Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are Choking Freedom Worldwide

by Paul Marshall

  66. Human Rights Without Frontiers, “The Calvary of a Female Convert to Christianity,” June 9, 2009, in HRWF country report at http://www.hrwf.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=105:news-2008-catalogued-by-country&catid=38:freedom-of-religion-and-belief&Itemid=90.

  67. “Iran: Three Iranian Christians Arrested from Homes in Tehran,” Compass Direct News, March 22, 2011, http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=5776&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Iran&rowcur=0; “Wave of Arrests of Christians in Iran,” Middle East Concern, January 27, 2009. http://www.givengain.com/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?cmd=cause_dir_news_item&cause_id=1489&news_id=59190&cat_id=434.

  68. “Iran: Christian Arrested Without Charges,” Compass Direct News, June 9, 2008, http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=5421&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Iran&rowcur=0.

  69. “Authorities Tighten Grip on Christians As Unrest Roils,” Compass Direct News, August 11, 2009, http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=6057&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Iran&rowcur=0; “Iran Temporarily Releases Christians on Bail,” ICC, September 15, 2009/HRWF, September 16, 2009.

  70. “Authorities Tighten Grip on Christians as Unrest Roils”; Damaris Kremida, “Iran Releases Two Christian Women from Evin Prison,” Compass Direct News, November 19, 2009, http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/iran/11805/; “Iran Detains Christians Without Legal Counsel,” Compass Direct News, January 28, 2010, http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/iran/14572; “Iran: Maryam and Marzieh Acquitted,” Middle East Concern, May 24, 2010. For additional cases, see “Iranian Authorities Pressure Father of Convert,” Compass Direct News, May 20, 2009, http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=5932&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Iran&rowcur=0.

  71. “Iran Detains Christians Without Legal Counsel.”

  72. “Christian Priest and Wife Arrested in Iran,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, March 4, 2010, http://www.rferl.org/content/Christian_Priest_And_Wife_Arrested_In_Iran/1974682.html; “Torture of Wilson Eisavi, Priest in Assyrian Church,” Iran Human Rights Voice, March 9, 2010, http://www.ihrv.org/inf/?p=3878; “The Worrying Condition of Rev. ‘Wilson Issavi’ in Prison,” Farsi Christian News Network, http://www.fcnn.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=812:the-worrying-condition-of-rev-qwilson-issaviq-inprison&catid=127:iranian-christian&Itemid=593. On additional cases, see “Trend Continues Against Churches Previously Protected by Iranian Government,” Assyrian International News Agency, February 24, 2010, http://www.aina.org/news/20100224011107.htm; Ethan Cole, “Jailed Iranian Pastor Temporarily Freed, in ‘Good Spirits,’” Christian Post, March 31, 2010, http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100331/jailed-iranian-pastor-temporarily-freed-in-good-spirits/index.html.

  73. “Backgrounder: The Trial of 13 Iranian Jews,” Anti-Defamation League, March 2003, http://www.adl.org/backgrounders/Iranian_Jews.asp; “Report on Current Condition for Jews in Iran, Human Rights and Torture,” Iranian American Jewish Federation, 2006, 18.

  74. In December 2004, the Iranian TV station Sahar 1 began showing a weekly series set in Israel and the West Bank, with the title “For You, Palestine,” or “Zahra’s Blue Eyes.” It portrayed a Jewish eye surgeon who searched for the most attractive Muslim children, paying particular attention to their eyes. Once he found what he was looking for, he deceived the children into having eye surgery and removed their eyes, which were then used as implants for Israeli children. Anti-Semitism has increased significantly since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s accession to the presidency. He has publicly questioned the existence and scale of the Holocaust. On December 11 and 12, 2006, the government sponsored a conference entitled “Review of the Holocaust: Global Vision” that provided a forum for those who deny the Holocaust. On August 14, 2006, a government-sponsored exhibition of Holocaust cartoons, solicited earlier in the year by the newspaper Hamshahri as an international contest, took place in Tehran; see International Religious Freedom Report 2005 and 2007.

  75. Nazila Fathi, “Wipe Israel ‘off the Map’ Iranian Says,” The New York Times, October 27, 2005, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/world/africa/26iht-iran.html.

  76. “One Person’s Story: Mr. Habib Elqanian,” Omid: A Memorial in Defense of Human Rights, http://www.abfiran.org/english/english/person—2861.php.

