Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are Choking Freedom Worldwide Read Online Free PDF

Subhy Mansour sought political asylum in the United States after being persecuted for his reformist writings, including his book arguing against the death penalty for apostasy. The late Muslim reformer Abu-Zayd, whose essay appears later in this book, was declared an apostate by the court of Cassation, Egypt’s highest court, and had to flee Egypt before his marriage was compulsorily dissolved by the courts. The state-funded Al-Azhar University, which the regime consults, has issued a fatwa against the Baha’is, calling on the state to “annihilate” them as a “lethal spiritual epidemic.” It has also called for the punishment of Muslims who convert to Christianity, and it has taken the lead in banning books by reformers.
    There are other dangers apart from the Egyptian government for those accused of blasphemy. Charges of insulting Islam inflame passions, and extremists have manipulated crowds to incite deadly riots. In 2005, for example, a newspaper reported that a play performed in St. George’s Church in Alexandria had “insulted Islam,” resulting in a 5,000-strong mob attack on eight churches, with four killed and ninety injured. In another incident, the late Naguib Mahfouz, the only Arab winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, was stabbed and partially paralyzed by an extremist who thought that his novels insulted Islam.
    Pakistan, which has also taken the lead in introducing the OIC’s annual antidefamation resolutions at the UN, has codified some of the world’s most draconian anti-blasphemy laws, which can carry a life sentence or the death penalty. As chapter 5 details, in Pakistan, while there have been no official executions for blasphemy, extremists have frequently murdered the accused before, during, or after adjudication, even when there was an acquittal. Lynch mobs, whipped into hysteria by accusations of blasphemy broadcast from mosque loudspeakers, have assaulted, typicallywith impunity, thousands of coreligionists and families of the accused, attacking their houses of worship, homes, and businesses, and destroying entire villages.
    Muslim reformers are silenced. Author Younus Shaikh was sentenced to life in prison for “deviating from the teachings of the Quran” by criticizing
rajam
(stoning for adultery). A vastly disproportionate number of cases involve the Ahmadi and Christian minorities, who are particularly vulnerable since, in blasphemy cases, their testimonies count for less than that of Muslims. In Punjab in 2009, after an unsubstantiated accusation that a Qur’an had been desecrated, at least seven Christians were burned alive and over fifty houses torched. Credible reports indicated that extremist groups linked to Al-Qaeda were involved. In 2011, extremists murdered Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti and Governor Salman Taseer for calling for abolition of the blasphemy laws.
    Chapter 6 describes how Afghanistan’s 2004 constitution, drafted with the financial support and legal guidance of the United States and the United Nations, contains a clause asserting that no law can contradict Islam—a law that is often the basis for punishing apostasy and blasphemy. Abdul Rahman, a Christian convert who was imprisoned, was later freed, and subsequently fled the country after international pressure, is the most widely known instance, but there is an ever-lengthening list of such cases, especially involving Muslim journalists. The editor of the magazine
Haqooq-i-Zan
(Women’s Rights) was imprisoned for blasphemy for arguing against the apostasy law. Sima Samar, the minister for Women’s Affairs, was accused of blasphemy for her criticism of the adoption of Islamic law but was spared after international protest erupted. In 2008, a student journalist was condemned to death, a sentence later commuted, for downloading and circulating material on women’s rights under Islam. Despite the presence of NATO forces and UN agencies, religious repression—even in government-controlled areas of