Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are Choking Freedom Worldwide

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Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are Choking Freedom Worldwide Page 75

by Paul Marshall


  60. “Muslims in Sweden Protest Against Preacher Calling Mohammed ‘Pedophile,’ ” AFP, April 24, 2005, http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1024117.ece.

  61. James Brandon, “Sweden’s Rising Muslim Tide,” Christian Science Monitor, December 6, 2005, http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1206/p07s02-woeu.html.

  62. Lauren Elkin, “Jewish Philosopher at Centre of Riot Debate,” Canadian Jewish News, December 8, 2005; Hillel Halkin, “Finkielkraut’s Plain Talk on Race,” New York Sun, November 29, 2005, http://www.nysun.com/opinion/finkielkrauts-plain-talk-on-race/23689/; Daniel Ben-Simon, “French Philosopher Alain Finkielkraut Apologizes after Death Threats,” Ha’aretz, November 27, 2005, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=650155; Daniel Ben Simon, “France’s Sarkozy Backs Beleaguered Finkielkraut over Muslim Riot Comments,” Ha’aretz, December 7, 2005, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=654055.

  63. Michael Nazir-Ali, “Extremism Flourished as UK Lost Christianity,” Daily Telegraph (U.K.), January 5, 2008, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1574695/Extremismflourished-as-UK-lost-Christianity.html.

  64. “British Bishop Says He Faces Threats after Comments on Islamic Extremism,” AP, February 2, 2008, http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1A1-D8U022503.html; Jonathan Wynne-Jones, “Bishop Warns of No-go Zones for Non-Muslims,” Daily Telegraph (U.K.), January 5, 2008, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1574694/Bishop-warns-of-no-go-zones-for-non-Muslims.html.

  65. Quoted in Jonathan Wynne-Jones, “Bishop of Rochester Reasserts ‘No-go’ Claim,” Daily Telegraph, February 24, 2008, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1579661/Bishop-of-Rochester-reasserts-no-go-claim.html.

  66. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, “The Freedoms We Fight For,” The Weekly Standard, blog p. 2, November 28, 2005, http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/395unguo.asp.

  67. Jonathan Petre, “Minister Beaten after Clashing with Muslims on His TV Show,” Daily Mail, March 15, 2009, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1162039/Minister-beaten-clashing-Muslims-TV-show.html. Attacks also take place outside the West: Father Daniil Sysoyev, a Russian Orthodox priest, was killed in his church on November 19, 2009. He had received fourteen death threats for his attempts to convert Muslims. An Islamic group from the Caucasus claims responsibility for the assassination; see “Islamists Claim Killing of Russian Priest,” AFP, December 25, 2009, http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hJOiv_HtszrmgOpKIJWuc5203W3A; “Likely Killer of Priest Daniil Sysoyev Identified,” The Voice of Russia, January 27, 2010, http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/01/27/3917253.html.

  68. Alexander Stille, “Scholars Are Quietly Offering New Theories of the Koran,” New York Times, March 2, 2002, http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/02/arts/scholars-are-quietly-offeringnew-theories-of-the-koran.html?pagewanted=1.

  69. Translation by the Center for Islamic Pluralism in “CIP Urgent Media Bulletin Re Death Threat—April 12, 2006,” http://www.islamicpluralism.org/news/2006n/06urgentmediabulletin.htm; Munir al Mawry, “Arab Intellectuals Receive Death Threat,” Asharq Alawsat, October 4, 2006, http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=4484.

  70. Derek Scally, “Muslim Lawyer Shuts Berlin Office,” Irish Times, September 6, 2006, http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2006/0906/1156791421300.html; Peter Schneider, “In Germany, Muslims Grow Apart; Islam in Europe,” International Herald Tribune, December 3, 2005, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/02/world/europe/02iht-islam7.html; “Europe’s New Dissidents,” Wall Street Journal, September 6, 2006, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113902160067465086.html.

  71. “Europe’s New Dissidents.”

  72. Marlise Simons, “Muslim Women Take Charge of Their Faith,” International Herald Tribune, December 2, 2005, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/01/world/europe/01iht-islam6.html.

  73. “Necla Kelek, 49, Best-selling Author,” International Herald Tribune, December 1, 2005, http://www.hewaronline.net/mideast/neclakelek.htm.

  74. “Lawmaker Threatened for Head Scarf Comments,” AP, October 31, 2006, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15501366; see also Douglas Murray and Johan Pieter Verwey, Victims of Intimidation (London: Centre for Social Cohesion, 2008), 6–7, http://www.socialcohesion.co.uk/files/1231525439_1.pdf.

