Arrest warrants have been issued for four Iraqis on atheism charges, according to Dhi Qar province’s Garraf district judiciary. The announcement garnered quite a reaction on media and social networks, as some say these hunts infringe on the rights of the Iraqi people, whose constitution guarantees them freedom of belief and expression. Other observers say the campaign has political aspects.
Dhidan al-Ekili, the chief Garraf judge, told local Iraqi newspapers March 11 that security forces had been able to arrest one of the four indicted, as the search for the remaining three continued. Ekili said they are being pursued for “holding seminars during social gatherings to promote the idea of the nonexistence of God and to spread and popularize atheism.”
According to Ekili, the local court administration has tasked intelligence agencies with cracking down on the “atheism phenomenon.” Ekili said the crackdown is in accordance with the Iraqi Penal Code.
But political and legal analyst Ali Jaber al-Tamimi told Al-Monitor, “There aren’t any articles in the Iraqi Penal Code that provide for a direct punishment for atheism, nor are there any special laws on punishments against atheists.” However, “there are articles that punish the desecration of religions.”
The Iraqi Constitution allows “freedom of belief and intellectual views.”
Critics on social media were quick to lambaste authorities in Garraf, but atheists themselves weren’t safe from ridicule by well-known Facebook figures. Stand-up comedian Ahmad Wahid, for one, slammed people who publicly brand themselves as atheists without having a profound understanding of atheism.
Read the full story at Al-Monitor
