By Abdulla Gaafarelkhalifa
On December 29, 2021, Aneesh Jasy, a well-known Tamil Ex-Muslim Atheist with a large social media following, was arrested by police in Coimbatore, in the Indian State of Tamil Nadu, for Facebook posts where he criticized Islam.
According to The News Minute, a friend of Jasy said that the police had taken him without a warrant. Jasy and his wife were initially told that he had to be brought to the Kuniyamuthur police station regarding a colleague.
When there, he learned he was being charged under the Indian Penal Code for deliberate and malicious acts meant to outrage religious feelings (295), promoting enmity between different groups of religion, race, place of birth, etc. (153), and making statements relating to public mischief (505).
An example of one of these offensive Facebook posts (below) involved a reference to a recent viral video of a devotee of Annapoorani Arasu Amma, a self-proclaimed godwoman.
The text on the top reads, "Islamists don't you guys think?" The text below says, "What this woman is doing is funny to you? Didn't Mohammad do the same thing 1400 years ago?"
Another compares the Quran to the Vedas, emphasizing their insignificance.
The meme in this post reads as follows:
Muslim: Christians are making disgusting comments towards Islam, something needs to be done about it.
Ex-Muslim: I’m Ex-Muslim, even I’m disgusted by your Quran and Hadith.
The police in Tamil Nadu are known to make arrests like this frequently. People are usually jailed for 20 days or so and released on bail.
Iranian Ex-Muslim Atheist Activist Maryam Namazie posted a link on Facebook to a change.org petition to support his release.
The petition demands that all charges against Aneesh be immediately dropped. You can add your signature to this petition here.