  75. Stefanie Von Brochowski, “German Lawmaker Gets Death Threats after Urging Muslim Women to take off Head Scarves,” AP, October 31, 2006, http://legacy.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20061031-1134-germany-headscarves.html; Stefanie Von Brochowski, “German Greens Seek Muslim Support for Lawmaker Threatened over Head Scarf Comments,” AP, November 1, 2006, http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-23191178_ITM.

  76. Sarah Lyall, “Sweden’s Lightning Rod in a Storm over Assimilation,” New York Times, January 13, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/13/world/europe/13profile.html; Helena Frith Powell, “Sweden’s Muslim Minister Turns on Veil,” The Sunday Times, October 22, 2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article608929.ece; David Charter, “Young, Black, Swedish—the Minister for Controversy,” The Times, May 21, 2007, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1816494.ece.

  77. Phil Stewart, “Interview—Italy MP Gets Death Threats from Muslim Radicals,” Reuters, April 1, 2009, http://dalje.com/en-world/italy-mp-gets-death-threats-from-muslim-radicals/247833.

  78. “Italy: MP in Court to Defend Herself Against Death ‘Fatwa,’” AdnKronosInternational, June 18, 2009, http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Religion/?id=3.0.3439029989; Valentina Colombo, “Counter-Jihad by Court: A Historical Victory,” http://www.hudsonny.org/2009/07/counter-jihad-by-court-a-historical-victory.php.

  79. “Kadra Attacked in Public,” Aftenposten (Norway), April 13, 2007, http://www.fgmnetwork.org/gonews.php?subaction=showfull&id=1176586438&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1&; “2 Men Arrested in Norway after Attack on Critic of Islam,” AP, April 16, 2007, http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg39607.html.

  80. Teresa Wiltz, “The Woman Who Went to the Front of the Mosque,” Washington Post, June 5, 2005, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/04/AR2005060401646.html.

  81. Gary Robertson, “Safety of Muslim VCU Professor Discussed,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 25, 2005; Nadia Abou El-Magd, “N.Y. Prayer Service Irks Mideast Muslims,” AP, March 18, 2005, http://www.ewoss.com/articles/D88U965G3.aspx.

  82. Sarah Coleman, “Shabana Rehman: Making Fun of the Mullahs,” World Press Review 50, no. 9 (2003): http://www.worldpress.org/Europe/1437.cfm; Craig S. Smith, “Militant Mullah Meets Match in Comic at Norway Nightclub,” New York Times, April 30, 2004, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/30/international/europe/30norw.html?pagewanted=1; Matthew Campbell, “Heard the One about the Rebel Muslim Girl?” February 9, 2003, Sunday Times, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article869830.ece; Craig S. Smith, “Skien Journal: Where East Meets West Warily, She Makes Them Laugh,” New York Times, November 14, 2003, http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/14/world/skien-journal-where-east-meets-west-warily-she-makes-them-laugh.html?pagewanted=1; “Shots Fired at Pakistani-born Comic’s Oslo Restaurant,” Daily Times, August 25, 2005, http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_25-8-2005_pg7_39.

  83. “Deputy of Syrian-Palestinian Origin Returned in Danish Poll,” AFP, November 21, 2001; James Brandon, “Europe’s Muslims Divided in Wake of Cartoon Furor,” Christian Science Monitor, March 6, 2006, http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-142850585.html; Lorenzo Vidino, “Finding Partners in Islam,” Boston Globe, May 9, 2007, http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/05/09/finding_partners_in_islam/.

  84. “Danish PM Hosts Controversial Meeting on Terror and Radical Islam,” AFP, September 20, 2005; “Moderate Danish Muslims Targets of Attacks and Death Threats,” report by Politiken via BBC Monitoring Europe, November 22, 2004.

  85. Kevin Sullivan, “Turmoil over Cartoons Began Quietly among Danes,” Washington Post, February 8, 2006, http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=6343; Doug Saunders, “A Tale of Two Muslim Dane
s,” The Globe and Mail (Canada), February 11, 2006; “Denmark’s Democratic Muslims Organization Gains 1,500 Members in First Month,” report by Politiken via BBC Monitoring Europe, March 7, 2006; “Danish Poll Shows Fall in Support for Democratic Muslims Group over Past Year,” text of report by Ritzau Bureau originally titled “Democratic Muslims Losing Support,” via BBC Monitoring Europe, January 17, 2007.

  86. “Naser Khader and Flemming Rose: Reflections on the Danish Cartoon Controversy,” interview by Daniel Pipes, Middle East Quarterly 14, no. 4 (Fall 2007): http://www.meforum.org/1758/naser-khader-and-flemming-rose-reflections-on; “Disgruntled Lawmakers Form New Party in Denmark,” AP, May 7, 2007, http://blog.polilux.dk/#post2; “Liberal Alliance Founder Leaves Party,” The Copenhagen Post, January 5, 2009, http://www.cphpost.dk/news/politics/90-politics/43917-liberal-alliance-founder-leaves-party.html.

