A New Year Marred by Tragedy: Reflecting on the New Orleans Attack

As the world stepped into a new year with hopes of fresh beginnings, a chilling act of violence in New Orleans served as a stark reminder of the persistent threat posed by extremist ideologies. Reports suggest that the attack, which claimed 15 lives and left scores injured, was "ISIS-inspired," a haunting echo and reminder of the destructive power of Islamist extremism in particular.

This act of terror, which occurred on U.S. soil, underlines the relevance of our work as Ex-Muslims of North America. Extremist ideologies, whether overseas or here at home, thrive when left unchallenged, threatening the safety, freedom, and conscience of all people.

The start of a new year should be a time of hope and renewal, but this tragedy calls us to reaffirm our commitment to confronting the religious fanaticism that inspires such acts. It is only through collective vigilance, education, and unwavering dedication to secular and human rights values that we can ensure a future free from the shadow of extremism.

Our thoughts are with the victims, their loved ones, and the community of New Orleans. May this year be one where the forces of compassion and reason prevail over violence and fear.

Unbelief Brief

As 2024 has drawn to a close, it’s a good time to reflect on the nightmarish state of religious freedom in Muslim-majority countries. Blasphemy arrests and vigilante killings continued unabated throughout the year, but one culprit stands head and shoulders above all others: the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan’s most recent National Commission for Human Rights report showed that 767 people were detained or imprisoned for blasphemy in Pakistan from January to July of this year. While numbers for the second half of the year are not yet available, the cases that have reached international recognition have shown no signs of slowing. More than two-thirds of the cases logged this year alone on our Persecution Tracker have come from Pakistan. One notable trend is the growing use of cybercrime laws by vigilante groups, who actively report alleged blasphemy on social media to the police.

In Iran, meanwhile—while authorities remain committed to arresting or sentencing blasphemers to death—the greatest focus this year seems to have been on quashing political threats to the Islamic Republic’s legitimacy. The “execution spree” the regime has been on since 2022 continued to intensify. The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, an Iranian human rights activist organization, counted 930 death sentences in Iran in 2024—an average of 18 every week. This surpasses 811 death sentences issued in 2023 and the 579 issued in 2022.

To close with a comparatively less severe but final illustration of the dire state of things as we enter 2025 —Malaysian police are again on a wild goose chase looking for the culprits behind some blasphemous comments on a fast food receipt. That makes this at least the third time this year police resources have been devoted to catching this specific variety of menace to the public order. It may, in a certain sense, be the most fitting way to end the year—a reminder of the inescapable absurdity of Islamic doctrine and its manifestation in the real world, where even a crude comment on a pizza receipt demands a response of state force.

Will Malaysian police break their record on “receipt blasphemy” prosecutions in 2025? Keep up to date with this newsletter to find out!

Persecution Tracker Updates

Pakistan closes out the year with two more blasphemy cases: an arrest of a middle-aged woman and a death sentence for an unnamed man.

P.S. — We will be releasing our annual Persecution Tracker Summary Report within the week, so be on the lookout for that. You’ll find it on our social media pages, and we’ll be sure to link it in next week’s newsletter as well.

Thank you for joining us here at Dissent Dispatch in 2024! Please share your favorite newsletter of 2024 with your friends and family.

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Until next week,

The Team at Ex-Muslims of North America