In-Sight Publishing | “Search men’s governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and

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Web Name: In-Sight Publishing | “Search men’s governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and

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“Search men’s governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to.” Numbering: Issue 1.B, Idea: African FreethinkingPlace of Publication: Langley, British Columbia, CanadaTitle: African FreethinkerWeb Domain: http://www.in-sightjournal.comIndividual Publication Date: June 28, 2020Issue Publication Date: TBDName of Publisher: In-Sight PublishingFrequency: Three Times Per YearWords: 1,389Keywords: African, bloodletting, Leo Igwe, Mubarak Bala, Northern Nigeria.On Islam and Bloodletting in Northern Nigeria[1],[2]Something is amiss in African religiosity and sense of piety because sometimes the African holier-than-thouness comes across as shocking and surreal. It is difficult to understand that Africans, in this case, African Muslims and to be specific Northern Nigerian Muslims could deem it fit and appropriate to kill or threaten to kill another African of the same faith or of a different faith or none for saying or writing something critical of Islam, Prophet Muhammad or the Qur’an.And some Muslims have gloated over this. “We do not joke with our prophet. We do not joke with our religion”.  Others quipped: “We love our prophet more than our lives, more than the lives of our parents”. One imagines many more other Muslims nodding in sanctimonious approval.Religion compels people to believe the unbelievable and to pretend to comprehend the incomprehensible. Religion makes people wallow in self-deceit and absurdities, motivating believers to commit horrible and atrocious crimes. The penchant for violence and bloodletting in the Muslim community has become mind boggling. Even as some Muslims continue to peddle the notion that Islam is a religion of peace. From all indications, this peaceful Islam has become elusive and flies on the face of reality and everyday life experiences in Northern Nigeria.It is important to ask: what went missing in the religious formation and information of Nigerian Muslims who think it is acceptable to jail or spill the blood of a human being for saying something critical of a foreign religion, a foreign prophet, and yes a foreign deity? Look, this is not to say that religion is less superstitious if it is African; or that a prophet has more reverential capital if he is local or that a deity is less an imaginaire if it is African. No, not at all. All religions, gods, and prophets are of equal value. All religions, gods and prophets have as much worth as human beings invested on them. In fact all religions, gods, and prophets are worthless without human beings. Many Muslims may not subscribe to this proposition. They need not to. The fact remains that there is something out of synch in Northern Nigerian Muslim piety and sanctimoniousness. Bear in mind, the emphasis is on Northern Nigerian, not on all Nigerian Muslims. Nigerian Muslims are not monolithic. A relatively tolerant and more accommodating form of Islam or Muslimness is practiced in South-west Nigeria. Muslims in Northern Nigeria unlike their counterparts in other parts of the country take pride in a form of Islam that thrives on violence, intimidation, and bloodshed.Islam is practiced in Northern Nigeria as if nothing else matters- as if humanity does not matter. Life does not matter. Nigeria does not matter. It is Islam or nothing. It is Islam or nobody. Islam in northern Nigeria is driven by nihilistic tendencies.Of course, this narrative does not apply to all Muslims in Northern Nigeria- in Kano, Jigawa, Gombe, Yobe. Incidentally, Muslims of other climes in this part of the country have wittingly and unwittingly allowed this scorched-earth bloodthirsty form of Islam to overshadow and overwhelm them, and to become the face of Islam in the region.Arabs introduced Islam to Africa to further their imperialistic political, economic, and cultural interests in the region. Arabs promoted Islam through scholarly teaching and preaching. They also used wars and violence, invasion, and annexation. Those who brought the religion of Islam to Africa killed and enslaved Africans. The real tragedy is not that the history of Islam in Nigeria, nay in Africa is characterized by violence and bloodshed, or that those who introduced Islam to Africa used or resorted to violence at some point. The real calamity is that African, Northern Nigerian Muslims use and resort to violence with impunity in promoting and defending this foreign religion. They kill and are ready to kill other Nigerians in furtherance of the Islamic faith, as an expression of Islamic piety or a habitual way to assuage their anger over any supposed insult on prophet Muhammad. What a shame! Northern Nigerian Muslims act as if they are entitled to violence, as if they have a monopoly of threat, force, and intimidation. The only way to be safe and to feel safe in northern Nigeria is to profess Islam even if it means threatening violence or engaging in religious bloodletting in the name of Islam, Prophet Muhammad or Allah. This is utterly outrageous and a scandalous manifestation of piety.Muslims in Northern Nigeria need to be reminded that Islam is a foreign religion, Allah is a foreign God and Muhammad a foreign prophet. And nothing can change this fact or detract from this historical reality. The Arabic nature and culture of Islam are self-evident. Islamization is a form of Arabization. The Islamic religion has no more or less value than other religions, Allah than other gods, Qur’an than other sacred texts, prophet Muhammad than other prophets and messengers. Muslims may not or better will not agree to this. But this proposition is a fact. And look, there is nowhere in the Arab world that African religions and gods are recognized the way Arab religion, Islam, and Arab god, Allah are recognized in Nigeria. There is no Arab country where people worship African, Nigerian gods, and revere African Nigerian prophets as African Nigerian Muslims revere Islam and prophet Muhammad. Why? Muslims should point out anywhere in the Arab world that people are fighting and killing themselves over some supposed insult on an African deity, prophet, or religion as is the case in Northern Nigeria. Does that make Islam a truer, better, and more credible faith? Not at all.Arabs, who brought Islam to Africa designated African religion as a false, ‘nonbook’ religion for a purpose-in order to impose their religious norms and cultural myths on Africa and Africans. And they succeeded in this task.By getting Africans to embrace the misconception that Islam is a better religion, or rather the only true religion and Allah is the only true God and Muhammad the greatest messenger from God, those who introduced Islam to Africa made Africans imbibe and internalize their religious, cultural and prophetic inferiority. By making it a religious treason to question or criticize Arab cultural myths and dogmas, African muslims are affirming their intellectual inferiority?Meanwhile, Islam is as superstitious and counterintuitive as the traditional African religion. There is nothing special about the Islamic faith and the Islamic prophet. In fact claims of an afterlife in paradise, the promise of 72 virgins, the existence of Allah and the jinns, the prophethood of Muhammad, the revelation of the Qur’an and other Islamic doctrines are like traditional religious beliefs matters of faith, not matters of fact.Religious bloodletting will not change this reality or diminish the urgency and necessity to critically evaluate these claims.  Contempt for humanity that Muslims in Northern Nigeria have rampantly displayed does not add value to Islam or African Muslimness. Instead, it reinforces the notion that Islam is a violent religion and that Muslims are actual or potential terrorists. More so, any time Muslims in Northern Nigeria kill or persecute persons of the same faith, of other faiths or none in furtherance of the counterintuitive notions as in the case of Mubarak Bala, they reaffirm their socio-cultural, intellectual and religious inferiority. Appendix I: Footnotes[1] Founder, In-Sight Publishing.[2] Individual Publication Date: June 28, 2020: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/on-islam-and-bloodletting-in-northern-nigeria.License and CopyrightLicenseIn-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.Based on a work at www.in-sightjournal.com.Copyright© Scott Douglas Jacobsen, and In-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker 2012-2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen, and In-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.  All interviewees co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes. Author: Scott Douglas JacobsenNumbering: Issue 1.A, Idea: The Tale of the Tribe: International ApostatesPlace of Publication: Langley, British Columbia, CanadaTitle: ApostasiaWeb Domain: http://www.in-sightjournal.comIndividual Publication Date: June 25, 2020Issue Publication Date: TBDName of Publisher: In-Sight PublishingFrequency: Once Per YearWords: 3,416Keywords: apostasy, domestic violence, Hari Parekh, honor violence, Humanists UK, interpersonal violence, non-religion, religion.Conversation with Hari Parekh on the Hidden Population of Abuse Victims, Apostates[1],[2]Hari Parekh, has worked in the field of psychology for over four years. He obtained his BA (Hons) degree in Psychology and Criminology at the University of Northampton in 2015, and his MSc in Forensic and Criminological Psychology at the University of Nottingham in 2016. He has worked for the student sector of Humanists UK, holding roles of President and President Emeritus. Following this, he is the current European Chair for Young Humanists International, and the Volunteers Manager for Faith to Faithless. He is consistently invited to universities to talk about the psychological difficulties relating to apostasy.Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, you’ve published an article in a peer-reviewed journal called The Journal of Interpersonal Violence. The paper is titled “Apostates a Hidden Population of Abuse Victims.” First, to define terms, what is an apostate? How is abuse defined? Hari Parekh: An ‘apostate’ is the term used to describe people within religious families who once identified as religious or with a belief in God and have, now, ceased to believe in the existence of a God, gods, or having a religious faith or belief and now identify as non-religious. Each person has their reasons for embarking on this journey – completing this journey from religious to non-religious, and identifying as an apostate is not an easy journey, and it appears to not be the end of the struggles defined within an individual’s journey. Given the strong feelings families can have about the rejection of their shared faith, this can cause further complications for the apostate themselves. As such, this study aimed to inform the academic community and wider society of the possible victimisation that some apostates may face within religious households. We were looking at areas such as assault, serious assault, psychological abuse, as measured by the Conflict Tactics Scale by Straus et al (1996). The differences between the terms are highlighted in the paper – the variances within assault and serious assault can be the difference between being pushed against a wall or being threatened with death, for example. Adding to this, psychological abuse includes coercive control, stress, depression, suicidal ideation, for example. This study identifies that there is a higher risk of people being abused as a result of identifying as an apostate. Sadly, the study also identifies how victims do not have trust in their law enforcement officers to understand their plight. Jacobsen: The study, itself, is not a meta-analysis. It is a single study with 228 people, 102 men-119 women. Why was the survey supported through Faith to Faithless?Parekh: The study could not be a meta-analysis because it is the first of its kind! It is the first time that the academic community, and the non-religious community, can point to a piece of scientific evidence and say, “Here’s the evidence to show what is likely to happen to apostates within religious households.” Hopefully, this study is the catalyst for further studies, to look into the issue of abuse faced by apostates, and has the propensity to inform non-academic services such as governments and organisations such as the United Nations to raise awareness of the plight of apostates. The reason for the support of Faith to Faithless, initially? It was luck. I left my religious faith during my undergraduate degree at the University of Northampton. My experiences were positive as my parents have not wavered in supporting me, despite my decision. I consider myself to be an apostate-anomaly, being someone lucky enough to not have suffered the extremities and the abuse that participants have experienced within the study, for example. I worked with co-founders, Aliyah Saleem and Imtiaz Shams, at the time, and I was exposed to how much abuse people received as a result of leaving their faith. I formed my Master’s thesis around this issue because there was no other study highlighting this abuse within the academic sphere. I said to my supervisor, “We need to provide victims with a voice to show the academic community that we are failing victims.”Jacobsen: For those who do not know the names Imtiaz Shams and Aliyah Saleem, what is their place in Humanists UK?Parekh: They founded Faith to