29 Year Old Man Arrested, Locked Up In Kano For Saying He Does NOT Believe in God (PICTURED)
A Nigerian man has been incarcerated in a mental health institution by his
family after saying he had lost his belief in God.
Mubarak Bala, 29, is said to have been forcibly medicated for "insanity"
for nearly two weeks, despite a doctor's opinion that he has no
psychological problems.
Campaigners are calling for his release and say the case highlights the
fact that atheists are a persecuted minority in many African
countries.
Bala's
Twitter account
uses the handle "ExMuslim", and his profile says: "Chemical Process
Engineer. I stand for Truth&Justice. Religion insults human conscience
&reason, duped me that I hav another lifetime. AgnosticAtheist."
He lives in Kano in Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north. The state adopted
sharia law in 2000 and has a strict Islamic police force called the
Hisbah.
When Bala told his family that he had renounced Islam, they took him to a
doctor and asked if he was mentally ill, according to the International
Humanist and Ethical Union, which has taken up the case. The doctor gave him
a clean bill of health, but the family turned to a second doctor, who said
his atheism was a side-effect of a personality change.
The family allegedly told the doctor that he had also made delusional
claims that he was a "governor" and other "trivial lies". Bala was
subsequently admitted to the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital on 13 June and has
since been held there against his will.
He has pleaded to the outside world for help in emails and tweets from
several phones smuggled into the institution. In one email, he said: "And
the biggest evidence of my mental illness was large blasphemies and denial
of 'history' of Adam, and apostasy, to which the doctor said was a
personality change, that everyone needs a God, that even in Japan they have
a God.
"And my brother added that all the atheists I see have had mental illness
at some point in their life."
In a tweet sent on 21 June, he wrote: "My neck still hurts, from the
strangle-hold of my father, and the beat of uncles dislocated my finger and
arm, I then got sedated by me bro."
Another tweet, thought to refer to Bala's father, stated: "Being a leader,
in the forefront of Islami movement in Nigeria, he can't afford to have a
nonmuslim family member, so he declared me insane."
But Bala's father tells a different story, according to lawyer Muhammad
Bello Shehu. "From what I gather from the family, Mubarak started expressing
these beliefs six or seven months ago. The father was aware that he had
stopping praying and going to mosques for a year now.
"But when he started tweeting about it and going public, that might have
endangered his life and his family. So according to the father, the major
reason he took him to the hospital was for his own safety. The way people
take religion here means he could have been lynched for making such
announcements."
There is a need for clarity about Bala's mental state, Shehu added. "The
doctors are of the opinion that he does have a psychological problem. He
says not. The issue now is for us to get an independent psychiatric analyst
to assess his status."
It is understood that Bala's latest phone has since been confiscated but he has been moved back into the public ward from a private room.
His detention was condemned by the Nigerian Humanist Movement. Bamidele
Adeneye, a member, and the secretary of the Lagos Humanists, said: "I met
Mubarak online a while ago and he seemed very lucid, intelligent and witty
as well as bold and courageous. What amazed me was that he's a Muslim
atheist, which is very rare in Nigeria."
Adeneye recalled that suddenly Mubarak told him his brother was trying to
put him into a mental institution because he did not believe in God. "Then
he said his family had sent him for treatment for insanity. I saw online
that his father had written how TV encourages atheism, so be careful."
Bala had been due to go to South Bank University in London in the UK, Adeneye added.
Bala had been due to go to South Bank University in London in the UK, Adeneye added.
"If you speak to Mubarak you'll know there is nothing wrong with him," he
said. "Basically he told them he didn't believe in the Adam and Eve story or
in Allah. The constitution clearly states that you have a right to be
religious or non-religious. It is a violation of human rights.
"There are Islamic police in Kano. I fear for his life. Somebody might go
to the hospital to attack him. We are trying to get him out. I'm scared
because if it can happen to him it can happen to me."
The Lagos Humanists have no more than 10 active members in a [I've emailed David Smith to ask whether that's for the NHM or the Lagos organisation (he seems to have conflated the two). If the latter, would it be more appropriate to give the figure for the population of Lagos? It's estimated to be 21 million]city of 21 million people. Adeneye said: "Atheists are a minority that are frowned upon. I grew up in a Christian house, going to church. I would ask my father, 'Why are we going?' He encouraged me to keep asking questions.
The Lagos Humanists have no more than 10 active members in a [I've emailed David Smith to ask whether that's for the NHM or the Lagos organisation (he seems to have conflated the two). If the latter, would it be more appropriate to give the figure for the population of Lagos? It's estimated to be 21 million]city of 21 million people. Adeneye said: "Atheists are a minority that are frowned upon. I grew up in a Christian house, going to church. I would ask my father, 'Why are we going?' He encouraged me to keep asking questions.
"Many Nigerians think atheists are horrible. I've had lots of death threats
and messages like 'You don't deserve to be alive.' But atheism is growing in
countries such as Kenya, Uganda and Ghana. Thanks to programmes such as
Cosmos, children are understanding evolution and questioning their parents,
asking, 'Could we really all have come from two people?'"
The IHEU has expressed concern over Bala's "deteriorating condition" after
reports that he is weak and his hands are shaking. Spokesman Bob Churchill
said: "It appears that a warped notion of family honour is the motivation
for pressuring Mubarak in this appalling manner, to conform to religious
views that he simply doesn't hold. This is an abhorrent violation of his
freedom of thought and belief.
"We are joining humanists and human rights advocates in Nigeria and the activists who have worked to highlight this case, in calling for an immediate re-evaluation of Mubarak's case by a doctor who is entirely independent of the family, and for his swift release."
"We are joining humanists and human rights advocates in Nigeria and the activists who have worked to highlight this case, in calling for an immediate re-evaluation of Mubarak's case by a doctor who is entirely independent of the family, and for his swift release."
Christianity and Islam continue to dominate Africa, with non-belief
virtually taboo in large swaths of the continent. But, like gay rights
activists, atheists are gradually finding their voice, and Churchill
believes the tide is turning.
"I think very often in sub-Saharan Africa the social pressures mean that the idea of atheism is unlikely to be discussed. But we're slowly seeing a shift and you can't put the genie back in the bottle. The thoughts are there and some proportion of the population is prepared to say yes, I believe in them. There is starting to be a very serious pushback."
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