A Nigerian Humanist Presidential Apprehension: Mubarak Bala
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Secular World
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2021/06
Humanists come under a variety of labels and identifications, with some of them as atheists, others as agnostics, as freethinkers, and the like. It is one of those philosophical sets of principles associated loosely with a wide gamut of formalized or semi-formalized alternatives to traditional religions.
To be free to adhere to these belief sets is one thing; to be jailed or even killed for them is another. Mubarak Bala is one of the most famous freethought leaders to be jailed.
His formal title and association is the President of the Humanist Association of Nigeria. With his stature in the most populous nation in Africa, particularly Muslim-majority northern Nigeria, many saw him, as a humanist, as a threat.
He and I were to conduct an interview on April 27, 2020. We had been in communication, had completed several interviews before, and were to continue in this trend as a regular procedure. We were colleagues. I admired the work of the humanist and secular communities in Nigeria.
African states tend to be particularly stringent socially on non-believers, especially non-Christians and non-Muslims, with a special threat status to ex-Muslims.
I sent both question sets for the interviews with him. Then the communication channels went dead, which was surprising. As it turns out, two non-uniformed officers detained Mubarak on April 28, 2020. It was a despicable and unprofessional act on the part of the authorities, once again, to make an example of a freethinking leader.
Back in 2014, Bala became far more well-known within the international freethinker communities based on detainment in a psychiatric unit. Why? His family members made this happen because he said, “I am an atheist.” He did not believe in God.
To family, this was a punishable offense, so as to send him for psychiatric “treatment.” Which is to state, he was drugged by force and then committed to a psychiatric unit for “treatment” by family.
This is representative of the extent and horror of transcendentalist ethical thinking in which individuals, even family, considering themselves working for a God, instantaneously and simultaneously violate the individual rights of another family member.
Bala became suspect in the eyes of the family in 2014. He was released later in 2014. Then he came under arrest while residing in Kaduna State, which is approximately a whopping 130 miles south of Kano State.
To the recent “charge,” it is claimed that he offended the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. If Prophet Muhammad is dead, and if he is offended or insulted, then this means the individuals claiming the offense of Prophet Muhammad are claiming a) the dead have minds, b) they know the mind of a particular dead person, and c) they are working to get vengeance on behalf of a dead person.
When does all this stuff simply dissolve into a collective set of nonsense people invented, died, next generations believed, put their spin on it, and some put a spin on it so as to garner particular social and legal privileges and immunities for themselves in those subsequent generations?
The reality: Living individuals were offended by a social media post, not a dead proposed prophet. Yet, personal offense, especially of grown men and women, is too thin, comical, and idiotic. Thus, they need transcendent justification, religion, to justify their transcendentally fragile senses of self to a broadly religious public.
The claimed offending post was a single Facebook post, which supposedly read, “Fact is, you have no life after this one. You have been dead before, long before you were born, billions of years of death.”
A group of lawyers put a petition to the Kano State Police Commissioner in order to prosecute Bala. Someone known as a public defender and advocate of atheist rights and freedoms having his rights and freedoms violated.
In particular, it was claimed as “provocative and annoying to Muslims.” A Change.org petition went up. Yet, it was later taken down by Change.org. Here is the deal: There has been no formal charge. It is entirely illegitimate, unfair, and unjust.
Some think he may be charged with blasphemy via Section 210 of the Penal Code of Kano State. If a blasphemy charge, he can face a death sentence in the Shari’a court of Kano State. If a Cybercrimes Act violation, he can face a fine and up to five years in jail. The original detaining was in Kaduna and then a transfer 130 miles, insanely, to Kano State.
His whereabouts are unknown, allegedly for his own safety, because many members of the Kano community have claimed that they will burn down the police station for the online comments, i.e., a single Facebook post.
Others have threatened to attack the courthouse. These are legitimate threats of violence against an individual person; whereas, the other claims, against Bala, coming with being stripped from his home and detained and dragged to a more dangerous area for an ex-Muslim (Kano State from Kaduna State), come from real, live people against a living person on behalf of a non-threat of life in description of a long-dead person allegedly insulted.
Religion inverts reality and creates havoc and harm to individuals honest enough to speak about its negative sides, which are plentiful as a fruity cocktail cornucopia. He has been or was denied access to his lawyer, his wife, and newborn child for a long time.
Bala is another international secular leader defiled and abused on behalf of the religious by the state.
By definition, universal human rights apply across the board, or at least they should entail universalized access and application in a perfect world.
Therefore, for a rectification of this human rights travesty, Bala should be released, given a formal apology, and the real criminals making thin accusations about a single Facebook post and real threats of violence to a living person in public, on social media, should be considered for similar or worse treatment if the ledger of justice is to be considered just.
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