  87. Jan M. Olsen, “Denmark PM Discusses Cartoons Crisis with Moderate Muslims,” AP, February 13, 2006, http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-12698233_ITM; “Report: Spokesman for Danish Imams Appears to Call for Bomb Attack Against Lawmaker,” AP, March 23, 2006.

  88. “Danish Imams Not Charged over Comments in Documentary,” report by Danmarks Radio via BBC Monitoring Europe, March 27, 2006; “Danish Islamic Group Removes Spokesman after Apparent Call for Bomb Attack,” AP, March 25, 2006. For other Danish examples, see “Moderate Muslims Afraid to Speak Out,” Copenhagen Post, November 16, 2004, http://www.cphpost.dk/get/83602.html; “Moderate Danish Muslims Targets of Attacks and Death Threats.”

  89. Arthur Max, “Dutch Cabinet Gets Its First Muslims,” AP, February 21, 2007 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/00017542; Anthony Browne, “The Death of an Easygoing Culture,” The Times, November 19, 2005, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article591787.ece; Victims of Intimidation, 2–3; Buruma, Murder in Amsterdam, 247–53.

  90. Keith B. Richburg, “In Netherlands, Anti-Islamic Polemic Comes with a Price,” Washington Post, February 2005, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52502-2005Jan31.html.

  91. Jason Burke, “Holland’s First Immigrant Mayor Is Hailed as ‘Obama on the Maas,’” The Guardian, January 11, 2009, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/11/netherlands-rotterdam-race-ahmed-aboutaleb.

  92. “Stop Capitulating to Threats—a Manifesto,” January 21, 2006, http://afshinellian.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_archive.html.

  93. Caldwell, “Holland Daze”; Craig Whitlock, “For Public Figures in Netherlands, Terror Becomes a Personal Concern,” Washington Post, November 11, 2005, http://www.washing-tonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/10/AR2005111002046.html.

  94. Sonya Fatah, “Fearing for Safety, Muslim Official Quits,” The Globe and Mail, August 3, 2006, http://sonyafatah.com/blog/2006/08/03/fearing-for-safety-muslim-official-quits/.

  95. Radhika Panjwani, “Muslim Leader Fears Backlash over Liberal Views,” The Mississauga News, October 13, 2006.

  96. Interview with Salim Mansur, May 22, 2010.

  97. David B. Harris, “Report from the Northern Front: Montreal Redux,” Investigative Project on Terrorism, October 14, 2008, http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/789. Omar El Akkad, “Pakistan-based Muslim Group Behind Attack, Journalist Says,” The Globe and Mail, April 20, 2007, http://hogtownfront.blogspot.com/2007/04/pakistani-canadian-journalist-may-have.html; “Weekly Journalist on Pakistani Paper Beaten with Cricket Bat,” Reporters Without Borders, April 23, 2007, http://en.rsf.org/canada-weekly-journalist-on-pakistani-23-04-2007,21880.

  98. The book was originally titled The Trouble with Islam: A Wake Up Call for Honesty and Change (Toronto: Random House Canada, 2004), but later editions changed this to The Trouble with Islam Today, which is the title usually followed in the more than thirty translations; Irshad Manji, “How the West Can Revive Islam,” Time Canada, September 13, 2004; Irshad Manji, “Outside View: Challenging Islam Is Risky,” United Press International, November 2, 2004, http://www.irshadmanji.com/news/upi-04-11-02.html; Interview with Irshad Manji by John Glassie, New York Times, December 21, 2003, http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/21/magazine/21QUESTIONS.html?pagewanted=1; DeNeen L. Brown, “‘Muslim Refusenik’ Incites Furor with Critique of Faith,” Washington Post, January 19, 2004, http://www.muslim-refusenik.com/news/washingtonpost-040118.html; Irshad Manji, “Salman Rushdie’s Knighthood Should Be the Last Thing to Offend Muslims,” The New Republic Online, June 22, 2007, http://www.irshadmanji.com/news/timesOfLondon_June_26_07.html; Irshad Manji, “Religion Is the Root Cause of Terrorist Threat,” The Australian, July 5, 2007, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/irshad-manji-religion-is-the-root-cause-of-terrorist-threat/story-e6frg6zo-1111113886840; Clifford Krauss, “An Unlikely Promoter of an Islamic Reformation,” New York Times, October 4, 2003, http://www.irshadmanji.com/news/nytimes-oct4-03.html.

