Twitter trolls are reporting Muslim girls to the police for posting 'blasphemous' messages online

This weekend an account was spotted sending screenshots of 'blasphemous' tweets to the Dubai police and calling for action, after a 16-year-old girl rewrote a passage of the Quran to include a slang term for vaginas

(DAMIEN MEYER/AFP/Getty Images)

Twitter trolls are reporting Muslim women and girls to authorities in the Middle East for being pro-LGBT or atheist. In many of the countries, the penalty for being seen to support such causes can be punishable by death under blasphemy laws.

The Daily Beast reports that one user took a screen-shot of a Muslim 16-year-old girl’s feminist tweet in which she re-wrote a verse from the Quran to include a slang word for vaginas. The user then tweeted the image to followers, urging them to report the girl, who is believed to be a resident of Kuwait, to the police.

The user reportedly posted "This is another atheist and we should continue exposing every Arab atheist child to their parents who do not know of their atheism."

Screenshots posted online show Dubai’s verified police account appeared to tweet the user saying: “please send your details” and supplied the police’s email address, to which he replied “has been sent”.

Shortly after, the girl who posted the original message posted “they f**king found me” and “I’m gonna puke” before deleting her account.

Other users attempted to defend the girl, with one user saying: “This counts as targeted harassment” and urging people to report the user to Twitter for breach of guidelines and harassment policies.

Soon after this, the user’s account was suspended.

Other users have told the Daily Beast that this and other accounts have been active for some time, deliberately seeking out tweets in which people from the Middle East are supporting LGBT causes or atheism and subsequently reporting them to local authorities for blasphemy.

One woman who asked for her name to be withheld for fear of retribution, said: “This tactic is not new at all. Many Arab atheists, political dissenters, and LGBQT [users] are doxed into silence. That’s why you find many of these accounts are anonymous, so that if they are targeted, their identity won’t be revealed.”

Although rare, some countries have taken criminal proceedings against citizens for posting ‘blasphemous’ messages on social media sites.

In 2012, a man in Kuwait was found guilty of “insulting the prophet Mohammed” following tweets posted on the social media site in his name. The man claimed his account had been hacked and he had not written the messages. Local religious figures had called for the death penalty to be given in the case. He was eventually jailed for 10 years.