Manama: Saeed Al Hamad, a journalist at the centre of a growing controversy over his writings against Muslim Brotherhood leader Wajdi Ghunaim, yesterday dismissed a petition to sue him as "an attempt by a political society to exact revenge on his newspaper and to curtail freedom of expression."
"The petition seeks to put pressure on Al Ayam newspaper in order to influence its liberal editorial policy and to put pressure on critics who refuse to be silenced or blackmailed," Al Hamad told Gulf News.
Ideology
"By portraying the newspaper as anti-Islam and its columnists as iconoclasts, those who have launched the petition seek to promote their ideology while ensuring that they are not criticised."
Al Ayam has been for the last three years embroiled in an acrimonious dispute with Islamists over several social issues.
The petition, signed by 470 people, is asking the public prosecutor to take legal action against Al Hamad and the editor-in-chief of Al Ayam, Eisa Al Shayji, for publishing articles that the petitioners said derided Islam precepts and traditions and mocked religious leaders, particularly Egyptian-born Ghunaim who has produced religious programmes on Bahrain television.
The petition said that the legal action was needed to ensure that no other columnists or journalists would scorn the religion or religious figures and made a special reference to a column published by Al Hamad on May 14.
