Bloomberg News and Reuters report that on Monday a criminal court in Istanbul, Turkey convicted classical pianist and composer Fazil Say-- Turkey's most internationally renowned artist-- of insulting religious values through Twitter postings. Among the six or so Tweets mentioned in the indictment is one, for example, that makes fun of a muezzin for taking merely 22 seconds to chant the call to prayer, asking if he has a mistress or some raki waiting for him. Another is a retweet of a verse by Persian poet Omar Khayyam: "You say rivers of wine flow in heaven, is heaven a tavern to you? You say two houris await each believer there, is heaven a brothel to you?"
The court imposed a 10 month suspended sentence on Say, indicating that he would be imprisoned only if he commits a similar crime again within the next 5 years. There were also suggestions from a plaintiff in the case that the sentence might be dropped if it is shown, as has been suggested, that Say suffers from autism. The European Commission issued a statement criticizing the blasphemy conviction, emphasizing the importance for Turkey to fully respect freedom of expression as protected in the European Convention on Human Rights. Turkey's application to join the European Union has been delayed, in part because of its civil liberties record.