  77. On Iran’s Zoroastrians, see Jamsheed K. Chosky, “Despite Shahs and Mollas”; Jamsheed K. Chosky, “Heritage, Faith and Minority Identity: Zoroastrians in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” in Negotiating Identity Amongst the Religious Minorities of Asia, ed. M. A. Ehrlich (Leiden: E.J. Brill, forthcoming 2011). On Zoroastrians as kaffers, see Chosky, “Despite Shāhs and Mollās,” 165.

  78. Chosky, “Despite Shahs and Mollas,” 161.

  79. Chosky, “Heritage, Faith and Minority Identity: Zoroastrians in Iran,” 5.

  80. Chosky, “Despite Shahs and Mollas,” 182–83.

  81. Khaled Mahmoud, “Iran: Government Bans Sunnis from Praying in State Universities,” Asharq Al-Awsat, April 28, 2010, http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=20756.

  82. Reza Afshari recounts three government killings of Sunni religious leaders. See Afshari, Human Rights in Iran: The Abuse of Cultural Relativism (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), 129, 130.

  83. Ladan Boroumand, Journal of Democracy, October 2007, http://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/gratis/Boroumand-18-4.pdf.

  84. Ibid.

  85. Nir Boms and Shayan Arya, “On Annan, Robinson, Religion and Hypocrisy,” The Jerusalem Post, November 10, 2008, http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1225910085758&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull.

  86. Ron Synovitz, “Clashes Highlight ‘Demonization’ of Sufi Muslims,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, November 16, 2007, http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/11/DEB2FA43–077F-4B8D-9079–97A1EC610C67.html.

  87. International Religious Freedom Report 2006.

  88. The Nematollahi Gonabadi is a Sufi order with traditions similar in several respects to those of Shia.

  89. Golnaz Esfandiari, “Local Authorities Try to Evict Sufi Leader,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, October 12, 2006, http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/10/81C671EA-C25A-46DB-AB07–328838F1AD99.html; “Security Forces Attack Again Prayer Areas of the Nematollahi Gonabadi Sufis,” Iran Now Network, November 10, 2006, http://iran-now.net/$202612.

  90. “Dozens Injured in Clash Between Sufi Mystics, Iran Paramilitary,” The Jerusalem Post, November 11, 2007, http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?id=81619; Synovitz, “Clashes Highlight ‘Demonization’ of Sufi Muslims.” See also “The New Round of Harrasments (sic) Against Gonabadi Daravish,” Iran Human Rights Voice, September 17, 2008, http://www.ihrv.org/inf/?p=944#more-944.

  91. “Iranian Authorities Destroy Sufi Holy Site in Isfehan,” Payvand News, February 19, 2009, http://www.payvand.com/news/09/feb/1220.html.

  92. Iran Human Rights Voice, “Scuffle with Gonabadi Dervishes in Isfehan Resulted in Forty Arrests,” February 22, 2009, http://www.ihrv.org/inf/?p=1904.

  93. “A Dervish’s Dream for Iran,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, February 22, 2010, http://www.rferl.org/content/A_Dervishs_Dream_For_Iran/1964987.html; Stephen Schwartz, “Iran: ‘Thugs in Clerical Dress’ vs. the Sufis,” Hudson Institute New York, March 15, 2010, http://www.hudsonny.org/2010/03/iran-thugs-in-clerical-dress-vs-the-sufis.php.

  94. Laura Secor, “The Democrat: Iran’s Leading Reformist Intellectual Tries to Reconcile Religious Duties and Human Rights,” Boston Globe, March 14, 2004, http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2004/03/14/the_democrat/. A good introduction to Akbar Ganji’s work is Reason, Freedom, and Democracy in Islam: Essential Writings of Abdolkarim Soroush (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002). On Akbar Ganji, see “Iranian Journalist, in Court, Says Security Forces Tortured Him,” New York Times, Novembe
r 10, 2000, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B00E5DB1438F933A25752C1A9669C8B63&scp=6&sq=akbar+ganji&st=nyt; Shirin Ebadi, Iran Awakening (New York: Random House, 2006), 193; Nazila Fathi, “Iranian Writer Released After Serving 6-Year Prison Term,” New York Times, March 19, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/international/middleeast/19iran.html?scp=18&sq=akbar+ganji&st=nyt; “Journalist Tortured to Renounce Writings,” Human Rights Watch, November 2, 2005, http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/11/02/iran11958.htm; Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2005, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61688.htm; Akbar Ganji, “Money Can’t Buy Us Democracy,” New York Times, August 1, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/opinion/01ganji.html?scp=9&sq=akbar+ganji&st=nyt.

