1. The Indictment

We, Atif Fayyad, the Investigating Judge in Beirut, after examining the documents and the petition number 16837 (dated December 17th, 1969), charge the defendant, Dr. Sadik Jalal Al-Azm, 35 years old (whose mother's name is Naziha), arrested in absentia on December 19th, 1969, imprisoned January 8th, 1970, and released on January 15th, 1970, with the following offense: in Beirut and within the period of legal accountability, undertaking the publication of the book Critique of Religious Thought, which tended to instigate confessional strife. The Public Prosecutor has also charged the Defendant, Dr. Bashir Al-Daouk, the owner of Dar Al-Talia Publishing House, on January 2nd, 1970, in accordance with Articles 219 and 317 of the Penal Code and Article 62 from the Press Law.

First: Factual Findings

The Defendant, Dr. Sadik Jalal Al-Azm, published a book under the title Critique of Religious Thought, [A 147] composed of 230 pages and divided into a number of topics, summarized as follows: “Introduction,” “Scientific Culture and the Poverty of Religious Thought,” “The Tragedy of Satan,” “A Reply to a Criticism,” “The Miracle of the Apparition of the Virgin and the Eradication of the Traces of Aggression,” “Deception in Contemporary Western Christian Thought,” and “Introduction to the Scientific-Materialist Conception of the Universe and its Development.”

In treating the majority of these topics, the Defendant addresses the revealed religions in general and Islam in particular, and in so doing raises doubts, disparages, ridicules, and scorns these religions and their doctrines and teachings, to the point of departing from pure scientific research and trespassing into the region that is punishable by law.

Since this study contains accounts and statements that involve the raising of doubts in and the disparagement of religious doctrines, and scorn and ridicule for religious teachings, we will examine as examples some of the statements that tend to agitate for confessional strife and incite sectarian conflict.