The UN had called for the release of Muhammad Mubarak Bala upon his detention in 2020.
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In Nigeria, atheism leads to prison. Muhammad Mubarak Bala, president of the Humanists Association of Nigeria was sentenced to 24 years in prison by a Kano state court for blaspheming against Islam. In Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, the north is predominantly Muslim and the south predominantly Christian.
Muhammad Mubarak Bala, 37, pleaded guilty to 18 counts and asked for leniency from the judges. Bala had been arrested from his home in Kaduna on April 28, 2020 and taken to Kano, where blasphemy charges were filed against him.
He previously posted comments on Facebook expressing his atheism, seen by some clerics as “criticism of islam”. One of his posts states: “Religion is not a person, the long dead are dead, the gods do not exist, so why fear analysis and criticism of works attributed to them?” Muhammad Mubarak Bala renounced his Islamic faith in 2014. He was then reportedly taken to a psychiatric hospital (for insanity) before being released. He was arrested in 2020 in neighboring Kaduna state and transferred to Kano, his home state..
Bala could have been sentenced to death had he been tried by an Islamic court. In northern Nigeria, as in other Muslim countries, apostasy (renouncing religion) is considered a crime punishable by death. Kano State, where the population is predominantly Muslim, is one of the northern states in the country where Islamic (customary) law is practiced alongside secular laws.
The UN condemned Mubarak Bala’s detention and called for his release in April 2020.