Hold This Date:11th of February 2012 A Day to Defend Free Expressionفلنحفظ هذا التاريخ:11 فبراير 2012…يوم للدفاع عن حرية التعبير

One Law for All is calling for a rally in defence of free expression and the right to criticise religion on Saturday 11 February 2012 at Old Palace Yard, opposite the House of Lords from 2-4pm.

We are also calling for simultaneous events and acts in defence of free expression on 11 February in countries world-wide.

The call follows an increased number of attacks on free expression in the UK, including a 17 year old being forced to remove a Jesus and Mo cartoon or face expulsion from his Sixth Form College and demands by the UCL Union that the Atheist society remove a Jesus and Mo cartoon from its Facebook page. It also follows threats of violence, police being called, and the cancellation of a meeting at Queen Mary College where One Law for All spokespersonAnne Marie Waters was to deliver a speech on Sharia. Saying ‘Who gave these kuffar the right to speak?’, anIslamist website called for the disruption of the meeting. Two days later at the same college, though, the Islamic Society held a meeting on traditional Islam with a speaker who has called for the death of apostates, those who mock Islam, and secularist Muslims.

Sudanese Government Continues to Crackdown on the Freedom of Religion and Expressionالحكومة السودانية تواصل قمعها لحرية التعبير والاعتقاد...

(3 November 2011) On 8 September Suleman Aboulgasim Musa and 17 of his followers were charged with apostasy under Article 126 of the 1991 Criminal Act.  The arrests and charging of these individuals are part of an increasing crackdown on the freedom of religion and expression within Sudan. The government arrested 150 people on charges of apostasy in July and in October, the police chose not to respond to the defacement of a religious statue in a Catholic church in Kosti, While Nile state.    The closing of space for religious freedom and expression is particularly troubling in the context of ongoing constitutional debates in Khartoum over whether the new constitution should be based on sharia or on civil and political rights. Actions taken to suppress and punish religious minorities could be interpreted as way of intimidating and silencing proponents of a secular Sudanese state.