Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are Choking Freedom Worldwide (86 page)

16
. “Nigerian Teacher Dies ‘Over Koran’ ”; “Nigeria,”
International Religious Freedom Report 2008
.

17
. “Nigeria Christian Killed over Blasphemy; Dozens Injured,”
BosNewsLife
, February 13, 2008,
http://www.bosnewslife.com/3435-3435-nigeria-christians-killed-in-riot-over-blasph
; “Nigeria,”
International Religious Freedom Report 2008
; “Nigeria: Muslim Rioters Attack Christian in Kano,”
Compass Direct News
, April 23, 2008,
http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&lang=en&length=long&idelement=5344&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Nigeria&rowcur=0
; “Nigeria: Mob Kills 50-year-old Man for ‘Blasphemy,’ ”
Daily Trust News
,
http://allafrica.com/stories/200808110940.html
. Ademola Bello, born a Muslim, was once attacked by militants who held a gun to his head and accused him of abandoning Islam because his play
Bondage
criticized sharia; see Ademola Bello, “Al-Qaeda in Nigeria: Grazing in the Sahara,”
RealClearWorld
, January 25, 2010,
http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2010/01/25/al_qaeda_in_nigeria_grazing_in_the_sahara_97501.html
.

18
. “Nigeria’s Journalist on the Run,”
BBC News
, November 27, 2002,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2518977.stm
.

19
. “Nigerian Government Rejects Fatwa,”
BBC News
, November 26, 2002,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2514821.stm
. There was also widespread violence following the Danish cartoons, which is covered in
chapter 10
.

20
. “Nigerian ‘Trained in Afghanistan,’ ”
BBC News
, September 2, 2009,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8233980.stm
.

21
. “Nigeria: Death Toll Climbs in Attack by Islamic Sect,”
Compass Direct News
, August 7, 2009,
http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=6056&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Nigeria&rowcur=0
; Nick Tattersall, “Nigerians Count Cost after Uprising by Islamic Sect,”
News Daily
, August 3, 2009,
http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre5721x5-us-nigeria-sect-scene
; “Nigeria’s Boko Haram Chief ‘Killed,’ ”
News Africa
, July 31, 2009,
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2009/07/2009730174233896352.html
; Senan Murray and Adam Nossiter, “In Nigeria, an Insurgency Leaves a Heavy Toll,”
The New York Times
, August 3, 2009,
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/world/africa/04nigeria.html
; “Boko Haram Resurrects, Declares Total Jihad,”
Vanguard
, August 14, 2009,
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2009/08/14/bokoharam-ressurects-declares-total-jihad
.

22
. Aminu Abubakar, “Nigerian Islamist Sect Threaten to Widen Attacks,”
Agence France Presse (AFP
), March 29, 2010,
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j1FA1NJrS-ES89YWeX4f--kcQGmA
. See also Jon Gambrell, “Internet Video: Muslims Must Rise up in Nigeria,”
Associated Press (AP
), March 16, 2010,
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9EFSPT80&show_article=1
.

23
. We have not covered de facto self-governing Somaliland in the north, but there is government-sponsored Islamist religious repression there also. See “Converts from Islam Jailed, Pursued in Somalia’s Breakaway Region,”
Compass Direct News
, September 16, 2009,
http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/somalia/9383/
; “Imprisoned Christian in Somaliland on Hunger Strike,”
Compass Direct News
, October 16, 2009,
http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/somalia/10593/
.

24
. Mohamed Mohamed, “Somali Rage at Grave Desecration,”
BBC News
, June 8, 2009,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8077725.stm
.

25
. “Somalia,”
International Religious Freedom Report 2008
, U.S. State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor,
http://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2008/108391.htm
.

26
. Sudarsan Raghavan, “In Somalia’s War, a New Challenger Is Pushing Back Radical al-Shabab Militia,”
Washington Post
, May 28, 2010,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/26/AR2010052605279.html
; Jeffrey Gettleman, “For Somalia, Chaos Breeds Religious War,”
New York Times
, May 23, 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/world/africa/24somalia.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
.

27
. “Somalia,”
International Religious Freedom Report 2008
; “Somalia,”
International Religious Freedom Report 2007
,
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2007/90120.htm
; “Almost Expunged,”
The Economist
, October 22, 2009,
http://www.economist.com/world/middleeast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14707279
. There are also attacks on Christians in the breakaway region of Somaliland.

28
. “Somali Islamists Declare: ‘We Will Slaughter Christians’—‘Somalis Are 100% Muslim and Will Always Remain So,’ ”
Militant Islam Monitor
, October 17, 2006,
http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/2474
.

29
. “From African Bush to Scotland Yard—the Murder Trail That Led to al-Qaida,”
The Guardian
, November 15, 2005,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/nov/15/rosiecowan.mainsection
.

30
. “Italian Nun Killed in Somalia; Islamic Forces Suspected,”
Catholic World News
, September 18, 2006,
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/features/index.cfm?recnum=46538
.

31
. “Christian Aid Worker in Somalia Beheaded for Converting from Islam,”
Compass Direct News
, October 27, 2008,
http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=5661&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Somalia&rowcur=0
.

32
. “Somali Christian Shot and Killed,” Voice of the Martyrs Canada, August 6, 2008,
http://www.persecution.net/so-2008-08-06.htm
.

33
. “Somali Christian Shot at Muslim Wedding,”
Mission Network News
, October 23, 2008,
http://www.mnnonline.org/article/11809
.

34
. “Somalia: Christian in Kenya Refugee Camp Attacked, Shot,”
Compass Direct News
, December 10, 2008,
http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&lang=en&length=long&idelement=5724&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Somalia&rowcur=0
.

35
. Ibid.

