Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are Choking Freedom Worldwide

by Paul Marshall

  44. Sources agree on their arrest but differ as to their sentences; see “Civil and Political Rights, Including Questions Regarding Torture and Detention: Report of Special Rapporteur Nigel Rodley,” UN Commission on Human Rights, January 25, 2001, http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/0/9d0d08575ef2e1528025687e00516e7a?Opendocument; Amnesty International document MDE 23/78/00, October 8, 2000, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE23/078/2000/en.

  45. “The Ismailis of Najran,” Human Rights Watch, September 22, 2008, http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/09/22/ismailis-najran.

  46. Report on Saudi Arabia, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, May 2003.

  47. UN Commission on Human Rights, “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture, Theo van Boven, Submitted Pursuant to Commission Resolution 2002/38,” E/CN.4/2003/68/Add.1, February 27, 2003, http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/(Symbol)/E.CN.4.2003.68.Add.1.En?Opendocument; Amnesty International, “Incommunicado Detention/Fear of Torture/Possible Prisoners of Conscience,” document 23/002/2002, February 19, 2002, http://www.amnesty.org/en/…/MDE23/002/2002/en/…/mde230022002es.html.

  48. World Report 2003–Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch, http://www.hrw.org/legacy/wr2k3/mideast6.html; Schwartz, “Shari’a Today and Tomorrow,” 29.

  49. “Ismaili Leader’s Sentence Reduced after International Protest,” Saudi Information Agency, May 28, 2002, http://www.arabiaradio.org/english/article.cfm?qid=25&sid=3&printme=1.

  50. “Saudi Ismaili ‘Arrested over Petition to King,’” AFP, May 15, 2008, http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=92040; Reuters, “Saudi Shiite Held after Meeting King,” Kuwait Times, May 19, 2008, http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MTMzNjMxMTY5NA; Andrew Hammond, “Saudi Shiites Oppose Plan to Settle Sunnis,” Reuters, February 18, 2008, http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L05508688.htm.

  51 Center for Islamic Pluralism, http://www.islamicpluralism.org/.

  52. Paul Marshall, ed., Religious Freedom in the World (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), 348.

  53. Adnan R. Khan, “The Push for Religious Reform Is Allowing Sufis to Step into the Pen,” March 3, 2005, http://www.sunniforum.com/forum/archive/index.php?t-4762.html; Mahmoud Ahmad, “Makkah Bids Farewell to Maliki,” Arab News, October 31, 2004.

  54. Faiza Saleh Ambah, “In Saudi Arabia, a Resurgence of Sufism,” The Washington Post, May 2, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/01/AR2006050101380.html.

  55. Schwartz, “Shari’a Today and Tomorrow,” 28–29.

  56. “Saudi Woman Faces Death for Witchcraft,” Telegraph, February 15, 2008, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1578803/Saudi-woman-faces-death-for-witchcraft.html. Saudi Maher al-Luqman, an entertainer who walks on nails and eats glass and fire, says that the religious police “have stopped us for two years, branding us as sorcerers, and calling for people to fight us and report us.” Circus shows have been banned as “contrary to Islam.” “The Perils of Eating Fire in Saudi Arabia—Nael Shyoukhi,” Reuters, July 21, 2010, http://wwrn.org/articles/33894/.

  57. Reuters, “Saudi Executes Egyptian for Practicing ‘Witchcraft,’” ABC News (Australia), November 2, 2007, http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/03/2080777.htm?site=news.

  58. Amnesty International, “World 2007 Death Penalty statistics, notes and case studies,” April 15, 2008, http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGACT500142008. “Egyptian Faces Death over Saudi Koran Desecration,” Reuters, April 18, 2007, http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20070418–1015-saudi-crime-koran.html. In March 2009, the Muttawa arrested a “sorcerer” for practicing magic and providing spiritual services to men and women who rejected Islam; “Hai’a Combat with Sorcerers, Magicians,” Saudi Gazette, March 16, 2009, http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2009031532193. Other reported arrests for witchcraft between 2006 and 2009 include, in October 2006, Eritrean expatriate Muhammad Burhan. Wafiqat al-Hazza’, a Shia woman, was detained for carrying a Shia prayer book at the Jordanian-Saudi border in 2008 and sentenced to six months for witchcraft. In 2009, a Saudi was arrested for smuggling a book discussing witchcraft into the country and an expatriate for using “sorcery” and “charlatanry” to solve others’ romantic problems. On March 10, 2010, the General Court in Medina upheld the death penalty against forty-six-year-old Ali Hussein Subat (also called Shahrzad) for publicly practicing black magic; see Donna Abu-Nasr/Associated Press, “Rights Group Rejects Saudi Witchcraft Charges,” ABC News, November 25, 2009, http://abcnews.go.com/International/wirestory?id=9171764&page=1; “Denied Dignity: Systematic Discrimination and Hostility Toward Saudi Shia Citizens,” Human Rights Watch, 2009, 11, http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/09/03/denied-dignity-0; Dominic Waghorn, “TV Presenter on Death Row for Witchcraft,” Sky News, November 24, 2009, http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Saudi-Arabia-Ali-Sibat-Sentenced-To-Death-For-Witchcraft-Over-TVPredictions/Article/200911415466364); “Saudi Court Upholds Death Sentence against ‘Sorcerer,’ ” Arabian Business.com, http://www.arabianbusiness.com/583567-saudi-court-upholds-death-sentence-against-sorcerer.

