Killing in the Name of God: State-sanctioned Violations of Religious Freedom | Eleos Justice - Monash University (Oct 2021)

by Alexander, C., Sato, M., Hosen, N., and McLaren, J. (with Ali, M. and Mahmodi, M.)

As of 2020, blasphemy was formally criminalised in some 84 countries. As many as 21 countries criminalised apostasy as of 2019. The legal penalties for such offences range from fines to imprisonment to corporal punishment—and in at least 12 countries, the death penalty. This report examines the extent to which States commit, or are complicit in, killings that violate religious freedom. Focussing on the 12 States in which offences against religion are lawfully punishable by death, we examine four different types of State-sanctioned killings on the basis of religious offence (apostasy, blasphemy, or alike) or affiliation (most commonly, membership of a religious minority): judicial executions, extrajudicial killings, killings by civilians, and killings by extremist groups.

SCOPE OF THE REPORT

This report documents and critically examines State-sanctioned killings on the basis of religious offending and religious identity in the 12 countries that retain the death penalty for offences against religion.

STATE-SANCTIONED KILLINGS IN 12 COUNTRIES

In this report, the terms ‘offences against religion’ and ‘religious offences’ are used interchangeably to refer to any acts deemed to insult or offend religious morals. This umbrella category includes, but is not limited to, apostasy (renouncing religion), blasphemy (broadly defined as speaking ill of religion), propagating (disseminating one’s religion), and proselytising (encouraging others to convert from one religion to another). The 12 countries under examination are those identified as retaining the death penalty as a lawful possibility for offences against religion: Afghanistan, Brunei, Iran, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen