Monday, April 29, 2013

Alleged Witches Tortured in Papua New Guinea?

The April 6 edition of The Australian has a short article about Amnesty International's call for an investigation into allegations that six women were tortured in Papua New Guinea for being witches.  The alleged torture was said to be part of Easter "sacrifices," but has not been confirmed by police.  The article notes that weeks prior, a 20-year-old mother was burned alive by a mob who accused her of being a witch when her son died, and that in 2011 a man was reportedly discovered eating his newborn son during a sorcery ceremony.

An excellent first-hand journalistic investigation by Tim Elliott into the witchcraft phenomenon in Papua New Guinea appeared in the April 20 edition of the Sydney Morning Herald.  The article discusses the complete lack of skepticism about  the prevalence of "sangumas" (witches) in PNG, with residents of the Highlands viewing them in an extremely negative light that often leads to mob violence and torture of those suspected of being sangumas.  I strongly recommend the article as it provides valuable context and insight into this disturbing issue.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Rallies in Support of Arrested Bloggers in Bangladesh

Religion News Service (carried by the Washington Post) reports that major Western humanist, freethinking, and atheist organizations planned large public rallies for April 25 in several cities in North America and Europe to support four bloggers arrested for blasphemy in Bangladesh.  The bloggers had called for a ban on the country's largest Islamic political party, and that party responded with calls for the arrest of the bloggers as "atheists."  The men were arrested and, as of this writing, remain in custody.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Dissertation Accepted: "The Curious Persistence of Blasphemy: Canada and Beyond"

I'm pleased to note that my dissertation The Curious Persistence of Blasphemy: Canada and Beyond has been accepted by my oral defence examination committee at Osgoode Hall Law School (York University, Toronto).  The dissertation includes material from the five law review articles I have published on blasphemy.  This material has been updated and reorganized, and the dissertation includes new material synthesizing the research and offering general conclusions along with a select annotated bibliography.  The dissertation should be available on SSRN shortly.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Turkish Pianist Convicted of Blasphemy for Twitter Remarks

Today's Toronto Star has a detailed article about the recent conviction of a well-known Turkish pianist named Fazil Say for "denigrating religion."  Say tweeted jokes about a call to prayer and the nature of heaven and hell.  He was given a ten-month suspended jail sentence, which means that if he is convicted of another crime within five years, he will have to serve the suspended sentence.  Say had fought the charges, but has deleted his Twitter account and it is unknown if he will appeal.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Religion Provisions of the Constitution of Niger (2010)

One of my current research projects involves analysis of the religion provisions of various constitutions enacted since the year 2000. From time to time on this blog, I'll post extracts of those provisions arranged according to categories such as "Religious Freedom" (guarantee of individual rights), "Established Religion" (joining religion and government), "Establishment Clause" (separating religion and government), "Ceremonial Deism" (symbolic references to religion that have little or no legal effect), "Equal Protection of Religion" (non-discrimination guarantees), "Preamble", "Religious Education", and "Religious Limitations."
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The 2010 Constitution of Niger guarantees the separation of church and state (worded interestingly in Article 8) and entrenches that guarantee against constitutional amendment.  The document also contains equal protection and religious freedom guarantees, though it prohibits political parties from being constituted on a religious basis.  Minor displays of ceremonial deisms are evident in the oaths the President, Prime Minister, and members of the Constitutional Court must take.
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Niger Constitution 2010
Source:  World Constitutions Illustrated (HeinOnline)

Establishment Clause

Article 3  “The Republic of Niger is a unitary State. It is one and indivisible, democratic and social.
Its fundamental principles are: the government of the people by the people and for the people;
the separation of the State and of religion; social justice; national solidarity”

Article 8: “ No religion, no belief can arrogate the political power or interfere in the affairs of State.”

Article 175
No procedure of revision may be engaged or followed when the integrity of the territory is infringed.
The republican form of the State, the multiparty [system], the principle of the separation of State and religion and the provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 47 and of Article 185 of this Constitution may not be made the object of any revision.

Equal Protection of Religion

Article 8  “It assures to all equality before the law without distinction of sex, [or] of social, racial, ethnic or religious origin.”

Miscellaneous

Article 8:  “All particularist propaganda of a regionalist, racial or ethnic character, all manifestation of racial, social, sexist, ethnic, political or religious discrimination, are punished by the law.”

Article 9:  “The political parties with an ethnic, regionalist or religious character are prohibited. No party may be knowingly created with the purpose of promoting an ethnic group, a region or a religion, under penalty of the sanctions provided by the law.”

Religious Freedom

Article 8: “It respects and protects all beliefs.”

Article 17:  “Each one has the right to the free development of his personality in its material, intellectual, cultural, artistic and religious dimensions, provided that he does not violate the rights of others, or infringe the constitutional order, the law or morality.”

Article 30:  “The State guarantees the free exercise of worship [culte] and the expression of beliefs [croyances].”

