Alexander Aan: Both a Symbol and a Real Person in Need

Many of the bigger secular and civil rights organizations have been making noise about the case of Alexander Aan, the 30-something civil servant of West Sumatra, Indonesia, who was beaten by an angry mob and then arrested and convicted all for stating his atheism on Facebook.

At the Center for Inquiry (where I work), Aans situation has been perhaps our primary focus as an organization since the Student Leadership Conference last month, most recently with a protest held this past Friday in front of the Indonesian Consulate in New York City.

(For a great summation of this case, Im posting a conversation between CFIs Michael De Dora and Chris Mooney fromPoint of Inquiry about Aan at the end of this piece below.)

But why is this such a priority? This is actually a good... [via Friendly Atheist]