Anti-Conversion and Apostasy Laws Challenge Religious Freedom

Anti-conversion and apostasy laws found in many countries are a major impediment to religious freedom as it is known in the West. They effectively prohibit most if not all conversions, by practically casting efforts at evangelism as coercive, and converts as victims.

Several activist organizations sponsored a side event regarding these laws at the recent Religious Freedom Institute (RFI) Religious Freedom summit, in Washington, D.C., on July 15. The sponsors included Christian Freedom International, The St. Charles Institute, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International, the Religious Liberty Partnership, and the Jubilee Campaign.

Ann Buwalda, Executive Director of the Jubilee Campaign, moderated a panel of survivors and witnesses of religious persecution in countries with anti-conversion and apostasy laws. She observed that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 18 protects freedom to choose one’s religion, but “there are over twenty countries [Sudan excepted from linked 2017 map] in the world, in Africa, the Middle East and Asia which criminalize apostasy.” Buwalda said that “apostasy is leaving one’s religion of birth, and also criminalizing conversion, changing one’s faith … We believe that these laws are illegitimate. They infringe on an individual’s human right … We are hopeful that other countries will recognize the right of people to choose their own faith.”

Buwalda introduced several panelists to discuss their experiences and perspectives on the absence of religious freedom among these countries. Among them was Marziyeh Amirizadeh, a survivor of apostasy laws in Iran. Marziyeh said that her purpose was to raise awareness of “religious persecution and call for the global elimination of the death penalty [for conversion] and blasphemy laws.” She said that she “grew up in Iran,” which has a terrible record of “religious persecution,” especially of “religious minorities.” Nevertheless, she became a Christian about twenty years ago.  

She was later arrested with a friend, and sentenced to death by hanging for “apostasy, blasphemy, and promoting Christianity.” As she recounted her story as a prisoner in Iran, she and her friend:

“spent the first fourteen days in the most horrible jails where we could not see the light, we didn’t have fresh water to drink, and we were forced to sleep on a cold concrete floor. In a desperate attempt to stay warm, we covered ourselves with blankets soaked in urine. The guards treated us like animals, by putting food in a dirty pot and throwing it to us … after 14 days they transferred us to Evin Prison, a prison that is notorious for torturing, raping, and killing many innocent people … They refused to give us medications when we were sick. The guards and radical Moslems called us ‘dirty Christians’ for months. We were forced to participate in Islamic prayers, and didn’t have access to the Bible … [The guards engaged in] physically abusing and beating prisoners. [Then in solitary confinement] every day, we could hear the voice and cries of other prisoners who were being tortured. We were kept in cells that we could barely move around, with the light on for 24 hours. We endured long hours of interrogation, while blindfolded. We had no contact with our families for months, and could not have a lawyer for six months. It was Jesus and his love and presence that helped us to remain faithful to the end.”

She said that “finally after almost nine months of interrogation it was the power of God, and the advocacy of many Christian and human rights organizations” that caused Marziyeh and her friend to be released. But Iranian authorities warned them they would not be safe in Iran “as Christians,” and therefore they left the country.

She said that persecution of Christians in Iran has increased, and “even those Christians who are not in prison … hide their faith, otherwise they will risk their lives and lose their public benefits, such as lose their job, or their right to education.” Farsi speaking churches (those which speak Iran’s official language) which are likely to be composed of Christian converts from Islam, have been all been closed. Their leaders are arrested. Armenians and Assyrians are in churches that have historically been in Iran, and speak their own languages. They “only have limited freedom and are under constant surveillance by the government.” They may not evangelize Muslims, or engage in preaching the gospel in Farsi.

In a change of tactics, since 2009, Islamic authorities “rarely charge religious minorities with apostasy to avoid international pressure.” But “hundreds of Christians and [adherents of] other faiths have been arrested.” They are commonly charged with “disrupting national security for being Christian and participating in home churches.” Prison sentences for this range from two to fifteen years. Some are also charged with cooperating with the United States or Israel in order “to sentence them to death by hanging.” America should pressure Iran to end the death penalty for apostasy and blasphemy in Iran, she said. The practices described clearly violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Mariam Ibraheem, a survivor of religious persecution from Sudan, presents a somewhat different situation from Marziyeh Amirizadeh. She never practiced Islam, but was born of a Muslim father and a Christian mother. She said that her father was abusive and also wanted her mother to convert to Islam. This never happened. Her parents were divorced, and her father later died. Her mother then raised her and two siblings as a single mother. They moved to a large city, where most of the people were Muslims, and she was constrained to wear a hijab, and other Muslim clothing, as well as have genital mutilation performed on her and her little sister. They had to study Islam and memorize the Koran. They faced discrimination every day because they were Christian, she said. She completed her education at 17. In Khartoum, she “spent most of the time volunteering and working with the church and the Little Sisters of the Poor.”

Generally, Christians had to live as second class citizens in Sudan when she lived there, she said. She thought it was best to avoid any discussion about religious matters with others at the school and elsewhere. After her mother died, members of her father’s family claimed that she was a Muslim because her father was a Muslim, and thus that she should not have married a Christian man. The government agreed with this claim, and consequently imprisoned her.  From September 2013 to Christmas Eve 2013 she was interrogated every two weeks in prison. She was sentenced to death for apostasy from Islam on the basis of her father’s faith and her marriage to a Christian man on May 15, 2014, and her son, Martin, was born in prison shortly thereafter on May 27, 2014. Her release later that summer followed extensive international pressure.

