A question on Facebook: “Is it permissible for Muslims to congratulate followers of other religions” .. It costs its owner 7 years in prison!

A court in Uzbekistan has sentenced a blogger known for his criticism of the government to seven and a half years in prison for sharing a Facebook post, his lawyer said Thursday.

Lawyer Sergei Mayorov told AFP that a court in the capital, Tashkent, on Wednesday indicted his client, blogger Fodil Hoga Arif Hogayev, for "production, storage, distribution or display of materials that threaten public safety and order."

Mayorov added that the court's attention focused on a post Hogaev shared on "Facebook" that raises the question of whether it is appropriate for Muslims to congratulate followers of other religions on non-Muslim holidays.

"This was the only crime for which Hogaev was tried," the lawyer emphasized, adding that state experts said that "the publication showed that he was spreading religious fundamentalism."

Mayorov said that the author of the post, another Facebook user, then deleted the original copy, noting that "investigators made no effort to contact the original blogger."

Activists accuse the Uzbek authorities of tight control over religious affairs in the country, which has a population of 35 million people, more than 90 percent of whom are Muslims.

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