LET US PREVENT HARM IN ISLAM!: OPPRESSION OF ATHEISTS, HINDUS, BUDDHISTS, ETC.

Quran 2: 191–193:

“Kill them wherever you find them and drive them out from where they drove you out. Opposition (to your belief) is more serious than killing. (…) Fight them until there is no more opposition and worship is due only to Allah. But if they desist, then let there be no hostility except against the unjust.”

This verse is a cause of oppression against Hindus and other polytheists, as well as atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, Jains, and other non-believers. It has been interpreted differently by the major schools of Islamic jurisprudence. The Hanafi and Maliki allow dhimmi status to be granted to non-Arab polytheists, or even to all non-Muslims. This is the regime applied to Christians and Jews… Read more…

By contrast, the Shafi’i, Hanbali, and Zahiri schools consider only Christians and Jews eligible for dhimmi status, so everyone else has only two options: conversion or death.

Muslim conquerors applied one interpretation or the other depending on which jurisprudential school they followed. In India, they committed several genocides of tens or even hundreds of millions of Hindus. Later, the Mughal Empire granted dhimmi status to Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains.

OPPRESSION OF ATHEISTS AND AGNOSTICS TODAY

Non-believers in all Muslim countries are subjected to genuine tyranny to varying degrees, depending on how sharia is applied, including:

• Death penalty in at least 13 states, such as Afghanistan, Iran, Nigeria, Qatar, Somalia, Libya, or the United Arab Emirates.

• Torture or long prison sentences, for example, in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, or Mauritania.

• Imprisonment, such as in Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, or Kuwait.

• Government repression even though atheism is not legally punishable in theory, as in Morocco.

• Loss of citizenship, as in the Maldives, where Islam is the only religion permitted by the Constitution.

• Social marginalization in all Muslim countries, including the most liberal among them, such as Turkey and Tunisia. Even in some, they may suffer physical and psychological assaults, such as in Malaysia, Brunei, Yemen, or Sudan.

• Censorship of content considered to promote atheism.

For all these reasons, atheists and agnostics are usually forced to hide their status, pretending they are Muslim, observing the Ramadan fast, etc.

VICTIMIZATION OF HINDUS, BUDDHISTS, JAINS, ETC.

Unfortunately, there are quite a few Islamist attacks against followers of non-Muslim religions, as well as abuses and persecution because of their faith. They face discrimination, violence, and restrictions on their religious freedom, depending on how sharia is applied in each country:

• Hindus. In Pakistan they suffer discrimination and violence, including attacks on temples, kidnappings, and forced conversions. The Blasphemy Law has been used to persecute Hindus and other religious minorities. This situation creates fear and insecurity among Hindu communities.

In Bangladesh, episodes of sectarian violence have also occurred, with attacks on temples, homes, and businesses. The same happens in regions of India where Muslims are the majority.

In Malaysia, Muslims are favored, and forced conversions and the destruction of Hindu temples have occurred. Likewise, there is oppression in other countries such as Indonesia.

• Buddhists: they suffer discrimination and violence in countries such as Bangladesh and Indonesia.

• Sikhs and Jains: they suffer sporadic attacks in regions of India where Muslims are the majority.

• Jews and Christians: read here…

In addition, in many countries they are subject to Islamic laws and to non-interference with Muslim morality. Even in nations with a non-Muslim majority, especially in Europe, there are fundamentalists who try to apply Sharia (Islamic law) to others, including non-Muslims.

In fact, in neighborhoods in cities in countries such as the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany, or the Netherlands, they have formed a religious police that, for example, harasses women who dress in a way they consider inappropriate or assaults gay men holding hands and Jews wearing a kippah.

LET US OVERTHROW THAT TYRANNY NOW!

Fortunately, there are more and more modernist Muslims who oppose all that oppression. They question the validity of the Hadiths, since they were written several centuries after Muhammad’s death, and interpret the verses of the Quran in the context of self-defense and specific wartime situations in Muhammad’s era. Read more…

They consider that these verses do not incite unjustified aggression against non-Muslims, but rather that the fundamental principles of Islam promote peace, justice, and legitimate self-defense against oppression and aggression. Therefore, they reject any interpretation that justifies non-defensive violence against others.

They conceive of jihad as an effort of self-improvement to become a better person, not as an aggressive struggle. They also emphasize freedom of religion and conscience based on the Quranic verse 2:256: “There is no compulsion in religion, for the right guidance is clearly distinguished from error”.

This has fostered a growing social discussion about human rights and freedom of belief that is driving changes in how these issues are addressed. For this reason, several Muslim-majority countries have evolved toward greater freedom of belief and interfaith coexistence.

Let us help this more benign and tolerant view spread within Muslim communities. How?

1.- By signing this campaign so that all Muslim religious leaders interpret the Quran in a benign way…

2.- By signing these other campaigns…

3.- By sharing these petition campaigns and this article with as many people as possible.

4.- By persuading Muslims you know of the value of a peaceful, tolerant, and liberal Islam.

LET US PREVENT HARM!: Let us share and persuade others not to cause harm

If you stand by and do nothing, you are complicit in all that repression against many innocent people. If you do something, you will help achieve a respectful and cruelty-free Islam.

LET US LIVE WITHOUT HARMING! Let us not be accomplices or complicit in injustice

Thank you for doing something for a more just and happier world,