WASHINGTON: The official US report on international religious freedom, released on Wednesday, focuses on laws against blasphemy, apostasy, and conversion from the majority religion.

The report, which the State Department submitted to Congress on Wednesday, warns against the trend of restricting religious liberty under the guise of combating violent extremism. It also underlines the practice of using religion by non-state actors, particularly terrorists, to attack religious and ethnic minorities.

The report notes the positive actions of civil society and governments to provide greater protections for religious minorities and to safeguard the fundamental freedom of individuals to believe, or not believe. The portion on blasphemy laws begins with the story of an Afghan woman, Farkhunda, who was falsely accused of burning an Islamic holy book by the caretaker of a shrine in Kabul.

On March 19, Farkhunda was beaten to death by a crowd in Kabul for a crime she never committed. She was beaten with sticks and boards, kicked, run over by a car and dragged, thrown into a dry riverbed, stoned, and finally set on fire as bystanders and police watched every act of barbarity.

The US report notes that in Muslim societies, societal passions associated with blasphemy are abetted by a legal code that harshly penalises blasphemy and apostasy.

“All residents of countries where laws or social norms encourage the death penalty for blasphemy are vulnerable to attacks such as the one on Farkhunda,” the report warns.

It points out that those who have less power are more vulnerable, like women, religious minorities and the poor.

“False accusations, often lodged in pursuit of personal vendettas or for the personal gain of the accuser, are not uncommon. Mob violence as a result of such accusations is disturbingly common,” says the report.

Harsh sentences

In many Muslim countries, courts continue to hand down harsh sentences for blasphemy and apostasy, the report adds.

In Mauritania, Mohammad Cheikh Ould Mohammad published an online article that the government alleged criticised Muslim religious personalities. In December 2014, a court convicted him of apostasy, a charge which was subsequently downgraded in April 2016 after the blogger “repented”, and sentenced him to death. He remains in prison pending a decision from the Supreme Court on a possible pardon.

Protesters called for the death of a prominent human rights activist, Aminetou Mint El Moctar, who defended the accused.

The report notes that in Pakistan, blasphemy laws prescribe punishments for crimes such as the desecration of the Holy Quran or insulting religious personalities.

Such accusations have often been used as justification for mob justice. Since 1990, more than 62 people have been killed by mob violence.

Death row

In 2013, there were 39 registered cases of blasphemy against a total of 359 people. More than 40 people remain on death row for blasphemy in Pakistan, many of whom are members of religious minorities.

Numerous individuals involved in well-publicised blasphemy cases from previous years — including Sawan Masih, Shafqat Emmanuel, Shagufta Kausar and Liaquat Ali — remain in jail awaiting appeal.

In Sudan on Nov 2 and 3, authorities detained 27 Muslims on charges of disturbing public order and apostasy. Those arrested are adherents of a school of Islam that maintains that the Holy Quran is the sole source of religious authority.

The arrests happened during a seminar in which two individuals of the group were leading a group discussion regarding their views of Islamic teachings. Police charged members of the group under Sudan’s newly-broadened apostasy provision. Court proceedings for those arrested have since been suspended, and they have been released, but charges have not been dismissed.

In Saudi Arabia, the General Court in Abha sentenced Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh to death for apostasy in November, overturning a previous sentence of four years’ imprisonment and 800 lashes.

The death sentence was subsequently overturned in February 2016 and a sentence of eight years’ imprisonment and 800 lashes imposed.

In a separate incident in January, authorities publicly lashed Raif Badawi 50 times in accordance with a sentence based on his 2013 conviction for violating Islamic values, violating sharia, committing blasphemy, and mocking religious symbols on the Internet.

The chapter on India notes that six out of 29 state governments had and enforced anti-conversion laws.

There were reports of religiously motivated killings, assaults, riots, coerced religious conversions, actions restricting the right of individuals to change religious beliefs, discrimination and vandalism.

Religiously motivated communal violence, including attacks by Hindus on Muslims due to alleged cow slaughter, led to deadly attacks and public rioting.

Hindu nationalists threatened and assaulted Muslims and Christians and destroyed their property because of their beliefs and in disputes over the location of churches and mosques.

There were 177 incidents of violence, harassment, or discrimination across India targeting Christians. Muslims were also targeted based on land disputes and on social interactions with Hindus.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2016