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Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes are Choking Freedom Worldwide
The fatwa against Salman Rushdie awakened many westerners to the danger of being accused of blasphemy in the Muslim world. As this eye-opening volume reveals, accusations of "blasphemy," "apostasy," or "insulting Islam" are increasingly used by authoritarian governments and extremist forces in the Muslim world to acquire and consolidate power. These charges, which traditionally carry a punishment of death, have proved effective in intimidating not only converts and heterodox groups, but also political and religious reformers. In his foreword, the late Indonesian President Wahid observes that coercively applied blasphemy laws "narrow the bounds of acceptable discourse...not only about religion, but about vast spheres of life, literature, science and culture in general."
Silenced provides the first survey of such accusations in the contemporary Muslim world, in international organizations, and in the West. The authors describe hundreds of victims, including political dissidents, religious reformers, journalists, writers, artists, movie makers, and religious minorities throughout the Muslim world. They also document the political effects in Muslim societies of blasphemy and apostasy laws, as well as non-governmental fatwas and vigilante violence. Finally, they address the move toward new blasphemy laws in the West and the increasing threat of violence to stifle commentary on Islam in the West even in the absence of law.
Silenced provides the first survey of such accusations in the contemporary Muslim world, in international organizations, and in the West. The authors describe hundreds of victims, including political dissidents, religious reformers, journalists, writers, artists, movie makers, and religious minorities throughout the Muslim world. They also document the political effects in Muslim societies of blasphemy and apostasy laws, as well as non-governmental fatwas and vigilante violence. Finally, they address the move toward new blasphemy laws in the West and the increasing threat of violence to stifle commentary on Islam in the West even in the absence of law.
480 pages, Paperback
First published October 3, 2011
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About the author
Paul A. Marshall
20 books1 followerPaul Marshall is senior fellow at the Center for Religious Freedom, Freedom House. He has lectured worldwide and is general editor of Religious Freedom in the World: A Global Report on Freedom and Persecution. He is the author and editor of 15 other books on religion and politics, including the best-selling and award-winning Their Blood Cries Out, and Islam at the Crossroads and God and the Constitution, both published in 2002. Dr. Marshall has published many scholarly and popular articles and his writings have been translated into Russian, German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Malay, Korean, Arabic, and Chinese. He currently resides in Washington, D.C.
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November 19, 2015
About the Authors: The authors both work at the Center for Religious Freedom of the Hudson Institute.
Overview: Islamists see freedom of religion as meaning protecting religion by making it free from criticism. Islamists do not believe in individual rights; they believe that only Islam and Allah have rights. The book examines how in various Muslim countries, apostasy and blasphemy are punished. Islamists believe that once you stay at the Hotel Islam, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
Apostasy and Treason: In the early history of Islam, when Islam was spreading through military conquest, apostasy, that is, leaving the religion of Islam, was seen as defection to the enemy.
The Ban on Criticizing Islam: Bernard Lewis, one of the world’s foremost experts on the history of Islam, has pointed out that it is only recently that non-Muslims in non-Muslim countries have been forbidden to criticize Islam. Throughout the rest of the history of Islam, only those individuals living in Muslim countries had to obey sharia. But these days, especially in Europe, the Islamists regard any criticism of Islam, even by non-Muslims living in non-Muslim countries, as a crime against Islam.
Organization of the Islamic Conference: The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is a leader of the movement to restrict citizens of Western countries from criticizing Islam.
Danish Cartoons: Three Danish imams, Raedd Hlayhel, Ahmed Akkari and Ahmed Abdel Rahman Abu Laban created the Committee for the Defense of the Honor of the Prophet to protest against the Danish cartoons depicting Muhammad. Afghan Taliban leader Maulavi Dadullah offered 100 kilograms of gold from the Taliban to anyone who murdered the blasphemous cartoonists. Minister for Haj and Religious Minorities of Uttar Pradesh, Yakub Qureshi, offered a reward of eleven million dollars for anyone who killed a Danish cartoonist. Out of fear of violence, Borders and Waldenbooks did not carry the issue of the Free Inquiry magazine that reprinted the Danish cartoons. Three prominent Muslim heads of state also said that the cartoons should not have been published: Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Pervez Mussharraf of Pakistan, and Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan.
Europe: Necla Kelek, a Turkish-born German sociologist of Circassian ethnicity, has publicized the plight of Turkish women imported into Germany and forced to marry Turkish immigrant men. She has argued for a minimum age for foreign brides, and against honor killings. French writer Robert Redeker received death threats because he wrote in the French newspaper Le Figaro that Christianity was a religion of love and Islam was a religion of hate. Iranian-born British feminist Maryam Namazie has criticized the West for not protecting women who have left Islam. She objects to the fact that Muslim and ex-Muslim women who criticize Islam from personal experience are called racists and Islamophobes. She has also criticized the Western philosophy of cultural relativism, which is tolerant of the misogynist aspects of Islam.
