Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are Choking Freedom Worldwide (105 page)

127
. Pullella, “Muslim Baptized by Pope Says Life in Danger”; “Scholar denounces Muslim Baptism,”
BBC News
, March 26, 2008,
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL238305320080323
; “Vatican Aide Responds to Muslim Professor,”
Zenit
, March 30, 2008,
http://www.zenit.org/article-22158?l=english
.

1
. Abdurrahman Wahid, “Right Islam vs. Wrong Islam,”
Wall Street Journal
, December 30, 2005,
http://www.libforall.org/news-WSJ-right-islam-vs.-wrong-islam.html
.

2
. See my lecture, “The Qur’an: God and Man in Communication” (inaugural lecture for the Cleveringa Chair, Leiden University, Leiden, November 27, 2000),
http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/forum/01_1/onderzoek/2.htm
.

3
. I have more recently pursued my work in this area in conjunction with LibForAll Foundation, through its International Institute of Qur’anic Studies (IIQS). The International Institute of Qur’anic Studies has its base of operations in Indonesia, where the late Kyai Haji Abdurrahman Wahid and Dr. Syafi’i Ma’arif—former heads of the world’s two largest Muslim organizations, the Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, with a total of seventy million members—have worked closely with the IIQS, serving as its patrons and senior advisors; see
http://www.libforall.org/
.

*
This chapter is based on the work of the authors Abdullah Saeed and Hassan Saeed, Freedom of Religion, Apostasy and Islam (Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate, 2004).

1
. Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid, “Punishment of the One Who Leaves Islam,” Islam QA (Question & Answer),
http://islamqa.com/en/ref/696
.

2
. Muhammad b. Ali b. Muhammad al-Shawkani,
Nayl al-Awtar
, vol. 7 (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al Ilmiyya, n.d), 191; Al-Qastallani,
Irshad al-Sari li Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari
, 14:396.
http://www.archive.org/details/Irshad-Sari-1859
.

3
. Shawkani,
Nayl al-Awtar
, 7:151–63.

4
. Qur’an 2:256.

5
. Qur’an 16:9.

6
. Ibn Taymiyya,
Majmu Fatawa Shaykh al-Islam Ahmad b. Taymiyya
, vol. 35 (Mecca: Maktabat al-Nahda al-Haditha, 1404 AH), 105–6.

1
. See article 179 of the Egyptian penal code.

2
. The examples mentioned in the conclusions are covered at more length in the relevant chapters, and citations are given there. For further examples, on Mauritania, see Khalid Lum, “An Ex-Islamist Needs US Support,”
Wall Street Journal
, February 1, 2010,
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703906204575027462093163750.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion
;
on Tanzania and Comoros, see “Comoros,”
International Religious Freedom Report 2008
,
http://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2008/108361.htm
, and “Comoros: Christians Oppressed on Indian Ocean Islands,”
Compass Direct News
, December 8, 2008,
http://www.christianpersecution.info/news/comoros-christians-oppressed-on-indian-ocean-islands-17355/
. We have not covered Iraq since the situation has changed markedly during the writing of this book, but there have been numerous killings on the grounds of heresy, blasphemy, and apostasy. On increasing radicalization in the Muslim world, see Paul Marshall, ed.,
Radical Islam’s Rules: The Worldwide Spread of Extreme Sharia Law
(Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005), especially “Introduction: The Rise of Extreme Sharia.”

3
. Jytte Klausen,
The Cartoons That Shook the World
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009).

4
. Statement by Ihab Gamaleldin, Egypt, at the 2nd Plenary Meeting of the 6th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, September 13, 2007,
http://www.un.org/webcast/unhrc/archive.asp?go=070913
.

