In 2012 Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi was sentenced to death for "insulting" Islam. After an appeal his sentence was reduced to 10 years' imprisonment, a fine of a $250,000 and 1000 lashes. In January Badawi received the first 50 of these lashes. Many of his writings have been disappeared by the Saudi authorities but with the help of Badawi’s wife, 15 of his short essays have been saved. They offer a snapshot into the mind of a liberal thinker in the years 2010-12, just after the Arab Spring brought so much hope – now extinguished – to the Middle East and North Africa. Badawi’s is a brave and important secular voice, consistently arguing for equality and religious tolerance. In Is Liberalism Against Religion? he argues that Islam and liberal values should not be opposites, and in Let’s Lash Some Astronomers he gently mocks radical preachers who call on their followers to reject the "science of astronomy" in favour of a corrupted sharia version.