How Blasphemy Laws are Fueling Persecution in Nigeria—And Across the Globe

Blasphemy laws remain one of the most persistent and dangerous drivers of religious persecution worldwide. Despite near-universal recognition that religious freedom and freedom of expression include the right to question, critique, or peacefully express one’s convictions, dozens of countries continue to criminalize speech that is considered an “offense” against certain religions. These laws empower governments—and, in many contexts, mobs—to suppress disfavored religious expression and dissent and silence minority communities.

Globally, the scale of the problem is well-documented.

• Between 2014 and 2018, researchers recorded over 700 blasphemy-related incidents across 41 countries.
• Over 150 mob violence incidents, mostly caused by blasphemy accusations, were recorded in Northern Nigeria between 2012 and 2023.
• In Pakistan alone, nearly 2,000 individuals were accused of religion-based offenses between 1987 and 2021—many involving blasphemy.
• In 2023, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom identified 95 countries with active blasphemy laws, an increase from previous years.

The persistence of these laws—often rooted in Sharia criminal law or religious colonial era provisions—demonstrates how fragile the right to freedom of religion or belief and freedom of speech remains for millions of people.

What Blasphemy Laws Do—and Why They are Incompatible with Human Rights

Blasphemy laws criminalize expression deemed insulting to religious doctrines, figures, or symbols. Their operation is inherently subjective: what constitutes “offense” is defined by the sensitivities of dominant groups and enforced through discretionary—and often discriminatory—state power.

Under international human rights law, these laws are incompatible with foundational principles:

• Freedom of religion or belief provisions protect both belief and non-belief, as well as the right to share one’s faith.
• Freedom of expression provisions protect speech that others may find “offensive,” “heretical,” or “incorrect.”
• Equality and non-discrimination provisions prohibit the state from privileging one religion over another, or from punishing peaceful minority religious voices.

In practice, blasphemy laws routinely inflame social tension, incentivize false and pretextual accusations, legitimize mob violence, and expose individuals to imprisonment, torture, and even extrajudicial killings.

Nigeria offers a stark illustration of these dangers.

Nigeria’s Blasphemy Provisions: The Cases of Yahaya Sharif-Aminu and Rhoda Jatau

Nigeria has one of the most draconian blasphemy laws in the world, with twelve of its northern Sharia states mandating the death penalty for alleged blasphemy against the Quran or its prophets. Nigeria is one of only seven countries in the world with such an extreme law. The country also maintains a “religious insult” law that allows for years in prison, and that is wielded in the North against Christians and other religious minorities who are alleged to have blasphemed against Islam. These laws have been used to target people like Yahaya Sharif-Aminu and Rhoda Jatau.

Yahaya Sharif-Aminu: A Musician Sentenced to Death for Peaceful Expression

In March 2020, Sufi musician Yahaya Sharif-Aminu shared an audio message on WhatsApp containing lyrics that praised a Sufi imam revered in his religious tradition. Some recipients of this message interpreted the lyrics as insulting to Islam.

The consequences were immediate and violent. A mob burned down Yahaya’s family home, and the religious police arrested him shortly afterward. In August 2020, a Sharia court in Kano State sentenced him to death by hanging for blasphemy. Although the conviction was later overturned on procedural grounds, the court ordered a retrial, nearly guaranteeing that the same outcome would occur.

Yahaya remains in prison—now more than five years. With the support of ADF International, he is currently appealing to the Supreme Court of Nigeria, arguing that Kano State’s blasphemy law is unconstitutional. His case poses a profound question for Nigeria: can a democratic state committed to constitutional rights maintain laws that prescribe death for peaceful religious expression?

Rhoda Jatau: Targeted for Condemning Religious Violence

ADF International also supported the case of Rhoda Jatau, a Christian healthcare worker and mother of five. Rhoda allegedly shared a WhatsApp video condemning the lynching of a Christian university student, Deborah Emmanuel Yakubu, who was murdered by her radicalized Muslim classmates for expressing her religious beliefs in a group chat.

For this, Rhoda was charged with blasphemy-related offenses and spent 19 months in prison, repeatedly denied bail and contact with her family. Her neighborhood was also ransacked by a mob. She was finally acquitted in December 2024 and relocated to a safe location, but the cost of the suffering she endured is incalculable.

Both Yahaya and Rhoda’s cases demonstrate how blasphemy laws, despite being framed as protections for religious sentiment, become lethal tools for suppressing minority expression.

Beyond Nigeria: A Global Crisis of Criminalized Belief

Nigeria is far from alone in enforcing blasphemy laws.

In Pakistan—home to some of the world’s harshest blasphemy provisions—accusations frequently lead to mob violence and prolonged incarceration. ADF International supported the cases of Shagufta Kausar and Shafqat Emmanuel, a Christian couple sentenced to death in 2014 after being falsely accused of sending blasphemous text messages.

Despite the fact that both are illiterate and the absence of any credible evidence, Shafqat was tortured into a “confession,” and the family endured years of threats and isolation before their convictions were overturned in 2021.

In Egypt, we are seeing a growing number of cases of Christians and atheists imprisoned for peaceful speech online that is deemed offensive to Islam.

In Algeria, Christians are being sentenced to years of imprisonment for religious speech that the government has decided will “shake the faith” of adherents of the majority religion.

These cases illustrate a common pattern: blasphemy and related religious offense laws lead to life-threatening human rights violations—torture, arbitrary detention, even death, in addition to constituting severe restrictions on expression.

Research indicates that Nigeria is currently the most dangerous place in the world to be a Christian, with more Christians killed there each year than in all other countries combined. The country’s blasphemy laws, coupled with impunity for religiously motivated violence, contribute to that grim statistic.

State Accountability and International Responses

In October 2025, the U.S. government designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom. A CPC designation is one of the most serious findings the U.S. can issue under its international religious freedom framework. It triggers intensified diplomatic engagement and may result in targeted sanctions or other policy measures.

While such designations do not immediately remedy systemic abuses, they increase scrutiny and international pressure—both of which are essential when domestic remedies are ineffective or unavailable.

Why Blasphemy Laws Must Be Repealed

Blasphemy laws do not lead to religious harmony. They erode it. They embolden extremists, silence reformist voices, and place minorities—whether Christians, Ahmadi and other minority Muslims, Hindus, atheists, and countless others—at real risk.

The solution is not to somehow reform blasphemy laws in an attempt to make them less discriminatory and subjective. Blasphemy laws cannot be reformed—they fall squarely in violation of international human rights law. Mere offense is not a crime, and peaceful expression is a protected right. The only solution when it comes to blasphemy laws is to fully and unequivocally abolish them.

The global human rights community must continue advocating—through courts, legislatures, and international mechanisms—for the repeal of these laws and for the protection of all individuals to live out—and speak about—their faith without fear.