United Nations: Islamists have tried to persuade the United Nations to protect Islam from criticism. Yusuf al-Qaradawi recommended that the United Nations adopt a binding resolution banning contempt of religious beliefs. In recent years, after running into obstacles trying to persuade the United Nations to protect the religion of Islam, the Islamists have shifted their focus to persuading the United Nations to prosecute those guilty of hate speech against individual Muslims. The United Nations objected to the concept of defamation of a religion, because the traditional concept of defamation had applied only to individuals. In the United States, the right of freedom of speech can be restricted only where the hate speech is likely to immediately incite violence.
Violence Against Moderate Muslims: In Muslim-majority countries, moderate Muslims are under constant threat from Islamist radicals. In 1992 Egyptian human rights activist Farag Foda was assassinated by the Islamists for advocating the separation of church and state. In 1994, Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz was stabbed and permanently disabled for defending Salman Rushdie.
Saudi Arabia: In Saudi Arabia, Shia Muslims are treated as second-class citizens compared to Sunnis, and Ismailis are treated even worse. A number of people in Saudi Arabia have been arrested for allegedly practicing sorcery.
Christians in Turkey: The Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor Hrant Dink was killed in 2007 in Istanbul, for using the word genocide in regard to the million and a half Armenians who mysteriously died in Turkey in 1915.
Christians and Baha’i in Iran: There are about three hundred thousand Christians in Iran: Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans and Protestants. They have been prohibited from printing the Bible in Farsi. In Iran, members of the Baha’i faith have been persecuted, because they claim that Mohammed was not the last prophet, that there were prophets after Mohammed. The mullahs have stolen many Baha’i houses, schools and businesses. The Baha’is have also been persecuted in Egypt. Religious authorities in both countries claim that the Baha’i are spies for Israel.
Pakistan’s Descent From Pluralism: When Pakistan was founded in 1947, it was tolerant of religions other than Islam. In more recent years it has grown more restrictive. Blasphemy laws were introduced in the 1980s. The Ahmadis have been persecuted and their mosques burned. An Ahmadi doctor, Dr. Abdul Manan Siddiqui, was killed by Muslim fanatics at his clinic in Mirpur Khas, in Sindh province in 2008. The governor of Punjab province, Salman Taseer, was killed in 2011 for criticizing Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. The Christian politician Clement Shahbaz Bhatti was assassinated in 2011 in Islamabad.
Bangladesh: In Bangladesh, the government has also become more Islamist since its independence from Pakistan in 1971. Like Pakistan, Bangladesh also persecutes Ahmadis, who number about one hundred thousand. In 1992 religious fanatics attacked the Ahmadiyya headquarters in Bakshi Bazar, Dhaka, Bangladesh. A Bangladeshi woman named Taslima Nasreen won the 1994 Sakharaov Prize for Freedom of Thought. She is a gynecologist, feminist, novelist and defender of the Hindus in Bangladesh. Her books have been banned in Bangladesh. Another Bangladeshi, Salahuddin Shoaib Choudhury, has defended Israel, which got him accused of being a spy for Israel’s Mossad. He was robbed, beaten and jailed for 17 months.
Sudan: In 1985 in the Sudan Mohamed Mahmoud Taha was hanged for apostasy. He had advocated the earlier, peaceful writing of the prophet Mohammed, as being the true core of Islam, not the more violent passages of the prophet’s warring years.
Overview: Islamists see freedom of religion as meaning protecting religion by making it free from criticism. Islamists do not believe in individual rights; they believe that only Islam and Allah have rights. The book examines how in various Muslim countries, apostasy and blasphemy are punished. Islamists believe that once you stay at the Hotel Islam, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
Apostasy and Treason: In the early history of Islam, when Islam was spreading through military conquest, apostasy, that is, leaving the religion of Islam, was seen as defection to the enemy.
The Ban on Criticizing Islam: Bernard Lewis, one of the world’s foremost experts on the history of Islam, has pointed out that it is only recently that non-Muslims in non-Muslim countries have been forbidden to criticize Islam. Throughout the rest of the history of Islam, only those individuals living in Muslim countries had to obey sharia. But these days, especially in Europe, the Islamists regard any criticism of Islam, even by non-Muslims living in non-Muslim countries, as a crime against Islam.
Organization of the Islamic Conference: The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is a leader of the movement to restrict citizens of Western countries from criticizing Islam.
Danish Cartoons: Three Danish imams, Raedd Hlayhel, Ahmed Akkari and Ahmed Abdel Rahman Abu Laban created the Committee for the Defense of the Honor of the Prophet to protest against the Danish cartoons depicting Muhammad. Afghan Taliban leader Maulavi Dadullah offered 100 kilograms of gold from the Taliban to anyone who murdered the blasphemous cartoonists. Minister for Haj and Religious Minorities of Uttar Pradesh, Yakub Qureshi, offered a reward of eleven million dollars for anyone who killed a Danish cartoonist. Out of fear of violence, Borders and Waldenbooks did not carry the issue of the Free Inquiry magazine that reprinted the Danish cartoons. Three prominent Muslim heads of state also said that the cartoons should not have been published: Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Pervez Mussharraf of Pakistan, and Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan.
