Category Archives: News

News

Why I Despair Over Pakistan’s Intractable Blasphemy Laws

Kimberly Winston of Religion News Service provides commentary on Pakistan’s blasphemy laws based on her recent trip to the  country:

Before leaving for Pakistan, I thought countries that enforce blasphemy laws — Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Indonesia, among others — would eventually catch up to the rest of the world. Surely, it was a matter of time until they realized free speech must trump religious sensitivities.

My week in Lahore and Islamabad — also the scene of Easter violence over blasphemy laws — changed that. After visiting Christian churches and minority Muslim sects — each time passing barricaded metal gates, gun turrets and skeins of razor wire  — we met with an attorney who represents blasphemy defendants, sometimes all the way to Pakistan’s Supreme Court.

This attorney recited case after case he had personally handled in which people, usually Christians, were charged with tearing a page from the Quran or insulting the Prophet Muhammad and were sentenced to death.

Usually, he said, the accusers were looking to settle a personal score with the defendant or steal their wealth. The most notorious case is of Asia Bibi, a Christian mother and field worker facing execution for allegedly making derogatory remarks about the prophet.

But even this attorney — educated at an elite British university, wearing an expensive western suit and speaking English as well as I do — defended the laws.

You can read the full article here.

News

Blasphemy Cases Rise in Egypt and Christians Bear the Brunt

Maggie Michael of the Associated Press details the disturbing increase in blasphemy charges and convictions in Egypt over the past three years:

Two years ago, the military ousted the Muslim Brotherhood from power, and since then the government has been waging a harsh crackdown on Islamists.

Yet in the past three years, prosecutions on charges of insulting Islam have risen dramatically. From three such cases in 2011, there were 21 cases in the courts in 2015, around half targeting Christians, according to Ishaq Ibrahim, a researcher with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

Nine of the 2015 cases led to convictions and prison sentences, while the rest are still in the courts.

You can read the full article here.

News

A Metal Band And A Group Of Teenagers Are Among The Latest To Be Indicted For Blasphemy

ThinkProgress covers the wide-ranging problems with blasphemy laws:

An estimated 100,000 people in Pakistan attended the funeral of a man who was executed for murdering former governor Salman Taseer earlier this month.

Mumtaz Qadri became an unlikely hero when he shot Taseer to death in 2011. Rose petals were thrown at his feet when he walked into the courtroom that sentenced him to death and mourners praised his “bravery” as they carried his coffin through the streets of Rawalpindi.

To understand why a bodyguard-turned-murderer received a rockstar’s last rites lies, one must look to Pakistani history — and its controversial blasphemy laws. ..

But it isn’t just in Pakistan where the charge of offending God sees very real repercussions for people. Such cases can be found all over the world — and not just in Muslim-majority countries either. Here are a few examples.

You can read the full article here.

News

Russian Faces Up to Year in Prison for Denying Existence of God

NBC News reports that a Russian man faces up to one year in prison for saying “there is no God” during an argument on social media:

Viktor Krasnov also wrote the “Bible is a collection of Jewish fairy tales” during the discussion on European social networking site Vk.com in 2014, lawyer and human-rights activist Pavel Chikov posted on his Facebook page.

Krasnov, whose offending posts have been deleted, is on trial in his native city of Stavropol in southern Russia, according to the local magistrate’s website. Charges were filed in the fall of 2015 and the trial began on Monday, according to his lawyer.

Russia’s Investigative Committee — the equivalent of the FBI — charged Krasnov with “offending believers’ feelings,” which was criminalized in Russia after a notorious performance by punk band Pussy Riot in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior in February 2012. Two band members were jailed in 2012 for performing an anti-Vladimir Putin song at the cathedral.

You can read more about this story here.

News, Uncategorized

Hindu Priest Murdered in Bangladesh; Police Arrest Three Linked to Islamic Extremist Groups

The Guardian reports on a disturbing story out of Bangladesh:

Suspected Islamist militants have stabbed to death a Hindu priest at a temple in Bangladesh and shot and wounded a devotee who went to his aid.

Police said the attack on Sunday was perpetrated by a local militant group, while Islamic State claimed responsibility in a statement issued via social media.

Bangladesh has experienced a wave of militant violence in recent months, including a series of bomb attacks on mosques and Hindu temples.

Some of the attacks have been claimed by ISIS, which has said it was behind the killings of a Japanese citizen, an Italian aid worker and a policeman.

Five or six attackers cut the throat of the priest, Jogeshwar Roy, 55, as he was organising prayers at the Deviganj temple near Panchagar, 308 miles north of the capital, Dhaka, police said.

Fortunately, as CNN reports, police have since made arrests:

Bangladeshi police have arrested three people in connection with a religiously motivated attack on a Hindu priest and a devotee in the north of the country, a police official tells CNN.

The priest was killed and the devotee wounded Sunday in the latest attack on minority religious figures in the predominantly Muslim nation.

Two of those arrested are activists in the outlawed Islamist organization Jamaatul Mujahedin Bangladesh, Police Inspector Muhammad Babul Akhter said. The other is a member of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamic political party.

They have been charged with murder and possession of weapons.

Despite media reports of claims of responsibility by ISIS, the official said that police have not found any evidence of a connection with the extremist group so far.

We will continue to track this story and provide updates when possible.

News

Avijit Roy’s Books Dropped from Bangladesh Book Fair; Police Shut Down Vendor

Nearly one year after Avijit Roy was murdered while leaving the Ekushey Book Fair in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Benar News reports that Roy’s books are not being sold by any of the 100 publishers at this year’s fair out of fear that could meet the same fate:

Nearly a year after secular writer and blogger Avijit Roy was stabbed to death by suspected militants during Bangladesh’s premier book festival, his works are no longer for sale in the South Asian country, publishing sources say.

