Hamza Kashgari

Kashgari described his intentions in terms of human rights: "I view my actions as part of a process toward freedom. I was demanding my right to practice the most basic human rights—freedom of expression and thought—so nothing was done in vain. 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." Kashgari described the status of women's rights in Saudi Arabia by stating that Saudi women "won't go to hell 'because it's impossible to go there twice."

After nearly two years in prison, Kashgari was freed on October 29, 2013. Kashgari used Twitter to inform his supporters of his release. Kashgari’s lawyer, Abdul Rahman Allahim, confirmed the release in another tweet. He returned home where he was reunited with his mother.

Kashgari tweeted about his sudden release on October 29, 2013 saying "Mornings of hope...souls that live and never die. Thanks to God." Kashgari's lawyer, Abdulrahman Allahim, congratulated him on his release. There has been no comment from the Saudi government.

Kashgari became the subject of a controversy after he was accused of insulting the Islamic prophet Muhammad in three short messages published through the Twitter social networking service. King Abdullah ordered that Kashgari be arrested "for crossing red lines and denigrating religious beliefs in God and His Prophet". Kashgari left Saudi Arabia, trying to seek political asylum in New Zealand. On February 12, 2012, he was extradited from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, back to Saudi Arabia and a Malaysian High Court injunction against his extradition was issued. Whether Kashgari was deported before or after the issuing of the injunction is disputed between Malaysian authorities and Lawyers for Liberty (LFL). Saudi authorities jailed him for nearly two years without trial for his Twitter messages.

According to Gulf News, Kashgari was born to a family of Uyghur ancestry, which had emigrated from Kashgar, Xinjiang, China. Hamza Kashgari worked as a columnist for the Saudi Arabian daily Al-Bilad. On February 7, 2012, Al-Bilad issued a statement saying that they had fired Kashgari five weeks earlier for the "inadequacy of his general views for the approach of the newspaper".

On the occasion of Mawlid on February 4, 2012, Kashgari published three messages on the Twitter website about an imagined meeting with Muhammad:

Following Kashgari's controversial messages, racist comments in reference to his Turkmen family background were made against him on Twitter as "[not being] enough of a 'pure' Saudi". Reactions included over 30,000 tweets regarding the subject, a Facebook group calling for his execution that 26,632 members joined as of February 17, 2012, another Facebook group in support of him that over 1,500 members joined as of February 12, 2012, and a petition calling for all blasphemy charges against him to be dropped, signed by 7,894 people as of February 17, 2012. On February 5, 2012, Saudi cleric Nasser al-Omar called for Kashgari to be tried for apostasy, which is defined as a crime by some Muslim states. The majority of Muslim scholars hold to the traditional view that apostasy in Islam is punishable by death or imprisonment until repentance, at least for adult men of sound mind. Several contemporary Muslim scholars, including influential Islamic reformers, have rejected this, arguing for religious freedom instead. The YouTube video clip of al-Omar demand was watched over 650,000 times in the first three days.

According to Arab News, Kashgari will be charged by Saudi Arabian judicial authorities with blasphemy. Human Rights Watch believes that he is to be charged with apostasy and that he has already been declared by Saudi religious authorities to be guilty of apostasy prior to trial. In August 2012, Kashgari's family published a poem by him in which he apologized for the offense he had caused, and they asked publicly for his release, a common practice during Eid Al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of Ramadan. He was not released.

Kashgari has publicly supported the Arab Spring and according to the Malaysian NGO Lawyers for Liberty (LFL), he is active in a group supporting the Arab Spring. Lawyers for Liberty and N. Surendran of the Malaysian People's Justice Party (PKR) stated that Kashgari was monitored by Mabahith in 2011 and that he was "on a Saudi watchlist of young pro-democracy activists who had voiced support for the Arab Spring uprisings". When hundreds of people protested on January 29, 2011 in Jeddah against poor infrastructure after the city was flooded and eleven people died, Kashgari criticised the authorities' response in his public writing for al‑Bilad. He also "raised questions about the religious police". Kashgari published an article in al‑Bilad about political prisoners, who constitute one of the major motivations in the 2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests and made blog posts in support of Syrian uprising activists. In early February 2012, his group of activists were prevented by Saudi police from "organizing a series of forums to show solidarity with the Syrian uprising". On February 5, 2012, Kashgari participated in a sit‑in at Nawras Circle in Jeddah calling for the Syria Ambassador in Riyadh to be expelled. He was briefly detained by police.

On February 13, the Washington Post described King Abdullah's February 10 criticism of President Bashar al-Assad's actions during the 2011–2012 Syrian uprising to be hypocritical in comparison with his order for the prosecution of Kashgari and the killing by Saudi security forces of Muneer al-Midani on February 9 and Zuhair al-Said on February 10 in political protests in Qatif. Kashgari and his lawyers believe that the calls for his execution may be politically motivated, as part of a crackdown on Saudi Arabian activists involved in the Arab Spring.

Hamza Kashgari Mohamad Najeeb (often Hamza Kashgari, Arabic: حمزة كاشغري ‎; born 1989) is a Saudi poet and a former columnist for the Saudi daily newspaper Al-Bilad. In 2011, he was on a Mabahith watchlist of pro-democracy activists.