5
. While still accepting them as Muslims, Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, perhaps the best-known Sunni preacher, has been increasingly critical of Shias and has accused them of being heretics,
mubtadiun
, those who introduce unauthorized innovations. Several commentators think that this probably stems from his worries over Iran’s political successes; see Jeffrey Fleishman, “Egyptian Sheik’s Outburst Against Shiites Roils Iran,”
Los Angeles Times
, September 27, 2008,
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/sep/28/world/fg-islamic28
. See also Israel Elad-Altman, “The Brotherhood and the Shiite Question,” in
Current Trends in Islamist Ideology
9 (2009): 46–63, esp. 54–57; and Israel Elad-Altman, “The Sunni-Shia Conversion Controversy,” in
Current Trends in Islamist Ideology
5 (2007): 1–10, esp. 2–3.

6
. Saeed and Saeed note that Ahmad bin Naqib al-Misri (d. 1368) condemned as apostates nearly anyone who undertook scientific inquiry, since his definition of apostasy included the belief “that things in themselves or by their own nature have any causal influence independent of the will of Allah” and also that ‘Ali al-Tamimi, a contemporary Islamic teacher raised in the Washington, D.C. area, labels as “apostate” those Muslims who, for instance, believe that Judaism and Christianity are “valid” religions or who “judge by other than the
shari’ah
that Allah sent down to the Prophet Muhammad.” Abdullah Saeed and Hassan Saeed,
Freedom of Religion, Apostasy and Islam
(Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004), 44–47.

7
. Waqar Gillani and Sabrina Tavernise, “Pakistan Rights Groups Seek Answers on Christian’s Death,”
New York Times
, September 16, 2009,
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/world/asia/17pstan.html
.

8
. Sabrina Tavernise, “At Top University, a Fight for Pakistan’s Future,”
New York Times
, April 20, 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/world/asia/21university.html
.

9
. Brian J. Grim and Roger Finke,
The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Violence in the 21st Century
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010). Grim and Finke describe this as a “core thesis.”

10
. Sabrina Tavernise, “Hate Engulfs Christians in Pakistan,”
New York Times
, August 2, 2009,
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/world/asia/03pstan.html
.

11
. In his
The Devil’s Dictionary
(1911):
http://www.alcyone.com/max/lit/devils/
.

12
. Seth Mydans, “Churches Attacked Amid Furor in Malaysia,”
New York Times
, January 10, 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/world/asia/11malaysia.html
.

13
. Speech to the ISEAS Regional Forum, January 7, 2010,
http://www.iseas.edu.sg/trh7jan10.pdf
.

14
. “Banning of the Book on ‘Muslim Women and the Challenge of Islamic Extremism,’ ” Sisters in Islam press release, August 21, 2008,
http://www.sistersinislam.org.my/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=769&Itemid=1
.

15
. Kenan Malik, “Introduction” in
From Fatwa to Jihad
(London: Atlantic Publishing, 2009), i.

16
. Qaradawi also distinguishes between intellectual apostates and others: he calls intellectual apostates “hypocrites” (
munafiqun
) who will go to hell but should not suffer earthly punishment;
“Fatwa on Intellectual Apostasy,”
IslamOnline
, March 24, 2003,
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?cid=1119503545098&pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar%2FFatwaE%2FFatwaE
. See also his “Apostasy: Major and Minor,”
IslamOnline.net
, April 13, 2006,
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1178724001992&pagename=Zone-English-Living_Shariah%2FLSELayout
. See also Fouad Ajami,
The Foreigner’s Gift
(New York: Free Press, 2006), 74.

17
. Michael Cook,
Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000); Bernard Lewis,
Faith and Power
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 188. There is some evidence, however, that blasphemy in Western Europe was an issue for Muslim authorities in past centuries. A monologue in Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais’ eighteenth-century
Marriage of Figaro
, Act V, Scene 3: “I cobble together a verse comedy about the customs of the harem, assuming that, as a Spanish writer, I can say what I like about Mohammed without drawing hostile fire. Next thing, some envoy from God knows where turns up and complains that in my play I have offended the Ottoman empire, Persia, a large slice of the Indian peninsula, the whole of Egypt, and the kingdoms of Barca [Ethiopia], Tripoli, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. And so my play sinks without trace, all to placate a bunch of Muslim princes, not one of whom, as far as I know, can read but who beat the living daylights out of us and say we are “Christian dogs.” Since they can’t stop a man thinking, they take it out on his hide instead.”

