A Jordanian court on Monday sentenced Islamist preacher Eyad Qunaibi to two years in prison for promoting “anti-state propaganda.”
Qunaibi, a well-known support of Islamist groups throughout the Middle East, was sentenced after being arrested in June for a Facebook post he authored opposing Amman’s peace treaty with Israel.
In his piece, called “Jordan heading for the abyss,” Qunaibi slammed both the treaty and Jordan’s increasing closeness with the West.
The post condemns the government for increasing openness to “western illnesses,” including mixed swimming pools, expressing solidarity with the dead at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris – which had, after all, mocked Muhammad – the invitations to Israeli officials, including former President Shimon Peres, fashion shows in which models wear skimpy clothes, and much more.
He had previously been detained for 15 days in administrative detention. In the past, he has criticized Arab media for giving coverage to South Africa’s Nelson Mandela for his non-violent resistance to apartheid, calling him an “infidel.”
In August, the Human Rights Watch organization said that along with Qunaibi, Jordanian officials had filed charges against a newspaper editor, Ataf al-Jalawani, over the country’s business dealings with India, considered a pagan land in Islam.