Black, Atheist, Proud #FreeMubarakBala
By Sikivu Hutchinson
In his essay, “My Journey from Islamist to Freethinker”, Mubarak Bala, head of the Nigerian Humanist Association, mused that, “From a life of a pseudo-Islamist, I weaned myself to be liberal, secular, humanist, agnostic and, finally, an atheist, all without ever knowing the books or ideologies of atheism. All I knew was science and Islam.” In Nigeria, African nonbelievers and humanists are more likely to be ostracized by their communities for rejecting organized religion and dogma. Globally, African descent secularists face harsh cultural stigmas for bucking colonialist religious traditions that we view as authoritarian, sexist, and homophobic. Vilified as devil worshipers, African atheists and humanists may be disowned by their families, booted from their jobs, and deemed insane, traitorous, or worse.
In late April, Bala was arrested for comparing the Prophet Mohammed to a terrorist on Facebook. Supporters believe he is currently being detained in Kano, a predominantly Muslim region in Northern Nigeria. According to Humanists International — which has been spearheading global efforts to get him released — Bala was arrested after a group of lawyers sent a petition to the Commissioner of Police in Kano State demanding that he be prosecuted for his comments. Prior to his arrest, Bala had received death threats and experienced harassment for his unabashed criticism of Islam, Christianity, and predatory pastors. In 2014, Bala was forcibly institutionalized by his family for renouncing Islam. In a recent Youtube interview, Nigerian humanist activist Leo Igwe worried that Bala may be subject to torture, conceding that “We don’t have independent confirmation that (Bala) is well and alive.”
As a self-proclaimed ex-Muslim, Bala’s life is in jeopardy. It is critical that the international human rights community acts swiftly to ensure his immediate release from detention and protection from anti-atheist violence. Joining international atheist and humanist condemnations of Bala’s imprisonment, Black secular organizations Black Skeptics Los Angeles, Black Nonbelievers, and Women of Color Beyond Belief have issued a joint statement calling for his release and expressing solidarity with African secularists. The statement also urges the Congressional Black Caucus to intervene.
According to the Pew Research Forum, over twenty five percent of the world’s nations have anti-blasphemy laws. They have been used throughout Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia to persecute, detain, and murder atheist activists (these laws are also extant in the Americas and Europe). Although Nigeria is ostensibly a secular state, Igwe notes that, “Section 10 of the Nigerian constitution says no part of the state should adopt religion as a state religion. That is in principle; in practice it’s a different thing. When it comes to Sharia some people in Nigeria think that it is superior to our national constitution.” Igwe also stresses that there is selective application of secularism based upon the dominant religion or religious affiliation of a given region. Laws are implemented that aren’t compatible with constitutional principles. Over the past week, global atheists and humanists organizations such as Humanists International have rallied for Bala and gained international momentum with the U.N., EU, and the U.S. State Department. African American secular organizations have also appealed to members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other elected officials for urgent intervention.
Decrying the hypocrisy of the anti-blasphemy witch hunt in The Nigerian Voice, Francis Ojima Akoji said, “Suddenly, we feel the need to enforce the law on blasphemy which virtually everyone including those pointing accusing fingers have misused and abused at one point or another in our overzealous religiosity.”
Bala’s detention and disappearance is especially chilling for African descent nonbelievers across the globe. African descent nonbelievers experience widespread harassment, discrimination, ostracism, and stigma both within Africa and in the diaspora. American Atheists’ recently published Secular Survey provides new insight into the particular stigmas African American nonbelievers face. According to the survey, “Black participants were 1/2 as likely to have supportive parents and three times as likely to be physically assaulted” than non-Black participants. This is set against the backdrop of institutional racism, criminalization, sexism, heterosexism, and economic apartheid which make Black secular nones even more personally/professionally vulnerable and socially isolated.
For Bala, groupthink and religious indoctrination forced him “into (a) system (ruled) by fear, societal norms, family heritage, and the pressure to go with the crowd.” For postcolonial African descent atheists, Christian and Muslim religious traditions have undermined African self-determination because of their white supremacist and colonial legacies of violent occupation. As Kenyan humanist Moses Alusala argues, secular humanism, “provides an opportunity for people of African descent to question colonial cultural legacies and their influence on their education and beliefs, as well as rediscover their history and ancestry as a form of liberation struggle”.
In the name of freedom of speech and universal human rights, human rights organizations, religious organizations, and people of conscience across the globe must actively condemn the detention of Bala and call for his immediate release. For more information on coordinated outreach to elected officials and government agencies, see Humanists International website Congressional Black Caucus Nigerian Embassy
Sikivu Hutchinson is the founder of Black Skeptics Los Angeles and author of Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics, and the Values Wars as well as the newly released book Humanists in the Hood: Unapologetically Black, Feminist, and Heretical.
