Blasphemy bans threaten 'Arab Spring', religious freedom
By M. Zuhdi Jasser and Katrina Lantos Swett, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)
05/16/12 11:42 AM ET
Kuwait’s parliament has just passed draconian legal amendments that impose the death penalty on Muslims for blasphemy. The move to stiffen the penalty came after Hamad al-Naqi, a Shi’a Muslim, was arrested in March and taken into custody for allegedly cursing the Prophet Muhammad on Twitter. The fate of the amendments and of Naqi rests in the hands of Kuwait’s emir.
This action is the latest sign of an alarming trend, not just in Kuwait, but across the Middle East and parts of North Africa. From Tunisia to Kuwait, blasphemy bans increasingly are being enforced and expanded. These bans threaten individual rights to freedom of religion and expression and often have led to human rights abuses.
Just about a year ago, freedom seemed to be blossoming. In addition to the popular uprisings across the Arab world, the UN Human Rights Council dealt a welcome blow in March 2011 to the years-long effort to promote a global blasphemy law through annual “defamation-of-religions” resolutions. In their place, a pro-freedom resolution was adopted by consensus. On its face, this resolution rightly seeks to protect individuals from discrimination and violence, in contrast to the prior resolution that protected religions from criticism. The current resolution applies to the adherents of all religions or beliefs, rather than favoring a single religion, and most critically focuses on education and outreach, rather than restricting expression.
After the January 2011 uprising, Egypt had helped defeat the global blasphemy language at the UN. Yet today, Egypt is enforcing its own blasphemy code with disturbing zeal.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/227753-blasphemy-bans-threaten-arab-spring-religious-freedom
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