Over the past year, the situation for religious freedom in Sudan has dramatically improved (as noted in earlier articles here, here, and here). But Ibraheem hopes to see personal and family law in many similar countries changed to improve the situation for women, as women are seen as weak, and expected to follow the religion of their husbands.   

Kamal Fahmi, founder of Set My People Free, discussed the real meaning of repeal of apostasy law in Sudan. Fahmi said “Abolishing apostasy and blasphemy law is basic for religious freedom … Without it, there is no religious freedom … When Sudan abolished apostasy law, Sudan endorsed Article 18” of the CCPR. It is “very basic for religious freedom to abolish apostasy law,” he said. Abolishing these laws gives ex-Muslims the right to exist. Historically, the convert from Islam risked the death sentence. Now, people have the right to “choose their belief.” The recent abolition of apostasy law in Sudan also gives Muslim women “the freedom to marry non-Muslims.”

Another testimony from Mohamed Sheikh Ould Mkhaitir, originally from Mauritania, focused on the connection between traditionalist Islam and slavery. “I was very active against slavery,” he said. In 2014, he was arrested and imprisoned for a 2013 article in which he condemned the connection between slavery and the state. Sentenced to death on charges of “working against Islam,” he appealed his sentence, but lost is his appeal. After six years in prison he was released, “due to pressure from human rights organizations,” and now lives in France.

Mkhaitir, who no longer practices Islam, observed that now Mauritania has “made it [the law] much [more] severe to punish persons who have left Islam or are accused of apostasy … the penalty for such crimes has become much worse than before.  This is also the case in other countries around Mauritania like Algeria, Morocco, and Libya.”

Recently he said he talked to people who had been imprisoned for apostasy “for a long time.” They report torture and sexual abuse in prison.  He urged former Muslims in Europe “to try to have connection somehow with each other in order to create a pressure group in different organizations and governments in order to improve the situation.” He said that the former Muslims he has spoken to report that they have no one to talk to about their experiences when they have escaped to Europe. If they were listened to, he believes that “it would have a strong impact on the countries from which we came … United efforts would have greater impact and would work much better.”

Godfrey Yogarajah of the World Evangelical Alliance delivered prerecorded remarks about the situation in South Asia. Based in Sri Lanka, Yogarajah said “the right to freely choose, and change one’s religion, is protected under UDHR Article 18, and the [The International Covenant] on Civil and Political Rights also protects individuals from coercion.” This includes the right to convert, the right not to be forced to convert, and the right to persuade others of one’s own religion, and the right of parents to engage in religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions.

Many state level anti-conversion laws exist in India. These laws are in fact contrary to Article 18. Nine states in India have adopted anti-conversion laws. The Indian constitution, however, allows conversion from one religion to another. It provides protection for conversion from a religion has that been practiced since ancient times (i.e., Hinduism). Anti-conversion laws in fact promote instances of religious violence and persecution, he said. Similarly, blasphemy laws are used against non-Muslims in Pakistan. Violence may be induced by the mass media, including social media. He observed that anti-conversion bills are presented as “freedom of religion bills,” but in fact they deny freedom of religion, because they tend to define evangelism, or even simply religious charity, as “coercion,” or “allurement.”

Tehmina Arora, a lawyer with ADF International who joined the presentation from India said that despite commitments to “freedom of conscience,” anti-conversion laws threaten the right to choose one’s own religion by appealing to “public order and morality … In 2021, there have already been over 150 incidents” of violence. Violence has continued despite the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns. People who attempt to legally convert to another religion must not only inform authorities of their intent to convert, but must also inform authorities of who persuaded them of the religion they want to adopt. Some, however, report that they were persuaded of their new faith “after watching YouTube videos.” Arora said that these legal provisions raise questions about what conversion really is. Does not conversion really happen instead (as Evangelical Christians would believe) “in the mind and the heart of people” rather than being identified with a religious ceremony?

Jos Douma (formerly Special Envoy for Religion and Belief, Netherlands) noted that “in Russia, it is forbidden to proselytize … Please do not think that this issue is played only in Muslim countries or in Hindu countries … In many religions, it is almost necessary, or common practice to prevent someone from leaving, and if someone leaves, you have to punish the person.” Referring to the new freedom in Sudan, he said that “for us, it’s very important that it began at a grassroots level. We had a society engaging against an oppressive government.” Following the overthrow of the old government, new freedom was advanced.

Douma said that religious freedom remains a “very serious issue” in countries such as Mauritania and India.  They are not untypical of the denial of religious freedom that exists in many countries. Government and private actors “should “never coerce people to see it your way.” Douma said that “we, as diplomats, play at another level.” Discussions at the United Nations are “very difficult.” There, resolutions on “religious dialogue” are “like a wet blanket.” Dialogue seems to mean “freezing the current situation,” not giving people freedom to choose their religion.

U.S. Senator James Lankford (R-OK) spoke at the end and said religious freedom has been important from America’s founding. It was once thought that it was necessary for social well-being that people agree with the religious beliefs of national leaders, but America has shown that this is not necessary. “We have thrived as a country with great diversity in faith and belief – not only has it brought out what is great about our country, but it is a value that we have exported, and many other countries around the world have taken it on over [in] the past two centuries. Humans own their own faith; governments shouldn’t be able to take that over, or dictate to individual’s basic human rights, and their most personal private possession – their faith.”