A liberal Kuwaiti professor convicted of mocking Islam in a newspaper article said Monday he will seek asylum in a Western country to protect his life, family and freedom of speech. Ahmed Al-Baghdadi was sentenced Sunday to a suspended year jail term for a June column he wrote saying he had decided to send his son to an expensive foreign school in Kuwait, rather than a state school, because he did not want "ignorant" teachers to teach him "how to disrespect women and non-Muslims." "After this sentence, there is nothing I can do but ask ... for political asylum in a Western country," Al-Baghdadi wrote in his daily column published in Al-Seyassah. Al-Baghdadi, who specializes in political Islam, said he was going to "stop writing about religion" until the higher Cassation Court hears his appeal. Asylum would protect his freedom and prevent any harm to his family, he added without detailing who would threaten his continued stay here. But Al-Baghdadi is a staunch liberal who has blamed extremists for teaching intolerance and encouraging young citizens to take up arms alongside militants in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya and Iraq.
Al-Baghdadi was initially taken to court over the column by two Islamists. The Appeals Court found the column "derogatory" toward Islam by connecting state school teaching of the religion to terrorism and backwardness. He was acquitted in January, but the Prosecution appealed. Al-Baghdadi said he did not know where he would consider seeking asylum, but said such a move was necessary to protect him and his family. "It has become clear that the target of my enemies - and there are so many of them in this country - is to put me behind bars at any cost," he wrote. "What good is life when you can't express your opinion?" he told The Associated Press on Monday.