Faithless. It later became the apostasy service of Humanists UK, to support people who leave their religious faith. They are both amazing in their own right, do Google them! I support and work with such amazing people to raise awareness of apostasy as well.Jacobsen: Why the gap in the research, in the academic community, i.e., not being able to do a metanalysis because of insufficient studies to take any data?Parekh: There are academics such as Hunsberger (1983) and Hezbrun (1999) that touched upon the difficulties of apostasy, and even recently with Dr Simon Cottee. But, it’s so difficult to provide the academic community with an insight into the abuse of apostates, when most are hidden, and consequently do not want to upset the balance of their household. An individual who is doubting their religious faith has so many factors to contemplate on: whether they will leave or not, whether they will tell anybody or not, or whether they will publicly declare their apostasy or not, to name a few. The consequences of each scenario can be devastating, and such are the difficulties of apostasy. Several prominent activists have spent their life to inform society of the experiences of people who have left their religious faith. One would have hoped that the work of such activists would have culminated in further academic interest. However, this is the first opportunity for such activists to have academic evidence to solidify their work.Again, the gap in the research might relate to many factors. First, it is one of the more nuanced and niche areas, whereby, if you’re not aware of the community or of this occurring in itself, then it’s not understood nor does it factor into the conversation of public opinion – again, a hidden population remains hidden until it gains recognition. Secondly, the role of religion and religious communities, and the way this organised structure can work for people suggests that it can provide a supportive, stable, and secure foundation to people’s lives. For the many, religious faith can provide a good foundational basis for one’s life; the concern grows for people who do not hold a similar perspective. Third, the political relationship that religious communities are likely to have upheld, such as bishops being in the House of Lords in the UK, strengthens the view that the role of religious communities, or the ideas of the religious, are less likely to be scrutinised as a result. Fourth, the nature of academia is not easy – we remain unclear as to whether there have been countless pieces of research submitted for publication that have not met the standards required? This is a common occurrence within academia. It is a common occurrence in academia anyways. That’s the point. If several activists are speaking of people going through the experiences, one of the major criticisms of the activists is no one has had the evidence to show it exists. How do you reach people, where you don’t know who, what, or how they are? How do you do that from a scientific viewpoint? It is a minefield in itself. The study was sent worldwide – we finally have a starting point to refer to.Jacobsen: What were the general findings?Parekh: The general findings are quite interesting to be fair. First, out of the 228 participants, we categorised them initially by the religious faith they identified with since birth. Despite having participants from faiths such as Hinduism, Judaism, and more, as they were not statistically significant they could not be utilised within the study. As such, we focused primarily on people identifying from Christian and Muslim faiths and people identifying as non-religious. From our participants, what we found was that those that identified as religious from birth were less likely to be religious now. For example, out of the 130 people that identified as Christian, only 12 people currently identify as Christian; of the 68 people that identified as Muslim, only 4 people currently identify as Muslim, and of the 18 people that were initially non-religious, 204 people currently identify as non-religious. So, we saw an increase of 1,033% in people identifying as non-religious and a 91-94% decrease in people identifying as religious. This appears similar to the trends we are seeing in society – the decrease in the number of people going to Church each week in the UK, and the rise in the number of people identifying as non-religious within the UK census also appears to support the data in this study.Second, we used the Conflict Tactics scale by Straus and colleagues to understand the levels of violence and abuse that victims have experienced. The terms of assault, serious assault, and psychological abuse were significant for Muslim-apostates more so than Christian-apostates. Due to these terms being interrelated to each other, we categorised this as assault within the study. Interestingly, even though, we had lesser people from a Muslim heritage background take part in the study, they were more likely to experience such levels of violence and assault. It was really interesting, in itself, and the outcome of the study suggests a higher likelihood to be a victim as a result. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in negotiation. It was peculiar with the levels of violence. With negotiation, it suggests either that households are attempting to understand why their family member within the household would leave the religious faith? Yet, as there is a difficulty in being able to negotiate that stance, and trying to determine the consequences of having a family member that is not religious within the household and community, it appears difficult for households to reach a conclusion that maintains the household’s order.Third, out of the 154 people who were assaulted, only 9 people reported their assault to the police, which is only 5.8%. Then out of the 71 people who said why they did not report it, 44% believed that reporting this would be disrespectful to family dynamics and a betrayal of the family. 27% said that they thought the police would be unable to help them. 10% reported being threatened about the perceived repercussions by the family and community for reporting their abuse. So, here are victims openly stating, they could be at risk.Jacobsen: Some Muslim scholars and others in the public arena and may look at the terms “honour” and “violence” with internal concern to their community as human rights violations in interpersonal violence or domestic violence as dishonourable as a culture. So, it would be termed “honour violence,” but they would see this as dishonour or dishonourable violence. How is the construct of honour construed in the household with a religion in which honour in played out in an IPV or a DV setting?Parekh: It is a really serious and important issue to raise that the study aims to not generalise everybody within a Muslim or Christian household, in stating that “hi! All your beliefs lead to abuse and violence!” That would be wrong, and suggesting a link would be incorrect. People are human at the end of the day. Many people within religious faiths argue the factors highlighted within honour-based violence is completely against the fundamentals and the principles within the faith itself. That is a fair statement to make, however, this is not a simple issue. Honour-based violence by its nature is hidden and perpetrated by the people who are related to you, formed attachments with you, and this has the potential to cause further distress for the victim too. By its nature, it is targeted, specifically, at women and girls. With apostate-abuse, gender is not a factor. Its very nature is based on coercive control and collusion, acceptance, and silence within the family. For example, by making sure it does not leave the four walls of the religious household. The notion of honour, therefore, relates strongly with shame and guilt. Paul Gilbert and Jasvinder Sanghera’s research identified the amount of guilt and shame involved within honour-abuse and also reported how hidden this abuse is. The concerns regarding apostate-abuse have similarities with the abuse faced by victims of domestic violence, LGBTQ+ abuse, forced marriage and female genital mutilation. These are the same nuances we’re tackling. The level of shame means that abuse would be hidden so much more.Jacobsen: Would one public service announcement or concern come in the form of anti-Muslim bigotry or anti-Christian bigotry utilizing some of this research in very obviously skewed ways to cast aspersions and stereotypes at the communities? Where the research is not looking at violence as a global phenomenon and problem, but one a form of violence with that cultural and religious flavour.Parekh: That’s the concern Vincent Egan and I did have and do continue to have when I was doing my Master’s thesis. Publishing this piece of research too, we were looking at how this would be reflected, how people would interpret and understand it, moving forwards. That’s the thing in itself. Yes, the organisations helping to find people – Faith to Faithless, Peter Tatchell Foundation, Humanists UK, Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain – are very much involved in the non-religious communities and can provide opportunities to find people that are hidden. The research aims to identify that people are abusing people by using the veil of religion, culture, and tradition as a rationale, and this is not a good thing! Abuse is abuse. In talking about this research, as long as I am clear that the fundamental principle is not to demonise and, basically, negatively impact religious people or organizations. It is trying to bring awareness to a worldwide audience that there is abuse happening, and we are missing it. In conversations with people, I have found that there are people who are disgusted by people using their religious faith to manipulate and abuse people in that way. I think that’s a very strong argument for this. Yes, anyone can look at any research and manipulate it in a way that makes things suit an agenda of hate, which might not be favourable to those who created the initial study. However, as long as people read it clearly, we are saying, “We are not demonizing the religious faith. We are demonizing the way people use religious faith to abuse people. And by doing so, we are creating a hidden population of people who can’t be reached out to.” As people become more aware of the research, we can begin to openly talk about the issues of people being abused as a result. By not talking about this abuse, we would perpetuate the argument that this practice is okay and justified. We cannot – having even one person abused is a failure.Jacobsen: What are the next steps for research?Parekh: Having carried out the first study of its kind, there are several next steps for this research area. Firstly, we wanted to inform the academic community that apostate-abuse is occurring, and as such, we used categorised terms to categorise the religious faith of participants. For example, there are many denominations within Christianity and Islam that, future research should look at seeing whether those denominations vary the level of risk an apostate is likely to face. Secondly, we would need to gather data that also looks at financial abuse, sexual abuse, and despite gathering data on psychological abuse, we would still need to gather data on the specifics within such an umbrella term. Thirdly, further research is needed on the implications of apostate-abuse per continent, per region, per country, and how the criminal justice systems can accommodate this crime within their legal frameworks – this might also require further research into the devastating effects of blasphemy laws on the victim, such as Asia Bibi and recently with Mubarak Bala. Fourthly, research on how local law enforcement can improve their perception amongst victims that they would be unable to support victims would be an essential area for research – using a focus group to understand how police forces can improve their practice would be essential. Fifthly, looking into how larger organisations can apply this to their practice – such as how the United Nations or Amnesty International deems abuse and how they support individual nations too would be an investigative piece of research. Sixthly, working with religious organisations and religious communities to de-threaten the notion of apostasy may be one of the most significant areas from this study! That’s quite a lot, but the opportunities are pretty endless.Jacobsen: If we look at the ways in which academics can use analytic techniques to find relatively objective findings of the research in interpretation, there are internal views from a subjective perspective, in other words, of individuals within the research by yourself and Egan. In other words, those coming out of a religion internally to their mind while living in a home with IPV or DV ongoing, or at some point happening, having attitudes about it. What do they attribute these acts to? Parekh: Looking at the personal responses by people who participated in the study, really provides a true reflection of their experiences; we have tried to provide a fair opportunity to provide the reader with an appreciation of the comments made by participants. The concerns of participants initially began with being concerned with not believing in the same religious faith or God that the household believes in. And, the consequences of this ranged between being asked to leave the family home, being ex-communicated from the home, facing threats of violence daily, to being beaten and receiving threats of being killed as a result. Using a religious faith as a rationale for abusing another human being is an expression of wanting to remain correct and right. When human beings begin to believe that they are correct, then this creates a concern, as history has shown. When a family member decides to become an apostate, this increases the chances of other family members feeling rejected – because their belief is more than just a belief in itself, but also embedded into their identity formation and sense of self. So, any challenge to that is a personal challenge, and such increases the chances of causing a personal threat reaction. I think the religious belief in itself might be used as a validation to all of the reason why. But again, we’re still looking at the behaviour of the person to abuse somebody else. So, that’s what we’re seeing. We’re seeing people threatened to be killed or abused in one way or another because of them not agreeing or accepting the same religious belief or faith as a family. I think the concern, therefore, is the view that just because you don’t believe nor agree with the belief of the family; you are not part of the family anymore is absurd. The personality of the person, the experiences, the attachments to family members; this is not a complete list, but all of these factors make us human. Having a difference of perspective does not change the person that the family have created. Being abused for having a difference of perspective is no different from blaming a person for being human – this is why we have a brain that can think! Being abused for thinking is extreme. Being human means we are fallible, and we need to appreciate that factor.Jacobsen: Hari, thank you for the opportunity and your time.Parekh: Any time Scott!Image Credit: Hari Parekh.Appendix I: Footnotes[1] Founder, In-Sight Publishing.