Google Translated from: Globalisering av de muslimske blasfemilover
"Without religious freedom, no political freedom."
Published by Trinity on 12/30/2011
"Without religious freedom, no political freedom."
This is the last sentence in a book that I for a rare once the reviewer would describe as indispensable. The book is titled "silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are Choking Freedom Worldwide" (Oxford University Press, New York, 2011). The authors are Paul Marshall and Nina Shee. The authors are both affiliated center for religious freedom by the U.S. think tank Hudson Institute, Marshall as Senior Fellow, Shee as director. The book is driven by a dedication and a forthrightness in explaining the extent of the problem that is the case. It tells how the requirement of punishment for blasphemy, and thus demands for punishment of those who criticize Islam dogmas long since moved from the Muslim countries to the West. And that it is vitally important to understand that it is in this light, one should see the pressure from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (formerly the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, ed.), And the many fights in the UN on whether to adopt resolutions against blasphemy and racism. In court for insulting Islam book illustrates also that the usual practice in Muslim countries for the punishment of blasphemous remarks about Islam, also have been the engine of the many lawsuits, which affects both politicians and ordinary citizens in the West. Some of the accused is world famous, such as the Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who is the man behind the controversial short film "Fitna" and who has come with harsh statements about Islam. Wilders was acquitted in June 2011 to encourage hatred and discrimination against Muslims.Others are less known. This applies, for example, the Dutch politician Susanne Winther, who in 2009 was sentenced to a fine of about 30,000 U.S. dollars (about 180,000 Norwegian kroner, ed.) And three months' imprisonment for, among other things to be called Muhammad "a child mole ester ". Winther was also convicted of having said that Muslim men generally suffer from sexual "misconduct".Her compatriot inside, Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, daughter of a diplomat and grew up in, among other Iran and Libya, was accused of "hate speech" - she has described Islam as a threat to Western values - and to describe Muhammad as a pedophile. On 15 February 2011 was Sabaditsch-Wolff acquitted of hate speech but guilty of the statement about Mohammed as a pedophile. She was fined 480 euros. For artists who are pinned include among others the Dutch accounting Gregory Neckshot, in May 2008 was arrested and had his computer seized after a group that monitors the Internet had told the authorities that Neckshots cartoons were racist and offensive to Muslims. Was Neckshot been prosecuted, it could in principle have led to a sentence of two years imprisonment and a fine of around 25,000 U.S. dollars. But even if the accused is not convicted, is such trials highly unpleasant and often costly for those who stand accused. With a quote from the Canadian editor Ezra Lavant, who has tried to be dragged through the mill - he printed in 2006 Muhammad cartoons in the Western Standard, as he was then editor of - "the process is the punishment." For those who accused must pay for their defense. Afghanistan after the Taliban The authors are keen to explain that an inability to criticize Islam also makes it impossible to reform the Muslim society.The book contains a few essays by liberal Muslims, including the late Egyptian Professor Naser Hamid Abu-Zeid, who for years called for that selected verses from the Koran interpreted symbolically. (Abu-Zeid was declared an apostate and had with his wife flee out of Egypt in the mid-1990s, ed.) In the "silenced" says Abu-Zeid, that Islamic law has largely fixed the death penalty for apostasy and blasphemy. A critical historical study of the Koran, Hadith and Sharia would believe Abu-Zeid, "reveal the human origin of these interpretations." This view is also underlined by the book's examination of conditions in a number of Muslim countries where there is much to rejoice with respect to religious freedom. It is probably well known, where restrictive conditions, for example, was in Afghanistan under the Taliban, but less well known is what has happened. An example of the lack of religious freedom is the case from 2007 on the 23-year-old journalism student Pervez Kambakhsh, who was accused of blasphemy because of an article he distributed on women in Islam. The article, entitled "The Qur'anic verses that discriminate against women" was written by an Iranian living in Germany. When Kambakhsh 'classmates discovered the article on the Internet, they complained to the authorities, accusing Kambakhsh to be author of the article. This he denied, the case was handed over to Ulemarådet and in January 2008, Kambakhsh sentenced to death. Both trial and appellate litigation included threats against witnesses, difficulty to find a defender and opinions Kambakhsh although having been tortured to confess that he was responsible for the content of the article as "the prophet Mohammed wrote verses for his own sake." The Court of Appeal in Kabul ruled that Kambakhsh would not be sentenced to death but 20 years in prison. In September 2009, after serving twenty months in prison, President Karzai him amnesty. Jihad in Sudan, authors of "silenced" also provides an important description of the situation in Sudan. They remind me of blasphemy case in 1985 against the 76-year-old liberal Muslim and a leading figure in the religious and political opposition in the country, Mahmoud Mohamed Taha. He was hanged for apostasy. Taha had argued that one should place less emphasis on the Koran Medinan verses, which came to the regulatory environment than in the more peaceful verses revealed in Mecca. That is also an art break with the historical sharia law. They tell of the brave Hungarian lawyer and UN human rights rapporteur Gaspar Biro, as this author also interviewed in Budapest many years ago. Biro studied terrible menneskeretighedskrænkelser in Muslim Sudan in the 1990s. He was denied a return to Sudan and threatened the life of the UN premises in Geneva of the Sudanese representatives who spoke about "you do not want to think about his (Biro, ed.) Fate if he continues to insult the feelings of Muslims worldwide ..... " What is not so well known in the West, the authors write that since Sudan's National Islamic Front came to power in 1989 eskaleredes war against the people of Nuba Mountains. In 1992, declared the province of Kordofan jihad against the Nuba. The following year declared the six government-sponsored imams in the Kordofan Nuba was apostate and should be killed. Ever since the Nuba in large numbers were killed and persecuted. (It should be mentioned here that the predominantly Christian and animist southern Sudan was declared independent July 9, 2011. But nubafolket who then live in the border area was not included in southern Sudan, ed.) Violence and the West at a crossroads "silenced" recalls that when governments do not execute the death sentences against the accused, enter the mob is not uncommon to. How does it work in for example Pakistan. In today's West and Europe, Islam's critics do not feel secure. One example the authors draw up the Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks who drew Muhammad as a roundabout dog, there are several planned attacks against him, later this autumn in Gothenburg. However, it seems to be avoiding the authors attention to Vilks actually was assaulted during a lecture at Uppsala University, and his house in Skåne was attempted burned. Both incidents took place in May 2010. And there is the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam in 2004. But there are also lesser known cases, said the authors. Too often appear among other galleries, media and artists to expect Islamist threats and therefore self-censorship: "Often in a way that differs dramatically from their treatment of work that might offend other religious groups." The authors conclude the book concluding chapter that the West is experiencing "a diffuse but determined campaign to suppress ridicule and criticism of Islam or criticism of Islam, in a way which is analogous to the repression that already exist in many countries with a Muslim majority." It is a campaign to pass through, among other trials, diplomacy and economic boycotts and sometimes through intimidation and violence: "Few Western leaders and decision makers understand the radicalism of the change is encouraged and in fact already underway." You are quite right. May 2012 bring more clarity to the politicians in this field instead of their support for hate speech laws and the like, are just Muslim blasphemy laws in disguise. Source
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