Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are Choking Freedom Worldwide

by Paul Marshall

  94. “In Search of What Went Wrong,” Middle East Times, November 10, 2004, http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20041110-085834-5258r; Abdullah, “New Secularism in the Arab World.”

  95. Warr, “The State of Freedom of Expression in Egypt.” See also Sayyid Al-Qimni, Thank You … Bin Laden!

  96. Mustafa Suleiman, “Egyptians Protest Award to Controversial Writer,” Al-Arabiya, July 13, 2009, http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/07/13/78580.html; Michael Slackman, “Hints of Pluralism in Egyptian Religious Debate”; Salam, “Egypt Lawyers Call for 1001 Nights to Be Banned”; Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Bastion of Impunity, Mirage of Reform, 125–26.

  97. Apart from additional materials cited, biographical materials are taken from “Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour, Board Member: Summary of Qualifications,” http://www.freemuslims.org/about/mansour.php; Ahmed Subhy Mansour, “Outline of Twenty Five Years of Persecution in Egypt,” http://ahmed.g3z.com/cv/drahmedcve.htm; and interviews with Paul Marshall and Nina Shea, Washington, D.C., July 2007.

  98. Mansour, “Outline of Twenty Five years of persecution in Egypt.”

  99. The book was originally published under the title The Quran: Why? using the pseudonym Abdullah Al Khalifah, but Al Noor, a newspaper connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, divulged the author’s identity.

  100. Ahmed Subhy Mansour, “Freedom of Opinion Between Islam and Muslims,” http://www.ahlalquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=2931. His views can be summarized in the principles of the International Quranic Center, which include, inter alia: “1. The Quran is the sole source of Islam and its laws; 2. The Quran is comprehensive, completely sufficient in itself …;4. The Qurannot—the Hadith—was the Prophet Mohamed’s only tradition and he was ordered to abide by it alone.” The full text is found at http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/aboutus.php. Mansour maintains a personal Web site at http://www.ahmed.g3z.com/.

  101. Ahmed Subhy Mansour, “Penalty of Apostasy: A Historical and Fundamental Study,” http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=523.

  102. Ahmed Subhy Mansour, “Culture of Slaves,” http://www.hrinfo.net/en/discussion/2005/h0713.shtml; Ahmed Subhy Mansour, “Outline of Twenty Five Years of Persecution in Egypt”; Ahmed Subhy Mansour, “Penalty of Apostasy: A Historical and Fundamental Study.”

  103 Fahmi Howaydy, “The Campaign to Dismantle Islam,” Al-Ahram Weekly, March 29, 2005; Ahmed Subhy Mansour, “Dismantling Fahmi Howaydy,” both at http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=107.

  104. “Alqaeda Online Voice, Alfaluja Website, Calls for Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour’s Assassination,” International Quranic Center, October 1, 2009, http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_news.php?main_id=8321.

  105. Ethar Shalaby, “Admin Court to Decide on Quranist’s Case on July 31,” July 5, 2007, http://free-islam.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=548; Ahmed Subhy Mansour, “Is It a Conspiracy to Eradicate the Quranists in Egypt?” http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=2308; “Arrest of Mr. Amr Tharwat by Egyptian State Security forces. Question to European Parliament by MEP Cappato [ALDE],” June 11, 2006, http://www.npwj.org/2007/06/11/arrest_mr_amr_tharwat_egyptian_state_security_forces_question_european_parliament_mep_cap; Passant Rabie, “EIPR Demands Release of Detained Quranists,” July 16, 2007, http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=8256; Nadine Qenawi, “Prosecutor Continues Investigation,” El Masry El Youm, June 4, 2007, http://www.aad-online.org/en/Categories/ArabCategories/Discriminationagainstminorities/tabid/97/ctl/Details/mid/482/ItemID/936/Default.aspx; Salonaz Sami, “List lengthens,” Al-Ahram Weekly, No. 851, 28 June–4 July 2007, http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/851/eg8.htm; “Al-Azhar Elevates Its’ Attacks,” Alshark Alawsat, August 30, 2007, http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_news.php?main_id=460; Ashraf Abdel Maksoud, “Quranists or Ignorants,” July 14, 2007, http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.almesryoon.com%2FShowDetailsC.asp%3FNewID%3D35963%26Page%3D7%26Part%3D1&sl=ar&tl=en.