  95. Official Web site of Abdolkarim Soroush, http://www.drsoroush.com/English/News_Archive/E-NWS-19960531–1.html; “Let the Occasional Chalice Break: Abdolkarim Souroush and Islamic Liberation Theology,” The Iranian, October 26, 1998, http://www.iranian.com/Opinion/Oct98/Soroush/index.html.

  96. “Islam, Catholicism, and the Secular: A Conversation with Jose Casanova and Abdolkarim Soroush,” Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, http://ikhwanweb.com/Article.asp?ID=15280&SectionID=83; official Web site of the Erasmus Prize, http://www.erasmus-prijs.org/eng/index.cfm?paginaID=34&item_ID=12; Scott Macleod, “Abdokarim Souroush, Iran’s Democratic Voice,” Time, April 18, 2005, http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/2005/time100/scientists/100soroush.html; http://www.drsoroush.com/English/News_Archive/E-NWS-20040702-Dr.Soroush_is_Back_in_Tehran.html; Laura Secor, “The Democrat: Iran’s Leading Reformist Intellectual.”

  97. Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar, “Who Wrote the Koran?” New York Times Magazine, December 5, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/magazine/07wwln-essay-t.html.

  98. “At Least 40 Followers of Ayatollah Sayed Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi Arrested,” Amnesty International report, posted by Payvand News, October 3, 2006, http://www.payvand.com/news/06/oct/1016.html.

  99. Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation, http://www.abfiran.org/english/document-298–699.php?searchtext=Ym9yb3VqZXJkaQ%3D%3D; “News/Imprisoned Cleric’s Life in Danger/Ayatollah Boroujerdi in Need of Urgent Medical Care,” June 1, 2008. http://mardaninews.de/Deutsch/?p=178.

  100. “A Brief Report on the Latest Condition of Ayatullah Borojerdi in Zazd Prison,” Iran Human Rights Voice, www.ihrv.org/inf/?p=1420.

  101. “Unexpected Transfer of Ayatullah Borojerdi to Evin Prison,” Iran Human Rights Voice, August 26, 2009.

  102. Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation.

  103. Yasuyuki Matsunaga, “Mohsen Kadivar, an Advocate of Postrevivalist Islam in Iran,” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, December 2007, http://www.kadivar.com/Data/Remote/0/Data/Resources/Medias/Kadivar,%20an%20Advocate%20(matsunaga).pdf; Human Rights Watch, World Report 2001, Appendix, http://www.hrw.org/legacy/wr2k1/appendix/index.html.

  104. Scott Macleod and Nahid Siamdoust, “The Critical Cleric,” Time, May 5, 2004, http://www.time.com/time/2004/innovators/200405/kadivar.html; Bret Stephens, “Religion of Peace in Iran, a Theological State Is Challenged on Theological Grounds,” Wall Street Journal, June 23, 2009, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124571492981739137.html#mod=djemEditorialPage.

  105. Mohsen Kadivar, “The Principles of Compatibility of Islam and Modernity,” October 7, 2004, http://www.kadivar.com/Index.asp?DocId=831&AC=1&AF=1&ASB=1&AGM=1&AL=1&DT=dtv. See also Mohsen Kadivar, “Freedom of Religion and Belief in Islam,” in The New Voices of Islam: Rethinking Politics and Modernity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), 119–42.

  106. Macleod and Siamdoust, “The Critical Cleric”

  107. “This Iranian Form of Theocracy Has Failed,” interview with Mohsen Kadivar by Erich Follath and Gabor Steingart, Spiegel Online, July 1, 2009, http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,633517,00.html.

  108. “Reformists in Iran, Despite Pressure, Speak Out More Boldly,” New York Times, August 4, 2000, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B03E5D8173CF937A3575BC0A9669C8B63&scp=5&sq=MOhsen+Kadivar&st=nyt.

  109. “Amnesty Highlights the Case of Hashem Aghajari,” Iran Mania, November 08, 2002, http://www.iranmania.com/news/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=12888&NewsKind=CurrentAffairs.

  110. Sadeq Saba, “Profile of Abdollah Nouri,” BBC News, November 27, 1999, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/539470.stm; “Abdollah Nouri, Prisoner of Conscience,” Amnesty International, June 27, 2002, http://asiapacific.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE130102002?open&of=ENG-IRN.