[2] Individual Publication Date: June 25, 2020: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/conversation-with-hari-parekh-on-the-hidden-population-of-abuse-victims-apostates.License and CopyrightLicenseIn-Sight Publishing and Apostasia by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.Based on a work at www.in-sightjournal.com.Copyright© Scott Douglas Jacobsen, In-Sight Publishing, and Apostasia 2012-2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen, and In-Sight Publishing and Apostasia with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes. Author: Scott Douglas JacobsenNumbering: Issue 1.A, Idea: The Tale of the Tribe: International ApostatesPlace of Publication: Langley, British Columbia, CanadaTitle: ApostasiaWeb Domain: http://www.in-sightjournal.comIndividual Publication Date: June 24, 2020Issue Publication Date: TBDName of Publisher: In-Sight PublishingFrequency: Once Per YearWords: 2,163Keywords: activism, Benjamin David, childhood, human rights.Benjamin David on How His Abusive Childhood Motivated Him to get involved in Human Rights Activism[1],[2]Benjamin David is the Founder of Topical Magazine and a Writer, Designer, Photographer, Artist, and Marketer on various platforms. Here we talk about his life, struggles, progressive activism, and how to unify activists.Scott Douglas Jacobsen: How was life for you growing up?Benjamin David: Born into a very working class household, I grew up in several poverty-stricken areas in Bristol with my parents and two siblings. Even though my father had a very penurious job as a welder/fabricator, he was a very talented man, with a remarkably shrewd ability to repair or build anything he set his mind to.By contrast, my mother was a housewife who, owing to longstanding mental illness, was continuously between jobs. Having parents whom I could best describe as disciplinarians, the environment my siblings and I grew up in was consistently threatening and teeming with abuse. My brother and I spent a lot of time either being smeared or maligned.Moreover, we were physically abused, suffering horrific injuries forcing us on many occasions to run away and attempt to take our own lives. Understandably, I not only had a deeply noxious relationship with my family, but it precipitated a lengthy period of social withdrawal, with me spending considerable amounts of time in the throes of depression, anxiety and self-harm.Losing all friends, I was forced to take recourse in school books, video games and sojourns in nature to find a sense of plenitude. In fact, the older I became the more introverted I was, which often resulted in me being vilified or spurned by my peers in high school.Light would eventually prevail at the end of my tunnel, or so I thought, after my parents divorced after numerous warring months. I decided to move in with my recently remarried father, seeking non-belligerence, where I stayed for two years.Given that my father’s wife was a relative of my mother and a longstanding Jehovah’s witness, before the wedding he covertly undertook lengthy bible study sessions and “got to know” Jesus and Jehovah prior to announcing the engagement to the rest of the family.Moving in with my father soon after the announcement, I was implicated in the wrongdoings orchestrated by my father, and I was subsequently rejected and disowned by my mother, an imposition my siblings had no choice but to comply with.Notwithstanding the desertion, I endeavoured to please my Dad, with the hope of making my first friend as an adolescent, even attending the weekly meetings of the Jehovah’s Witnesses at the Kingdom Hall.Having found neither intellectual nor emotional fulfilment, I renounced my religiosity, meaning that I was labelled an “unrepentant wrongdoer” and shunned by everyone in the household.I was eventually starved of food, causing me to develop a chronic health condition that would inflict me for over 11 years, and I was asked to leave the house. At the time of being homeless, living in the city of Bath at the time, I was merely 17.Jacobsen: Did religion and politics play a large role during your childhood?David:  As I have already mentioned, religion was certainly a part of my later early life. The disclosure of superstitious beliefs, by contrast, were certainly ubiquitous during my early years, which undeniably aroused my interest in atheism during my late teens to early 20s.My mother was a dogmatic believer in ghosts and angels, often speaking fervently on how ghosts are all around us, even in our house. Seeing psychics cleanse the house of spectres was a somewhat common phenomenon.Having experienced first-hand the ruinous effects of being disfellowshipped by my own family for leaving the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and still consternated by the question whether God exists or not, I embarked upon a lengthy analysis of theism, watching lots of documentaries, reading a myriad number of books and getting involved in philosophy.Eventually, I would be prevailed upon by atheism, and I undertook a lengthy involvement with humanism with the intent of helping those who had, like me, been victimised by religion.Concerning politics, my parents held deeply entrenched fascist and populist views, which were at odds with my own egalitarian views.My mother was once a supporter of the Labour Party in the mid to late 90s, but mass immigration and the perceived Islamization of Britain lead her to increasingly spout far-right garble. Derogatory remarks about minority groups were commonly made, which only precipitated a feeling shared by me and my siblings that the world was a deeply perilous place.The political opinions of my parents most certainly galvanized my own political ponderings during my later adolescence, finding a sense of harmony with many of the left-wing political positions propagated from leading thinkers in philosophy during the 19th and 20th centuries.Despite the repugnant nature of the positions held by my parents, I wanted to learn, critically, why they came to the political conclusions they did, and in so doing understand the flaws underpinning their convictions.In many ways, and to my frustration, there is a sense of collective guilt that I find myself harbouring for the positions propagated by my parents, and I am sure this feeling has played a role, albeit a marginal role, in why I have been ardently involved in the world of activism.Jacobsen: You founded Conatus News; a human-rights oriented, progressive platform for activists, writers, and social commentators. What inspired the title of the publication?David: The title was inspired by the philosopher Spinoza, who used the term ‘conatus’ to describe the force in every animate creature toward the preservation of its existence. One of the recurring issues floating around activist circles is being heard.The majority of those with whom I worked, such as the ex-religious, have a drive in them to be heard, to have their human rights and the rights of others preserved. It was only fitting that I picked a name symbolic of the very people the platform would eventually serve.Jacobsen: Your involvement in Conatus News culminated in the ‘Defending Progressivism’ conference in London featuring some of the biggest names in activism either in attendance or sitting on the panel with you. Given that many of these activists disagree with each other, how did you manage to bring such figures together?David:  I firmly believe that an activist movement will always fail if it is unable to forge a unity of purpose or togetherness. At the Defending Progressivism conference in 2017, there were some big characters who fundamentally disagreed with each other on some pretty pressing issues, such as AC Grayling and Claire Fox.However, ideals of equality, individual liberty, freethought and compassion are ideals that most people, no matter their differences on certain topical issues such as Brexit, respect and thump for. Through giving centre stage to this centre ground, people are more amenable to engaging and respecting those who they once-perceived as political adversaries.It’s always an inspiriting sight when two people come together to work something out. Just like music, with a single note only going so far, humans are collectively far more effective in their cause, emerging as a resonance.Jacobsen: Who have been inspirations in terms of the progressive movement in the United Kingdom, and in fact the world, for you?David:  The first would have to be Eugene Debs, who popularized ideas about civil liberties, workers’ rights, peace and justice, and government regulation of big business. The philosopher John Dewey was another, whose ideas about “experiential learning” emboldened several generations of educators.He was also a champion of teachers’ unions and academic freedom, and he also spoke out and mobilised against efforts to rescind free speech, and he helped establish NAACP as well as being an ardent supporter of women’s suffrage.Another is Charles Bradlaugh, a Victorian politician, who founded the UK’s National Secular Society over 150 years ago. Being the first atheist MP, Bradlaugh paved the way for the separation of religion and public life in Britain.Jacobsen: Now, you have other professional endeavors. What are they? Why do you pursue this course? David:  Presently, I have been working with an array of smart, gifted and passionate thinkers in the development of a new project, which we hope to launch in the coming months. Whilst I cannot divulge a lot of information at this point, I can say that it really will be the first of its kind once launched, and I am confident that it will pave the way for advances in the grassroots circles to which I belong as well as educating and empowering the public.Conatus News was a sizeable project that I had launched, and the various successes and failures along the way has been a huge learning curve. After stepping down from Conatus News back in December 2017, mainly owing to ill health and a need to take a break from activism, I thought that I could enjoy the peace, given that Conatus News had been a colossally stressful full-time project. However, a few weeks in I experienced a hankering for activism, and brainstorming ideas quickly ensued.Jacobsen: Any final thoughts or feelings in conclusion? What are your hopes looking forward for the progressive movement in 2018/19?David: The term “progressivism” gets a bad rap, with many from the more reactionary and postmodernist side of the Left coming to be synonymous with the term. This is particularly evident in more moderate Left and centrist activist platforms very similar to Conatus News.As a philosophy, progressivism is based on the Idea of Progress, which is the view that people can become better in terms of quality of life (social progress) through economic development (modernization), and the application of science and technology (scientific progress).The assumption is that the process will happen once people apply their reason and skills, for it is not divinely foreordained. Why I do not call postmodernists “progressive” is that they expunge a key constituent of both modernity and progressivism – reason. Postmodernism stresses the irrational while being overly suspicious of the rational.For those who are more laudatory of the term, there is a tendency to see progressivism as synonymous with, or certainly very similar to, the term “liberal”. This is unfortunate. There are fundamental differences between the two, such as core economic issues.Traditional “liberals” in our current parlance are those who focus on using taxpayer money to improve society. By contrast, a progressive believes in using government power to make large institutions play by a set of progressive rules.Furthermore, progressives are aware of social and economic problems and try to define and address the systemic rules, laws and traditions that enable and empower the problems in the first place. Importantly, progressives share a general belief in the interconnections of individuals and the view that “when you hurt, I hurt”.One of the biggest hopes that I have for the progressive movement in 2018/19 is that ideas of progress become synonymous with the term ‘progressivism’, and the dirty connotation is extirpated from it.Unfortunately, the loudest voices remonstrating against those who try to shut down university debates or apply different moral standards depending on the so-called “power” of a social group are either conservatives or libertarians, represented by such magazines as Sp!ked and commentators like Douglas Murray and Ben Shapiro.Whilst there are always important partnerships to be had with our conservative and libertarian friends when working to redress specific issues we all agree on, it is important the progressive identity is not obscured by them.Eric Hobsbawm put it stirringly when describing the unique identity of progressivism as characterised by “Public decisions aimed at collective social improvement from which all human lives should gain”, which he deemed the basis of any progressive policy, and changing the chronic and bedimmed political mentality of “maximising economic growth and personal income” to maximising the human condition across the board.Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Benjamin.Image Credit: Benjamin David.Appendix I: Footnotes[1] Founder, In-Sight Publishing.[2] Individual Publication Date: June 24, 2020: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/benjamin-david-on-how-his-abusive-childhood-motivated-him-to-get-involved-in-human-rights-activism.License and CopyrightLicenseIn-Sight Publishing and Apostasia by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.Based on a work at www.in-sightjournal.com.Copyright© Scott Douglas Jacobsen, In-Sight Publishing, and Apostasia 2012-2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen, and In-Sight Publishing and Apostasia with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.Share this:Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading... Numbering: Issue 1.B, Idea: African FreethinkingPlace of Publication: Langley, British Columbia, CanadaTitle: African FreethinkerWeb Domain: http://www.in-sightjournal.comIndividual Publication Date: June 24, 2020Issue Publication Date: TBDName of Publisher: In-Sight PublishingFrequency: Three Times Per YearWords: 1,236Keywords: Calabar, Cross River, gender, justice, Leo Igwe, sex, witches, women.Ending Witch Persecution and Gender-based Violence in Nigeria[1],[2] There has been a nationwide protest against gender-based violence in Nigeria. This protest has been used to raise awareness about rape, and to mobilize all sections of the society against sexual and gender-based abuses. Protests have been held at state capitals-in Calabar, Ibadan, Jos, and Umuahia. While these demonstrations have overwhelmingly emphasized rape and domestic violence, and understandably so, due to reported cases across the country, violence that people perpetrate against women who are alleged to be witches has largely been ignored. In fact, it was only in Calabar that the protest has so far visibly included the topic of witch persecution. Some of the participants carried placards with inscriptions: “JUSTICE FOR OKU-BOKI BURNT WOMEN”; WE ARE POOR WIDOWS, NOT WITCHES”; “WE ARE INNOCENT CHILDREN NOT WITCHES AND WIZARDS”. The inclusion of the topic of witchcraft in the protests in Cross River may not surprise anyone given the recent case of witch-hunting in the state. In May, a lynch mob led by an aide to the state governor set ablaze over 14 persons who have been suspected of witchcraft in Boki in central Cross River.One of the victims of the incident, Delia, has been transferred to a specialist hospital where she is battling for her life. According to a local source, on that fateful day, Delia returned from her farm at about 5 pm. She was sitting outside her house when some thugs wielding machetes and sticks arrived her compound. They told her: “We have come for you”. She replied, “For what? What have I done? They commanded her to follow them. She was holding her rosary. They threw the rosary away and started dragging her. They hit her on the right hand and broke the arm. The thugs also hit her on the head and at the back. They dragged her to the place where they had set up some fire. The thugs collected her wrapper and threw her into the fire. The fire burnt her bottom, the two hands, and at some point, she became unconscious and collapsed. Fortunately she did not die but had serious burns. Some relatives later came and took her to a nearby hospital.This form of gender-based violence is not peculiar to Cross River or Akwa Ibom. Witch persecution is a nationwide disease and is highly gendered. Although males are accused and persecuted as wizards, witchcraft has a female face. Women are predominantly accused, attacked, or killed as witches. Females are usually scapegoated as perpetrators of occult harm. Thus the topic of violence against women who are alleged to be witches should be integrated into the ongoing protest against gender-based violence nationwide. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. Witch persecution has not been sufficiently integrated and highlighted in the ongoing campaign against sexual and gender based violence nationwide.Surely anyone who understands the religious climate in Nigeria would not be surprised at the reluctance or lack of interest in highlighting violence linked to witchcraft belief at these protests and demonstrations. Belief in witchcraft is widespread in the country. Christianity and Islam have reinforced the notion that people could harm others through occult means. Thus many Nigerians do not want to campaign against violence linked witchcraft accusations and persecution because they still believe that witches exist and could harm them or others. Many Nigerians are not keen about highlighting this category of gender-based violence because they do not want to be seen to be supporting harmful activities of witches .But this orientation must change. Nigerians need to abandon this superstitious belief that human beings could harm others through magical means. Nigerians need to get rid of their occult fears and anxieties. If this form of gender-based violence must stop, a critical mass of Nigerians must become advocates against witch persecution. A significant number of Nigerians must become critical thinkers, skeptics and rationalists. As in the case of the protest in Calabar, campaigns against gender-based violence must feature inscriptions that categorically disapprove and denounce violence linked to witchcraft belief. Protesters across the nation should mainstream advocacy against the persecution of women and girls who are accused of witchcraft.Part of the reason why witch persecution persists is because witch hunters know that they would get away with their crimes and atrocities. They know that nobody would hold them to account. Nobody would bring them to justice. For instance, the aide to the governor and others who assaulted and lynched alleged witches in Boki have not been arrested. There has not been any move by the state government to support and compensate victims of this mindless violence. Is that how we are going to end sexual and gender-based violence in Nigeria? No. Look, if pressure is not brought to bear on the state government and police authorities, Thomas Obi Tawo and other suspected perpetrators of these heinous crimes will not be held responsible or accountable. They would go scot-free. This has always been the pattern when it comes to witch persecution and other forms of sexual and domestic violence. The suspects are not arrested and if they are arrested, they are later released without charge. The victims are not compensated. They are usually advised against taking their cases to the police or seeking redress in courts because nothing would come out of these processes.Victims are made to resign to their fate and to quietly leak their wounds. Victims of witch hunts and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence fear that they could suffer worse consequences if they tried to seek justice. There is institutional indifference and conspiracy against victims of gender based violence. The government does not care for the victims. The police do not case. In fact, as in most cases that are reported to the police, officers are usually more interested making money from cases of gender-based violence that are reported to them. They demand bribe or mobilization fees from victims and their families before they could make arrests or conduct investigations. So to avoid suffering further abuse and exploitation, victims of sexual and gender-based violence usually do not take their complaints to the police. They hand the matter over to God!Now as long as this pattern of impunity, lack of access to justice, state apathy and a dearth of empathy continues, witch persecution and other forms of gender-based violence in Nigeria would not stop.Protests or no protests.Appendix I: Footnotes[1] Founder, In-Sight Publishing.[2] Individual Publication Date: June 24, 2020: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/ending-witch-persecution-and-gender-based-violence-in-nigeria.License and CopyrightLicenseIn-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.Based on a work at www.in-sightjournal.com.Copyright© Scott Douglas Jacobsen, and In-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker 2012-2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen, and In-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.  All interviewees co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.Share this:Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading... Numbering: Issue 1.B, Idea: African FreethinkingPlace of Publication: Langley, British Columbia, CanadaTitle: African FreethinkerWeb Domain: http://www.in-sightjournal.comIndividual Publication Date: June 24, 2020Issue Publication Date: TBDName of Publisher: In-Sight PublishingFrequency: Three Times Per YearWords: 584Keywords: Advocacy for Alleged Witches, Boki LGA, Calabar, Cross River State, Leo Igwe, Oku Community.Boki: Justice For Victims of Witch-hunt[1],[2] A protest has been staged in Calabar to get authorities to take action against those who attacked and burnt alleged witches in Boki LGA in Cross River State. The protesters carried placards with the inscription: Justice for Oku-Boki Burnt Women. Last month, an aide to the state governor led local thugs to attack and set ablaze suspected witches in Oku Community. The police have yet to arrest Thomas Obi Tawo (aka General Iron) and other alleged perpetrators of this horrific crime. Victims have yet to receive any support or assistance from the state government.Meanwhile, the Advocacy for Alleged Witches (AfAW) has received a list of victims of the witch-hunt. Here are their names:Benard Kekong (known as papa Odu Ekpang)Rita Abang (known as Dachi Ochang)Margaret Akan (known as Ada Akan)Edward KekongJohn OtuMama Delia KubuaRose ObiPatricia ObiKaka OlumMary Ada OtuMartina MauriceSerah Kepua OduPaulina OwanSussana BisongYet to be confirmedThere were fifteen victims and the name and identity of the fifteenth person has not been confirmed.An eyewitness told AFAW that on that fateful Thomas Obi Tawo arrived the community with his boys. First, he attacked his mother, Rose Obi, and then Chief Benard Kekong. General Iron called out names of other suspected witches. His boys dragged them out of their apartments, beat them up, and throw them into the fire. People could not cry out or raise an alarm. Nobody tried to stop or resist them because they feared that they could also be beaten and thrown into the fire.Three persons who were set ablaze have died as a result of their wounds. They are Benard Kekong, Rita Abang, and Margaret Akan. Other victims are various hospitals battling for their lives. Some of the victims who could not afford the cost of medical treatment are at home. The buttocks of one of the victims, Serah Kepua Odu was completely burnt. She cannot sit down. Another victim, Sussana Bisong, sustained serious injuries. She was unable to go to the hospital because she could not afford the hospital bills. A local source told AFAW that the wounds started smelling and they had to rush her to a general hospital in Ogoja. AFAW urges the government of Cross River state to support the medical treatment of those affected by this tragic incident and help rehabilitate victims of witch hunts in Boki LGA.Appendix I: Footnotes[1] Founder, In-Sight Publishing.[2] Individual Publication Date: June 24, 2020: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/boki-justice-for-victims-of-witch-hunt.License and CopyrightLicenseIn-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.Based on a work at www.in-sightjournal.com.Copyright© Scott Douglas Jacobsen, and In-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker 2012-2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen, and In-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.  