1. Waleed Al-Husseini or Walid Husayin is a Palestinian atheist, secularist essayist, writer, blogger, ex-Muslim and founder of the Council of Ex-Muslims of France.
15 Facts About Waleed Al-Husseini
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Waleed Al-Husseini's arrest garnered international attention, and Al-Husseini said he was tortured during his time in prison.
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Waleed Al-Husseini, born June 25,1989, is from the West Bank city of Qalqilyah.
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Waleed Al-Husseini criticized Islam's treatment of women, its suppression of human creativity, and the allegations that the Koran contained scientific miracles.
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Waleed Al-Husseini spent several months at the Qalqilyah Internet cafe.
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On October 31,2010, Waleed Al-Husseini was arrested as he sat in the cafe.
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The PA did not give any explanation as to why Waleed Al-Husseini has been arrested.
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Waleed Al-Husseini's father, Khaled, said this his son was in treatment and had been "bewitched" by a Tunisian woman he had met via Facebook.
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Internationally, Waleed Al-Husseini's cause won support abroad with a Facebook group and several online petitions forming in solidarity.
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In early December 2010, Waleed Al-Husseini posted a letter to his family on his blog in which he apologized for offending Muslims and sought forgiveness for what he called his "stupidity".
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Waleed Al-Husseini left the West Bank for Jordan, obtained a visa from the French embassy there, and moved to Paris, where he applied for asylum.
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In early 2015, while preparing the release of his autobiography in the midst of a series of Islamist terrorist attacks in Paris, Waleed Al-Husseini made several appearances on French talk shows and news programs, and wrote an opinion piece on the need to reform Islam which was published on the website of daily newspaper Le Monde.
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Waleed Al-Husseini was the subject of a four-page piece in French news magazine Marianne.
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In 2016, Waleed Al-Husseini was in Denmark taking part in a debate about "Islam and Atheism" where he and other ex-Muslims debated the consequences of apostasy from Islam, and during the debate-conference it was necessary to have some heavily armed police guarding due to threats from religious Muslims.
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One such instance involved a Twitter post illustrated by a picture of women wearing veils and large, loose-fit Islamic dresses which Waleed Al-Husseini alleged was taken in the streets of Roubaix in northern France, while it was in fact taken in Tunisia.