Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are Choking Freedom Worldwide

by Paul Marshall

  Third, the West must reestablish a consensus among its own states on the central importance of individual freedoms of expression and religion to liberal democracy. It must explain that these freedoms are not in conflict but are mutually reinforcing. It must abandon attempts at the international, regional, and national levels to diplomatically and legally finesse proposals to protect religion per se through laws against hate speech. This is a dangerous game that threatens to undermine individual freedoms of both expression and religion.53

  Fourth, as part of this strategy, we must defend religious freedom, including the right to debate religious views. This is often ignored or even resisted by secular Westerners. Working to expand religious freedom protects religious and ideological pluralism in the Muslim world. This is essential not only to reformist Muslims and Muslim minorities but also to other religious minorities who experience persecution and repression in the same countries that promote blasphemy bans worldwide. Defending the human rights of these victims is an integral part of the contest of ideas. We must insist that religiously offensive speech should be met with more speech and peaceful protest, and not the coercive power of the state, mob intimidation, or vigilante violence.

  As Abu-Zayd recounted: “[C]harges of apostasy and blasphemy are key weapons in the fundamentalists’ arsenal, strategically employed to prevent reform of Muslim societies and instead confine the world’s Muslim population to a bleak, colorless prison of sociocultural and political conformity.” The continuing encroachment of blasphemy and apostasy limits in the West will ultimately threaten free speech, free expression, and the free exchange of ideas—whether sacred or secular, ridiculous or respectful. It will permit radical interpretations of one belief system to supersede debate, discussion, and devotion about the nature of faith and religion and the right to reject religious belief altogether. Acquiescence to extremist demands means that voices of dissent will be silenced from Cairo to Copenhagen, from Teheran to Toronto, from Islamabad to Sydney. The suppression of ideas will be felt not only in Muslim-majority states and regions but also in the West and across the world.

  As was said by the Pakistani ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, in his eulogy for Shahbaz Bhatti, “Those who would murder a Salman Taseer or a Shahbaz Bhatti deface my religion, my prophet, my Koran and my Allah. Yet there is an overpowering, uncomfortable and unconscionable silence from the great majority of Pakistanis who respect the law, respect the Holy Book, and respect other religions.… This silence endangers the future of my nation, and to the extent the silence empowers extremists, it endangers the future of peace and the future of the civilized world.… When a Shahbaz Bhatti is murdered, and we remain silent, we have died with him.”54

  When politics and religion are intertwined, as they necessarily are in debates about blasphemy and insulting Islam, forbidding religious criticism means forbidding political criticism. Conversely, without religious debate there can be no political debate; without religious dissent there can be no political dissent. And without religious freedom, there can be no political freedom.

  NOTES

  Foreword

  1. Descended from a long line of charismatic religious leaders, Kyai Haji Mustofa Bisri heads the Raudlatuth Tholibin Islamic boarding school in Rembang, Central Java. Widely revered as a religious scholar, poet, novelist, painter, and Muslim intellectual, K. H. Mustofa Bisri has strongly influenced the Nahdlatul Ulama’s social, educational, and religious development over the past thirty years.

  2. Mohammad Asrar Madani, Verdict of Islamic Law on Blasphemy and Apostasy (Lahore, Pakistan: Idara-e-Islamiat, 1994).

  3. “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance.”

  4. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Persia: Bridge of Turquoise (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1975).

  5. Muslims regard Hadith Qudsi as the words of God, repeated by Muhammad, and recorded on the condition of an isnad (chain of verification by witnesses who heard Muhammad say the hadith).

  6. “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

  Chapter 1

  1. The list of purported religious offenses that we cover is very long; a partial list includes “apostasy,” “insulting a heavenly religion,” “insulting Turkishness,” creating “confusion among Muslims,” using “twisted facts that can undermine the faith of Muslims,” “polytheism,” “imitating Christians,” “witchcraft,” “sorcery,” “harboring destructive thoughts,” “friendship with the enemies of God,” “hostility towards friends of God,” “fighting against God,” “dissension from religious dogma,” “spreading lies, insulting religion and religious authorities,” and “propagation of spiritual liberalism.” In order to avoid repeating this at each relevant juncture, we will often use “blasphemy” or “insulting Islam” as proxy terms for the whole.

