Wall of Courage

[Solomon Zorn]

I'm dedicating this thread to list the names of those atheists, who have died for their views.

If you want to include a very brief explanation with a name, that would be welcome.

I ask that comments be respectful. This thread is not the place for ridicule or drama. It's just for a little perspective of sorts.

If possible, please type the name itself in blue, or failing that, in bold. This will make it easier to spot them for someone scrolling down the page.

[Solomon Zorn]

Just read about these two today. Their deaths are what moved me to start this thread.

Avijit Roy
Atheist blogger, and moderator.
Stabbed to death in Bangladesh.

Ananta Bijoy Das 
Atheist blogger, magazine editor, and head of s science and rationalism council, who wrote about science, and criticized Islam.
Hacked to death with machetes in Bangladesh.

[Solitary]

Giordano Bruno

Giordano Bruno (Italian: [dÊ'orˈdano ˈbruno]; Latin: Iordanus Brunus Nolanus; 1548 â€" 17 February 1600), born Filippo Bruno, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, and astrologer. He is celebrated for his cosmological theories, which went even further than the then-novel Copernican model. He proposed that the stars were just distant suns surrounded by their own exoplanets and raised the possibility that these planets could even foster life of their own (a philosophical position known as cosmic pluralism).

He also insisted that the universe is in fact infinite and could have no celestial body at its "center".

Beginning in 1593, Bruno was tried for heresy by the Roman Inquisition on charges including denial of several core Catholic doctrines (including the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, the virginity of Mary, and Transubstantiation). Bruno's pantheism was also a matter of grave concern.The Inquisition found him guilty, and in 1600 he was burned at the stake in Rome's Campo de' Fiori. After his death he gained considerable fame, being particularly celebrated by 19th- and early 20th-century commentators who regarded him as a martyr for science, though scholars emphasize that Bruno's astronomical views were at most a small part of the theological and philosophical beliefs that led to his trial. Bruno's case is still considered a landmark in the history of free thought and the future of the emerging sciences.

[drunkenshoe]

Turan Dursun (1934 â€" 4 September 1990) was a Turkish Shia Islamic scholar and a writer. His work, which is influenced by the 9th-century Persian skeptic philosopher Ibn al-Rawandi, heavily criticizes Islam and the founders of its major branches.

Dursun, originally a Ja'fari Muslim from the Twelver Shi'a madhab, first worked as an Islamic cleric before becoming an atheist during his study of the history of monotheistic religions. Dursun wrote a number of books about religion, which included interpretations of Islamic texts. He was an open critic of religion and was frequently threatened by Islamic fundamentalists.

He was eventually assassinated on September 4, 1990, outside his home in Istanbul. After this event, his books sold tens of thousands of copies in Turkey. -Wiki

E: He was killed by Hizbullah.

[Solomon Zorn]

Please emphasize the name with blue or bold. Thanks. And thanks for contributing.