SILENCED

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SILENCED

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SILENCED

Oxford University Press to publish first world survey on effects of

apostasy and blasphemy codes in both the Muslim and Western worlds

SILENCED

How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are Choking

Freedom Worldwide

With a foreword by Indonesia’s late President Abdurrahman Wahid

WASHINGTON— The 1989 fatwa against Salman Rushdie and the deadly 2006 Danish cartoon riots brought worldwide attention to the fatal potency of Muslim bans on “blasphemy” and “apostasy.” Though these events made global headlines they are by no means the only examples of their kind taking place in recent times. These and related charges such as, “insulting Islam,” “defamation of religion, ”or“ hurting Muslims’ religious feelings” are not limited to censoring irreverent caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed: they are increasingly used as key tools by authoritarian governments and extremist forces in the Muslim world to acquire and consolidate power. These charges, which draw on disputed interpretations of Islamic law and carry a traditional punishment of death, are used to crush or intimidate religious converts and heterodox groups, as well as political and religious reformers. The effect goes far beyond what might narrowly be called religious matters to cover a whole range of freedoms, including, most critically, freedoms for the individual of speech, press and religion. It has also contributed to the recent growth of more repressive forms of Islam, as these charges are used to silence more liberal or reform-minded religious opponents.

SILENCED: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes are Choking Freedom Worldwide provides the first survey of the global range and effects of apostasy and blasphemy charges in the contemporary Muslim world, in international organizations, and in the West.

SILENCED encompasses Muslim-majority countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Greater Middle East [including Jordan, Morocco, Turkey, and Yemen], Africa, South and Southeast Asia and more. The authors argue that we need to understand the context, history, impact, and mechanics of the blasphemy phenomenon in modern Muslim societies to know how effectively to respond to pressure to submit to Muslim taboos regarding expression in the West. The book covers the persecution of Muslims who convert to another religion or simply stop practicing their religion, as well as “heretics,” including those accused of claiming a prophet after Mohammed, such as Bahai’s and Ahmadis. It describes how vaguely worded and far reaching religious speech codes favor extremists in the ideological struggle now taking place within Islam. It also documents the repressive political effects in Muslim societies of blasphemy and apostasy codes, coercively applied through a variety of laws, as well as through non-governmental threats and vigilante violence. The book describes hundreds of victims including political dissidents, religious reformers, journalists, writers, artists, movie makers, and religious minorities.

Finally, it addresses the evolution toward new blasphemy codes in the West: the increasing use of religious hate speech laws, which commonly function as surrogate Islamic blasphemy laws; long standing pressure by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to make Western countries and international organizations enforce laws to restrict speech on behalf of Islam; and the rise in threats to stifle expression that casts anything claiming to be Islamic in a negative light. It discusses Western legal cases brought against a growing number accused of transgressing Muslim blasphemy strictures, including Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Mark Steyn, Ezra Levant, Brigitte Bardot, Geert Wilders, Phillipe Val, and others. It details the twenty -year push by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation within the United Nations to universalize blasphemy bans. It documents violent attacks and threats based on blasphemy accusations against Ahmed Aboutaleb, Ekin Deligoz and other Muslim politicians in European capitals, the producers of the South Park animated TV show in Hollywood, an Ivy League university press, a French philosopher, a Dutch filmmaker, a British Episcopal bishop of Pakistani descent, and many others. It shows the effect of this in promoting self-censorship on the issue of Islam in a broad array of institutions, venues, and outlets. It concludes with two essays by noted Islamic scholars, Nasr Hamid Abu-Zayd and Abdullah Saeed, who, along with Abdurrahman Wahid in the foreword, point to Islamic authority that does not compel temporal punishment for apostasy and blasphemy offences.

Paul Marshall is Senior Fellow at the Center for Religious Freedom, Hudson Institute.

Nina Shea is Director of the Center for Religious Freedom, Hudson Institute.

THE AUTHORS ARE AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW

SILENCED: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes are Choking Freedom Worldwide

by Paul Marshall and Nina Shea

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Hudson Institute
Hudson Institute is a nonpartisan policy research organization dedicated to innovative research and analysis. Founded in 1961, Hudson is celebrating a half century of forging ideas that promote security, prosperity, and freedom. http://www.hudson.org

Ioannis Saratsis

Communications Manager

202.974.2403 (Tel)

isaratsis@hudson.org

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