Description of Incident: In 2000, “The Departure”, which reportedly had been approved by the Kuwait government censors in 1984, came back under fire. An Islamist group brought a lawsuit against Laila al-Othman for using defamatory expressions and indecent language in her book.

Results of Incident: In 2000, Laila al-Othman was convicted of using indecent language and defamatory expressions in “The Departure”. She, along with the professor Alia Shuaib - who was found guilty of publishing opinions that ridicule religion -, were both sentenced to one moth in prison for moral and religious offenses.

Description of Incident: The Islamic Research Center at Al-zhar University has legal authority to censor, but not to confiscate, all publications dealing with the Koran and Islamic scriptural texts. In recent years the Center has passed judgment on the suitability of nonreligious books and artistic productions. In 1997, Al-Azhar University compiled a list of 196 books to be banned on various moral and religious grounds.

Results of Incident: Al-Azhar University censored and banned 196 books due to their moral or religious content

Description of Incident: According to Mufti Shabbir Siddiqi of Darool Ulum Shahe Alam, a religious school of Ahamdabad, Alvi’s line of poetry, written 17 years earlier, was "an attack on the Faith and derogatory to the Prophet". On April 4, 1995, 17 years after Alvi wrote the controversial poem, Mufti Shabbir Siddiqi issued a fatwa of excommunication against Alvi.

Results of Incident: Alvi was declared a kafir and was excommunicated. Fearing excommunication from the faith, Alvi tendered an apology.

Description of Incident: Saiidi Sirjani was arrested on March 14th, 1994 and charged with openly criticizing the government, among other things. A spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Security and Intelligence stated that the arrest was for "drug use, fabrication of alcohol, homosexual activity, contacts with spy networks, and having received money from Western ‘counterrevolutionaries’". There is some evidence that he was killed by Saeed Emami's "Unlished" group in the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Security and Intelligence of Iran. It is believed that Sirjani was murdered in prison for publishing his works outside the country after they are banned in Iran.

Results of Incident: In 1994 imprisoned author and historian Saiidi Sirjani mysteriously died. Suspected to be an assassination, officially, Sirjani died from a heart attack while in a "safe house". The same diagnosis was made for Ahmad Mir Ala’i, a distinguished translator, whose body was found in the streets of Esfahan in 1995.

Description of Incident: “Children of Gebelawi” (1959), one of Mahfouz's best known works, has been banned in Egypt for alleged blasphemy over its allegorical portrayal of God and the monotheistic Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In 1989, after the fatwa for apostasy against Salman Rushdie, Egyptian theologian Omar Abdul-Rahman told a journalist that if Mahfouz had been punished for writing his novel, Rushdie would not have dared publish the Satanic Verses. Sheikh Omar has always maintained that this was not a fatwa, but in 1994 Islamic extremists, believing that it was, attempted to assassinate the 82-year-old novelist by stabbing him in the neck outside his Cairo home. He survived, permanently affected by damage to nerves in his right hand. Subsequently, he lived under constant bodyguard protection. Finally, in the beginning of 2006, the novel was published in Egypt with a preface written by Ahmad Kamal Abu Almajd.

Results of Incident: Mahfuz survived the assassination attempt but was permanently affected by damage to nerves in his right hand. Subsequently, he lived under constant bodyguard protection. In July 2006, Mahfouz sustained an injury to his head as a result of a fall. He remained ill until his death on August 30, 2006 in a Cairo hospital. Mahfouz was accorded a state funeral with full military honors on August 31, 2006 in Cairo. His funeral took place in the Al Rashdan Mosque in Nasr City on the outskirts of Cairo.

Description of Incident: Taslima Nasreen’s strong language and uncompromising attitude against male domination stirred many people, eliciting both love and hatred from her readers. She is detested by Islamic fundamentalists who launched a campaign against her in 1990, staging street demonstrations and processions. They broke into newspaper offices that she used to regularly write from, sued her editors and publishers, and put her life in danger, a danger that only increased over time. She was publicly assaulted several times by fundamentalist mobs. No longer was she welcomed to any public places, not even to book fairs that she loved to visit. In 1993, a fundamentalist organization called Soldiers of Islam issued a fatwa against her, a price was set on her head because of her criticism of Islam, and she was confined to her house. The government confiscated her passport and asked her to quit writing if she hoped to keep her job as a medical doctor in Dhaka Medical College Hospital. She was thus forced to quit her job and go into hiding.

Results of Incident: Due to all the serious threats to her life, Taslima Nasreen was forced to go into hiding. But the international organization of writers, and many humanist organizations beyond the borders of Bangladesh, came to her support. News of her plight became known throughout the world. Some western democratic governments that endorse human rights and freedom of expression tried saving her life. After long miserable days in hiding, she was finally granted bail but was also forced to leave her country. Taslima has since been living in exile in Europe. She has written twenty eight books of poetry, essays, novels, and short stories in her native language of Bengali. Many have been translated into twenty different languages. Her applications to the Bangladesh government to be allowed to return have been denied repeatedly. One Bangladesh court sentenced her in absentia to a one-year prison term. The Bangladesh government has recently banned three other of her books, Amar Meyebela ( My girlhood), Utol Hawa (Wild wind) and Sei sob ondhokar (Those dark days).

Description of Incident: On April 11, 1992, Manouchehr Karimzadeh was arrested for his illustration in an article criticizing the state of sport in Iran. Karimzadeh was accused of blasphemy and insulting the memory of the political leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini.

Results of Incident: Karimzadeh’s first trial was conducted in secret before the Islamic Revolutionary Courts. (Revolutionary Courts are used when the authorities deem the likely punishment levied by general courts to be insufficient.). Karimzadeh and the editor of the newspaper that published the cartoon were first sentenced to one year in prison, fifty lashes and a fine. In 1993, the Supreme Court ratified the lower court's guilty finding, and sent the case back to the lower court for retrial. After the second hearing, Yazdi announced, in October, that Karimzadeh's prison sentence had been increased to 10 years.

Description of Incident: He was working on an Arabic version of Tartuffe when he was assassinated by two members of FIDA (Islamic Front for Armed Jihad) during Ramadan on March 10, 1994, as he left his house in Oran.

Results of Incident: After his assassination, his widow, Radja Alloula, and friends set up the Abdelkader Alloula Foundation in his memory. His brother, Malek Alloula, is also a noted Algerian writer.

Description of Incident: Youssef Sebti was killed because he would not censor his writing despite the threats made by Islamic extremists.

Results of Incident: Youssef Sebti was killed by Islamic extremists for his political and social views. Sebti was one of many intellectuals, journalists and Algerian academics assassinated in attacks by the Algerian Islamic activists in 1993. Sadly, 1993 was a very bloody year for writers, journalists, academics, and artists in Algeria. The victims, most of them murdered by Islamist activists, include Ruptures magazine writer and editor Taher Djaout; sociologist Djilali Liabhs; Beaux-Arts [College] head Ahmed Asselah; sociologist M’hamed Boukhobza; Bab-Ezzouar University head Salah Djebaoli; poet and writer Youssef Sebti; playwright and stage director Abdelkader Alloula; psychiatrist Mahfoudh Boucebci, national education superintendent Salah Chouaki; playwright Izzedine Medjoubi; pediatrician Dilalli Belkhanchir; economist Abderahmane Faredeheb; and journalists Ferhat Cherkit, Youssef Fathallah, Lamine Lagoui, Ziane Farrah, Abdelhamid Benmenni, Rabah Zenati, Saad Bakhtaoui, and Abderrahmane Chergou…, and the list is far from complete…

Description of Incident: Faher Djaout was assassinated by the rebel Armed Islamic Group because of his support of secularism and opposition to what he considered fanaticism.

