Censorship is the first line of defense for orthodoxy, and fighting it is essential to the health of a free society.
One of the most common undercurrents of repressive Islamic regimes is speech control. States’ constitutions may theoretically guarantee freedom of expression, but in practice, most Islamic nations impose broad exceptions to this rule. Restrictions target religious and political dissent alike.
Of particular concern in the digital age is the weaponization of social media. Ideally a tool to facilitate the free flow of ideas, social media content is routinely subject to regime-imposed blocks in Muslim-majority countries, often with the cooperation of the companies themselves. Meanwhile, special laws enacted in these countries in the last decade have singled out online speech for prosecution—often under the false pretense of controlling misinformation and hate speech, sometimes more explicitly stating the aim to curb political and religious dissent.
Globally, social media companies enforce their guidelines in problematic ways, in some cases discouraging an atmosphere of free expression. Ex-Muslims in particular are affected by this. Algorithmic responses to community violations are frequently abused with targeted reporting campaigns, and community standards recently implemented by Facebook provide that content attacking “ideas” and “concepts” can be subject to removal under certain circumstances.
These conditions pose a threat to the principle that one should be always free to express oneself openly—a principle vital for ex-Muslims’ ability to live free from fear and persecution.
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In this week's Unbelief Brief: Iran is taking a dangerous turn by proposing "hijab clinics" to institutionalize women who defy its dress codes under the guise of psychological treatment. In the U.S., Texas public schools face pressure to adopt a curriculum favoring Christian teachings, blurring the line between church and state. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s arrest of a transgender influencer for alleged blasphemy highlights the country’s growing crackdown on religious dissent.
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Welcome back. This week our Unbelief Brief brings up an issue of hate speech persecuted as blasphemy, along with staggering new statistics on blasphemy-related arrests and imprisonments in Pakistan.
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This week’s Unbelief Brief looks at an Iranian student’s protest of hijab enforcement with a powerful act of civil disobedience, France faces UN backlash over its hijab ban in sports, and the UK debates removing Church seats from the House of Lords in a push toward greater secularism.
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This week’s Unbelief Brief discusses Pakistan being taken to task by the UN Human Rights Committee, the declining health of an imprisoned Iranian human rights activist and an overview of anti-blasphemy laws in the US.
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This week’s Unbelief Brief provides updates on Islamism and Islamic intolerance in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran.
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This week’s Unbelief Brief examines a rare resolution to a new blasphemy case in Pakistan and the ever increasing paranoia of the Taliban
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This week’s Unbelief Brief examines the rescue of a Yazidi woman trafficked to Gaza, Bibles in Oklahoma public schools and atheists outnumbering theists in the UK.
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This week's Unbelief Brief looks at an attack on secularism in India, how a Pakistani cleric gets a taste of his own medicine and examines yet another police killing of a suspected blasphemer in Pakistan.
