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Censorship in Islamic societies

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Some Islamic teachings and arguments have been used to justify censorship of certain opinions and writings in Islamic theocracies. These countries have religious police, who seize banned consumer products and media regarded as un-Islamic, such as CDs/DVDs of various Western musical groups, television shows and films.

Islamic theocracies and religious police

An Islamic state is a state that has adopted Islam, specifically Sharia Law, as its foundations for political institutions, or laws, exclusively, and has implemented the Islamic ruling system khilafah (Arabic: خلافة), and is therefore a theocracy. Although there is much debate as to which states or groups operate strictly according to Islamic Law, Sharia is the official basis for state laws in Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, Oman and Iran. In Nigeria, the constitution provides that states may elect to use Shari'a laws and courts, though non-Muslims are not required in any state to submit to Shari'a jurisdiction and adherence varies by state.[1]

Saudi Arabia maintains religious courts for all aspects of law and has religious police to maintain social compliance. Iran also maintains religious courts for all aspects of law and has religious police to maintain social compliance, while its government is described by the US Central Intelligence Agency as a "theocratic republic".[2] Iran's head of state, or Supreme Leader, is appointed by an elected body called Assembly of Experts.[2][3] The Council of Guardians, considered part of the executive branch of government, is responsible for determining if legislation is in line with Islamic law and customs (the Sharia), and can bar candidates from elections, and greenlight or ban investigations into the election process.[2] Pakistan has Islam as its only official religion and its Federal Shariat Court has the duty of striking down any law not complying with the Sharia code of Islamic law; however, ruling falls upon legal scholars who, while required to be Muslim, are not religious clergy.

Limits on freedom of expression in Islamic societies

According to Graham Fuller, a long-time observer of Middle Eastern politics and supporter of allowing Islamists to participate in politics: "One of the most egregious and damaging roles played by some Islamists ... has been in ... ruthlessly attack[ing] and institut[ing] legal proceedings against any writings on Islam they disagree with."[4]

Some of the victims of Islamist enforement of orthodoxy include Ahmad Kasravi, a former cleric and important intellectual figure of 1940s Iran who was assassinated in 1946 by the Fadayan-e Islam, an Islamic militant group, on the charge of takfir.[5]

Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, "a 76-year-old practicing Muslim" and theologian was hanged in a public ceremony in Khartoum, January 18, 1985, "following a hasty, ill-prepared trial." Taha had preached that of the two kinds of verses in the Qur'an - those revealed in Mecca and those revealed in Medina - the Medina verses were intended only for Muhammad's own instruction and were not eternally valid principles of Islam as those revealed earlier in Mecca were.[6]

Maybe the most famous alleged apostate attacked by Islamists has been Egyptian Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz. He has been harassed and almost killed by assailants, stabbed in the neck. Others include novelist Salahaddin Muhsin who

... was sentenced to three years hard labor for writings that `offended Islam`; feminist novelist Nawal al-Sa'dawi has been repeatedly tried in court for anti-Islamic writing and her husband ordered to divorce her as a Muslim apostate, although the charges were ultimately struck down; Islamist lawyers also charged Islamic and Arabic literature professor Nasr Abu Zayd with apostasy for his writings on the background of the Qur'an, and his wife was ordered to divorce him. ..." [7]

Egyptian author Farag Foda was assassinated on June 8, 1992 by militants of the Gamaa Islamiya [8] as an example to other anti-fundamentalist intellectuals.

While the perpetrators of the killing and physical intimidation have been Islamic extremists, the Islamists working within the system are not innocent. Author Gilles Kepel points out that in Egypt "Islamist moderates and the extremists [have] complemented one another's actions." The more establishmentarian "moderates" declare a modernists or secularist an apostate; the extremists then carry out the death sentence against the alleged apostate. In the case of Foda's killing, establishmentarian Sheik Mohammed al-Ghazali ("one of the most revered sheiks in the Muslim world"), testified for the defense in the trial of Foda's killers. "He announced that anyone born Muslim who militated against the sharia (as Foda had done) was guilty of the crime of apostasy, for which the punishment was death. In the absence of an Islamic state to carry out this sentence, those who assumed that responsibility were not blameworthy." [9]

Recent examples

A notable example was the issuing of several fatwas (or religious rulings) against the controversial novel The Satanic Verses, which ordered that the author be executed for blasphemy.[10] In addition to this certain depictions of Muhammad in certain countries have inspired considerable controversy around the world. In 2007, after student newspapers at Amirkabir University of Technology published articles suggesting that no human being—including Muhammad--could be infallible, eight student leaders were moved to Evin Prison.[11] Two notable crackdowns on the Iranian press also occurred on August 7–11, 1979, during the Islamic Revolution when the Khomeini was consolidating control, where dozens of non-Islamist newspapers were banned under a new press law banning "counter-revolutionary policies and acts." [12]

In Egypt in the late 1990s, Khalil Jibran's "The Prophet" was ordered removed from the library at the American University in Cairo by government authorities.[13] Censorship has been defended in Egypt by noted writers, such as Rif'at Sayyid Ahmad, who stated: "Freedom of publication must be limited by the intentions of the Shari'a and the principles of religion.”[13] As recently as 2007, the courts were used to try and silence writers whom the censors deemed inappropriate, such as the questioning of Nawal El Saadawi as part of a hisba lawsuit to declare her an infidel or non-believer for her writings.[14]

In 2007, the Sudanese teddy bear blasphemy case demonstrated the censorship effect of Islamic blasphemy laws with the arrest, trial, conviction, and imprisonment of British schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons in Sudan.[15] She was arrested by "men with big beards ... saying they wanted to kill her"[16] and imprisoned for allegedly insulting Islam by allowing her class to name a teddy bear "Muhammad." Only the intervention of the British government prevented harsher punishment.[15][16]

It has been noted by one of the scholarly journals that a United Nations report states that blasphemy laws and those prohibiting the defamation of religion should be narrowly defined and "should not be allowed to justify prior censorship on speech," as it did in the examples presented, including the Gibbons arrest.[16] Another academic publication noted that "Apostasy and blasphemy charges are not the only method of government censorship" but that other charges, such as espionage, have also been used.[17]

In 2007, censorship laws in Jordon were relaxed, permitting the printing of articles without pre-publication clearance. This prompted concern among some Jordanian journalists, who feared their exposure under defamation laws would increase.[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ "International Religious Freedom Report 2006: Nigeria". Bureau of Democracy, Human rights and Labor. Retrieved 28 August 2012.. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  2. ^ a b c "CIA World Factbook – Iran". Cia.gov. Retrieved 2009-08-10.
  3. ^ Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Articles 107-112.
  4. ^ Fuller, (2003), p.39
  5. ^ A Clarification of Questions, An Unabridged Translation of Resaleh Towzih al-Masael by Ayatollah Sayyed Ruhollah Mousavi Khomeini), Translated by J. Borujerdi, with a Foreword by Michael M. J. Fischer and Mehdi Abedi, Westview Press/ Boulder and London c1984
  6. ^ Daniel Pipes The Rushdie Affair p.76.
  7. ^ Fuller, (2003) p.39
  8. ^ Kepel, Jihad, (2002), p.287
  9. ^ Kepel, Jihad, (2002) p.287
  10. ^ Mazrui, Ali A. (1990). "Satanic verses or a satanic novel? Moral dilemmas of the Rushdie affair". Third World Quarterly. 12 (1): 116–139. ISSN 0143-6597. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  11. ^ MacFarquhar, Neil. (2007). "Iran Cracks Down on Dissent". The New York Times. Retrieved June 24, 2007.
  12. ^ Schirazi, The Constitution of Iran, Tauris, 1997 p.51
  13. ^ a b Najjar, Fauzi M. (2001). "Book Banning in Contemporary Egypt". Muslim World. 91. Wiley-Blackwell: 399. ISSN 0027-4909. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  14. ^ El Saadawi, Nawal (2007). "Free Speech on the Retreat". Index on Censorship. 36: 185–187. doi:10.1080/03064220701332877. ISSN 0306-4220. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  15. ^ a b Graham, L. Bennett (2009). "Defamation of Religions: The End of Pluralism?". Emory International Law Review. 23. Emory University: 69.
  16. ^ a b c Belknap, Allison G. (2010). "Defamation of Religions: A Vague and Overbroad Theory that Threatens Basic Human Rights". Brigham Young University Law Review. 2010. Brigham Young University: 635.
  17. ^ Arzt, Donna E. (1996). "Heroes or Heretics: Religious Dissidents Under Islamic Law". Wisconsin International Law Journal. 14. University of Wisconsin: 349. {{cite journal}}: More than one of |at= and |page= specified (help)
  18. ^ Armijo, Enrique (2009). "Building Open Societies: Freedom of the Press in Jordan and Rwanda". Journal of International Media & Entertainment Law. 2. Southwestern Law School: 105.

Further reading

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