Europe: Necla Kelek, a Turkish-born German sociologist of Circassian ethnicity, has publicized the plight of Turkish women imported into Germany and forced to marry Turkish immigrant men. She has argued for a minimum age for foreign brides, and against honor killings. French writer Robert Redeker received death threats because he wrote in the French newspaper Le Figaro that Christianity was a religion of love and Islam was a religion of hate. Iranian-born British feminist Maryam Namazie has criticized the West for not protecting women who have left Islam. She objects to the fact that Muslim and ex-Muslim women who criticize Islam from personal experience are called racists and Islamophobes. She has also criticized the Western philosophy of cultural relativism, which is tolerant of the misogynist aspects of Islam.
United Nations: Islamists have tried to persuade the United Nations to protect Islam from criticism. Yusuf al-Qaradawi recommended that the United Nations adopt a binding resolution banning contempt of religious beliefs. In recent years, after running into obstacles trying to persuade the United Nations to protect the religion of Islam, the Islamists have shifted their focus to persuading the United Nations to prosecute those guilty of hate speech against individual Muslims. The United Nations objected to the concept of defamation of a religion, because the traditional concept of defamation had applied only to individuals. In the United States, the right of freedom of speech can be restricted only where the hate speech is likely to immediately incite violence.
Violence Against Moderate Muslims: In Muslim-majority countries, moderate Muslims are under constant threat from Islamist radicals. In 1992 Egyptian human rights activist Farag Foda was assassinated by the Islamists for advocating the separation of church and state. In 1994, Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz was stabbed and permanently disabled for defending Salman Rushdie.
Saudi Arabia: In Saudi Arabia, Shia Muslims are treated as second-class citizens compared to Sunnis, and Ismailis are treated even worse. A number of people in Saudi Arabia have been arrested for allegedly practicing sorcery.
Christians in Turkey: The Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor Hrant Dink was killed in 2007 in Istanbul, for using the word genocide in regard to the million and a half Armenians who mysteriously died in Turkey in 1915.
Christians and Baha’i in Iran: There are about three hundred thousand Christians in Iran: Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans and Protestants. They have been prohibited from printing the Bible in Farsi. In Iran, members of the Baha’i faith have been persecuted, because they claim that Mohammed was not the last prophet, that there were prophets after Mohammed. The mullahs have stolen many Baha’i houses, schools and businesses. The Baha’is have also been persecuted in Egypt. Religious authorities in both countries claim that the Baha’i are spies for Israel.
Pakistan’s Descent From Pluralism: When Pakistan was founded in 1947, it was tolerant of religions other than Islam. In more recent years it has grown more restrictive. Blasphemy laws were introduced in the 1980s. The Ahmadis have been persecuted and their mosques burned. An Ahmadi doctor, Dr. Abdul Manan Siddiqui, was killed by Muslim fanatics at his clinic in Mirpur Khas, in Sindh province in 2008. The governor of Punjab province, Salman Taseer, was killed in 2011 for criticizing Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. The Christian politician Clement Shahbaz Bhatti was assassinated in 2011 in Islamabad.
Bangladesh: In Bangladesh, the government has also become more Islamist since its independence from Pakistan in 1971. Like Pakistan, Bangladesh also persecutes Ahmadis, who number about one hundred thousand. In 1992 religious fanatics attacked the Ahmadiyya headquarters in Bakshi Bazar, Dhaka, Bangladesh. A Bangladeshi woman named Taslima Nasreen won the 1994 Sakharaov Prize for Freedom of Thought. She is a gynecologist, feminist, novelist and defender of the Hindus in Bangladesh. Her books have been banned in Bangladesh. Another Bangladeshi, Salahuddin Shoaib Choudhury, has defended Israel, which got him accused of being a spy for Israel’s Mossad. He was robbed, beaten and jailed for 17 months.
Sudan: In 1985 in the Sudan Mohamed Mahmoud Taha was hanged for apostasy. He had advocated the earlier, peaceful writing of the prophet Mohammed, as being the true core of Islam, not the more violent passages of the prophet’s warring years.
October 27, 2017
3.5-5 depending on who you are and what information you're looking for. The book outlines the radicalisation of Islam in recent decades. Part II covers specific countries--each chapter outlines the history of a different country in terms of how Islam and politics work together. These detailed chapters gives the background information to set the stage for what these potential dangers and restrictions in various countries could mean for the United Nations and the Western World. There is some debate over who is to be blamed/held accountable--specific individuals, countries or the religion itself? Part III outlines vigilante actions in the West--on streets, in stadiums and arena's etc. and explains some of the background behind the fatwa against Salmon Rushdie, the Danish cartoon controversy, Theo Van Gogh's murder and the persecution of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, to name a few. In Part IV Muslim scholars outline their views on anti-blasphemy laws (Some for; some against).
The conclusion of these authors is that what is at stake is freedom of religion and of expression which lie at the heart of Western liberal democracies.
The conclusion of these authors is that what is at stake is freedom of religion and of expression which lie at the heart of Western liberal democracies.
July 21, 2021
A bit dry at times, but a very good analysis of the problem.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews