EXPERTS APPEAL TO UN: TAKE SERIOUSLY THE PERSECUTION OF APOSTATES

Press Release - 15 April 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Barnabas Fund

A panel of four experts appealed to the UN Commission on Human Rights for more visible action to support Muslims who convert to another faith (apostates) who face serious persecution in many countries around the world, in a meeting held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, on 7 April.

On the panel was Ibn Warraq, a secularist Muslim intellectual and author whose most recent book Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out (2003) details the cases of many Muslims who have chosen to leave their Islamic faith and have suffered serious persecution as a result. Also present was Dr Younas Sheikh, another secularist Muslim intellectual who was freed in November 2003 after spending 3 years in prison in Pakistan under a bogus accusation of blasphemy, two and a half years on death row. The other members of the panel were Shafique Keshavjee, a Swiss Protestant pastor and author and Paul Cook, Advocacy Manager for Barnabas Fund, a Christian charity which has been running a major international campaign supporting the human rights of converts from Islam.

Speaking under the heading "Apostasy, Human Rights, Religion and Belief: New Threats to Freedom of Opinion and Expression", the panel touched briefly on the prejudice and discrimination faced by many converts in the Buddhist, Christian, Jewish and Hindu traditions drawing particular attention to problems in Eritrea, India and Sri Lanka. However, of all the major world faiths it is in conservative Islamic societies that converts face the greatest persecution in the world today and it was to this area that the panel devoted most of its discussions. Ibn Warraq explained that "Under Muslim law, the male apostate must be put to death, as long as he is an adult, and in full possession of his faculties", whilst Paul Cook added "Other punishments prescribed by the Shari'ah include the annulment of marriage, the removal of children and the loss of all property and inheritance rights. This tradition is still upheld and taught by most Muslim religious leaders around the world today."

Younas Sheikh spoke of his own experience in Pakistan, where he was falsely accused of blasphemy (a concept closely related to apostasy in traditional Islamic thinking) for his moderate and secularist political and spiritual views: "I was held in solitary confinement in ... a dark and dirty death cell with unbearable, stinking and distasteful food ... I remained constantly under threat of murder by Islamic fundamentalist inmates in jail for murder and gang rape." Shafique Keshavjee demonstrated how such treatment of apostates stands in sharp contrast to international human rights standards as enshrined in both the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Paul Cook stated that the "silence of political and religious leaders remains deafening" regretting the failure of the UN and other international bodies and religious leaders to unequivocally condemn such persecution of apostates.

The members of the panel were united in their calls for further action by the UN Commission on Human Rights, national governments and political and religious leaders to do more to support the rights of converts. Ibn Warraq called upon national governments to "forbid fatwas and sermons preaching violence in the name of god against those holding unorthodox opinions or those who have left a religion." He also urged national governments to "comply with applicable international human rights instruments like the ICCPR" which affirm the rights of converts.

Focusing specifically on Pakistan, Younas Sheikh called upon the UN Commission on Human Rights to press the government of Pakistan to "urgently review the cases of all those currently charged or convicted of blasphemy" and to "replace the blasphemy laws by laws which respect the human rights of individuals in conformity with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights".

Shafique Keshavjee referred to a monitoring body which a Special Rapporteur of the Commission has proposed be set up to examine racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. He called for the body to also examine "reports from areas across the world where leaving a religion can lead to persecution." Paul Cook closed the session expressing his wish that the UN Commission on Human Rights would issue a "public condemnation" of the persecution of converts and a similar "public encouragement to Muslim religious leaders to publicly condemn the persecution of converts and to denounce it as something unworthy of the Islamic faith."

Notes for Editors

The full texts given by the four panel members are available on request. Photos of the meeting are also available on request.

The panel discussions took place at a lunchtime meeting during the 60th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva under the title of "Apostasy, Human Rights, Religion and Belief: New Threats to Freedom of Opinion and Expression". The event was jointly hosted by the Association of World Citizens, the Association for World Education and the International Humanist and Ethical Union. Chairing the panel was Abbe Alain-Rene Arbez of the Commission Judeo-Catholique.

For further information or an interview please contact Paul Cook, Advocacy Manager, Barnabas Fund on + 44 (0)1672 564938 or

Further information on the issue of Apostasy and the persecution of converts is available on Barnabas Fund's website http://www.barnabasfund.org/Apostasy.htm

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Barnabas Fund works to support Christian communities mainly, but not exclusively, in the Islamic world where they are facing poverty and persecution.

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