And While I'm on the Topic of Crime...

...here's an example of the opposite extreme:

Saudi blogger Hamza Kashgari jailed, may face execution after tweets about Muhammad

"Hamza Kashgari, the young Saudi blogger whose foolhardy tweets about Prophet Muhammad left conservative clerics baying for his blood, is a poet and a dreamer, says a former colleague."

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"“Hamza always liked being alone, he wasn’t a social person,” said a senior editor at Al Bilad, the newspaper Mr. Kashgari used to work for.

“He had a broken look in his eyes and I think that was a sign of sadness or depression. He’s a poet and had a lot of philosophical ideas.”"

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"“The only choice is for Kashgari to be killed and crucified in order to be a lesson to other secularists,” commented Abu Abdulrahman, an online reader of al-Madina newspaper."

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"Some observers suggest the country’s conservative clerics seized on Mr. Kashgari’s tweets as a way of pushing back against the modest reforms enacted by King Abdullah. These include allowing women to vote in local elections and to work in lingerie stores.

They also point out Saudi clerics have been quick to realize the potential of the Internet as a tool for proselytizing. They are now among some of the country’s most active tweeters."

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"Before his arrest, Mr. Kashgari said in an interview with the U.S. news website the Daily Beast he did not think he could ever go home because of the death threats, but was also defiant.

“I view my actions as part of a process toward freedom. I was demanding my right to practise the most basic human rights — freedom of expression and thought – so nothing was done in vain,” he said.

“I believe I’m just a scapegoat for a larger conflict. There are a lot of people like me in Saudi Arabia who are fighting for their rights.”"

Which is why I have hope for the Muslim world. There is a generational conflict going on. The old, gray-haired men in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, as well as the clerics, who are themselves old and gray-haired, will soon enough pass away and young people like Hamza Kashgari will take their place.

I've been a reader of Irshad Manji's blog for a long time. She is another young Muslim who acts as a bellwether for the future. According to Manji, she gets many, many, many emails and comments from young Muslims expressing more or less the same ideas as Hamza Kashgari. The hardliners are creating martyrs of a different kind than what they would like.