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Public Opinion: Please sign in solidarity

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This petition has been created by Mohamed M. and may not represent the views of the Avaaz community.
Mohamed M.
started this petition to
Public Opinion
Together for Freedom of Thought and Expression
Together against Article 126 (Apostasy) in the Sudan and Similar Articles in Other Muslim Countries


The 18th of January this year marks the 30th anniversary of the execution of the Sudanese Islamic thinker and reformer Mahmud Muhammad Taha. Taha was executed by the military regime of Ja’far Nimairi (1969-1985) in the wake of the imposition of the punishments of Islamic shari’a law in September 1983. The implementation of the shari’a penal code led to gross human rights violations, notably the amputations of the limbs of scores of citizens (resulting in their disability and maiming) and the systematic subjection of hundreds of citizens to the degradation of public floggings.
The execution of Taha, who was convicted of apostasy and whose execution was orchestrated to be publicly witnessed by thousands of cheering pro-regime Islamists, was amongst the worst abuses and injustices committed by the Sudanese judiciary.
When Taha was put on trial and pronounced guilty, apostasy was not on the statute book. It was much later after the Islamists had seized power in June 1989 that they moved speedily to close the perceived legal “loophole” and introduced article 126 in their 1991 Penal Code.
Article 126 reads:
1. There shall be deemed to commit the offence of apostasy every Muslim who propagates for renunciation of the creed of Islam or publicly declares his renouncement thereof by an express statement or conclusive act.
2. Whoever commits apostasy shall be given a chance to repent, during a period to be determined by the court; where he insists upon apostasy, and not being a recent convert to Islam, he shall be punished with death.
3. The penalty provided for apostasy shall be remitted whenever the apostate recants apostasy before execution.

Undoubtedly, article 126 is a major assault on an inalienable human right which is the right to freedom of expression (not divisible from freedom of thought, conscience and religion) and a flagrant violation of article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights about the right to freedom of opinion and expression which includes “freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
What happened to Mahmud Muhammad Taha should never be allowed to happen again to any citizen in the Sudan or the rest of the Muslim world. On the 30th anniversary of his execution we must raise our voices loud and clear against article 126 in the Sudan and similar articles on apostasy in other Muslim countries. Rights to freedom of thought and expression are vital because they constitute the ultimate foundation of any democratic change in the Muslim world. Rather than being denied, they should be guaranteed and safeguarded by law.
Mohamed Mahmoud
Director, Centre for Critical Studies of Religion.
Author of Quest for Divinity: A Critical Examination of the Thought of Mahmud Muhammad Taha (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2007)
Posted (Updated )