Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are Choking Freedom Worldwide

by Paul Marshall

  59. See “Baseless Case Against Turkish Christians Further Prolonged,” Compass Direct News, February 15, 2010, http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/turkey/15188/.

  60. Güzide Ceyhan, “What Causes Intolerance and Violence?”; Otmar Oehring, “Turkey: Religious Freedom Survey, November 2009”; “Update #7 on Trial of Murderers of Christians in Turkey,” Middle East Concern, September 16, 2008, http://www.givengain.com/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?cmd=cause_dir_news_item&cause_id=1489&news_id=52735&cat_id=434.

  61. Meral, No Place to Call Home (n. 58 above), 54.

  62. “Turkey’s Protestant Churches Complain They Are Being Targeted,” Today’s Zaman, January 19, 2008, http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=132018. See also “Four Street Evangelists Jailed,” Compass Direct News, April 27, 2007, http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=4850&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Turkey&rowcur=50; “Attackers Firebomb Protestant Church,” Compass Direct News, November 9, 2006, http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=4620&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Turkey&rowcur=50.

  63. Oehring, “Turkey: Religious Freedom Survey, November 2009.”

  64. Marshall, Religious Freedom in the World, 402.

  65. Ibid.; “Turkey,” International Religious Freedom Report 2008, U.S. State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, http://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2008/108476.htm.

  66. Benjamin Harvey, “Alevis Push for Tolerance,” AP, January 10, 2007, http://www.washing-tontimes.com/news/2007/jan/09/20070109-111943-2773r/.

  67. Marshall, Religious Freedom in the World, 402; Martin Van Bruinessen, “Kurds, Turks and the Alevi Revival in Turkey,” http://www.uga.edu/islam/alevivanb.html.

  68. “European Court Rules on Faith, Names on Turkish ID,” Today’s Zaman, February 2, 2010, http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-200374-100-european-court-rules-on-faith-names-on-turkish-id.html.

  69. Constitution of the Republic of Yemen, 1994, Al-Bab, http://www.al-bab.com/yemen/gov/con94.htm February 2, 2010; Marshall, Religious Freedom in the World, 432–33.

  70. “Yemen: Freedom of Expression in Peril” (London: Article 19 [Global Campaign for Freedom of Expression], 2008), 8, http://www.article19.org/pdfs/publications/yemen-foe-report.pdf.

  71. Human Rights Without Frontiers 2008 Yemen report, “Bahai’s Imprisoned in Yemen May Face Deportation to Iran,” 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; “Yemen,” International Religious Freedom Report 2008; “250 Baha’is in Danger,” Tagamu News, September 15, 2008, http://www.bahairights.org/2008/09/15/250-bahais-in-danger/.

  72. “Official: Yemen Detains 9 People for Converting to Christianity,” AP, August 19, 2008, http://freecopts.net/english/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=948&Itemid=2; “Yemen Court Sentences Somali Convert to Death,” Christianity Today, July 7, 2000, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/julyweb-only/55.0.html; “Freed Somali Christian Arrives in New Zealand,” Christianity Today, September 1, 2000, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/septemberweb-only/36.0.html; “Christians Are Arrested in Yemen for Handing out Bibles,” Christian Telegraph, July 4, 2008, http://www.christiantelegraph.com/issue2434.html.

  73. “Yemeni Novelist under Fire,” Yemen Times, May 13, 2002, http://www.yementimes.com/02/iss20/front.htm.

  74. “Al-Rai Al-Aam Editor Receives Jail Time for Republishing Prophet Mohammed Cartoons,” Yemen Times, November 26, 2006; “Yemen Editor ‘Faces Death Calls,’” BBC News, March 8, 2006; “PM Orders Reopening of Three Newspapers Closed for Reprinting Mohammed Cartoons,” Reporters Without Borders, May 4, 2006.

  75. “Yemen: Ban on Child Brides Is Imperiled,” AP, March 22, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/world/middleeast/23briefs-Yemenbf.html; Ahmad Al-Haj, “Yemen Cleric: Fight Draft Law Banning Child Brides,” AP, April 27, 2010, http://www.google.com/hosted-news/ap/article/ALeqM5g_F18e6XXJTq8PTcZPXX7joaJ6NgD9F9FUM00.