  59. “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; “Saudi Arabia Court Ratifies Beheading of Turkish Barber,” TurkishPress, May 1, 2008, http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=228978; Ebtihal Mubarak, “Turkish Barber Detained Over Profane Remarks,” Arab News, April 17, 2008, http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=109032.

  60. “President Gul May Save Turkish Man Sentenced to Death in Saudi Arabia,” Today’s Zaman, April 14, 2008; “President Gul intervenes to Save Turk in Saudi Arabia,” Turkish Daily News, April 14, 2008.

  61. Ebtihal Mubarak, “Blasphemy Case Moves to Appeals Court,” Arab News, April 21, 2008, http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=109150&d=21&m=4&y=2008; “Uskul pleads with Saudi Authorities for Turk Facing Death Penalty,” Today’s Zaman, April 21, 2008; “Saudi Barber Faces Beheading for Cursing,” UPI.com, May 30, 2008, http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/05/30/Saudi_barber_faces_beheading_for_cursing/UPI-76321212159442/.

  62. “Saudi Authorities Set to Release Turkish Man,” Today’s Zaman, May 27, 2008; Ali Khan Ghazanfar, “Barber Facing Death for Slandering Prophet Freed,” Arab News, June 5, 2008, http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=110603&d=5&m=6&y=2008.

  63. Neil MacFarquhar, “A Few Saudis Defy a Rigid Islam to Debate Their Own Intolerance,” New York Times, July 12, 2002, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506E4D91030F931A25754C0A9649C8B63. See also Faiza Saleh Ambah, “An Unprecedented Uproar Over Saudi Religious Police,” The Washington Post, June 22, 2007, http://www.washington-post.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/06/21/AR2007062102466.html.

  64. Christopher Boucek, “Saudi Arabia’s ‘Soft’ Counterterrorism Strategy: Prevention, Rehabilitation and Aftercare” (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2008), 4, http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/cp97_boucek_saudi_final.pdf. For other examples, on Turki al-Hamad, see Malu Halasa, “Triumphant Trilogy,” Time.com, January 9, 2005, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1015836,00.html. On Hamza Al-Maziani, a linguistics professor at King Saud University, see Raid Qusti, “Crown Prince Quashes Jail Term of Saudi Writer,” Arab News, March 22, 2005, http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=60829&d=22&m=3&y=2005. On Ra’if Badawi, see “Saudi Arabia: Stop Trials for ‘Insulting’ Islam,” Human Rights Watch, May 13, 2008, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2007/02/08/letter-king-abdullah?print. On Yousef Aba Al-Khail and Abdullah bin Bejad al-Otaibi, see Ian Black, “Intellectuals Condemn Fatwa Against Writers,” The Guardian, April 3, 2008; Abeer Mishkas, “Of Fatwas and Infidels,” Arab News, March 27, 2008, http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=108283&d=27&m=3&y=2008. On further reformers, see “Saudis on Strike: Pressure for Democratic Change in the Middle East Will Continue, wi
th or without U.S. Help,” The Washington Post, November 7, 2008, A18, http://hub.witness.org/SaudiHungerStrike.

  65. “Cleric Issues Fatwa Against Journalists and Writers,” Committee to Protect Journalists, September 22, 2008, http://cpj.org/2008/09/cleric-issues-fatwa-against-journalists-andwriter.php; Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Bastion of Impunity, Mirage of Reform, 177. In 2008, al-Lihedan was replaced; see Nina Shea, “New Hope for Reform in Saudi Arabia?” National Review Online, “The Corner” blog, February 16, 2009, http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/177439/new-hope-reform-saudi-arabia/nina-shea.

