Deaths on January 9

Abdullah al-Qasemi, Saudi atheist, writer, and intellectual (b. 1907)

Abdullah al-Qasemi (1907 – 9 January 1996) (Arabic: عبدالله القصيمي) was a Saudi Arabian 20th-century writer and intellectual. He is one of the most controversial intellectuals in the Arab world because of his radical change from defending Salafism to defending atheism and rejecting organized religion. He questioned the existence of God and criticized religions, which resulted in the allegations of him becoming an atheist, therefore his books were banned all over the Arab world.After surviving assassination attempts in Egypt and Lebanon while suffering imprisonment under instigation from the Yemeni government, he was hospitalized at the Ain-Shams hospital in Cairo on December 12, 1995 and died of cancer on January 9, 1996.