  106. International Quranic Center, “International Quranic Center Declares Forced Disappearance Case,” December 3, 2008, http://ahl-alquran.com/English/show_news.php?main_id=4216; “Reda Is Finally Released; Tells Interrogation Horrors,” January 24, 2009, http://ahlalquran.com/English/show_news.php?main_id=4740. Also, Ahmed Subhy Mansour, “Egypt Persecutes Muslim Moderates,” International Herald Tribune, January 23, 2009, http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=17405; Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Bastion of Impunity, Mirage of Reform (n. 15 above), 125; Sarah Carr, “Quranist Detained at Cairo Airport Released,” Daily News Egypt, November 29, 2009, http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=26118.

  107. See material at “Writer Haydar Haydar declared an apostate and sentenced to death by Islamists in Egypt for his book ‘A Banquet for Seaweed,’” The File Room, http://www.thefileroom.org/documents/dyn/DisplayCase.cfm/id/1065; “Egyptian Government Censors Books and Writer—Confiscation of Dozens of Publications Reported at Cairo International Book Fair”; Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2001: Egypt,” U.S. State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/nea/8248.htm.

  108. International Religious Freedom Report 2006, U.S. State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2006/71420.htm.

  109. Nadia Abou el Magd, “‘Abuse’ of Islamic Rule Lands Lawyer in Court,” The National (UAE), October 9, 2009, http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091009/FOREIGN/710089862/1135; “Egyptians protest award to controversial writer” (n. 96 above). Gobraiel did initiate a hisba case in 2004 to ban a film he believed had insulted Christianity, and El-Wahsh even joined his legal team. Coptic representatives have also sought to quash other purportedly offensive works. Nonetheless, such cases are relatively infrequent and unsuccessful compared to those concerning insults against Islam; Amr Hamzawy, “Between Expression and Religion,” Al-Ahram Weekly, August 6–12, 2009, http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=23508; Sayed Mahmoud, “Double Entry Ledger,” Al-Ahram Weekly, January 1–6, 2009, http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/928/cu4.htm; Peter Kenyon, “Egyptian Film Stirs Coptic Christian Controversy,” NPR, April 2, 2009, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102599798; Noha El-Hennawy, “Egypt: Movie Challenges Coptic Restrictions on Divorce,”L.A. Times, “Babylon & Beyond” blog, February 10, 2009, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2009/02/egypt-movie-cha.html; Yasmine El-Rashidi, “Cinema Case Unresolved,” Al-Ahram Weekly, August 12–18, 2004, http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/703/eg7.htm.

  110. Le Monde, March 8, 1989.

  111. See Daniel Pipes, The Rushdie Affair: The Novel, the Ayatollah, and the West (New York: Birch Lane Press, 1990), 148. Shortly before his death, he sought permission from Al-Azhar to publish “Children of the Alley” and for Ahmed Kamal Abu El Magd, an Islamist thinker and Deputy President of the National Council on Human Rights, to write the introduction; see David Hardaker, “Egypt’s Nobel Winner Asks Islamists to Approve Book,” The Independent, January 28, 2006, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/egypts-nobel-winner-asks-islamists-to-approve-book-524861.html?cmp=ilc-n; Sayed El Bahrawi, “A Question of Ethics,” Al-Ahram Weekly, No. 781, February 9–15, 2006, http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/781/cu6.htm.

  112. On others such as Haydar Haydar, Khalil Abdel Karim, Salah El Din Mohsen, Nawal Al-Sadawi, and Mohammed Futuh, see “Controversy Maker Passes in Silence” Akhbar Aladab 48 (April 21, 2002): http://www.akhbarelyom.org.eg/adab/issues/458/0103.html; Warr, “The State of Freedom of Expression in Egypt”; Susan Stephan, “Intellectual Censorship in Islam”; Max Rodenbeck, “Witch Hunt in Egypt”; Jennifer Bryson, “Freedom in Muslim Countries: An Endangered Species”; International Religious Freedom Report 2007; “Leading Woman Novelist Condemned for ‘Insulting Islam.’” Blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman was given a four-
year sentence, “[three for] inciting hatred of Islam and one for insulting President Mubarak”; see Robert Mackey, “Egyptian Blogger Remains in Jail,” Lede blog, New York Times, March 13, 2007, http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/egyptian-blogger-remains-in-jail/?scp=1&sq=abdel%20kareem%20nabil%20suleiman&st=cse; “Egypt Court Upholds 4-year Sentence for Blogger,” Reuters, December 22, 2009, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BL3KB20091222. Kareem was released on November 16, 2010. New reformers are emerging, including Nehro Tantawy and Mohamed El Badry, and, despite the repression of Shias, Ahmed Rassem El Nafees continues his work as a Shia scholar.