  66. “Saudi Cleric Backs Gender Segregation with Fatwa,” Reuters, February 23, 2010, http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-46408620100223. In March 2010, housewife and poet Hissa Hilal, in what was seen, inter alia, as a criticism of al-Barrak, on the “Million’s Poet” poetry competition broadcast live every week on Emirati television, blasted clerics who issue evil fatwas. Hilal subsequently received death threats. “Veiled Saudi Poet Rises to Stardom after Bashing Clerics,” AFP, March 23, 2010, http://www.france24.com/en/20100323-veiled-saudi-poet-rises-stardom-after-bashing-clerics.

  67. Center for Religious Freedom, Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology, 20, 34.

  68. “Saudi Teacher Sentenced to Prison and Flogging for Religious Discussion with Pupils,” Network for Education and Academic Rights, November 17, 2005, http://www.nearinternational.org/alert-detail.asp?alertid=408; Ebtihal Mubarak, “Al-Harbi Case Sparks Debate,” Arab News, November 21, 2005, http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=73487&d=21&m=11&y=2005; “Saudi Islamic Doctrine Hard to Control,” Associated Press, April 19, 2004, http://www.islamdaily.net/EN/Contents.aspx?AID=1005.

  69. Ebtihal Mubarak, “Another Teacher Gets Royal Pardon,” Arab News, December 11, 2005, http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=74530.

  70. Ebtihal Mubarak, “Justice Served in Al-Suhaimi Case,” Arab News, January 4, 2006, http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=75762&d=4&m=1&y=2006.

  71. Ebtihal Mubarak, “Another Teacher Gets Royal Pardon.”

  72. From “Due Process and Fair Trial Violations,” in Precarious Justice: Arbitrary Detention and Unfair Trials in the Deficient Criminal Justice System of Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch, March 2008, http://www.hrw.org/en/node/62304/section/13; Information provided to Ali Al-Ahmed by Al-Suhaimi’s family and friends. See also examples given in Michael Scott Doran, “The Saudi Paradox,” Foreign Affairs, January/February 2004, http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20040101faessay83105/michael-scott-doran/the-saudi-paradox.html.

  73. According to AFP, Al-Domaini, unlike most of the other detainees, had not actually signed this petition; Lydia Georgi, “Three Saudi Reformists Go on Trial after Two Months in Detention: Wife,” AFP, May 19, 2004.

  74. Claude Salhani, “Politics & Policies: Saudi Jails Reformers,” May 16, 2005, http://politicspolicies.wordpress.com/2005/05/16/politics-policies-saudi-jails-reformers/; “Political Reformers Sentenced,” Human Rights Watch, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2005/05/15/saudi-arabia-political-reformers-sentenced.

  75. Edgar C. Cadano, “Abdullah Pardons 5 Saudi Reformers,” Saudi Gazette, August 9, 2005; “Saudi Activists Plan Hunger Strike to Protest Jailing of Reformists,” Washington Post, November 1, 2008, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/31/AR2008103103410_pf.html.

  76. “Saudi Jailed for Discussing the Bible,” Reuters, November 14, 2005, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2005/nov/14/20051114-015138-3548r/; Ebtihal Mubarak, “Teacher Charged with Mocking Religion Sentenced to Jail,” Arab News, November 14, 2005, http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=73171; Network for Education and Academic Rights, “Saudi Teacher Sentenced to Prison and Flogging for Religious Discussion with Pupils,” November 17, 2005, http://www.nearinternational.org/alert-detail.asp?alertid=408.

  77. “Liberal Journalists Arrested on Apostasy Charges,” SIA News, April 7, 2006, http://www.arabianews.org/english/article.cfm?qid=187&sid=2.

  78. Ebtihal Mubarak, “Journalist’s Car Vandalized,” Arab News, November 16, 2005, http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=73279.

  79. AFP, “Saudi Frees Journalist Held Over Internet Writings,” Khaleej Times, April 20, 2006; Ebtihal Mubarak, “Journalist Detained for Internet Remarks,” Arab News, April 9, 2008, http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=80462; “Saudi Arabia: Al Qa’ida Critic Arrested for ‘Destructive Thoughts,’” Human Rights Watch, April 12, 2006, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2006/04/11/saudi-arabia-al-qa-ida-critic-arrested-destructive-thoughts; “Saudi journalist, accused of un-Islamic writings, is freed,” Committee to Protect Journalists, April 20, 2006.