  76. Iraq has gone through many transitions in the last seven years, but, apart from other violence, Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and its allies have targeted other Muslims with differing views as apostates, including those who participate in elections, since AQI regards democracy itself as apostate. Religious minorities—Christians, by far the largest non-Muslim minority, Mandeans (followers of John the Baptist), Yezidis (an ancient angel-centered religion), Baha’is, and Jews—are also being repeatedly attacked. While only 3 or 4 percent of Iraq’s pre-2003 population, they account for 40 percent of its refugees; see Nina Shea, “Obliterating’ Iraq’s Christians,” Washington Post Online, May 14, 2010, http://www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=6999.

  On threats against Azerbaijan reformist Muslim scholar Nariman Gasimoglu and journalists Samir Huseinov and Rafiq Tagi, see Altay Goyushov, “Islamic Revival in Azerbaijan,” Current Trends in Islamist Ideology 7 (November 11, 2008): http://www.currenttrends.org/research/detail/islamic-revival-in-azerbaijan. On Gasimoglu, see Felix Corley, “Azerbaijan: Will the State Protect Muslim Scholar from Muslim Death Threats?” Forum 18 News, March 30, 2005, http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=534. The relevant article by Gasimoglu is “Religious Freedom, the Best Counter to Religious Extremism,” Forum 18 News, June 10, 2004, http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=338. See also “2 Journalists Go on Trial in Azerbaijan for Article Critical of Islam,” AP, March 20, 2007; “Azerbaijani Journalists Convicted of Inciting Hatred with Article Seen as Criticizing Islam,” AP, May 4, 2007; Aida Sultanova, “Azerbaijan Prosecutors Investigate Newspaper That Published Criticism of Prophet Muhammad,” AP, November 14, 2006; “Azerbaijan’s President Declares Amnesty Including Some Journalists,” AP, December 28, 2007.

  On Syrian writer, Nabil Fayadh, threatened by Al-Qaeda for a book he had written, see “Death Threats, Al-Qaeda Fatwas Against Syrian Writer,” The Middle East Media Research Institute, January 18, 2009, http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=Announcement5908. Also, in October 2008, twelve Syrians were convicted of “fomenting sectarian strife” and sentenced to two and a half years in prison after they participated in pro-democracy initiatives.

  In Libya, though there is no law forbidding apostasy, the police have harassed, detained, and tortured converts, including some overseas. See “African Christian Imprisoned in Libya,” Middle East Concern, May 3, 2007; “Ghanaians Demand Justice,” Ghana Today, February 8, 2008, http://www.ghanatoday.com/index.php?option=news&task=viewarticle&sid=23147; “Ghana Christian Leaves Libya Jail,” BBC News, May 1, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8028980.stm; “Libya Tortures Four Christian Converts from Islam,” Assyrian International News Agency via International Christian Concern, March 9, 2009, http://www.persecution.org/suffering/ICCnews/newsdetail.php?newscode=9683&title=libya-tortures-four-christian-converts-from-islam.

  Israel has also penalized insults to Islam and Muslims. In 1998, Tatiana Soskin was sentenced to two years in prison after putting up a poster that pictured the Prophet Muhammad as a pig. See “Pig Poster Artist Sentenced to Two Years,” The Washington Post, January 9, 1998.

  77. Saban Kardas, “Religious Freedom Still Tenuous in Turkey,” Eurasia Daily Monitor 6, no. 38 (February 26, 2009): http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=34559.

  Chapter 8

  1. “Nigeria: Teacher Accused of Blasphemy Disappears,” Compass Direct News, March 28, 2006, http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&lang=en&length=long&idelement=4277&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Nigeria&rowcur=25; “Nigerian Teacher Dies ‘over Koran,’ ” BBC News, March 21, 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6477177.stm; U. S. State Department, “Nigeria,” International Religious Freedom Report 2008, http://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2008/108385.htm.

  2. “Islamists in Somalia Behead Two Sons of Christian Leader,” Compass Direct News, Jul
y 1, 2009, http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=5986&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Somalia&rowcur=0.