All interviewees co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.Share this:Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading... Numbering: Issue 1.B, Idea: African FreethinkingPlace of Publication: Langley, British Columbia, CanadaTitle: African FreethinkerWeb Domain: http://www.in-sightjournal.comIndividual Publication Date: June 24, 2020Issue Publication Date: TBDName of Publisher: In-Sight PublishingFrequency: Three Times Per YearWords: 579Keywords: Advocacy for Alleged Witches, Cross River State, Leo Igwe, Southern Nigeria, Thomas Obi Tawo.Witch Burning: Victims Cry for Justice[1],[2] The Advocacy for Alleged Witches (AFAW) has received a photo of another victim of witch-burning in Cross River State in Southern Nigeria. Last month an aide to the state governor, Thomas Obi Tawo (aka General Iron) led some thugs to set ablaze several persons, suspected of witchcraft in Boki LGA. Two of the victims have died as a result of the burns, while others such as the woman in the photo are battling for their lives at various hospitals.AFAW calls for the arrest and prosecution of Thomas Obi Tawo and others accused of perpetrating this horrific violence. Nigerian authorities should not allow this matter to die as usually the case when persons who are connected to those in power are implicated in a crime. Even though General Iron is part of the government in the state, he should be made to answer for his crimes. Tawo abused his political position and should not be allowed to get away with this atrocious act. The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state has confirmed that investigation is underway. But many are saying that no real investigation is being conducted. This is because Thomas Tawo and the ring leaders of the lynch mob have yet to be arrested. Victims have yet to be interviewed. There are serious concerns that the perpetrators are trying to use their political connections to evade justice. Victims and their relatives are crying for justice. The police and Cross River State government should not let them down. The police will be sending very wrong signals if they do not arrest and prosecute Thomas Tawo and others who are alleged to have perpetrated this savage act. The police should use this incident in Boki LGA to send a strong message to other would-be witch hunters in the region that Cross River is a state where the rule of law not jungle justice applies. Cross River state government should rise to its responsibility to protect the lives and property of people in the state. The government should take all necessary measures to ensure that this form of violence does not repeat itself in the state. AFAW is in touch with some of the victims and is helping defray the costs of their medical treatment. AFAW is providing humanitarian support to those affected by this horrific attack in pursuant to its objective of eradicating witch persecution in Africa by 2030.Appendix I: Footnotes[1] Founder, In-Sight Publishing.[2] Individual Publication Date: June 24, 2020: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/witch-burning-victims-cry-for-justice.License and CopyrightLicenseIn-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.Based on a work at www.in-sightjournal.com.Copyright© Scott Douglas Jacobsen, and In-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker 2012-2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen, and In-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.  All interviewees co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.Share this:Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading... Numbering: Issue 1.B, Idea: African FreethinkingPlace of Publication: Langley, British Columbia, CanadaTitle: African FreethinkerWeb Domain: http://www.in-sightjournal.comIndividual Publication Date: June 23, 2020Issue Publication Date: TBDName of Publisher: In-Sight PublishingFrequency: Three Times Per YearWords: 1,489Keywords: Atheism, Leo Igwe, Mubarak Bala, Nigeria.Lives of Atheists Matter[1],[2]The Black Lives Matter has helped draw the attention of the world to police brutality and racial injustice against African Americans. They have used the canon of life to highlight the place and predicament of blacks in American society. As seen in the protests that followed the brutal murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, the movement has underscored institutional and structural inequities that underly the mistreatment of blacks in western countries. However, a category of unmattered black lives has so far been ignored- the lives of persons, of black persons-of African persons who do not believe in God (Allah). As a matter of faith, persons who openly and publicly criticize islamic religion or belief in Islamic God have been accorded little or no value. To be specific, the lives of atheists in Islamic Nigeria, in Islamic Africa and the Islamic world have been deemed expendable by those who claim to be on Allah’s side.Shortly after the gruesome killing of George Floyd, the life of another black person, Mubarak Bala, has been on the line, not due to racism or white police brutality, but due to religion. Bala’s life is in peril, not in America or in Europe but in Africa, to be specific in Northern Nigeria. Bala’s life has been in danger not for being black in a dominantly white society, but for being an atheist in a predominantly Muslim section of the country. Bala’s life has been at risk due to institutionalized oppression and persecution of persons who are open about their atheism in Muslim communities. Bala’s case has highlighted the inability of atheists and persons who hold views that are critical of Allah or the prophet of Islam to ‘breathe’ in Muslim majority societies.You may ask: what was Mr. Bala’s crime? He made comments on Facebook that implied that the prophet of Islam was a terrorist and a pedophile. That was all. Nothing more. And for that reason, some Muslims want him prosecuted and jailed. Others have threatened to kill him. They said he blasphemed, that he insulted the prophet of Islam. And for that reason, his life no longer mattered to them. His life worth nothing to them. Bala must die. Yes, some Muslims are saying that Bala must be killed. Bala has been arrested and held incommunicado for almost two months. Meanwhile, in the same region, violent jihadists are on the rampage, killing, raping, maiming and kidnapping with impunity daily.The death sentence which some Muslims have passed on Bala is not unusual. This kind of mistreatment is not new. It is not new to Kano state. It is not new to Nigeria. The reactions of some Muslims are not alien to Islam in Nigeria and the world. The persecution of Bala is not new to the religious enterprise. Religion has been at war with the other; theism with atheism since human beings created the various gods. Religions especially Islam and Christianity have a history of using violence, intimidation and threats of violence against atheists, nonbelievers, and disbelievers. While Islamic religion is critical of other religions, it expressly prohibits the criticism of its claims and teachings. Inspired by the verses in the Qur’an and the Hadith, those who believe in the Islamic God(Allah) have waged a physical and structural battle against those who do not believe or those who espouse views and expressions that object to or challenge Islamic theistic viewpoints and prophetic ideas. In Muslim dominated societies, entrenched hostility towards criticism has been more pronounced and has created a situation where the lives of atheists and apostates do not matter. For instance in Nigeria’s sharia implementing states, Islam is the state religion. And Islamic theism is a state policy. Atheism is outlawed. Being an atheist is socially a dishonor to Muslim families and the Ummah.  Killing or eliminating an atheist a way of restoring the family and community honor. It is a form of religious duty, for which Allah would reward in the hereafter. Apostasy is a crime and the punishment for apostasy is death. Thus those who are born into Muslim faith must remain Muslims or they leave Islam and risk being executed. They renounce Islam and lose their human worth; their human life. They lose what makes them matter to Muslims. Even as an apostate or an atheist, one is not allowed to express views that are critical of Islam because the person risks being accused of blasphemy as in the case of Mubarak Bala. And to blaspheme against Islam, Allah and the prophet, not other religions, other Gods and prophets is an offense that attracts the death penalty. Thus in Muslim dominated communities, there is no worthwhile space for an atheist. There is no place to live a dignified life as an infidel.Simply put, in Muslim majority communities, the lives of atheists do not matter. It is only the lives of those who profess Islam and belief in Allah and Muhammad his messenger that count. It is only the lives of those who express views and beliefs that are compatible with Islam that have value. It is only the lives of Muslims that matter. The lives of non-Muslims and ex-Muslims do not count and do not matter.But this unfortunate situation must change.As in the case of the Black Lives Matter, the little or no regard for the lives of atheists is linked to unjust structures and atheophobic facilities that exist and operate in Muslim communities. The Islamic establishment has allowed these iniquitous structures to fester and proliferate over the years. These institutions need to be reformed or dismantled. Quranic indoctrination and Madrassa school programs should be abolished or overhauled including Muslim clericalism because these are structures that orient Muslims at very early stages in life to accord no value to the lives of atheists and apostates. Islamic narratives and Quranic texts that vilify atheists and designate atheistic and Islam-critical views as contemptible should be critically examined. Passages in the Quran that sanction death for unbelievers or incite violence against atheists and critics of Islam need to be reviewed, revised or expunged. There is an urgent need to end the killing, persecution, and oppression of real or imagined atheists in Muslim communities.People who criticize Islam or the life and teaching of the prophet should be treated with dignity and respect. Criticism of Islam should not be a death sentence. Views that fault the life and legacy of the prophet should be met with civil, not violent reactions. Muslims should learn to tolerate dissenting opinions. They should learn to value the lives of those who renounce Islam, or those who question Islamic doctrines and beliefs. Muslims should realize that if they are to debate and dialogue with atheists; if they are to convince or eventually convert atheists, atheists must first be alive.Thus there is no reason for the arrest and incarceration of Mubarak Bala for expressing an opinion about the prophet of Islam. There is no justification to kill or to threaten to murder him for making a Facebook post. Muslims who are unhappy with the posts should make counter posts on Facebook or Twitter. They should not issue death threats or ask that he be arrested and prosecuted for insulting religion. This intolerant, hateful, anti-life, and anti-atheist strand of Islam needs to discarded and abandoned. As a matter of urgency, Islam’s bloodletting machinery needs to be dismantled and disabled.Muslim societies are long overdue for a reformation that guarantees equal rights for all persons including the rights to life and freedom of expression for all Muslims and non-Muslims, Muslims and ex-Muslims, Muslims, and atheists. The Ummah needs to embrace the idea that the lives of Muslims matter.  Lives need not be wasted in the quest to redress any real or imagined insult on Islam or the prophet. More importantly those who profess Islamic faith need to realize that the lives of atheists and ex-Muslims matter.Appendix I: Footnotes[1] Founder, In-Sight Publishing.[2] Individual Publication Date: June 23, 2020: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/right-now-mubarak-bala-let-him-go-or-have-a-fair-trial-right-now.License and CopyrightLicenseIn-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.Based on a work at www.in-sightjournal.com.Copyright© Scott Douglas Jacobsen, and In-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker 2012-2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen, and In-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.  