  113. Magdi Khalil, “On the Eve of September 11, Taking a Stand Between the Advocates of Terrorism and Enlightenment,” Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat, September 10, 2005, http://www.defenddemocracy.org/research_topics/research_topics_show.htm?doc_id=297544.

  Chapter 5

  1. Sister Naseem George and Aftab Alexander Mughal, “Pakistan—Mob Attacks on Christian Villages,” Human Rights Solidarity, February 1997, http://www.hrsolidarity.net/mainfile.php/1997vo107no01/237/.

  2. Stephen Gill, “Shanti Nagar, Moment to Moment on First Terror Episode Against Christians,” Pakistan Christian Post, http://www.pakistanchristianpost.com/viewarticles.php?editorialid=64, no date.

  3. See Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, “Fact-finding Report: Filing of Blasphemy Charges Against 5 Ahmadis in Layyah District,” February, 1, 2009, under “Mr. Masood Ahmed, representative of the Ahmadiyya community in Layyah,” http://www.hrcp-web.org/showfact.asp?id=11.

  4. The Friday Times, June 15–21, 2001, excerpted in National Commission for Justice and Peace, A Report on the Religious Minorities in Pakistan (Lahore: April 2003), 67.

  5. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, “Mr. Jinnah’s presidential address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan (Aug. 11, 1947), http://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/legislation/constituent_address_11aug1947.html. For background, see Maarten G. Barends, “Sharia in Pakistan,” in Radical Islam’s Rules: The Worldwide Spread of Extreme Sharia, ed Paul Marshall (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005), 65–85.

  6. David Forte, “Apostasy and Blasphemy in Pakistan,” Connecticut Journal of International Law 10, no. 27 (Fall 1994): 30.

  7. Ibid., 32.

  8. Rubya Mehdi, The Islamization of the Law in Pakistan (Richmond: Curzon Press, 1994).

  9. Hamid Ali and Zaka Ali, eds., The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 2001, rev. ed. (Karachi: Ideal Publishers, 2001).

  10. Forte, “Apostasy and Blasphemy in Pakistan,” 36.

  11. Fred Halliday and Hamza Alavi, eds., State and Ideology in the Middle East and Pakistan (London: Macmillan, 1988).

  12. John L. Esposito and John O. Voll, Islam and Democracy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).

  13. D. P. Collins, “Islamization of Pakistan Law: A Historical Perspective,” Stanford Journal of International Law 24 (1987): 511–85.

  14. Section 295 Pakistan Penal Code in Criminal major acts Edition March 2002 (Lahore: National Law Book House, 2002). See Barends, “Sharia in Pakistan,” 65–85.

  15. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, “Religious Intolerance in Pakistan,” July 8, 2003, http://www.religioustolerance.org/rt_pakis.htm; Barends, “Sharia in Pakistan,” 65–85.

  16. Akbar Ahmad, “Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws: Words Fail Me,” Washington Post, May 19, 2002, http://www.wright-house.com/religions/islam/pakistan-blasphemy-law.html. Pakistan’s guarantees of freedom of religion and speech are constitutionally “subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of the glory of Islam”; International Religious Freedom Report 2007, U.S. State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2007/90233.htm.

  17. Javaid Rehman, “Minority Rights and the Constitutional Dilemmas of Pakistan,” in Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights 19, no. 4 (2001): 417–43.

  18. Pew Research Center, “Pakistani Public Opinion,” August 13, 2009, http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=265.

  19. The Persecution.org (Persecution of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community), “Apostasy Bill 206 (Proposed),” http://www.thepersecution.org/50years/apostasybill.html; Qaiser Felix, “New Apostasy Bill to Impose Death on Anyone Who Leaves Islam,” AsiaNews.it, May 9, 2007, http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=9218; UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review: Pakistan, submission of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, 14 January 2008, see n. 17, http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session2/PK/BFRL_PAK_UPR_S2_2008_BecketFundforReligiousLiberty_uprsubmission.pdf.