Ceremonial Deism

Article 50:  Before entering into [his] functions, the President of the Republic takes an oath on the Holy Book [Livre Saint] of his confession before the Constitutional Court, in the presence of the members of the National Assembly, in these terms:
"Before God and before the sovereign Nigerien People, We . ., President the Republic, elected according to the laws, solemnly swear on the Holy Book [Livre Saint]:
- to respect and to have respected the Constitution that the People have freely given to themselves;
- to loyally fulfill the high functions with which we have been invested;
- to never betray or to misrepresent the aspirations of the People;
- to respect and to defend the republican form of the State;
- to preserve the integrity of the territory and the unity of the Nation;
- to respect and to defend the rights and freedoms of the citizens;
- not to take or to be guaranty [cautionner] for any measures degrading [avilissante] the human dignity;
- to see to the neutrality of the administration and to the respect for the texts that establish [consacrent] its depolitization;
- to work tirelessly for the happiness of the People;
- to spare no effort for the realization of African Unity;
- to conduct ourselves in all [things] as faithful and loyal servant of the People;
In the case of perjury, may we suffer the rigors of the law.
May God help us."
The oath is received by the Constitutional Court

Article 74
Before entering into [his] functions, the Prime Minister takes, before the National Assembly, on the Holy Book of his confession, the following oath:
"Before God and before the representatives of the sovereign Nigerien People,
We ........... Prime Minister, Head of the Government, solemnly swear on the Holy Book [Livre-Saint]:
- to respect the Constitution that the People have freely given to themselves;
- to loyally fulfill the high functions with which we have been invested;
- to respect and to defend the republican form of the State;
- to respect and to defend the rights and freedoms of the citizens;
- Not to take or to be guaranty [cautionner] for any measures degrading
[avilissante] the human dignity;
- to assure the neutrality of the administration and to the respect for the texts that
establish [consacrent] its depolitization;
- to work tirelessly for the happiness of the People;
- to conduct ourselves everywhere as faithful and loyal servant of the People;
In the case of perjury, may we suffer the rigors of the law.
May God help us."

Article 89
Before entering into [his] functions, the President of the National Assembly takes an oath on the Holy Book of his confession before the Constitutional Court, in these terms:
"Before God and before the sovereign Nigerien People, We ........... , President of the National Assembly solemnly swear on the Holy Book
- to respect and to have respected the Constitution that the People have freely
given to themselves;
- to loyally fulfill the high functions with which we have been invested;
- never to betray or misrepresent [travestir] the aspirations of the People
- to respect and to defend the republican form of the State;
- to respect and to defend the rights and freedoms of the citizens;
- not to take or to be guaranty [cautionner] for any measures degrading
[avilissante] the human dignity;
- to respect and to have respected the principles of the separation of the powers;
- to respect and to have respected the Internal Regulations of the National
Assembly;
- to work tirelessly for the happiness of the People;
- to conduct ourselves everywhere as faithful and loyal servant of the People;
In the case of perjury, may we suffer the rigors of the law.
May God help us."

Article 124
Before entering into [their] functions, the members of the Constitutional Court take an oath on the Holy Book [Livre Saint] of their confession before the President of the Republic in these terms:
"I swear to well and faithfully complete my functions, to exercise them with total impartially within the respect for the Constitution and with total independence, to keep the secrecy of the deliberations and the votes, not to take any public position and not to give any consultation on the questions relevant to the competence of the Court. May God help us.”

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Religion Provisions of the Constitution of Nepal

One of my current research projects involves analysis of the religion provisions of various constitutions enacted since the year 2000. From time to time on this blog, I'll post extracts of those provisions arranged according to categories such as "Religious Freedom" (guarantee of individual rights), "Established Religion" (joining religion and government), "Establishment Clause" (separating religion and government), "Ceremonial Deism" (symbolic references to religion that have little or no legal effect), "Equal Protection of Religion" (non-discrimination guarantees), "Preamble", "Religious Education", and "Religious Limitations."
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The Constitution of Nepal contains what I call a "weak" establishment clause in that it describes the country as secular.  It contains a standard equal protection clause.

The religious freedom guarantee is watered down by several caveats:

(1) That the right applies only to "his or her own religion as handed down to him or her from ancient times".  This presumably means that recent converts and new faiths in the country will not be protected;

(2)  There is no right to convert someone to another faith;

(3) The right doesn't apply to actions "which may infringe upon the religion of others."  Such a vague term likely empties the religious freedom guarantee of meaning.

Note: the provisions of the Nepal Constitution below are current only as of 2008.

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Establishment Clause (weak)

4(1) Nepal is an independent, indivisible, sovereign, secular, inclusive *Federal Democratic Republican State.”

Equal Protection of Religion

13(2)  There shall be no discrimination against any citizen in the application of general laws on grounds of religion, race, gender, caste, tribe, origin, language or ideological conviction or any of these.

Religious Freedom

23  (1) Every person shall have the right to profess, practise and preserve his or her own religion as handed down to him or her from ancient times paying due regard to social and cultural traditions.
Provided that no person shall be entitled to convert another person from one religion to another, and no person shall act or behave in a manner which may infringe upon the religion of others.
     (2) Every religious denomination shall have the right to maintain its independent existence, and for this purpose to manage and protect its religious places and religious trusts, in accordance with law.

Ceremonial Deisms

Schedule 1-A  The oath of office and secrecy to be taken by the President and the Vice-president
I(President’s/Vice president’s full name)…………………….., being fully committed to the
people and country solemnly promise/swear before God and hereby take the oath of offices of
the (President/Vice President.

Pakistani Christian Charged with Blasphemy, Christian Homes Burned

This news is a few weeks old, but I thought it worth including in the archives.  On March 10th, Religion Clause Blog reported that after a Christian was charged with blasphemy in Pakistan, more than 100 homes of other Christians were burned by demonstrators.  The defendant, Sawan Masih, denies the charges and says they originate from an argument he got into with two men while drinking.  Pakistan's President has ordered compensation to the homeowners affected and has stated he will consult on how to implement the blasphemy law fairly.