  111. John Burns, “With Iran’s Reforms at Stake, a Moderate Digs In,” New York Times, October 24, 1999, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DEEDB1F39F937A15753C1A96F958260; John Burns, “Cleric’s Trial Becomes Flash Point of Iran’s Political Fate,” New York Times, October 31, 1999, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D01E4DA173BF932A05753C1A96F958260.

  112. “Iran Annual Report 2002,” Reporters Without Borders, http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=1438; Said Amir Arjomand, “Civil Society and the Rule of Law in the Constitutional Politics of Iran Under Khatami,” Social Research, June 22, 2000, at Encyclopedia.com, http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-63787333.html.

  113. Reporters Without Borders, http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=28929.

  114. Jomhouri Elsami’s official Web site, http://www.jomhourieslami.com; Reporters Without Borders, as listed on International Freedom Exchange Network (IFEX), http://www.ifex.org/en/layout/set/print/content/view/full/60511/.

  115. Reporters Without Borders, http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=28929.

  116. “Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri: ‘Not Every Conversion is Apostasy,’” (in Persian), BBC Persian, http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2005/02/050202_mj-montzarirenegade.shtml.

  117. Robin Wright, “Iran’s Opposition Loses a Mentor but Gains a Martyr,” Time, December 21, 2009, http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1949048,00.html; Abbas Milani, “Mourning Montazeri,” The New Republic, December 21, 2009, http://www.tnr.com/article/mourning-montazeri; Richard Spencer, “Grand Ayatollah Montazeri Death Sparks Protests,” Telegraph, December 20, 2009, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/6851224/Grand-Ayatollah-Montazeri-death-sparks-protests.html.

  118. Reporters Without Borders/Network for Education and Academic Rights (NEAR), http://74.125.45.104/search?q=cache:7wDc3CXLXJgJ:www.nearinternational.org/alerts/iran2420050830en+Mojtaba+Lotfi&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&ie=UTF-8.

  119. “The Office of Ayatullah Montazeri Condemns Imprisonment of Mojtaba Lotfi, Calling It Illegal and Unfair,” Iran Human Rights Voice, December 9, 2008, http://www.ihrv.org/inf/?p=1397.

  120. See http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2009/09/iran-grand-ayatollah-calls-government-a-military-regime.html.

  121. Wright, “Iran’s Opposition Loses a Mentor but Gains a Martyr”; Spencer, “Montazeri Death Sparks Protests”; Milani, “Mourning Montazeri,” The New Republic, December 21, 2009, http://www.tnr.com/article/mourning-montazeri; Violent Aftermath: The 2009 Election and Suppression of Dissent in Iran, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, 2010, 35–36, http://www.iranhrdc.org/httpdocs/English/pdfs/Reports/Violent%20Aftermath.pdf.

  122. Iason Athanasiadis, “Iran Move to Defrock Dissident Ayatollah Opens Rifts in Theocracy,” Christian Science Monitor, January 6, 2010, http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/0106/Iran-move-to-defrock-dissident-ayatollah-opens-rifts-in-theocracy; “Website Says Iran Militia Attack Pro-Reform Cleric’s Home,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, December 22, 2009, http://www.rferl.org/content/Website_Says_Iran_Militia_Attack_Clerics_Home/1911071.html?page=1&x=1#relatedInfoContainer; Mustafa El-Labbad, “The Iranian Triangle,” Al-Ahram, January 14–20, 2010, http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/981/re10.htm. For the cases of Mojtaba Saminejad, Ehsan Mansouri, Majid Tavakoli, Ahmad Ghassaban, and Hadi Ghabel, see Source: Reporters Without Borders, as listed on International Freedom Exchange (IFEX) Web site, http
://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/66707; International Freedom of Expression eXchange, “Blogger Mojtaba Saminejad Gets Two-year Prison Sentence,” June 8, 2005, http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/67227; “Jailed Students Abused to Obtain Forced Confessions,” http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/85193/. The government also blocks over five million Web sites deemed to contain immoral or antisocial material: “Iran Blocks Access to over Five Million Websites,” AFP, November 19, 2008, http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081119173359.0m09kn48&show_article=1. See also Gozaar: A Forum on Human Rights and Democracy in Iran, http://www.gozaar.org/template1.php?id=782&language=english.