  2. Melody Y. Hu, “Chaplain’s E-Mail Sparks Controversy,” The Harvard Crimson, April 14, 2009, http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2009/4/14/chaplains-e-mail-sparks-controversyspan-stylefont-weight.

  3. John Innes, “Burger King Recalls ‘Sacrilegious’ Desserts,” The Scotsman, September 7, 2005, http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1951292005; “Nike and Islamic Group End Logo Logjam,” CNN.com, November 21, 1998, http://www.cnn.com/US/9811/21/nike.islamic/; “Apple’s ‘Mecca Project’ Provokes Muslim Reaction,” The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Islamist Websites Monitor No. 5, October 11, 2006, http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/1901.htm.

  Part II

  1. See United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), The Religion-State Relationship and the Right to Freedom of Religion or Belief: A Comparative Textual Analysis of the Constitutions of Predominantly Muslim Countries, March 2005, http://www.uscirf.gov/images/stories/pdfComparative_Constitutions/study0305.pdf.

  2. See also the discussion of censorship in Lowell H. Schwartz, Todd C. Helmus, Dalia Dassa Kaye, and Nadia Oweidat, Barriers to the Broad Dissemination of Creative Works in the Arab World (Santa Monica: Rand Corporation, 2009), http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2009/RAND_MG879.pdf.

  Chapter 2

  1. “Saudi Gets 8 Years for a Song,” SIA News, http://www.Arabianews.org/english/article.cfm?qid=123&sid=2.

  2. “Help Save Young Yemeni from Death by Beheading in Saudi Arabia,” press release by Saudi Institute, January 27, 2003.

  3. Mariam Al Hakeem, “Saudi Man Kills Daughter for Converting to Christianity,” Gulf News, August 12, 2008, http://www.gulfnews.com/News/Gulf/saudi_arabia/10236558.html.

  4. “Saudi Arabia,” International Religious Freedom Report 2009, U.S. State Department, October 26, 2009, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2009/127357.htm.

  5. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Article 1, “The Basic Law of Governance,” http://www.mofa.gov.sa/Detail.asp?InNewsItemID=35297. In October 2007, the Saudi government announced judicial reforms that reformers hope will help reduce clerical power over the judiciary; see “Saudis to Overhaul Legal System,” BBC News, October 5, 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7029308.stm.

  6. Center for Religious Freedom of Hudson Institute with the Institute for Gulf Affairs, 2008 Update: Saudi Arabia’s Curriculum of Intolerance, 45, http://www.hudson.org/files/pdf_upload/saudi_textbooks_final.pdf; U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, “Saudi Arabia: USCIRF Confirms Material Inciting Violence, Intolerance Remains in Textbooks Used at Saudi Government’s Islamic Saudi Academy,” June 11, 2008, http://www.uscirf.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2206.

  7. Center for Religious Freedom, Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Invade American Mosques (Washin
gton, D.C.: Freedom House, 2005), 37, 45, http://crf.hudson.org/files/publications/2005%20Saudi%20Report.pdf. “Saudi Cleric Muhammad Al-Munajid Warns: Freedom of Speech Might Lead to Freedom of Belief,” MEMRI Clip 1734, March 30, 2008.

  8. “Saudi Arabia,” International Religious Freedom Report 2009.

  9. Mariam Al Hakeem, “Saudi Shoura Council Rejects Call for International Pact to Respect All Religions,” Gulf News, March 19, 2008, http://www.gulfnews.com/news/gulf/saudi_arabia/10198648.html.

  10. Aluma Dankowitz, “Saudi Study Offers Critical Analysis of the Kingdom’s Religious Curricula,” MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis Series 195, November 9, 2004, http://xrdarabia.org/2004/11/18/saudi-report-on-curriculum/.

  11. United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, “USCIRF Confirms Violence, Intolerance at Islamic Saudi Academy,” June 11, 2008.

  12. Hudson Institute/Institute for Gulf Affairs, 2008 Update: Saudi Arabia’s Intolerance, 44, 58.

  13. “Saudi Arabia,” International Religious Freedom Report 2009.

