Welcome to This Edition of Dissent Dispatch

This week’s Unbelief Brief spotlights mob violence in Bangladesh, a terrorist attack in Afghanistan and Iranian citizens growing dissatisfaction with their government.

The Unbelief Brief

A recent mob assault in Bangladesh is a dark reminder of the near anarchistic violence of a decade ago. Utsav Mandol, a Hindu adolescent or young man—his age variously reported as 15, 19, and 22—was accused of posting blasphemous material against the Prophet Muhammad on social media. He was subsequently brought to the police station by locals, whereupon he was taken into custody. However, an angry mob formed, managing to enter the police station to attack Utsav. Initial reports indicated he was murdered, but more recent reporting states he was beaten and hospitalized and is still alive. Such incidents are commonplace in neighboring Pakistan, but this particular one is so noteworthy—and uniquely distressing—because of the history Bangladesh has with attacks like this. “Hacked to death” was a horribly common headline in Bangladesh in the mid-2010s as attacks on atheist and secular bloggers raged. Until now, crackdowns on the perpetrators of such violence seemed to have stamped it out. One can only hope that this mob attack represents an isolated incident and not a return to darker days that had only temporarily receded.

In Iran, meanwhile: a recent survey—conducted in November 2023 but recently made public—found that “over 90%” of the country’s residents are dissatisfied with the current state of the country, something which should come as no surprise given the economic conditions and repressive events in the Islamic Republic during the last two years. Somewhat surprising is that the survey was “conducted by a department affiliated with the Ministry of Culture” but nevertheless made public, given how terribly it reflects on the regime. Roughly a third of respondents even said “the country’s situation is beyond repair.” This state of affairs is not reducible merely to theocracy—but it is the logical conclusion of an authoritarian, ultra-conservative state that refuses to respond to its citizens and clutches ever more tightly onto a destructive religious ideology.

Finally: ISIS has asserted that they are responsible for a recent suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan. The attack, which targeted “employees of the Directorate of Monitoring and Enforcement of Taliban Decrees,” has led the Pentagon to “reaffirm” the threat posed by ISIS, including ISIS-K, the branch that carried out the attack. It is another reminder of the nature of violent religious extremism—that it leads to infighting as much as the oppression of outgroups, as different brands of authoritarians argue over which brutal, hellish nightmare to bring to life, quibbling over meaningless details and spilling untold amounts of blood in the process. Just as well, it is a reminder of the unavoidable destruction and murderous tendencies of Islamic jihadism, particularly as terrorism makes headlines the entire world over: in just the last few days, a suspect was arrested in Canada for a plot to cross the border and target Jews in a mass shooting on the anniversary of October 7th, and seven individuals in Indonesia have been arrested for planning to attack Pope Francis on his visit to the country. Wherever this ideology goes, it brings the constant threat of death.

Persecution Tracker Updates

Our full entry on the recent blasphemy mob attack in Bangladesh: here.

Until next week,

The Team at Ex-Muslims of North America

P.S. We’d love to hear from you! Share your feedback at [email protected].