Islamist call for Algerian author's death stirs outrage

An Islamist call for author Kamel Daoud to be condemned to death for alleged apostasy has stirred outrage in Algeria, reviving dark memories of the country's brutal civil war.

Salafist activist Abdelfatah Hamadache Ziraoui has called on his Facebook page for authorities to impose the death penalty against the author and to execute him in public.

The call came after Daoud, in an appearance on French television, criticized the relationship between Muslims and their religion.

Ziraoui, who campaigns for bans on alcohol and bathing costumes on the beach, accused the author of apostasy for "waging war on Allah, his prophet, the Koran and the values sacred to Islam."

Contacted by AFP, the author and journalist said he has filed a lawsuit in the western city of Oran against what he termed a death threat.

The case has stirred outrage on social media, with a petition calling for Algerian authorities to take action against “such murder calls which bring back the worst days” of the country's Islamist insurgency of the 1990s when dozens of intellectuals were assassinated.