  14. See “Affront to Justice: Death Penalty in Saudi Arabia,” Amnesty International, October 14, 2008, 8, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE23/027/2008/en/dc425c41-8bb9-11dd-8e5e-43ea85d15a69/mde230272008en.pdf.

  15. “Saudi Arabia,” International Religious Freedom Report 2009.

  16. “Memorandum Submitted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to International Organizations on Human Rights and Their Implementation Within Its Territory,” in Hudson Institute/Institute for Gulf Affairs, 2008 Update: Saudi Arabia’s Intolerance, 64–77.

  17. Stephen Schwartz, cited in Daniel Pipes, “Uniting to Exclude Saudi Arabian Airlines,” New York Sun, August 21, 2007, http://www.danielpipes.org/article/4862.

  18. “Christian Prisoner Feared Dead in Saudi Arabia,” International Christian Concern, March 7, 2002; “Saudi Arabia: Last Two Christian Prisoners Deported,” Compass Direct News, April 19, 2002, http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=1219&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Saudi%20Arabia&rowcur=0.

  19. “Saudi Christian Convert Arrested and Jailed,” AsiaNews.it, December 17, 2004, http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=2134.

  20. Information provided in e-mail correspondence with a representative of International Christian Concern, April 1, 2008.

  21. “Saudi Arabia,” International Religious Freedom Report 2007, U.S. State Department, September 14, 2007, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2007/90220.htm.

  22. “Saudi Arabia: Authorities Arrest Christian Convert,” Compass Direct News, January 28, 2009, http://www.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&lang=en&length=long&idelement=5779&backpage=index&critere=&countryname=&rowcur=225. See also Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, “KSA Arrests Blogger, Blocks His Site. His Life At Risk as He Embraced Christianity,” January 14, 2008, http://anhri.net/en/reports/2009/pr0114.shtml; “Saudi Arabia: Authorities Release Christian Blogger,” Compass Direct News, April 16, 2009, http://www.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&lang=en&length=long&idelement=5881; Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Bastion of Impunity, Mirage of Reform: Human Rights in the Arab Region, Annual Report 2009, 176, http://www.cihrs.org/Images/ArticleFiles/Original/485.pdf. Hamoud had been arrested twice before.

  23. “Saudi Arabia,” International Religious Freedom Report 2007; Sarah Leah Whitson, “Letter to Saudi King Abdullah bin Abd al-‘Aziz Al Sa’ud: Regarding the Religious Persecution of Ahmadis,” Human Rights Watch, January 24, 2007, http://www.thepersecution.org/news/2007/hrwl0124.html; “Saudi Arabia: Stop Religious Persecution of Ahmadis,” Human Rights Watch, January 24, 2006, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2007/01/23/saudi-arabia-stop-religious-persecution-ahmadis.

  24. “Saudi Arabia,” International Religious Freedom Report 2007. For background, see “The Shiite Question in Saudi Arabia,” International Crisis Group, Middle East Report N°45–19, September 2005, http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/middle-east-north-africa/irangulf/saudi-arabia/045-the-shiite-question-in-saudi-arabia.aspx.

  25. “Saudi Arabia,” International Religious Freedom Report 2009.

  26. Hudson Institute/Institute for Gulf Affairs, 2008 Update: Saudi Arabia’s Intolerance, 13.

  27. “Saudi Arabia,” International Religious Freedom Report 2007.

  28. Stephen Schwartz, “Shari’a in Saudi Arabia, Today and Tomorrow,” in Radical Islam’s Rules, ed. Paul Marshall (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), 30–31.

  29. “Saudi Arabia,” International Religious Freedom Report 2007.

  30. Translation of statement provided by Ali al-Ahmed of the Institute for Gulf Affairs; “Saudi Clerics Slam Shias, Hezbollah,” Reuters, June 1, 2008, http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/printArticle.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=221969&version=1&template_id=37&parent_id=17.

  31. Middle East Media Research Institute. “Recent Rise in Sunni-Shi’ite Tension (Part III): Sectarian Strife in Saudi Arabia,” Inquiry & Analysis 482, December 16, 2008, http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA48208.

  32. “Saudi Arabia: An Upsurge in Public Executions,” Amnesty International, http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?lang=e&id=4FBA416ABC8805C2802569A600603109.

