A Kuwaiti human rights activist and blogger, Mohammed was arrested and charged for a blasphemous tweet. He had criticized the Salafist group al-Jamiya for "blindly following its religious leader."
being a member of the Kuwaiti National Committee for Monitoring Violations
In August 2014, Kuwaiti blogger and human rights advocate Mohammed al-Amji, better known by his Twitter handle @abo3asam, was arrested and detained over a tweet that criticized the Salafi organization al-Jamiya for unquestioning devotion to their religious leader, Hamad al-Uthman. Mohammed accused al-Jamiya of celebrating the revocation of a Muslim preacher’s citizenship, allowed under a new law that allowed the Kuwaiti government to take citizenship from anyone deemed a threat to “national security and public order.”
"Prosecuting this netizen over a tweet is absurd. The regime has again resumed its political of cracking down on outspoken dissidents." - Virginie Dangles, Reporters Without Borders assistant research director
After his arrest, a hashtag calling for “freedom for Abo Asam” (#الحرية_لبوعسم) circulated on Twitter. Demonstrators sympathetic to his human rights activism additionally gathered to show their support for Mohammed. Though he went on hunger strike the day after his arrest, he was released on bail a few days later.
Mohammed had not been a stranger to run-ins with the law over similar grievances with his online speech. He had previously been arrested on accusations of defaming Kuwait’s emir as well as for his involvement in a protest. However, troubles with the law aside, he continues to tweet actively today.
Kuwait is formally an emirate where Islam is the official state religion. Roughly three-quarters of the population is Muslim, and the most sizeable religious minority is Christian. Ridiculing religious practices can result in fines and/or a year's imprisonment, and other laws prohibit the publication or public expression, including on the internet, of material that denigrates or otherwise offends a recognized religious group.