Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are Choking Freedom Worldwide by Paul Marshall, Nina Shea
Authors: Paul Marshall, Nina Shea
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interpretations of sharia, and even quotations from Khomeini, to put to death or otherwise harshly punish apostates. Malaysia has assigned converts, or would-be converts, to reeducationcamps. Egypt’s security services have tortured converts. Algeria’s Minister of Religious Affairs, Ghoulamullah Bouabdellah, has equated Christian evangelism with terrorism. In a 2010 scare over “proselytism,” Morocco expelled dozens of expatriate Christians. In 2007, three Turkish Christians in Malatya, including two converts from Islam, were tortured and their throats slit. Saudi Arabia officially instructs that apostates should be killed, and, in 2008, a Saudi member of the
muttawa
burned his daughter to death after she converted. In Afghanistan converts have been killed, and in Somalia, all Somali Christians are being systematically hunted down and killed on the grounds that they are apostates; the Al-Shabab militia openly declares its intention to kill every Christian in the country.
The third category is Muslims of the “wrong” type, such as Shias in predominantly Sunni areas, or Sunnis in Shia areas, and Sufis in many areas. 5 Egypt’s government has repressed Shias, and Shia leader Mohamed Ramadan Hussein El-Derini was detained and tortured without charges or trial for fifteen months. One of the detention orders stated that he was “under the influence of Shia ideas and seeks to spread them in his circles.” In June 2009, there were reports of as many as 300 arrests of Shias in Egypt. Iran has been arresting Sunni clerics and cracking down on Sufism, with hundreds of arrests. In Saudi Arabia, Shias are commonly viewed as heretics and suffer discrimination and frequent persecution: the situation is even worse for some subgroups, especially Ismailis. In parts of Pakistan, and throughout Iraq, members of Muslim groups are violently attacked, some even as they pray at their mosques and shrines, by Muslims of different sects, with hundreds killed. Turkey discriminates against Alevis, while Morocco is monitoring Shias because of concern that Sunnis are converting.
The fourth category is Muslim reformers and dissidents, including theologians, editors, journalists, authors, democracy activists, and others, especially when they challenge the entrenched power of regimes that claim to be representative of Islam. Those designated as possible heretics or deviants include Bangladeshi feminists, Iranian religious scholars, Egyptian intellectuals, opponents to slavery and corruption in Mauritania, social reformers in Afghanistan, and innumerable others.
In 2002, a group of religious scholars, the Bandung Indonesian Ulemas Forum (FUUI) issued a fatwa saying that reformer Ulil Abshar Abdalla deserved to die after publishing an article in the newspaper
Kompas
titled “Freshening Up Islamic Understanding.” Abdalla had already been targeted by the radical Islam Defenders Front. In Afghanistan in 2007, Ghaus Zalmai, formerly an outspoken journalist, who was then spokesman for the attorney general, was arrested for publishing a Dari translation of the Qur’an. Several of Afghanistan’s courageous reformist journalists have been charged with blasphemy and imprisoned, especially when they have raised questions abut the status of women. In 2007, Aishath Aniya, formerly the Maldivian Democratic Party’s Deputy Secretary-General, was forced to resign and go into hiding after writing an article criticizing the notion that womenmust wear a veil lest men be tempted. Ali Ahmad Said Asbar is often regarded as the greatest contemporary Arab poet and is more commonly known by his pen names, Adonis or Adunis. In October 2008, after he gave a lecture at Algeria’s National Library, arguing that Islamist attempts to impose their religion on society and the state are wrong, Islamists accused him of being an “apostate,” and the Minister of Culture denounced his “ideological deterioration” and fired the library’s director for inviting him. In
muttawa
burned his daughter to death after she converted. In Afghanistan converts have been killed, and in Somalia, all Somali Christians are being systematically hunted down and killed on the grounds that they are apostates; the Al-Shabab militia openly declares its intention to kill every Christian in the country.
The third category is Muslims of the “wrong” type, such as Shias in predominantly Sunni areas, or Sunnis in Shia areas, and Sufis in many areas. 5 Egypt’s government has repressed Shias, and Shia leader Mohamed Ramadan Hussein El-Derini was detained and tortured without charges or trial for fifteen months. One of the detention orders stated that he was “under the influence of Shia ideas and seeks to spread them in his circles.” In June 2009, there were reports of as many as 300 arrests of Shias in Egypt. Iran has been arresting Sunni clerics and cracking down on Sufism, with hundreds of arrests. In Saudi Arabia, Shias are commonly viewed as heretics and suffer discrimination and frequent persecution: the situation is even worse for some subgroups, especially Ismailis. In parts of Pakistan, and throughout Iraq, members of Muslim groups are violently attacked, some even as they pray at their mosques and shrines, by Muslims of different sects, with hundreds killed. Turkey discriminates against Alevis, while Morocco is monitoring Shias because of concern that Sunnis are converting.
The fourth category is Muslim reformers and dissidents, including theologians, editors, journalists, authors, democracy activists, and others, especially when they challenge the entrenched power of regimes that claim to be representative of Islam. Those designated as possible heretics or deviants include Bangladeshi feminists, Iranian religious scholars, Egyptian intellectuals, opponents to slavery and corruption in Mauritania, social reformers in Afghanistan, and innumerable others.
In 2002, a group of religious scholars, the Bandung Indonesian Ulemas Forum (FUUI) issued a fatwa saying that reformer Ulil Abshar Abdalla deserved to die after publishing an article in the newspaper
Kompas
titled “Freshening Up Islamic Understanding.” Abdalla had already been targeted by the radical Islam Defenders Front. In Afghanistan in 2007, Ghaus Zalmai, formerly an outspoken journalist, who was then spokesman for the attorney general, was arrested for publishing a Dari translation of the Qur’an. Several of Afghanistan’s courageous reformist journalists have been charged with blasphemy and imprisoned, especially when they have raised questions abut the status of women. In 2007, Aishath Aniya, formerly the Maldivian Democratic Party’s Deputy Secretary-General, was forced to resign and go into hiding after writing an article criticizing the notion that womenmust wear a veil lest men be tempted. Ali Ahmad Said Asbar is often regarded as the greatest contemporary Arab poet and is more commonly known by his pen names, Adonis or Adunis. In October 2008, after he gave a lecture at Algeria’s National Library, arguing that Islamist attempts to impose their religion on society and the state are wrong, Islamists accused him of being an “apostate,” and the Minister of Culture denounced his “ideological deterioration” and fired the library’s director for inviting him. In
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