Mubarak Bala (born 1984) is a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was derived from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jo ...

atheist and president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria. Bala has faced persecution and arrest for leaving Islam and publicly expressing atheist views. On 5 April 2022, the Kano State High Court sentenced Bala to 24 years imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to an eighteen-count charge of

blasphemy Blasphemy refers to an insult that shows contempt, disrespect or lack of Reverence (emotion), reverence concerning a deity, an object considered sacred, or something considered Sanctity of life, inviolable. Some religions, especially Abrahamic o ...

and public incitement.

Early life and loss of faith

Bala was born in Kano, northern Nigeria, in 1984. In a 2016 article on his "personal journey", he stated that he lost his faith "little by little" as he grew and met people outside of his conservative and religious hometown. His criticism became more vocal as terror attacks increased in Nigeria.

What finally made me come out as atheist was a video of a beheading of a female Christian back in 2013 by boys around my age, speaking my language. It hit me that the time for silence is over. Either someone speaks out or we all sink.”

When he came out as an atheist, in 2014, he was forcibly committed to a psychiatric institution in Kano, reportedly at the insistence of his "deeply religious family". He was held there for eighteen days, and (according to Bala) "beaten, sedated and threatened with death if etried to leave". One doctor believed there was nothing wrong with Bala, but a second doctor suggested a personality disorder and, according to Bala, told him:

My dear, you need a God, even in Japan, they have a God, no one should live without God, those that do, are all psychologically ill, denying the biblical account of
Adam and Eve Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...
is delusion, denial of history.

The International Humanist and Ethical Union has taken up the case and feels Bala's

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

were violated. According to the IHEU, "The real reason for this outrageous and inhumane action is because Mubarak has renounced Islam and has openly declared himself to be an atheist." On 4 July 2014, the BBC reported that Bala had been released from hospital in conjunction with a doctors' strike and was seeking reconciliation with his family. It was not clear if he would remain in Nigeria, due to death threats.

Arrest and conviction

Bala decided to stay in Nigeria and was named president of the Nigerian Humanists. In April 2020, he was arrested in Kaduna for blasphemy, due to a

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

post he made, and was subsequently held without charge. Fears mounted for his safety due to the fact that the Nigerian police allegedly transferred him from the state of Kaduna to Kano, where

Sharia Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...

law is practiced, and in the face of several credible death threats. According to his lawyer, while in prison, Bala was "denied access to healthcare, kept in solitary confinement, and forced to worship the Islamic way". Human rights activist

Leo Igwe Leo Igwe (born 26 July 1970) is a Nigerian human rights advocate and secular humanist. A campaigner both in Nigeria and internationally as part of Humanists International, he specializes in documenting the impacts of child witchcraft accusation ...

worked to support Bala's rights, in conjunction with several atheist and humanist organisations, including Humanism International and Atheist Alliance International. Also, the newly formed International Association of Atheists (IAA) joined forces to raise awareness and funds to help pay Bala's legal costs. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) also took an interest in Bala and started applying pressure on the Nigerian government.

Jamie Raskin Jamin Ben Raskin (born December 13, 1962) is an American attorney, law professor, and politician serving as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for Maryland's 8th congressional district since 2017. A member of the Demo ...

has advocated for his release as part of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission's Defending Freedoms project, and a petition was filed at the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on his behalf. On 5 April 2022, Mubarak was sentenced to 24 years in prison at a (secular) high court in the northern state of Kano, after pleading guilty to all 24 charges and asking for leniency. Following his guilty plea, the Humanist Association stated that the plea had not been "part of the agreed legal strategy" and that Bala may have been subject to intimidation by the prosecution, and/or "tricked into pleading guilty in the hopes of a light sentence". The chair of the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance, a network of countries promoting freedom of religion or belief worldwide, has called for Bala to be pardoned.

Personal background

Bala's family is "descended from generations of Islamic scholars". He is a chemical process engineer by education and has a wife and a young son, who was born six weeks before Bala's arrest.

Recognition

Bala was honoured with the Gordon Ross Humanist of the Year award in 2021 by

Humanist Society Scotland Humanist Society Scotland is a Scottish registered charity that promotes humanist views and offers humanist wedding, funeral, and baby-naming ceremonies. It is a member of the European Humanist Federation and Humanists International. In t ...

. The Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian author

Wole Soyinka Wole Soyinka , (born 13 July 1934) is a Nigerian author, best known as a playwright and poet. He has written three novels, ten collections of short stories, seven poetry collections, twenty five plays and five memoirs. He also wrote two transla ...

has expressed concern that Bala's arrest was part of a "plague of religious extremism" that has afflicted Nigeria in recent decades.

Bibliography

* ''Handbook of Research on Promoting Global Citizenship Education''. United States, IGI Global, 2022.Page 260 * ''The Routledge Handbook of Religious Literacy, Pluralism, and Global Engagement''. United Kingdom, Taylor & Francis, 2021. * Falola, Toyin. ''Understanding Modern Nigeria: Ethnicity, Democracy, and Development''. United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, 2021. Page 215 * Brinkmann, Svend. ''Diagnostic Cultures: A Cultural Approach to the Pathologization of Modern Life''. United Kingdom, Taylor & Francis, 2016. Page 13 & 111 * Abdullahi, Aminu A. "A Season of Monotheism: Muslim Response to Humanist Cyberactivism in Northern Nigeria". SocArXiv, 20 February 2020. * Ibezim-Ohaeri, V. and Ibeh, Z. (2020) "The Civic Space in Nigeria: Before and Beyond Covid-19". ''Baseline Report, Lagos: Spaces for Change''

References