The Blasphemer: The Price I Paid for Rejecting Islam

The Blasphemer is the autobiography of Waleed Al-Husseini, a Palestinian ex-Muslim atheist activist, published in 2015. The author wrote it originally in Arabic. The French edition, titled Blasphémateur ! : les prisons d'Allah ("Blasphemer! Allah's Prisons"), appeared on 14 January 2015 from Éditions Grasset & Fasquelle, translated by Chawki Freiha. An English translation followed from Skyhorse Publishing in May 2017, and an Italian one from Nessun Dogma in September 2018. The book came out just after the Charlie Hebdo shooting.

Al-Husseini was born and raised in Qalqilya, Palestine, in a Sunni Muslim family. The book follows his journey from faith to atheism: his first doubts, his questioning of the precepts of Islam, and the social stigma attached to losing one's faith. His activism online, through his blog "The Voice of Reason", in defense of human rights and in criticism of Islam, eventually drew the attention of the country's security service, which imprisoned him for insulting the state religion. He says he never expected to be jailed for his writing, but it was read so widely that the Palestinian authorities saw him as a threat.

While in detention he suffered physical and psychological torture. He was eventually released on parole while awaiting final trial, and took the opportunity to flee to France as a political refugee. After settling there, he became one of the co-founders of the Council of Ex-Muslims of France (CEMF).