  80. Neil MacFarquhar, “Saudi Reformers: Seeking Rights, Paying a Price,” New York Times, June 9, 2005, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/09/international/middleeast/09saudi.html; Mahan Abedin, “Saudi Dissent More Than Just Jihadis,” Saudi Debate, June 15, 2006, http://www.e-prism.org/images/Saudi_dissent_more_than_just_ihadis_-_15-6-06.pdf; “Jihad and the Saudi petrodollar,” BBC News, November 15, 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7093423.stm.

  81. Duraid Al Baik, “Journalists Face Possible Blasphemy Charges,” Gulf News, December 29, 2009, http://gulfnews.com/news/region/egypt/journalists-face-possible-blasphemy-charges-1.559177.

  82. Neeral Gangal, “Saudi Blasphemy Case Filed against Writer-paper,” Arabian Business, March 19, 2010, http://www.arabianbusiness.com/584088-saudi-blasphemy-case-filed-against-writer—paper. Al Arabiya TV was reportedly charged with insulting God, Muhammad, and the Angel Gabriel; however, the Saudi Ministry of Justice says it never received such a case. See Andy Sambige. “Saudi Blasphemy Case Filed against TV Channel-report,” Arabian Business, October 29, 2009, http://www.arabianbusiness.com/571908-saudis-launch-blasphemy-case-against-tv-channel—report; “Confusion over Al Arabiya Blasphemy Charges,” November 1, 2009, http://www.ameinfo.com/214399.html.

  83. Middle East Media Research Institute, Special Dispatch #1070: “Saudi Doctorate Encourages the Murder of Arab Intellectuals,” January 12, 2006, http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/1677.htm.

  84. Ibid.

  85. “The Fatwa Against the Royal Family,” The Economist, October 11, 2001.

  86. Neil MacFarquhar, “For Saudis, Jihad Abroad Is Terror at Home,” New York Times, April 23, 2004, http://www.mafhoum.com/press7/191P9.htm; Megan K. Stack, “Jihad Hits Home in Saudi Arabia,” Los Angeles Times, April 25, 2004, http://articles.latimes.com/2004/apr/25/world/fg-saudi25.

  Chapter 3

  1. “PEN American Center, “Hojjatoleslam Hasan Yousefi Eshkevari,” http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/422.

  2. “Iranian Reformists Condemn Hardline Clerical Court,” CNN.com, October 19, 2000, http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/10/19/iran.court/.

  3. “2005 Report on International Religious Freedom,” International Religious Freedom Report 2005, U.S. State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2005/; “Stifling Dissent: The Human Rights Consequences of Inter-Factional Struggle in Iran,” Human Rights Watch May 2001, http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/iran/Iran0501-05.htm; “Iran Court Lifts Death Verdict on Dissident Cleric,” Gulf News, May 20, 2001, http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/general/iran-court-lifts-death-verdict-on-dissident-cleric-1.417071; “Mr. Yusefi-Eshkevari Is Tried Behind Closed Doors by Special Court,” Iran Press Service, October 9, 2000, http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2000/oct_2000/eshkevari_trial_91000.htm; “Cleared of Heaviest Charges, Eshkevari Faces Long Term Jail,” Iran Press Service, October 23, 2000, http://www.iran-pressservice.com/articles_2000/oct_2000/eshkevari_reactions_231000.htm; PEN American Center, “Hojjatoleslam Hasan Yousefi Eshkevari.”

  4. “Convert Couple Arrested, Tortured, Threatened,” Compass Direct News, June 25, 2008, http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=5448&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Iran&rowcur=0; also “New Law in Iran: Death Penalty for ‘Online Crime
s,’” Jerusalem Post, July 8, 2008, http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215330897449&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull; “Safe at Last, by Grace of God, but They Still Need Your Prayers,” Open Doors, July 7, 2009, http://www.opendoors.org.nz/article/67/safe-at-last-by-grace-of-god-but-they-still-need-your-prayers.

  5. Mehrangiz Kar, “Shari’a Law in Iran,” in Radical Islam’s Rules: The Worldwide Spread of Extreme Sharia Law, ed. Paul Marshall (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005), 46; on religious minorities in Iran, see Eliz Sanasarian, Religious Minorities in Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000); Jamsheed K. Chosky, “Despite Shahs and Mollas: Minority Sociopolitics in Premodern and Modern Iran,” Journal of Asian History 40, no 2 (2006): 129–84.

  6. Ladan Boroumand, “Iran’s Resilient Civil Society: The Untold Story of the Fight for Human Rights,” Journal of Democracy 18, no. 4 (October 1, 2007): 66, http://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/gratis/Boroumand-18–4.pdf.