All interviewees co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.Share this:Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading... Author: Scott Douglas JacobsenNumbering: Issue 1.B, Idea: African FreethinkingPlace of Publication: Langley, British Columbia, CanadaTitle: African FreethinkerWeb Domain: http://www.in-sightjournal.comIndividual Publication Date: June 23, 2020Issue Publication Date: TBDName of Publisher: In-Sight PublishingFrequency: Three Times Per YearWords: 4,384Keywords: Bala, Mubarak Bala, Nigeria, Scott Douglas Jacobsen.Like Manna from Heaven, Even God Bleeds from the Pen: or, words for The Word, A Gift to and from the Godless[1],[2]Some of the most brutal, insane, and unjust systems of ethics and jurisprudence can be found in the fundamentalist or selective literalist interpretations of the religious, often as commanded and perceived by men, if you haven’t noticed, or in the pseudoscientific justifications for supernaturalistic perspectives on the world deemed holy and grounded in purported transcendent texts and a supposedly Divine Holy Father in the Highest. A conceived Heavenly Father with a thin skin who hates while desiring retribution on Earth, including capital punishment for insults to the transcendent(ly fragile) ego. Freud, Hume, Hobbes, and Durkheim seem substantially correct over and over again in the historical record right into the present on the religious conceptualizations of a divine figure projected outward, abstracted as a précis of the worst facets of manly identity, as when men held/hold the majority power in societies and the God becomes a Father, a Lord, or a King, or even Lord of Lords, King of Kings, or Heavenly Father – in short, a man, and a rather ordinary one in spite of the grandiose titles – with the typical foibles and follies of men including pride, anger, vanity, and a desire for physical violence as a form of purification through retribution for the perceived insult. Thus, one can extrapolate the humourless, thin-skinned, and vengeful hypothetical Theity as one reflecting the individual and collective psychologies of some groups of men who deem themselves the bearers of the truth of some religions. A recent case arose once more in the modern record, as happened with a small group of self-identified Muslims who, presumably, claim to stand representative of all Muslims for all time, all interpretations, everywhere and always. Muslim friends and colleagues, and former Muslim friends and colleagues, would, probably, disown said individuals as non-representative of ordinary believers, in general, with only some exceptions, but the trend would probably be clear. So, why stand so tall on a charge so big with consequences so infinitely great to an individual humanist with evidence so small?Mubarak Bala is the President of the Humanist Association of Nigeria who uses the freedom of expression to its full provided constitutionally within Nigeria and internationally within the global system of rights and law via the United Nations. Individuals who utilize these rights deserve to express themselves without fear or terror of reprisal because of the impacts on individual readers or listeners. Recently, he was charged and hauled off to jail by two Kaduna police officers. He was arrested on the afternoon of 28 April 2020 in Kaduna, Northern Nigeria, by two police officers who did not wear uniforms at the time while engaging in the arrest at the residence of Bala. All of this reeks of unethical and unprofessional law enforcement conduct, as a start to this absurdist comedy of errors against Bala. Currently, he is detained at Gbabasawa police station in Kaduna. Some local sources speculate the police detainment comes from a charge of blasphemy against him. The main claim stated “provocative and annoying” statements publicly on social media by Bala towards Muslims, specifically. If this is the case, and if some Islamic ethics incorporates the Golden Rule, then the Golden Rule can be applied here. Muhammad Sani Tahir on Facebook stated, “People like Mubarak Bala aren’t supposed to be on Social media, he has no regard for any Religion and the exalted beings we hold so dear in our minds.” This sounds provocative and annoying to some non-religious people, potentially. Shall we lay a criminal complaint? Halima Sa’adiya Umar started a Change.Org campaign stating: Mubarak is blaspheming against the religion of Islam. He should practice his atheism and let Muslims be! “For you is your religion and for me is my religion”His utterances are capable of causing unrest which could cause religious and social upheaval in the country.Facebook is meant to promote encourage relationships, allowing his kind to be on the platform is catastrophic. Freedom of expression is not synonymous to hate speech that can cause mayhem in Nigeria.A petition with a goal of 25,000 online people and, at the time of publication of this article almost 17,000 signatures in its first 12 hours. This seems provocative and annoying. Once more, shall we make a charge? Unrest and upheaval based on words denigrates one’s own sect of one community, so as to reduce their humanity; in that, Umar asserts this claim with the implicatory obligation to point out the obvious and embarrassing logical consequence of the statements about “utterances” ‘causing’ irrational actions by her particular Muslim community (not all Nigerian Muslims, which one would gather from reading this blanket statement). The implied statement is followers of Islam within the circle for Umar cannot handle themselves; with some opinions or expressed ideas counter to the assertions of the faith, they can’t help themselves in enacting “unrest” and “religious and social upheaval in the country.” How offensive to the dignity and humanity of some followers of Islam, individual Muslims, my personal belief is individual Nigerian Muslims are every bit as capable of critical inquiry and have the capacity for rational thought and reaction to freely expressed opinions and ideas as much as anyone else of any other ethnicity, nationality, or religion. I find the implication of the statements by Umar about followers of Islam beyond provocative and annoying: dehumanizing. Shall we make a criminal complaint here too?“Provocative and annoying” as the main statements here because several lawyers petitioned the Kano state with the explicit charge for the prosecution of Bala for the perceived insult of the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad. One should note, Muhammad is dead; thus, why not have Prophet Muhammad make his own case and attend a day in court for himself rather than purported representatives on Earth now – only some of whom making the claim at the moment? Duly noting, of course, only the living can feel the insult, which means a small grouping of self-identified Muslims in Nigeria under the auspices of the likes of the lawyers from S.S. Umar Co. (Barristers, Solicitors and Property Consultants at No. 328, Opp. Alhamsad Towers, Zoo Road, Kano), Halima Sa’adiya Umar (uncertain as to any relation to the former), and Muhammad Sani Tahir, who make far more provocative and annoying utterances; all the while ignoring the real social “unrest” and “religious and social upheaval” seen in those making a mockery of well-meaning Muslims throughout Nigeria in the cases of Boko Haram with thousands killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. The charge of insulting a dead man is spurious, inasmuch as one can claim to represent the knowledge of the insult of Nelson Mandela, Jesus Christ, Edward Teller, Kwame Nkrumah, Joseph Stalin, or Albert Einstein. As Dr. Leo Igwe reported in Humanist Voices, Canadian Atheist, and NewsGhana as, more or less, facsimiles: S. Umar signed the petition. And this is how one Yusuf Jnr (@MrZage) commentedon the petition on his tweeter account: “Some group of lawyers finally write a petition against that animal Mubarak Bala”. He described Mubarak as ‘an animal’…… All of us at the Humanist Association of Nigeria are deeply worried by the arrest and detention of our president, Mubarak Bala. Mubarak Bala will likely be handed over to the Kano state police command, that will prosecute him for blasphemy, a crime that caries a death sentence under sharia law. We urge the Inspector General of Police, the governor of Kaduna, Mallam Elrufai to ensure his immediate release.Once more, “Animal,” does this seem “provocative and annoying” to anyone else? Similar reportage came from – so far – Barry Duke of The Freethinker, Hemant Mehta of Friendly Atheist, The Will Nigeria, Sahara Reporters, Center for Inquiry (issued a statement), the International Association of Atheists, West Africa Reporters, Politics Nigeria, Roasted Amala, and InfoDigest. S.S. Umar Co. charged Bala with “publically insulting Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) on his Facebook page contrary to Section 210 of the Penal Code of Kano State ad Section 26(1)(c) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibitions, Prevention, Etc.) Act of 2015.”Cybercrimes (Prohibitions, Prevention, Etc.) Act of 2015 Section 26(1)(c) states:(c) insults publicly through a computer system or network–(i) persons for the reason that they belong to a group distinguished by race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin, as well as religion, if used as a pretext for any of these factors; or(ii) a group of persons which is distinguished by any of these characteristics;Section 210 of the (Shari’a) Penal Code of Kano State states:Whoever by any means publicly insults or seeks to incite contempt of any religion in such a manner as to be likely to lead to a breach of the peace, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years or with fine or with both.They invoked Section 4 of the Police Act 1967, which states: General duties of the police The police shall be employed for the prevention and detection of crime, the apprehension of offenders, the preservation of law and order, the protection of life and property and the due enforcement of all laws and regulations with which they are directly charged, and shall perform such military duties within or outside Nigeria as may be required of them by, or under the authority of this or any other Act. [1979 No. 23.]With the charge on April 27 2020 by Umar S.S. Co., they proclaim to know this individual, Bala, committed crimes and made a charge of the public complaining of possible state complicity in the ‘crime’ by Bala based on the Facebook posts; while, at the same time, the public claimed, based on the filed complaint of S.S. Umar Co., if the insults were directed at a politician rather then Islamic Prophet Muhammad, then the state and the police would act differently. Couple things, Muhammad is dead; politicians are alive. Also, the state did act and within 24 hours with the finding of Bala, unprofessionally (out of uniform) gathering Bala, and then jailing him. Thus, it’s precisely the opposite; it would appear the state acted in complicity with the demands of the religious. In a time when blasphemy laws continue to disappear around the world, for the largest and most populated African state, it is a singular crime to single out the non-religious with a law premised on the existence of a Theity capable of insult, especially when many members of Nigerian society do not believe in it. Section 210 of the Penal Code on secular consistency grounds should not exist at all. It should not exist in a pluralistic, secular, and democratic state. Even more so, a representative of the God who is dead and cannot speak for their self requiring flawed human beings to represent someone who the believers in the faith consider a highly morally advanced if not perfect former member of the human species. Who says they’ve got the picture right? Who says that they can speak for all Muslims and for the correct reading of Islam – let alone the final Prophet, the inerrant holy text called the Quran, or Allah Himself? Is this not, in and of itself, a blasphemous act – to put oneself in a place so as to claim to speak for Allah and all of his people?Nonetheless, Bala has the right to express himself. S.S. Umar Co., even admit to this right for Bala. Readers and listeners – who choose and chose to read and listen to him ­– do not have the right to be non-offended by him (and appear to know the track record of Bala and should expect to be offended based on the differences of opinion, which makes the whole situation all the more confusing and idiotic), or to threaten jail-time based on hurt sentiments, or, even further, demand the death penalty for said offenses deemed by the holy men who claim to know the emotions, heart, and mind of the God offended by such existences and statements of ex-Muslims and humanists as Mubarak Bala. When one claims the offense of a God, or Allah, or a purported messenger, one does not acquire the legal right to proclaim to speak on behalf of this Theity or behalf of all of the religious people and communities, and leaders, who identify under the same title because they were probably not as offended as you, even not offended at all.If someone does not want to hear or read something, then you do not have to see or hear it. In fact, in an era of autonomy and free delivery of information via the Internet, the choice before every individual human being becomes to engage in something or not, barring cases of coercion or force. In these instances, given the fact of the freedom to choose not to listen to the freedom of expression used by Bala,  it’s less as to what Bala stated and more, obviously, to the ‘crime’ of existing, on the first count as an ex-Muslim and a public humanist and non-believer, and for speaking openly about it, on the second count. That’s the real ‘crime’; that’s the real reason for continuing to read and listen to him because it’s a public monitoring of him to find points to score for the purposes of silencing or ending his actual existence, as one can gleam from the public threat of violence, reprisal, and numerous death threats over a significant period of time right into the present. That’s xenophobia. Taken together, it’s the fact of existing and articulating opinions at odds with some of the religious orthodoxy in the nation. Indeed, not the entire nation, as many Muslims do not care a smidgen for these things, Muslims aren’t a bloc and small collections of individuals making criminal charges cannot claim to represent all of Islam, all Muslims, or the sentiments of individuals who do not believe in Islam, or have left Islam, while understanding the prejudice and bigotry faced by many Muslims in the modern world; in fact, the last point makes the charge with the potential for the death penalty application more tragic, as it becomes one group feeling prejudice from others to some degree with issuance from some in its communities demanding the harshest form of punishment known: death. Who chose to make some followers of some bits of Islam the arbiters of life or death of someone? Of course, a self-selected group of the easily offended.As someone without a formal religion, I worked for an Ismaili Muslim who ran the Almas Jiwani Foundation, formerly UN Women Canada, on the Board for three years, my stances were known and almost never an issue for Ms. Jiwani during most of the three years working for the organization, as we worked on a unified interest in women’s rights as part and parcel of human rights (not separate or distinct from one another, as the separation would imply something of a classification of the rights for women as not human rights and, thus, not incorporate women as human beings, as Margaret Atwood, importantly, reminds us). We’re talking extensive research, work with her, even writing draft speeches, including for one Miss Universe Canada before. Muslims and Islam cannot be perceived or conceived as a bloc akin to the numerous sects, sometimes warring, of Christianity cannot be perceived or conceived as a bloc in any reasonable manner, except on fundamentals. One cannot deny the Resurrection in Christianity, as there would be no redeeming of the sins of Mankind in their theologies; one cannot rewrite the Quran in Islam, as this is the literal language and Word of Allah. Other than those, we can have some wiggle room within Christianity with rewrites and with Islam in reinterpretations of the wording that cannot be changed, as in a poetic reorientation of the textual analysis, as has been and continues to be done throughout the world.On the issue of rights and back to the libretto, Bala maintains the full right of state and international community to speak openly with personal views on a fundamental level. When we examine the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999), the stipulations become explicit, clear, and articulated in line with the use of the freedom to expression by Bala with Chapter IV Fundamental Rights 39. (1) Right to freedom of expression and the press stating, “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.” One can see the echoes in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 19 stating, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Individuals in the international community retain the right to “freedom of opinion and expression… without interference to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers,” where Bala utilized blog posts and Facebook posts to engage in freely expressing personal ideas and opinions. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria continued in the same articulation of the right to impart opinions and ideas “without interference.” Hence, Bala utilized posts in online media for freely expressing personal opinions and ideas. Even ignorant ideas, which Bala’s aren’t, I once knew a sailor of a Chief Skugaid in Canadian society who believed in the (Immanuel Velikovsky) Velikovskyan discredited and embarrassingly ignorant cosmology; a nice, polite, and genteel person who happened to be wildly wrong with almost offensively, stunningly incorrect views of the world. I do not claim the right to lay a criminal charge over offense and then to have the possibility of the individual brought to death in some manner.I hold the right to publicly disagree with the gentleman. Thus, a basis for civil discourse and the foundation for civil society grounds itself in this fundamental agreement of a civil discourse barring open threats to violence or livelihood, as has happened to Mubarak Bala with clear examples in the historical record in 2014 on the part of some of the fundamentalist religious community in Nigeria. Furthermore, other rights stand on the side of Bala in the international rights and national law stipulations of Nigeria society. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Chapter IV Fundamental Rights 38. (1) Right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion states, “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom (either alone or in community with others, and in public or in private) to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.” The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Article 18 states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.” In short, there’s no question on the freedom of belief and conscience, and religion and expression.Article 45 of the Constitution, where S.S. Umar Co. only make vague statements as to the invalidation of the right to freedoms of Bala because Article 45 is a huge statement and, states:(1) Nothing in sections 37, 38, 39, 40 and 41 of this Constitution shall invalidate any law that is reasonably justifiable in a democratic society (a) in the interest of defence, public safety, public order, public morality or public health; or (b) for the purpose of protecting the rights and freedom or other persons(2) An act of the National Assembly shall not be invalidated by reason only that it provides for the taking, during periods of emergency, of measures that derogate from the provisions of section 33 or 35 of this Constitution; but no such measures shall be taken in pursuance of any such act during any period of emergency save to the extent that those measures are reasonably justifiable for the purpose of dealing with the situation that exists during that period of emergency: Provided that nothing in this section shall authorise any derogation from the provisions of section 33 of this Constitution, except in respect of death resulting from acts of war or authorise any derogation from the provisions of section 36(8) of this Constitution. (3) In this section, a ” period of emergency” means any period during which there is in force a Proclamation of a state of emergency declared by the President in exercise of the powers conferred on him under section 305 of this Constitution.If you want to place a charge, especially when said charge may lead to the risk of someone’s life or make their life forfeit to the glee of enemies and onlookers, then, at least, make a careful analysis of the last straw in the charge. One may point to the S.S. Umar Co. charge about xenophobia and racism. However, if one is a white Muslim rather than a black Muslim, or a European-Caucasian Muslim compared to an African Muslim, is the religion or the ethnicity the race here? It’s a confused argument and, therefore, illegitimate. Islam as a race is as much a legitimate idea as atheism is a race. On xenophobia, as charged, can one point to the numerous death threats, hurled insults, hatred, claims of violence, etc., at Bala as individuated xenophobia en masse? If one can claim it, then the charges should be placed in the exact opposite direction towards, in fact, a stronger case with a collective of the living rather than a single claim of one religious hierarch as a terrorist who is deceased.So, what do we have here? Bala made a conscience and belief choice to become free from Islam and other religious indoctrination/impositions based on the freedom to have no belief and no religion and, thus, make a conscientious objection to partaking in the belief structure and practices of one religion and, in turn, all religions. Bala, in the world based on the United Nations, and in Nigeria based on its Constitution, maintains the right to freedom of belief away from religion, freedom from religion as one of non-religion, freedom of conscience so as to make a moral choice regarding the two aforementioned matters, and the freedom to expression of the opinions and ideas against the religions and beliefs without interference. The statement merely amalgamates and unites the rights into a singular statement in support of Bala rather than not. Bear in mind, the entirety of the presentation here amounts to standard rights and law stipulations for the individuals who happen to disagree with the wider strand of human societies while having the desire to live in democratic and free societies. With the individuals who speak out and express themselves openly and articulately, as Bala, the claim for the ability to jail without just warrant and have them, potentially, killed based on a purported blasphemy charge brings other factors of a society into question.Note, Bala is the President of the Humanist Association of Nigeria with the power of words alone. In more clear-cut cases of doing bad public relations to the image of Islam, we can see Abu Mohammed Abubakar bin Mohammad al-Sheikawi, who is the leader of the Nigerian militant group proclaiming itself Islamic, Boko Haram, under al-Sheikawi’s leadership. Who is doing worse damage to the image of Islam and to the lives of non-Muslims and Muslims alike? Does the focus on Bala make for a perverse form of extreme hypocrisy? Of course, the fundamental basis of words as the problem rather than acts of murder, rape, and enslavement becomes the ethical difference making the moral actual. Boko Haram has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 2,000,000 people; whereas, Bala made ironic or flat, frank statements of personal opinion about the religious ‘Prophet’ and the supposed holy origin of the text. All claims by individuals on social media have been dealt with in the above arguments, as simply inadequate, illogical, public incitement and declarations of violence, and open xenophobia against the non-religious, and spurious claims to religious legitimacy as if speaking for all Muslims or Islam as if a bloc interpretation or reading for all time, all places, and all peoples, including all Nigerian Muslims. Non-religious and religious alike should stand behind the legitimate claim to freedom of belief, freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, and freedom of expression of Bala because, as the violation of the right of one person in one place is a violation of all peoples rights everywhere as, we do not know when one our other communities’ leaders or group of peoples may fall under similar undue pressure and illegitimate punishment and charges. Either we stand together; or, we abandon the principles upon which free, democratic, pluralistic, and prosperous societies are constructed, and, thus, collapse together. There’s a lot of talk about saving the world qua the world and for human beings as of late for good scientific and survival reasons; however, I argue the future remains built on principles and values, which express themselves in the societies constructed now and into the future, where the maintenance and survival of the natural world and humanity qua the natural world and humanity becomes of utmost importance, but only alongside principles and values expressed in the actualized lives of global citizenry and the international society that make a humanity worth surviving and an Earth worth saving.Appendix I: Footnotes[1] Founder, In-Sight Publishing.[2] Individual Publication Date: June 23, 2020: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/like-manna-from-heaven-even-god-bleeds-from-the-pen-or-words-for-the-word-a-gift-to-and-from-the-godless.License and CopyrightLicenseIn-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.Based on a work at www.in-sightjournal.com.Copyright© Scott Douglas Jacobsen, and In-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker 2012-2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen, and In-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.  All interviewees co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.Share this:Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading... Author: Scott Douglas JacobsenNumbering: Issue 1.B, Idea: African FreethinkingPlace of Publication: Langley, British Columbia, CanadaTitle: African FreethinkerWeb Domain: http://www.in-sightjournal.comIndividual Publication Date: June 23, 2020Issue Publication Date: TBDName of Publisher: In-Sight PublishingFrequency: Three Times Per YearWords: 1,228Keywords: Bala, Mubarak Bala, Nigeria, Scott Douglas Jacobsen.You Can Tell Them I Said It: Don’t Start None, Won’t Be None[1],[2]One of the dumbest possible ways to conduct oneself as a group in a society, or as the leadership or a collective within a culture, is to start problems or act insensibly where no problems exist or sense would reason otherwise; within the context of the young life and times of Mubarak, this has happened precisely two major times against him. One time in 2014 with even the idiotic grandstanding psychopathy of Abubakar Shekau making open statements against Bala. This is an individual so far beyond the horror of the contexts described and the inequitable difficulties delineated around the world, by Dr. Sikivu Hutchinson, Bridgett Crutchfield/Bria Crutchfield, Mandisa Thomas, Liz Ross, Candace Gorham, Deanna Adams, Cecilia Pagan, Ingrid Mitchell, Lilandra Ra, Marquita Tucker, Mashariki Lawson-Cook, Rajani Gudlavaletti, Sonjiah Davis, and Sadia Hameed, and a number of other exceptional secular women deserving far more media coverage, interviews, references to professional work, and republication of materials (in part or whole) making their individual marks. Many who have supported him in international efforts.Here’s Abubakar Shekau’s rap sheet: Through Boko Haram, he has displaced more than 2,000,000 people, killed 1,000s, while hundreds have been raped under the ideological banner of fundamentalist, militant Islam of Shekau, or Abu Mohammed Abubakar bin Mohammad al-Sheikawi. This excludes the massive decline from the Nigerian economy based on the transfer of resources to combat the militant group, the lives destroyed in the process through joining, being raped, killed, or displaced, or as dross in the midst of war, mayhem, and hiring for fighting religious fundamentalist lunatics (an extremely foolish or eccentric person).The second time for Bala was in 2020. He and I were communicating on April 27, and were supposed to conducted several interviews on April 28, as we were talking on April 28. Then the communication went dead on the morning of the 28th. Obviously, he had been apprehended at that time. I went through the relevant documentation. It was clear. They had concocted a crock reason and then to make a lesson and a show of Bala gathered him and dragged him to Kaduna. Why? Probably, it is to appease religious fundamentalists in various parts of northern Nigeria with some emphasis on Kano.We still don’t