About 100 publishers are participating in this year’s edition of the Ekushey Boi Mela (Ekushey Book Fair), which opened Monday – but none are selling books by Roy, who was murdered on a busy Dhaka street after leaving the event on Feb. 26, 2015.

Abul Bashar, an owner of Hatey Khori publication house, told BenarNews: “Why should we sell his books? Is there any guarantee that we will not meet similar fate?”

To make matters worse, the Dhaka Tribune reports:police have raided a stall at this year’s fair over concerns that books being sold by the vendor could hurt “religious sentiments.”

Police yesterday shut down yet another stall at the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela for selling a book with content that could hurt “religious sentiments” and detained three people in this connection.

In a raid, conducted around 4pm, led by Shahbagh police station officer-in-charge (OC) Abu Bakar Siddique, the stall of Badwip Prakashan, located at the Suhrawardy Udyan part of the fair, was shut down.

They also seized copies of several books including Islam Bitorko (the Islam debate), which is a  collection of essays compiled by Shamsuzzoha Manik, also owner of the publishing house.

The detainees are: Shamsuzzoha, Shamsul Alam, the stall’s manager, and Fakir Taslim Uddin Kajol, owner of the book’s printing press.

The Shahbagh OC said last night that they had detained Shamsul when he went to the police station after the stall was shut down. Later, they went to Shamsuzzoha’s Mirpur residence along with Shamsul, and detained the publisher from there. Meanwhile, another two-member team of police detained the printer from his office in Katabon.

Section 13.13 of the book fair “Rules and Regulations” booklet says that before closing a stall, authorities will give a deadline to the publisher for removing books with objectionable content. If the publisher fails to comply, then the authorities will close the stall.

However, the Dhaka Tribune has not found any evidence that could suggest that Badwip was given any such deadline or cautioned before the drive.

Until last evening, publisher Shamsuzzoha also could not be reached for a comment on if they were given any deadline.

The OC said they conducted the raid after they had found out on social media that people are complaining about the contents of Islam Bitorko.

Nobody from the organisers were accompanying the police team nor were any of them seen around during the raid or could be found for a comment.

We will be tracking this situation and provide updates as possible.

News

Couple Finds Sanctuary in Canada to Escape Killings of Writers in Bangladesh

The Globe and Mail newspaper in Canada has published a feature article on a couple who escaped the killings of writers in Bangladesh, and found safe haven in Canada:

For writer Raihan Abir and his pregnant wife, Samia Hossain, the morning commute by motorcycle meant weaving through the clogged roads and crawling traffic of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka – dodging cars, rickshaws and rickety buses crammed with workers.

But there was another reason to constantly scan the road over the hour-long trip: They worried that among the teeming crowds of commuters lurked vicious assassins.

“Whenever we started out of the house,” Samia recalled, “he used to ride the motorcycle and I used to look backward all the time to make sure no one’s following us or going to do anything to us.”

Since February, religious extremists have tightened the net around atheist and secular writers in Bangladesh. They have picked off the young couple’s closest friends in gruesome machete attacks carried out in the street, in the home and in publishing offices – leaving five dead and four others seriously injured.

The victims had been challenging religion in blogs and in books, and Raihan, prominent in that circle, feared he would be next. After dropping Samia off at work, he would often continue on to the university where he was studying, parking his motorcycle but keeping his helmet on despite the 30-degree heat. The attackers – if they did come – would likely use machetes to target the head.

“At least I’ll survive the first attack,” Raihan said.

He thought he could evade the extremists – and salvage his life in a city of more than 15 million people.

He would be wrong.

This is the story of how Raihan and Samia escaped the fate of their friends, and of the Canadians who helped them find safety.

Keep reading here.

We should note that Raihan and Samia are recipients of support from the Center for Inquiry’s Freethought Emergency Fund.  You can support this fund here.

News

LGBT Activist Found Guilty of Violating Russia’s “Gay Propaganda” Law

Human Rights Watch reports that last month, a Russian court found a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights activist guilty of violating the country’s “gay propaganda” law:

Alekseenko was the director of Maximum, a Murmansk LGBT rights group that provided legal and psychosocial support. The Leninsky District Court in Murmansk, in northwestern Russia, found certain items posted on the Maximum’s website violated the law banning the dissemination of positive information about LGBT relationships to children and, as the director, Alekseenko was found responsible and fined 100,000 rubles (about US$1,300) for the alleged “propaganda.”

HRW is calling on Russian prosecutors to support an appeal, which the activist, Sergei Alekseenko, plans to file in the coming days.

You can read more here.

News

Columnist Fatema Naout Gets 3 Years in Jail for Blasphemy

As reported by the Egypt Independent:

A Cairo misdemeanor court sentenced columnist Fatema Naout to three years in jail and a LE20,000 fine over charges of blasphemy.
The writer was found guilty of insulting Islam in a 2014 Facebook post in which she labelled the Islamic ritual of slaughtering sheep and distributing their meat as charity for the poor during the Islamic feast of Eid al-Adha as a “massacre.”
She denied that her post was meant to commit blasphemy, but stressed that the ritual of slaughtering sheep is a harmful act against animals in disguise.
Thanks for the good judges of Egypt, thanks for two great revolutions that placed Egypt on the road to enlightenment,” Naout wrote on Facebook, commenting on the verdict. “Three years in jail and a fine for a Facebook post! Thanks to everybody.”

 

You can find the article here. We will continue to track this case and provide updates as needed.