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Death for writers condemned

Arab human rights activists have condemned a Saudi religious edict calling for the execution of two writers for apostasy — giving a rare glimpse of tensions over Islam inside the conservative kingdom.

The ruling by Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Barrak was called “intellectual terrorism” by “clerics of darkness” in a statement obtained by Reuters and signed by 100 human rights groups and intellectuals from the region. Last month Barrak issued a fatwa against two Saudi writers.

“Anyone who claims this has refuted Islam and should be tried so that he can take it back. If not, he should be killed as an apostate from the religion of Islam,” he said. “It is disgraceful that articles [of] this kind of apostasy should be published in ... the land of [Mecca and Medina].”— © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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