Results of Incident: Djaout was assassinated due to his beliefs that went against Islamic fundamentalists. After Djaout’s death the BBC made a documentary about him entitled 'Shooting the Writer' which was introduced by Salman Rushdie. It is also important to note that 1993 was a very bloody year for writers, journalists, academics, and artists in Algeria. The victims, most of them murdered by Islamist activists, include Ruptures magazine writer and editor Taher Djaout; sociologist Djilali Liabhs; Beaux-Arts [College] head Ahmed Asselah; sociologist M’hamed Boukhobza; Bab-Ezzouar University head Salah Djebaoli; poet and writer Youssef Sebti; playwright and stage director Abdelkader Alloula; psychiatrist Mahfoudh Boucebci, national education superintendent Salah Chouaki; playwright Izzedine Medjoubi; pediatrician Dilalli Belkhanchir; economist Abderahmane Faredeheb; and journalists Ferhat Cherkit, Youssef Fathallah, Lamine Lagoui, Ziane Farrah, Abdelhamid Benmenni, Rabah Zenati, Saad Bakhtaoui, and Abderrahmane Chergou…, and the list is far from complete…

Description of Incident: On September 3, 1991, the poet Sadiq Melallah was beheaded in the main square of the city of Qatif in Saudi Arabia on the orders of the state authorities. He was decapitated with the sabre by the state authorities of this country, for crimes of blasphemy and abjuration and for denying the faith.

Results of Incident: The horrific assassination of Sadiq Melallah has not been forgotten by the Middle East’s intellectual community. In 1993, two years after the killing of Melallah, the book “For Rushdie: Essays by Arab and Muslim Writers in Defense of Free Speech” was published. The collection of essays was created by over 91 Arab and Muslim intellectuals from a dozen countries, in order to draw attention to the threats and assassinations by Islamic extremists against numerous writers, such as Melallah. Many of the essays in the collection are intended to inform Western audiences about the numerous unsung martyrs to creative expression in the Middle East, from the Egyptian intellectual Farag Foda to the Saudi Arabian poet Sadiq Melallah. And, all of the 91 authors recognize the importance of free and open discourse and bemoan the wave of Islamic fundamentalists who have turned their backs on human rights altogether.

Description of Incident: On June 8, 1992, Foda was assassinated by religious extremists for advocating beefing up laws against religious terrorism and for his views in favor of normalizing relations with Israel.

Results of Incident: Foda, along with his son Ahmad and a friend of his son's were shot dead. The Islamist fundamentalist group Al-Gamma’ah Al-Islamiya took responsibility for the murders.

Description of Incident: In spring 2005, Laurie Taylor, who has three children in the Arkansas public school system, asked the Fayetteville school district to remove Harris and Daldry's nonfiction sex education books from the school library. A committee made up of Fayetteville school district administrators, teachers and parents reviewed the books and deemed them appropriate for the school library. However, Taylor appealed the decision to the school board, which overturned the recommendation of the review committee and pulled the books from the library shelves.

Results of Incident: After the decision by the school board to remove the Harris and Daldry’s sex education books, parents must now check out the books for their children from a special restricted section in the library. Thrilled by the decision, Laurie Taylor now has more than 70 additional books she hopes will be banned from the library as well. He list includes sex education books, young adult novels and classics.

Description of Incident: After launching the small, alternative art magazine 3rdfloor, Rubright submitted an application to the IRS for nonprofit status. Nonprofit status would allow Rubright's small magazine to qualify for grants, solicit tax-deductible contributions and receive reduced postal rates. However, the IRS began making it extremely difficult for the magazine to get such status. While waiting to be approved, Rubright began publishing the first two issues of the magazine. Soon after the second issue was released, Rubright received a letter from the IRS attacking the magazine's content and threatened to deny it nonprofit statues.

Results of Incident: After continual delays by the IRS in granting 3rdfloor nonprofit status - which Rubright believes is because the IRS disapproved of the magazine’s controversial and provocative content - Rubright has hired lawyers and is battling the IRS for nonprofit status.

Description of Incident: Participants at a 2005 US national conference on the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases did not hear a panel entitled: "Are Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs a Threat to Public Health?" Instead, they head "Public Health Strategies of Abstinence Programs for Youth". The speakers at the conference, which was sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were also changed to remove a critic of abstinence-only education programs in favor of two proponents. The program change at the conference reportedly occurred as a result of pressure from US Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) who is an outspoken opponent of contraception and comprehensive sex education.

Results of Incident: In the end, the entire message and aim of the national conference was altered. All speakers and ideas that questioned and criticized the abstinence-only education program were excluded from the conference. Instead of a conference that examined and compared various different ways to prevent sexually transmitted diseases; it was a conference that presented only one way to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, namely, abstinence-ONLY.