know the whereabouts of Bala; we still do not understand the formal process for the reasoning; we do not see the reason for apprehension by two non-uniformed police officers, dragging away to jail in under 24 hours, jailed in Kaduna, and then presumably jailed in Kano to an unknown location without a formal ability to see a lawyer. This was between April 28 and 29 for the ‘apprehension’ and jailing followed by the transfer to Kano. Bala could be dead or alive. Because, the Nigerian authorities and to some extent the media have been silent on these issues. Even when not silent, they’ve been conspicuously silent on the truth on these matters.In that, they’ve simply lied. It makes one wonder. Why lie? On the religious proclaimed ethics, it is a sin to lie. On the journalism side, it is unethical to lie. In both contexts, it is a quotidian of untruth, falsity, every time Bala is not provided freedom or a fair, secular trial. Why not give him a fair trial? Why not let the public know the truth about his whereabouts and case? Why keep silent on this most important of issues of the life of a modern pillar of Humanism in Africa? If they wanted a fight (the one we didn’t want), they’ve got it; and, we’re not going to give up.It has been 55 days since the illegitimate and unconstitutional (in Nigeria) apprehension of Bala. 55 days of a human rights violation for a prominent and known person in Nigeria and made notorious in 2014 because of atheist status, former Muslim, and humanist status. Why is this injustice being permitted in the hallowed halls of the police authorities, the coverage of the Nigerian media, and the legal and human rights mechanisms of Nigeria? Because he is prominent and rejects the common superstitions, denies the veracity of the storybooks in most Nigerian homes, and, the most recognizable social crime, being open about the lack of belief in them, even cutting and direct with the language. That’s why? It’s the reason for the charges against him by S.S. Umar Co. It was the reason for the Change.Org campaign looking for 25,000 signatures. It was the reason for apprehension to make an example of him. And it could be the difference that makes or breaks the story of him here, because he believed, differently.I ask Nigerian the faithful. If this is the context in which Nigerians live and remain willing to be silent and complicit on this matter, then the identical charge and actions could be made against Muslims in Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Osun, Ilorin and Sokoto or Christians in Abuja, Benin City, Calabar, Ibadan, Jos, Kaduna, Lagos, Onitsha, Owerri. If not for the sake of another human being endowed with the same human rights as everyone else, then why not for the sake of others throughout Nigeria who believe differently than you, or even the same as you? Bala’s case could become a long-term and large-scale precedent because of his prominence as a non-believer. What if this became the case for every single prominent believer who said something offensive to another believer from a different religion? What would happen to these individuals?That’s the context in which Bala found himself. It is the environs in which the international humanist community finds itself in regards to the life or death, freedom or imprisonment, situation for Bala. It’s unfair, ungrounded, and a total violation of the Nigerian constitution and of the international human rights of Bala. We have support from ordinary, moderate believers of all stripes – just read social media – and from the international freethought collectives, including the national and local ones in Nigeria. Even in believers’ homes, there will be dissenters, just ask any parent. The fundamental issue is the freedom for Bala, as in the justice for Bala, and some recompense for him, too, because of the travails endured for almost two months of illegitimate, illegal actions and blatant human rights violations in the face of the pressure of religious fundamentalists in spite of the protestations of non-believers around the world and ordinary believers all over Nigeria.Free Mubarak Bala.Appendix I: Footnotes[1] Founder, In-Sight Publishing.[2] Individual Publication Date: June 23, 2020: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/you-can-tell-them-i-said-it-dont-start-none-wont-be-none.License and CopyrightLicenseIn-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.Based on a work at www.in-sightjournal.com.Copyright© Scott Douglas Jacobsen, and In-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker 2012-2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen, and In-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.  All interviewees co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.Share this:Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading... Author: Scott Douglas JacobsenNumbering: Issue 1.B, Idea: African FreethinkingPlace of Publication: Langley, British Columbia, CanadaTitle: African FreethinkerWeb Domain: http://www.in-sightjournal.comIndividual Publication Date: June 23, 2020Issue Publication Date: TBDName of Publisher: In-Sight PublishingFrequency: Three Times Per YearWords: 1,406Keywords: Bala, Nigeria, Scott Douglas Jacobsen.Right Now, Mubarak Bala: Let Him Go, or Have a Fair Trial (Right Now)[1],[2]Mubarak Bala is one of the most articulate and intelligent humanists in the world today. Not heard of much in the mainstream of some of the secular discourses for several reasons, as Dr. Sikivu Hutchinson has been noting for years, Humanism remains Euro-centric, as in Caucasian and Western culture; nothing wrong with either the ethnic groupings or the culture, but the over-emphasis can exclude other voices deserving a platform, due respect and dignity, and a presentation of a different side of problems, experiences, and, thus, manifestations of Humanism in order to make Humanism true to the universalist visions and aims of Humanism and humanists. Here’s the catch if you’re not aware: Bala is in jail.Or so we think, he could be dead. We really don’t know. And that’s another reason for considering this a crime and a human right injustice (violation). As the innovator and freethinking leader of Nigeria, Dr. Leo Igwe, has noted repeatedly, there is a long-term trend of persecution of atheists and humanists throughout Nigerian society with one of the biggest manifestations in the northern parts of Nigeria, especially places like Kano because of the strong adherence to fundamentalist versions of Islam. Igwe and Bala are brilliant people. They’re extremely well-known and articulate, in life and word, humanists. There’s no doubt some fundamentalist believers are relishing this persecution of Bala. Many humanists, around the world mind you, are not enjoying this one bit.As this is part of an ongoing series of opinion pieces, as with Igwe and several others, we won’t stop until there is justice for Bala. We’ve won the media war on a number of fronts. Don’t doubt international humanists’ resolve in this matter, the religious fundamentalist have messed up on all fronts in handling this case; if they want even a semblance of ass-covering, then one way in which to do this would be the release or fair trial in a secular court of Bala. Even in those cases, there would be failure on their parts. There’s only damage control left for this fundamental mistake on the part religious fundamentalists to try to subvert proper law and order, and international human rights, and the rights due to the President of the Humanist Association of Nigeria as stipulated in the Nigerian constitution.We didn’t want this campaign; we didn’t want this fight. It was thrust on the community based on the bigotry, fear, prejudice, and superiority complex inherent in some religious minds, usually fundamentalist, about the non-religious. For this post, I want to focus the penal code of Kano in brief. Because this was part of the longer article the day of the arrest of Bala, unjustly. S.S. Umar Co. were the ones filing the complaint to the police from Kano about a Facebook post by Bala in Kaduna. Bala was dragged out of his own place of residence by two out of uniform cops and then placed in jail. This entire situation is unfair and should be openly condemned from the outset. I know moderate and ordinary Christians in southern Nigeria and moderate and ordinary Muslims in northern Nigeria know the justice due to Bala because of the outrageous acts being demanded in order to appease religious fundamentalists in northern Nigeria.We have international humanist support. We have ordinary religious believers’ support. It is only a small minority of religious fundamentalist believers who have proclaimed themselves the arbiters of the faith for all Muslims, which, in and of itself, should be seen as, and probably is perceived as, a blasphemous act or behaviour within the conceptualization of the ordinary Muslims and Christians in northern Nigeria and southern Nigeria, respectively. Nigeria, technically, has a secular constitution; as a fundamental tenet of Humanism, in some regards, is a separation between religion and state, or faith and governance.The Penal Code of Kano State has a subtext of being a Sharia law-based legal code in which religion becomes imposed on the entirety of the population of Kano while within a larger context of Nigeria’s secular or humanistic constitution. How is this not wrong? How is this not unfair and unjust, and illegal in some manner? Because it has a larger secular law for all and then a secondary religious law precisely for the religious only; a religious or faith-based law that many want to impose on Mubarak Bala in which a humanist, an atheist, and a former Muslim would be subject to the death penalty because of the religious zealots who a) cannot handle open criticism, b) cannot handle an open and extremely intelligent and articulate humanist, c) cannot handle a prominent leader within the humanist communities, and d) cannot handle a individual who uses freedom of expression guaranteed within the constitutional setup of Nigeria. This is, fundamentally, unjust and shall be challenged by humanists, whether Humanists International, or the Humanist Association of Nigeria, or individual activists like Dr. Sikivu Hutchison, Mandisa Thomas, and others.There are towering figures like the aforementioned and Professor Anthony Pinn who have provided an in-depth and rich intellectual analysis and contextualization for comprehension of the issues facing us as humanists. It is useful here. And to all humanists young and old, how ever much they may make you feel unwelcome and as if you’re not deserving of and granted the same human rights as them, these are your societies and your global community and, therefore, your identical rights too.As per the complaint from S.S. Umar Co., they stated, Bala “publically [insulted] Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) on his Facebook page contrary to Section 210 of the Penal Code of Kano State ad Section 26(1)(c) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibitions, Prevention, Etc.) Act of 2015.”Cybercrimes (Prohibitions, Prevention, Etc.) Act of 2015 Section 26(1)(c) states:(c) insults publicly through a computer system or network–(i) persons for the reason that they belong to a group distinguished by race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin, as well as religion, if used as a pretext for any of these factors; or(ii) a group of persons which is distinguished by any of these characteristics;What does this complaint mean? It implies a dead man, a man six feet under (or purportedly in heaven), has been insulted. How can someone know this? By principle of parsimony, a more pragmatic interpretation is a select group of Muslims claiming to speak for all Muslims feel insulted over a Facebook post and, thus, declare this an insult to a dead man – leaving aside the idea of a religion being insulted.I have seen on social media numerous death threats against Bala because he is an atheist (or a humanist and a former Muslim). In this, the real crime radar should be utilized to focus more rightly on real individuals making more than insulting claims and, in fact, declarations of public intent to murder against an individual because of a set of beliefs and a particular rejection of a systematized religious series of beliefs. Who is this justice system kidding? Bala should be released without question or given a fair trial in a secular court; otherwise, the logical implication, by the penal code and the cybercrimes bill would imply a far more grievous and larger set of open charges, by their own stipulations, of the need to jail and potentially charge numerous individuals proclaiming open harm against a living individual, Mubarak Bala.Free Mubarak Bala.Appendix I: Footnotes[1] Founder, In-Sight Publishing.[2] Individual Publication Date: June 23, 2020: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/right-now-mubarak-bala-let-him-go-or-have-a-fair-trial-right-now.License and CopyrightLicenseIn-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.Based on a work at www.in-sightjournal.com.Copyright© Scott Douglas Jacobsen, and In-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker 2012-2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen, and In-Sight Publishing and African Freethinker with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.  All interviewees co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.Share this:Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading... Privacy Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use. To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

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