Why do religions fear words so?

A court in Kuwait has sentenced a man to 10 years in prison for endangering state security by insulting the Prophet Muhammad and the rulers of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in messages on Twitter.

Hamad al-Naqi was also found guilty of mocking Islam and provoking sectarian tensions.

Mr Naqi, a Shia Muslim, had said his Twitter account was hacked and that he did not write any of the messages. Some Sunni activists had demanded that he be sentenced to death for blasphemy.

An amended law endorsed by the Kuwaiti parliament last month stipulates capital punishment for any Muslim who, through any form of expression, insults God, his prophets, messengers, the Prophet Muhammad’s wives or the Koran, unless the defendant publicly repents.

If the defendant repents, a sentence of at least five years’ imprisonment will be imposed. Repeat offenders will receive the death sentence…

About a third of Kuwait’s 1.1 million citizens are Shia. The emirate’s Sunni-led government is concerned Shias may launch protests demanding more democracy and an end to discrimination, mirroring those in majority-Shia Bahrain and in Saudi Arabia’s predominantly Shia Eastern Province.

They don’t appear to be concerned in the least about freedom of thought or speech, though. Would you expect anything different from a monarchy supported by theocracy?

Think what we get to look forward to – between the FBI looking over our cyber shoulder at Tweets and blog posts and the all-American possibility of fundamentalist crazies and their flunkies in politics attaining complete control of the federal government some day?