  3. Alex De Waal, “Averting Genocide in the Nuba Mountains, Sudan,” Social Science Research Council, December 22, 2006, http://howgenocidesend.ssrc.org/de_Waal2/. See also Edgar O’Ballance, Sudan, Civil War and Terrorism: 1956–99 (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000).

  4. On Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa, see the Pew Forum’s survey, “Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa,” April 15, 2010, http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=515.

  5. These upheavals are usually described as political and/or ethnic, rather than religious, but they often have religious dimensions. As the Roman Catholic archbishop of the Jos Archdiocese asked, “Why were churches and clergy attacked and killed? Why were politicians and political party offices not attacked, if it was a political conflict?” Also, “Nigeria: Six Pastors Killed, Forty Churches Razed in Jos,” Compass Direct News, December 11, 2008, http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=5725&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Nigeria&rowcur=0.

  6. See Paul Marshall, The Talibanization of Nigeria: Sharia Law and Religious Freedom (Washington: Freedom House, 2002), and “Nigeria: Shari’a in a Fragmented Country,” in Radical Islam’s Rules: The Worldwide Spread of Extreme Shari’a Law, ed. Paul Marshall (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005), 113–34.

  7. “Nigeria,” International Religious Freedom Report 2008.

  8. Interview with Paul Marshall, May 2001. See also Marshall, The Talibanization of Nigeria, and “Nigeria: Shari’a in a Fragmented Country.”

  9. “Catholic Priest, Member of Parliament Killed in Nigeria,” Newsroom, May 30, 2000; “Sharia Is Superior to Nigerian Constitution-Sani,” an interview with Abdulhaji Ahmed Sani, Governor of Zamfara, with Omolade Adunbi, Abdul Oroh, and Feyi Koya-Adewole, Church and Society, January to March 2000. See also Marshall, The Talibanization of Nigeria, and “Nigeria: Shari’a in a Fragmented Country.”

  10. “Nigeria: Two Converts to Christianity Face Death,” Compass Direct News, May 13, 2002, http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=1243&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Nigeria&rowcur=150.

  11. “Nigeria: A Teenager Counts the Cost of Embracing Christ,” Compass Direct News, December 9, 2005, http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&lang=en&length=long&idelement=4103&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Nigeria&rowcur=50.

  12. “Nigeria: Cattleman Severely Tortured for Receiving Christ,” Compass Direct News, October 31, 2005, http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&lang=en&length=long&idelement=4048&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Nigeria&rowcur=50.

  13. “Nigeria: Teacher Accused of Blasphemy Disappears.”

  14. “Nigeria: Offhand Comments Spark Latest ‘Blasphemy’ Rampage,” Compass Direct News, October 2, 2006, http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&lang=en&length=long&idelement=4556&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Nigeria&rowcur=25.

  15. “Nigeria: Teacher on Trial after Punishing Muslim Student,” Compass Direct News, October 16, 2006, http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&lang=en&length=long&idelement=4594&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Nigeria&rowcur=25.

  16. “Nigerian Teacher Dies ‘Over Koran’ ”; “Nigeria,” International Religious Freedom Report 2008.

  17. “Nigeria Christian Killed over Blasphemy; Dozens Injured,” BosNewsLife, February 13, 2008, http://www.bosnewslife.com/3435-3435-nigeria-christians-killed-in-riot-over-blasph; “Nigeria,” International Religious Freedom Report 2008; “Nigeria: Muslim Rioters Attack Christian in Kano,” Compass Direct News, April 23, 2008, http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&lang=en&length=long&idelement=5344&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Nigeria&rowcur=0; “Nigeria: Mob Kills 50-year-old Man for ‘Blasphemy,’ ” Daily Trust News, http://allafrica.com/stories/200808110940.html. Ademola Bello, born a Muslim, was once attacked by militants who held a gun to his head and accused him of abandoning Islam because his play Bondage criticized sharia; see Ademola Bello, “Al-Qaeda in Nigeria: Grazing in the Sahara,” RealClearWorld, January 25, 2010, http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2010/01/25/al_qaeda_in_nigeria_grazing_in_the_sahara_97501.html.

