"He should repent, lest he should fall down in a world of sin," the family of Mohamed al-Sheikh Ould Mohamed said in a statement sent to local media and cited by Anadolu Agency on Sunday, January 5.

The controversy erupted when Ould Mohamed published an article deemed critical of Prophet Muhammad (pbup) on his Facebook page.

The article was republished by a leftist newspaper, after which his family decided to "disown" him, calling for putting those who insult Islam before courts.

The family called for creating "special tribunals for those making fun of Islam and other heavenly religions".

The article has also provoked the ire of several parties in the country, leading to his arrest by security forces.

The ruling Union for the Republic Party warned against abusing freedom of speech in Mauritania "to insult Islamic sanctities and harm national unity".

It went on to call on Mauritanian parents "to watch over the actions of their children and shield them against practices that lead to the destruction of society".

The National Assembly for Reform and Development Party, the political arm of Mauritania's Muslim Brotherhood movement, also denounced the article, calling on the people of this predominantly Muslim country "to stand firm" against people involved in similar practices.

Most of Mauritania, almost twice as big as former colonial power France, is desert.

Almost all of the country's 2.9 million people are Muslims.

Insulting the Prophet is considered blasphemous in Islam.

In September 2012, massive protests swept the Muslim world over a US-made film insulting Prophet Muhammad.

Scores of people were killed in the protests against the film titled “Innocence of Muslims”, which was produced by a California man convicted of bank fraud.

The insulting material, which was promote by anti-Qur’an pastor Terry Jones, has also caused strain between the Muslim world and the West over the freedom of expression.

A French magazine has also published insulting cartoons of the prophet on the pretext of freedom of expression.

In September 2005, a Danish newspaper published 12 drawings, including one showing a man described as Prophet Muhammad with a turban in the shape of a bomb and another showing him as a knife-wielding nomad flanked by shrouded women.

The reprint of the controversial drawings by European papers strained Muslim-West ties.

The crisis prompted Muslims in Denmark and worldwide to champion local campaigns to wash away widely circulated misconceptions about Prophet Muhammad.

Source: On Islam