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According to a
new, comprehensive report from the International Humanist and Ethical Union, atheists living in 13 countries risk being condemned to death, just for their beliefs or non-belief. And, all 13 countries identified by the study are Muslim majority and have halal (permitted in Islam) haram (forbidden in Islam) issues. (Read: Dogs and Islam )
With the exception of Pakistan, those countries go for capital punishment against apostasy,
i.e., the renunciation of a particular religion. Pakistan, meanwhile,
imposes the death penalty for blasphemy, which can obviously include
disbelief in God.
Atheists in the aforementioned countries are not only discriminated and have their lack of faith and free thinking attributes not respected, laws in some countries prevent atheists from marrying, attending public school, participating
as a citizen, holding public office, or just existing at all.
Researches estimate that about 13 percent of the world's population is atheist, while 23 percent identify themselves as simply "not religious."
Bangladesh, although not in the list, particularly received attention because several non-religious and atheist bloggers and
journalists in the country have faced death threats and harassment for being blasphemous.
Ahmed Rajib Haider, a Bangladeshi atheist blogger was murdered with a machete outside
of his home.
The report also took account of human rights standards of countries around the world. For example, Russia earned significant criticism because of its anti-LGBT "propaganda" laws while North Korea, an
aggressively secular state, received the report's lowest rating of
"Grave Violations."
The best-ranked countries included Jamaica, Uruguay,
Japan, Taiwan, and Belgium when it comes to tolerating atheists. But they only tolerate; they don't accept.
Afghanistan, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen are the countries that impose such penalty, at different levels, provided people there profess their atheism openly and condemn theism in an outspoken tack. (Read: The atheist's dilemma )
Below is an interactive map that gives a good, broad, overview of which nations punish apostasy and
blasphemy by death (black), with prison time (red), or place legal
restrictions on non-religious speech and thought (yellow):
A similar study released last year only identified seven countries where atheists
faced capital punishment; this report is a more, detailed and comprehensive one.
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