  18. “Nigeria’s Journalist on the Run,” BBC News, November 27, 2002, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2518977.stm.

  19. “Nigerian Government Rejects Fatwa,” BBC News, November 26, 2002, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2514821.stm. There was also widespread violence following the Danish cartoons, which is covered in chapter 10.

  20. “Nigerian ‘Trained in Afghanistan,’ ” BBC News, September 2, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8233980.stm.

  21. “Nigeria: Death Toll Climbs in Attack by Islamic Sect,” Compass Direct News, August 7, 2009, http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=6056&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Nigeria&rowcur=0; Nick Tattersall, “Nigerians Count Cost after Uprising by Islamic Sect,” News Daily, August 3, 2009, http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre5721x5-us-nigeria-sect-scene; “Nigeria’s Boko Haram Chief ‘Killed,’ ” News Africa, July 31, 2009, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2009/07/2009730174233896352.html; Senan Murray and Adam Nossiter, “In Nigeria, an Insurgency Leaves a Heavy Toll,” The New York Times, August 3, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/world/africa/04nigeria.html; “Boko Haram Resurrects, Declares Total Jihad,” Vanguard, August 14, 2009, http://www.vanguardngr.com/2009/08/14/bokoharam-ressurects-declares-total-jihad.

  22. Aminu Abubakar, “Nigerian Islamist Sect Threaten to Widen Attacks,” Agence France Presse (AFP), March 29, 2010, http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j1FA1NJrS-ES89YWeX4f--kcQGmA. See also Jon Gambrell, “Internet Video: Muslims Must Rise up in Nigeria,” Associated Press (AP), March 16, 2010, http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9EFSPT80&show_article=1.

  23. We have not covered de facto self-governing Somaliland in the north, but there is government-sponsored Islamist religious repression there also. See “Converts from Islam Jailed, Pursued in Somalia’s Breakaway Region,” Compass Direct News, September 16, 2009, http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/somalia/9383/; “Imprisoned Christian in Somaliland on Hunger Strike,” Compass Direct News, October 16, 2009, http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/somalia/10593/.

  24. Mohamed Mohamed, “Somali Rage at Grave Desecration,” BBC News, June 8, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8077725.stm.

  25. “Somalia,” International Religious Freedom Report 2008, U.S. State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, http://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2008/108391.htm.

  26. Sudarsan Raghavan, “In Somalia’s War, a New Challenger Is Pushing Back Radical al-Shabab Militia,” Washington Post, May 28, 2010, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/26/AR2010052605279.html; Jeffrey Gettleman, “For Somalia, Chaos Breeds Religious War,” New York Times, May 23, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/world/africa/24somalia.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1.

  27. “Somalia,” International Religious Freedom Report 2008; “Somalia,” International Religious Freedom Report 2007, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2007/90120.htm; “Almost Expunged,” The Economist, October 22, 2009, http://www.economist.com/world/middleeast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14707279. There are also attacks on Christians in the breakaway region of Somaliland.

  28. “Somali Islamists Declare: ‘We Will Slaughter Christians’—‘Somalis Are 100% Muslim and Will Always Remain So,’ ” Militant Islam Monitor, October 17, 2006, http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/2474.

  29. “From African Bush to Scotland Yard—the Murder Trail That Led to al-Qaida,” The Guardian, November 15, 2005, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/nov/15/rosiecowan.mainsection.

  30. “Italian Nun Killed in Somalia; Isla
mic Forces Suspected,” Catholic World News, September 18, 2006, http://www.catholicculture.org/news/features/index.cfm?recnum=46538.

  31. “Christian Aid Worker in Somalia Beheaded for Converting from Islam,” Compass Direct News, October 27, 2008, http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=5661&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Somalia&rowcur=0.

  32. “Somali Christian Shot and Killed,” Voice of the Martyrs Canada, August 6, 2008, http://www.persecution.net/so-2008-08-06.htm.

  33. “Somali Christian Shot at Muslim Wedding,” Mission Network News, October 23, 2008, http://www.mnnonline.org/article/11809.