This is the collection of essays that led the Saudi Arabian government to sentence Badawi to a 1,000-lash punishment on top of a ten-year prison sentence. When you read it, you realize how his words are no different from things we regularly post on sites like this one — though Badawi has the rare gift of being incredibly eloquent — but most of us can speak our minds without putting our lives in jeopardy. Badawi knew he woul d be in danger by putting these essays out there and yet he still published them. That’s courage. As reader Richard Wilson wrote on this site, “The least we can do is understand how he got to this point. It would be tragic for his words not to travel far and wide.”
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