  33. “Blasphemer Executed in Saudi Arabia,” Arab News via Moneyclips, September 4, 1992; “Saudi Arabia, Religious Intolerance: The Arrest, Detention and Torture of Christian Worshipers and Shi’a Muslims,” Amnesty International, 14, 1993, http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?lang=e&id=F9ABD6A906FEFB03802569A600603A2B; Communication to the Government of Saudi Arabia from UN Special Rapporteur Abdel Fattah Amor, August 31, 1993, as presented before the UN Commission on Human Rights, January 20, 1994.

  34. See Schwartz, “Shari’a Today and Tomorrow,” 29, 35; Additional cases of persecution of Shias are available from the Institute of Gulf Affairs, http://www.gulfinstitute.org/artman/publish/index.shtml.

  35. “Denied Dignity: Systematic Discrimination and Hostility Toward Saudi Shia Citizens,” Human Rights Watch, 2009, http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/09/03/denied-dignity-0.

  36. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies 2009, Bastion of Impunity, Mirage of Reform, 174–75.

  37. Kelly McEvers, “Sorcery Charges on the Rise in Saudi Arabia,” NPR, December 21, 2009, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121715788; “Lawyer Beheading Planned in Saudi Sorcery Case,” CNN.com, April 1, 2010, http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/03/31/saudi.arabia.sorcery/index.html.

  38. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Bastion of Impunity, Mirage of Reform, 175; “Grumbling and Rumbling: Shia Unhappiness Is Rattling Regimes in Saudi Arabia and Elsewhere in the Gulf,” The Economist, February 26, 2009, http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13185773; “Denied Dignity: Systematic Discrimination and Hostility toward Saudi Shia Citizens,” Human Rights Watch, 2009, 15–23, http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/09/03/denied-dignity-0, which also reports (p. 11) that in June 2009, another Shia was reportedly sentenced to 400 lashes and three months’ prison for allegedly cursing God. The judge is also reported to have insulted Shias.

  39. United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, “Saudi Arabia: USCIRF Concerned by Misleading Claims about Release of Religious Prisoners,” November 6, 2006. For an overview, see “The Ismailis of Najran: Second-class Saudi Citizens,” Human Rights Watch, September 2008, http://www.hrw.org/reports/2008/saudiarabia0908/.

  40. Brian Whitaker, “A Bad Joke,” Guardian, September 14, 2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2006/sep/14/abadjoke.

  41. “Saudi Religious Prisoner on Strike until Death,” Saudi Information Agency, September 8, 2006, http://www.arabianews.org/english/article.cfm?qid=192&sid=2.

  42. “Saudi Arabia: Mentally Ill Prisoner Put in Solitary,” Human Rights Watch, February 2, 2007, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2007/02/01/saudi-arabia-mentally-ill-prisoner-put-solitary; “Saudi Arabia,” International Religious Freedom Report 2007. Personal correspondence between Ali Al-Ahmed and Msgr.
Pietro Parolin, Undersecretary for the Holy See’s Relations with States, January 15, 2008, confirms that the Vatican raised the case with Saudi officials. On the sentence, “Saudi Religious Prisoner on Strike until Death,” SIA News, September 8, 2006, says the sentence was changed in 1999; “Saudi Arabia: Pardon Ismaili Sentenced to Death,” (Letter), Human Rights Watch, October 10, 2006, http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/10/10/saudia14372.htm, implies he still faced a death sentence, as does “Saudi Arabia: Stop Trials for Insulting Islam,” Human Rights Watch, May 13, 2008, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2008/05/12/saudi-arabia-stop-trials-insulting-islam; Whitaker, “A Bad Joke,” says the King met with Hadi’s father and may have reduced the sentence.

  43. “Saudi Unrest Blamed on ‘Sorcerer,’ ” BBC News, April 25, 2000, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/725597.stm; Ahmed Al-Haj, “Saudi Security Forces, Ismaili Protestors Clash, Many Said Dead,” AP, April 24, 2000; “Three Foreigners Hurt in Unrest Linked to Ismaili Minority: Saudi Minister,” Agence France Presse (henceforth AFP), April 25, 2000; Schwartz, “Shari’a Today and Tomorrow,” 29–30.