Recently, Mubarak Bala (above), the President of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, was arrested for “blasphemy” after he allegedly posted criticism of Islam on his Facebook page.
In the following days, there was an anti-atheist backlash within Nigeria, and some groups are compiling a list of Nigerian atheists to be arrested and arraigned alongside Mubarak Bala. A new Facebook group called Anti-Atheism was also set up and the admins of the group use a very subtle strategy of inviting users to reply to existential questions like “does God exist?” in order to identify and single out atheists in the country.
Humanists International has released a statement to warn members of the Nigerian humanist community to pay extra attention in regards to their interactions online, especially when it comes to criticism of Islam and other dominant religions in the country, as they may be at increased risk of harassment and intimidation by anti-humanist groups.
In addition, Giovanni Gaetani, Membership Engagement Manager at Humanists International, sends a message also to the wider global humanist community, which the Humanist Society (Singapore) has republished here.
“We also warn members of the global humanist community to carefully evaluate any suspicious message or request of friendship coming from Nigerian self-defined humanists or atheists. Accepting a request of friendship from one of these fake ‘atheist’ accounts could mean exposing the list of your own friends to malignant groups who can use this information to target and persecute humanists in the country.
“We have already identified some attempts of infiltration in our network and we have warned some fellow humanists involved. This is a common backlash strategy, employed by other religious groups throughout the globe. We urge humanists from all around the world to stay alert and to cooperate in this endeavour. It is just one of the ways in which we can support our humanist friends in Nigeria in such a delicate moment for them.”
In view of the above, the Humanist Society urges our community to be vigilant. The internet is a borderless place and although people can live thousands of miles apart, harm is just one click away. In the meantime, we commend the work of Humanists International in bringing these cases to light, and we sincerely hope that no harm will come to our fellow humanist Mubarak Bala.
