saying that the accusations entailed apostasy which comes under the latter court's jurisdiction. The sources described apostasy as “a crime applicable to anyone who ridicules Almighty Allah, His Prophet (peace be upon him), or any of his deeds and words”. The plaintiffs, Al-Madina said, say they saw recordings of the unnamed writer on the YouTube website making the remarks in reference to the Prophet's Hadith, “I have not left after me any temptation more harmful to men than women”.