18
. See “The Dangerous Idea of Protecting Religions from ‘Defamation,’” USCIRF Policy Brief, October 2009,
www.uscirf.gov
.

19
. Harold Koh, speech to the American Society of International Law, March 25, 2010,
http://www.state.gov/s/l/releases/remarks/139119.htm
. See also Stephanie Farrior, “Molding the Matrix: The Historical and Theoretical Foundations of International Law Concerning Hate Speech,”
Berkeley Journal of International Law
14, no. 1 (1996): 30.

20
. As discussed in
chapter 12
, the U.S. Supreme Court established an incitement test under which advocacy of use of force or law violation cannot be prohibited except where such “advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action”;
Brandenburg v. Ohio
, 395 U.S. 444 (1969). Under Federal law, hate crimes are not distinct offenses: they amplify the penalty for traditional crimes in which the perpetrator was motivated by biases considered particularly detrimental to society. By contrast, European-style hate-speech codes punish hateful utterances standing alone. In discussing the 2009 U.S.-Egypt resolution, Eugene Volokh suggests how nonbinding UN resolutions can enter national law:

Advocacy of mere
hostility
—for instance … to radical strains of Islam [or any other religion]—is clearly constitutionally protected here in the U.S.; but the resolution seems to call for its prohibition. If we are constitutionally barred from adhering to it by our domestic Constitution, then we’re implicitly criticizing that Constitution, and committing ourselves to do what we can to change it. … [T]he Administration would presumably have to take what steps it can to ensure that supposed ‘hate speech’ that incites hostility will indeed be punished [by] … filing amicus briefs supporting changes in First Amendment law to allow such punishment, and in principle perhaps the appointment of Justices who would endorse such changes (or even the proposal of express constitutional amendments that would work such changes. … At least it would let other countries fault us for inconsistency when American law fails to punish such speech. And beyond that, I’m worried that the Executive Branch’s endorsement of speech-restrictive ‘international human rights’ norms will affect how the courts interpret the First Amendment, so that over time, ‘an international norm against hate speech … [would] supply a basis for prohibiting [hate speech], the First Amendment notwithstanding.’ And that worry stems not just from my fevered imagination, but from the views of Prof. Peter Spiro, a noted legal academic who is a
supporter
of this tendency. That’s not fearmongering on his part, but hope (hopemongering?) and prediction.

See “Is the Obama Administration Supporting Calls to Outlaw Supposed Hate Speech?”
Huffington Post
, October 1, 2009,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eugene-volokh/is-theobama-administrati_b_307132.html
. The resolution proved controversial among human
rights advocates, so much so that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton felt compelled to use the release later that month of the State Department’s annual religious freedom report to reassert America’s commitment to free speech. She stated: “Now, some claim that the best way to protect the freedom of religion is to implement so-called anti-defamation policies that would restrict freedom of expression and the freedom of religion. I strongly disagree. … [W]e are convinced that the best antidote to intolerance is not the defamation of religion’s approach of banning and punishing offensive speech, but rather, a combination of robust legal protections against discrimination and hate crimes, proactive government outreach to minority religious groups, and the vigorous defense of both freedom of religion and expression.” “Clinton on Release of International Religious Freedom Report 2009,” Statement made on October 26, 2009 in
http://www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/2009/October/20091026160243eaifas0.8208277.html&distid=ucs
.

21
. Other fatwas defend polygamy, husbands preventing their wives from traveling alone, mild beating of spouses, and criminalization of homosexuality; see Paul Marshall, “Ambassador to Islam?”
Weekly Standard
15, no. 23 (March 1, 2010):
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/ambassadorislam
. Also see talk by Mark Durie at the Hudson Institute, January 19, 2011,
http://www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=hudson_upcoming_events&id=818
.