The fundamental right to freedom of expression is under
attack around the world. The targets of the assault are
those who question, criticize, or satirize religious
beliefs, cultural customs, or political figures. These
dissidents are not violent insurgents wielding guns or
machetes, but writers, activists, thinkers, scholars, and
everyday citizens living their lives and speaking their
minds. Their weapons are pens, keyboards, and their own
human voices.
To silence these voices, a global crackdown is underway,
where those who exercise their right to free expression are
persecuted, threatened, jailed, tortured, or killed. The
assault is being waged by religious demagogues, angry mobs,
and radicalized individuals, as well as by governments, both
local and national, leveling charges of blasphemy and
“insulting religion” against dissidents. And through the
abuse of individuals, they seek to terrorize the population
as a whole into resigned submission.
The Campaign for Free Expression is an initiative of the
Center for Inquiry (CFI) created to resist this crackdown
and defend the right of all people to think, believe, and
speak as they choose without fear of government sanction or
violent reprisal. We find ourselves in the midst of what is
no less than a human rights crisis that even the most
pessimistic Enlightenment-era thinker could not have thought
possible in the 21st century. But whether those
speaking out are atheist or religious; liberal or
conservative; Christian, Hindu, Muslim, or of any or no
faith, the Campaign for Free Expression exists to fight for
their right to speak.
Consider just a few examples:
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Raif Badawi is founder of the website Liberal Saudi
Network, which was dedicated to fostering open discussion
of religion and politics in Saudi Arabia. He is also an
advocate for freedom of religion, belief, and expression,
and women’s rights. He is currently imprisoned in Saudi
Arabia for insulting Islam.
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Asia Bibi is a Christian mother of five who was living as
a farm worker in Pakistan. In 2010, Bibi was alleged to
have made blasphemous remarks following a disagreement
with a Muslim coworker who refused to drink from a
container of water she carried, believing it was tainted.
In November 2010, Bibi was convicted of blasphemy and
became the first woman to be sentenced to death in
Pakistan for that crime. She remains in jail while her
case is being appealed.
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Dr. Avijit Roy was a Bangladeshi-American human rights
activist and blogger known for his work defending freedom
of thought and critical thinking. In 2001, Roy founded a
forum for Bengali freethinkers called Mukto-Mona.
He authored eight books and wrote articles for the Center
for Inquiry’s magazine Free Inquiry. In February
2015, Roy visited his home country with his wife for the
Ekushey Book Fair in Dhaka. They were attacked but
extremists armed with machetes; Roy died, and his wife
barely survived.
For many in positions of power around the world, whether
religious or political, even examples such as these are not
sufficient crackdowns on freedom of thought. While some
leaders offer vague platitudes that invoke a need to curtail
certain forms of sensitive speech, others are far more
severe. They seek ironclad global restrictions on what can
and cannot be expressed about religion and religious
figures, criminalizing on a planetary scale any speech that
might offend religious sentiments. Eruptions of violence in
majority-Muslim countries ostensibly in response to an
anti-Islam Internet video, the murders of secular bloggers
and activists in Bangladesh and India, and a massacre
perpetrated on a Paris newspaper over its satirical
cartoons, have prompted leaders in Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey,
and other countries to seize upon the unrest and call upon
the United Nations to enact binding resolutions against the
so-called “defamation of religion.” Worried about further
violence and wary of the appearance of insensitivity, many
pro-democracy governments and organizations have begun to
soften in their defense of free expression.
At the Center for Inquiry, we believe it’s time for us as a
unified human species to stand up and declare that this is
unacceptable.
Despite what many would have us believe, the right to
freedom of expression is not a luxury valued mainly by
Western elites, but a widely accepted, foundational
principle of civilization. Several important international
agreements clearly outline that freedom of expression is a
universal right possessed by all persons, regardless of
geography or nationality.
No one, anywhere, should face social or legal punishment
simply for speaking about his or her beliefs in public. And,
importantly, no topic should be off limits—especially
religion, which has such an enormous impact on the lives of
billions. Part of the freedom of expression is the freedom
to inquire—to ask questions and seek answers beyond what is
dictated by a religious text or cultural dogma. This freedom
is at the core of CFI’s mission. How can we truly have
freedom and equality if certain groups of people aren’t
allowed to exercise the same rights as anyone else? And how
can we as a civilization grow, learn, and prosper if we sit
back and allow the suppression—too often violent—of minority
viewpoints?
The right to freedom of expression is being whittled away,
person by person, law by law, and innocent and peaceful
people are every day suffering the consequences. It is not a
problem isolated to a faraway land. The crackdown of free
expression reverberates around the planet.
The aims of the Campaign for Free Expression are to increase
public awareness of these threats; discuss and develop plans
to fight back, both in the world’s halls of power and at the
grassroots; and to demonstrate that people value their right
to freedom of expression and are eager to exercise it.
We hope you join us.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Campaign for Free Expression?
The Campaign for Free Expression is an initiative of the
Center for Inquiry to raise awareness regarding one of the
most foundational human rights: the freedom to speak and to
express one’s views without persecution or oppression.
But isn’t free expression protected in the United
States?
Yes, but Americans are fortunate. Around the world, people
routinely face social and legal punishment simply for
stating their position on topics such as religion, whether
they are expressing their belief in a given faith or their
doubts. This is where the Campaign is focused.
What is the purpose or goal of the Campaign?
CFI launched this Campaign with two goals.
First, we seek to raise consciousness about the insidious
prevalence of laws around the world that restrict freedom of
expression, as well as the disturbing number of cases in
which peaceful people have been targeted and punished simply
for stating their views on religion.
Second, we want people to take action: to make others aware
of the current situation; to contact governmental leaders,
diplomats, and others in positions of influence over laws
and social norms regarding free expression; and to reach out
and support those who are right now being oppressed and
persecuted by blasphemy laws and similar restrictions.
Through accomplishing these aims, we hope to show the world
that the freedom of expression enjoys broad, global support.
What is the Campaign doing to achieve these aims?
A number of things, central of which is launching a website,
www.centerforinquiry.net/cfe. This website details laws and cases of expression being
restricted, allowing people to learn about many of the
current threats to free expression, along with featuring
advocacy material like petitions and action alerts.
This is happening in concert with the political advocacy
that CFI has been doing for years at both the on Capitol
Hill and at the United Nations.
Where does CFI/the Campaign stand on inflammatory speech,
such as burning a Qu’ran?
CFI considers such speech on a case-by-case basis. In the
case of burning a Qu’ran, we would rather people read and
discuss the book as a more constructive alternative to an
act that might only cause anger. But the point of this
Campaign is to raise awareness about why freedom of
expression is a universal human right. We might not agree
with the burning of a Qu’ran, but we oppose attempts to
punish those who do.
How can you say free expression is a universal human
right? Many people do not agree with that.
Several international agreements state explicitly that
freedom of expression is a universal human right.
This right was first recognized in 1948 in United Nations’
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 19) and was
given the force of international law in 1966 by the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(Article 19). Article 19 of the ICCPR reads that:
“Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression;
this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and
impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of
frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the
form of art, or through any other media of his choice.”
(ICCPR, Article 19)
These agreements are not arbitrary, nor are they based on an
exclusively Western interpretation of values. They are based
on a universally recognizable secular humanist moral code
that leaves private and personal beliefs for homes and
churches and values freedom of conscience, reason, and
naturalism in the public square.