  99. Daniel Pipes, “[Khalid Duran] An American Rushdie?” Jerusalem Post, July 4, 2001, http://www.danielpipes.org/384/khalid-duran-an-american-rushdie; Nat Hentoff, “His Blood Could Be Shed,” Washington Times, July 9, 2001; Khalid Duran, “How CAIR Put My Life in Peril,” The Middle East Quarterly 9, no. 1 (Winter 2002); Khalid Duran, personal communication, Washington, D.C., February 14, 2009.

  100. “Muslim Imam in France Defies Death Threats to Continue Efforts to Reach out to Jewish Neighbors,” International Herald Tribune, January 22, 2009, http://www.cleveland.com/world/index.ssf/2009/01/muslim_imam_in_france_defies_d.html.

  101. Akbar Ahmed, “A Message of Violence and Hatred,” The Independent (U.K.), July 1, 2004, http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/akbar-ahmed-a-message-of-violence-and-hatred-565370.html.

  102. See Ibn Warraq, Leaving Islam; Apostates Speak Out (New York: Prometheus. 2003).

  103. “There Can Be No End to Jihad”—Interview with Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad by Anthony McRoy, Christianity Today, February 1, 2005, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/februaryweb-only/22.0.html; First Collection of Fatwas, trans. Anas Osama Altikriti, European Council for Fatwa and Research, 16–17, www.e-cfr.org/data/cat30072008113814.doc.

  104. Munira Mirza, Abi Senthilkumaran, and Zein Ja’far, Living Apart Together: British Muslims and the Paradox of Multiculturalism (London: Policy Exchange, 2007), 47, http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/assets/Living_Apart_Together_text.pdf.

  105. Ibn Warraq, Why I Am Not a Muslim (New York: Prometheus, 2003); “Ibn Warraq: Why I Am Not a Muslim,” interview with Stephen Crittenden, on The Religion Report, Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) Radio National, January 23, 2002, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/religionreport/stories/2002/440586.htm; Lee Smith, “Losing His Religion: Apostate Ibn Warraq Campaigns for the Right Not to Be a Muslim,” Boston Globe, August 17, 2003, http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2003/08/17/losing_his_religion_boston_globe?mode=PF; Alexander Stille, “Scholars Are Quietly Offering New Theories of the Koran.”

  106. “ ‘Not Possible to Modernize Islam,” Der Spiegel, February 27, 2007, http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,468828,00.html; “Founder of Ex-Muslim Group Threatened,” United Press International, February 23, 2007, http://right-mind.us/blogs/blog_0/archive/2007/02/26/50221.aspx.

  107. Riazat Butt, “New Ex-Muslim Group Speaks Out,” The Guardian, June 22, 2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/jun/22/religion.immigrationpolicy; Jonathan Petre, “New Group for Those Who Renounce Islam,” Daily Telegraph (U.K.), June 21, 2007, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1555263/New-group-for-those-who-renounce-Islam.html; “Europe: New Groups Unite Those Who Renounce Islam,” Radio Free Europe, September 11, 2007, http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1078630.html.

  108. Victims of Intimidation, 8–9; “Extra Security for Ehsan Jami,” Expatica, August 7, 2007; Toby Sterling, “Muslims Who Renounce Their Faith Band Together in European Countries,” AP, September 11, 2007, http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg108414.html.

  109. “Dutch Politician Launches Committee for Ex-Muslims,” AFP, September 11, 2007, http://static.rnw.nl/migratie/www.radione
therlands.nl/currentaffairs/dut070911mc-redirected.

  110. David Charter, “Young Muslims Begin Dangerous Fight for the Right to Abandon Faith,” The Times, September 11, 2007, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2426314.ece; “Dutch Politician Launches Committee for Ex-Muslims.”

  111. Johann Hari, “Why Do We Ignore the Plight of Ex-Muslims?” The Independent (London), October 25, 2007, http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-why-do-we-ignore-the-plight-of-exmuslims-395287.html; “Jami Writes Opinion Piece with Wilders,” Expatica, September 27, 2007, http://www.expatica.com/nl/news/local_news/jami-writes-opinion-piece-with-wilders-44322_39986.html; “Ex-Muslim Jami Asked to Quit Council Seat,” DutchNews.nl, October 15, 2007, http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2007/10/exmuslim_jami_asked_to_quit_co.php; “Councillor shuts down committee for ex-Muslims,” Expatica, April 17, 2008, http://www.expatica.com/nl/news/local_news/Councillor-shuts-down-committee-for-ex_Muslims.html.

  112. Ab Zagt, “Dutch Concern over New Anti-Muslim Film,” Hollywood Reporter, March 31, 2008; “Dutch Ex-Muslim Producing the Life of Muhammad,” Radio Netherlands, March 27, 2008, http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/5704094/Dutch-exMuslim-producing-IThe-Life-of-MuhammadI.

 

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