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6 Outrageous Incidents of Discrimination Against Nonbelievers


"Oh, you atheists are always whining about how put-upon you are. You don't experience real discrimination: not like African Americans, or gays, or women, or immigrants. So knock it off with the pity party."

You may have heard this refrain. You may have even sung it yourself. So let's look at this question for a moment: Are atheists subjected to real discrimination?

It's certainly true that, in the United States, while atheists do experience real discrimination, it's typically not as severe as, say, racism or misogyny. Or rather, since I don't think comparing discriminations is usually all that useful: Anti-atheist discrimination takes different forms. It's not like the systematic economic apartheid African Americans experience, or the systematic enforcement of rigid gender roles women experience. It takes other forms: such as social ostracism; bullying in schools; public schools denying atheist students the right to form clubs; religious proselytizing promoted by the government; widespread perceptions of atheists as untrustworthy; businesses denying equal access to atheists and atheist organizations; government promotion of religion in social service programs; government promotion of religion in the military. And it's true that atheists have significant legal protection in the United States: people sometimes break those laws, and those laws aren't always enforced, but we do have these laws, and they do help.

But the United States isn't the whole world.



There are two big take-home messages from this report. One: This is a world-wide issue. Examples of anti-atheist discrimination have been reported in 60 countries, from Algeria to Zambia; including the Bahamas, Brazil, Bahrain, and Belize; Italy, India, Israel, Iceland; the United Kingdom and the United States. It's been reported in brutal theocracies notorious for their human rights violations, like Pakistan and Iran -- and it's been reported in supposed secular paradises, like Sweden and France. It's worse in some countries than others, obviously... but this is a global problem.

Two: In some countries, this anti-atheist discrimination is severe. It doesn't take the form of government proselytizing or being denied the right to organize clubs. It takes the form of being arrested. It takes the form of being imprisoned, for years. It takes the form of being targeted by a mob screaming for your blood... and when the police who should be there to protect you show up, instead they throw you in jail. Where another mob forms up, screaming for your blood.

Don't believe me? Here are six outrageous examples of discrimination against non-believers.

1: Alber Saber, Egypt. Alber Saber, the 27-year-old atheist activist, blogger, and reported administrator of the Egyptian Atheists Facebook page, was arrested after a mob swarmed outside his home demanding his arrest for insulting religion. Saber was then attacked in prison, after a guard told the other prisoners what he had been charged with. On December 12 of this year, he was convicted of blasphemy, and sentenced to three years in prison. I would just like to point out: This is 2012. It is not 1633 during Galileo's conviction for heresy; it is not 1692 during the Salem witch trials. It is 2012. And people in the world today, in 2012, are being arrested, charged, convicted, and imprisoned -- for blasphemy. They are being arrested, charged, convicted, and imprisoned -- not to mention attacked by mobs and assaulted in prison -- for the crime of not believing in God, and for saying so out loud. (Pending appeal, Alber Saber has  just been released on bail -- a week after the bail money was paid.)

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