  20. “Religious Intolerance in Pakistan.”

  21. Amnesty International, “Pakistan: Insufficient Protection of Religious Minorities,” May 14, 2001, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA33/008/2001/en; Paul Marshall, ed., Religious Freedom in the World (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), 321.

  22. “Religious Intolerance in Pakistan.”

  23. Ahmad, “Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws”; U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Annual Report 2006, http://www.uscirf.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2191&Itemid=1. Anwar Keneth received a death sentence because (allegedly) “[H]e addressed a letter to a local imam and others stating that Islam was a fake religion. He also claimed in the letter to be Christ.” See “Blasphemy Results in Death Sentence,” Associated Press (AP), July 18, 2002, http://wwrn.org/articles/11079/.

  24. National Commission for Justice and Peace, A Report on the Religious Minorities in Pakistan.

  25. “Christian Cleared of Blasphemy Charges, Fired from Job, Facing Death Threats,” February 22, 2008, http://www.persecution.org/suffering/newssummpopup.php?newscode=7202&PHPSESSID=950237e02e168d2f4ba712d5984333d7; NCJP, A Report on the Religious Minorities in Pakistan; Marshall, Religious Freedom in the World, 321; Ali Waqar, “60 Accused of ‘Blasphemy’ in Six Months: NCJP,” The Daily Times (Islamabad), July 31, 2005, http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_31–7–2005_pg7_22; “More Ahmadis Killed as Government Continues to Ignore Religious Violence,” Amnesty International, November 1, 2000, http://asiapacific.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA330132000?open&of=ENG-PAK.

  26. Ahmad, “Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws.”

  27. “Blasphemer Attacked in Pakistan,” BBC News, August 7, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8189209.stm.

  28. “Pakistani Government Drafts Bill to Revise Discriminatory Laws,” All India Christian Council, July 25, 2007, http://indianchristians.in/news/content/view/137/47/; Amnesty International, “Pakistan: Insufficient Protection of Religious Minorities,” May 14, 2001, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA33/008/2001/en.

  29. “Pakistan City Tense after ‘Blaspheming’ Christians Shot,” BBC News, July 20, 2010, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10696762.

  30. “Blasphemy Laws in Pakistan,” CSW-US, n.d., http://www.cswusa.com/Countries/Pakistan-blasphemylaws.htm.

  31. Daily Pakistan, January 30, 2001, excerpted in National Commission for Justice and Peace, A Report on the Religious Minorities in Pakistan.

  32. Ron Synovitz, “After Facebook, Pakistan Shuts Down YouTube over Blasphemy,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, May 20, 2010, http://www.rferl.org/content/After_Facebook_Pakistan_Shuts_Down_YouTube/2047818.html; “Pakistan to Monitor Google and Yahoo for ‘Blasphemy,’ ” BBC News, June 25, 2010, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/south_asia/10418643.stm.

  33. “Ahmadisyya Islam,” http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/intro/islam-Ahmadis.htm; “Rejected Muslim Sect Keeps Faith: Ahmadis Thriving in Silver Spring Despite Disdain, Fear,” Washington Post, August 30, 2008, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/29/AR2008082902302.html.

  34. Amjad Mahmood Khan, “Persecution of the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan: An Analysis Under International Law and International Relations,” Harvard Human Rights Journal 16 (2003): 217–44, http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss16/khan.shtml#fn6.

  35. “Ahmadisyya Muslim Community,” ht
tp://www.alislam.org/introduction/index.html.

  36. “Ahmadisyya Islam.”

  37. Barends, “Sharia in Pakistan.”

  38. USCIRF, Annual Report 2006.

  39. Testimony of Amjad Mahmood Khan, Esq., before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives, October 8, 2009.

  40. Testimony of Mujeeb I. Ijaz before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. Congress, October 8, 2009.

  41. Embassy of Pakistan, “Application Form for Passport,” http://www.embassyofpakistanusa.org/forms/A%20form%20fillable.pdf.

  42. Marshall, Religious Freedom in the World, 322. Continuing reports on the persecution of Ahmadis are given at http://www.thepersecution.org/.