36
. Assyrian International News Agency, “Muslims Behead Four Christian Orphanage Workers in Somalia,” August 11, 2009,
http://www.aina.org/news/20090811144715.htm
; “Somali Islamist Hardliners Behead 7 ‘Spies,’ ” Reuters, July 10, 2009,
http://af.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=AFJOE5690BW20090710
; “Convert from Islam Shot Dead,”
Compass Direct News
, July 20, 2009,
http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/somalia/4496/
.

37
. “Muslim Militants Slay Long-Time Christian in Somalia,”
Compass Direct News
, September 18, 2009,
http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/somalia/9494/
.

38
. “Islamic Extremists Kill Another Church Leader,”
Compass Direct News
, October 1, 2009,
http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/somalia/10010/
.

39
. “Christian in Somalia Who Refused to Wear Veil Is Killed,”
Compass Direct News
, October 27, 2009,
http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/somalia/11061/
. For other incidents, see “Convert from Islam Shot Dead”; “Somali Christian Shot Dead Near Kenya Border,”
Compass Direct News
, August 22, 2009,
http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/somalia/4893/
; “Somali Christian Flees Refugee Camp Under Death Threat,”
Compass Direct News
, December 9, 2009,
http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/somalia/12417/
.

40
. “Islamic Extremists Execute Young Convert,”
Compass Direct News
, November 23, 2009,
http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/somalia/11836/
.

41
. “Islamic Militants Murder Christian Leader,”
Compass Direct News
, January 26, 2010,
http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/somalia/14479/
.

42
. “Al Shabaab Militants Execute Christian Leader,”
Compass Direct News
, May 5, 2010,
http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/somalia/18721/
.

43
. “Islamic Extremists in Somalia Kill Church Leader, Torch Home,”
Compass Direct News
, March 24, 2010,
http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/somalia/16692/
.

44
. For background, see Hamouda Fathelrahman Bello, “Shari’a in Sudan,” in Marshall,
Radical Islam’s Rules
, 87–112.

45
. Bello, “Shari’a in Sudan.”

46
. Hayder Ibrahim Ali,
The Crisis of Political Islam: The Example of the National Islamic Front in the Sudan
(Cairo: The Centre of Sudanese Studies, 1991); John O. Voll,
Sudan: State and Society in Crisis
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991),
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=r4ar4LLzIr0C&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=John+O.+Voll+Sudan:+State+and+Society+in+Crisis,+(Bloomington:+Indiana+University+Press,+1991),+Available+at:&ots=RlC7TUCVD0&sig=T1lo3Dpb0vlFFkjac1sZXFVCris#PPA4,M1
. On the politics of this period, see J. Millard Burr and Robert O. Collins,
Revolutionary Sudan: Hasan al-Turabi and the Islamist State, 1989–2000
(Leiden: Brill, 2003); Mansour Khalid,
War and Peace in Sudan: A Tale of Two Countries
(London: Kegan Paul International, 2003); Peter Woodward,
Sudan after Nimeiri
(London: Routledge, 1991); “Religion and Human Rights: The Case of Sudan,” Proceedings of Conference Convened by the Sudan Human Rights Organization, May 30, 1992.

47
. Section 126 of the Sudan penal code of 1992 expressly imposes the death penalty for apostasy, but the death penalty had been used earlier, even when the penal code did not expressly provide for it. See Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, “The Islamic Law of Apostasy and Its Modern Applicability: A Case from the Sudan,”
Religion
16 (1986): 197–223.

48
. Gisle Tangenes, “The Islamic Gandhi,”
Bit of News
, September 11, 2006,
http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/3856/42
. There is a Web site devoted to Taha’s ideas:
www.alfikra.org
.

49
. Mahmoud Mohamed Taha,
The Second Message of Islam
(Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1987), 137. For an elaboration of his approach in constitutional, human rights and international law terms, see Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im,
Toward an Islamic Reformation: Civil Liberties, Human Rights and International Law
(Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1990).

50
. George Packer, “The Moderate Martyr,”
The New Yorker
, September 11, 2006,
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/09/11/060911fa_fact1
.

51
. USCIRF 2009 Annual Report, 99,
http://www.uscirf.gov/images/AR2009/final%20ar2009%20with%20cover.pdf
.

52
. “Sudan: Sudanese Convert to Christianity Forced into Hiding,”
Compass Direct News
, February 7, 2002,
http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=1136&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Sudan&rowcur=0
; Barbara G. Baker, “Police Launch Manhunt to Find Christian,”
Compass Direct News
, March 15, 2002,
http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=1169&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Sudan&rowcur=0
.

53
. “The Application of the Apostasy Law in the World Today,” Barnabas Fund, July 3, 2007,
http://www.barnabasfund.org/US/News/Articles-research/The-Application-of-theApostasy-Law-in-the-World-Today.html?&quicksearch=The+Application+of+the+Apostas
.

54
. Barbara G. Baker, “Sudanese Police Torture Convert Student,”
Compass Direct News
, October 8, 2001,
http://www.comeandsee.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=191
.

55
. “Converts from Islam Struggle to Survive,”
Compass Direct News
, April 14, 2009,
http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&lang=en&length=long&idelement=5878&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Sudan&rowcur=0
.

56
. Rob Crilly and Lucy Bannerman, “Sudan Police Throw Teacher in Jail for Teddy Bear Named Muhammad,”
The Times
, 27 November 2007,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article2951262.ece
; Jeffrey Gettleman, “Calls in Sudan for Execution of British Teacher,”
New York Times
, December 1, 2007,
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/01/world/africa/01sudan.html
; “Teddy Row Teacher Freed from Jail,”
BBC News
, December 3, 2007,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7124447.stm
.