Take it from me: freedom of speech is too precious to let slip away

Like many ex-Muslims around the world, I followed the case of Hamit Coşkun, a half-Kurdish and half-Armenian man from Turkey convicted after burning a Quran, with fascination and deep concern. His appeal hearing this week has drawn attention far beyond the UK’s borders, because the principles at stake are universal.

I am not based in the UK, and I cannot speak about UK laws or the outcome of that case. But I do know what it is like to live in a country where the guardrails for free speech are weak, and where ‘causing offence’ can be a matter of life and death.

I spoke my truth, and they tried to silence me forever

I was born in Kano, northern Nigeria, into a deeply religious Muslim family descended from generations of Islamic scholars. From a young age, religion framed every aspect of my life, shaping my community, my education, and even my dreams. But as I grew, so did my questions.

By 2014, I had declared myself an atheist. For that, I was forcibly committed to a psychiatric hospital, beaten, and told that disbelief in God was a form of madness. A few years later, after posting comments on Facebook about secularism and human rights, I was arrested and charged with blasphemy. I spent more than a year in detention without charge, denied access to my lawyer and my family. My son was born while I was imprisoned. I never got to hold him as a newborn.

Eventually, I was sentenced to 24 years in prison. My only ‘crime’ was speaking my mind.

Blasphemy laws are not relics, they are weapons

Blasphemy laws are a weapon, not of justice but of fear. They are used to punish thought, to crush dissent, and to erase the humanity of those who believe differently or not at all.

In 12 countries, people can still be executed for blasphemy. In nearly 60 more, they can be imprisoned. In Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, Bangladesh, and Saudi Arabia, humanists and religious minorities are targeted for art, protest, civil rights activism, or simply for asking questions. These laws do not protect faith, they protect power.

When I was jailed, my captors told me, ‘Even the British have blasphemy laws.’ This is your reputation around the world. We must stop it.

A fragile freedom, and a shared responsibility

Thanks to tireless campaigning by Humanists UK, my case was raised in the UK Parliament over 50 times. The British Government challenged Nigerian officials directly, and humanists across the world refused to look away. In 2024, after more than four years in detention, I was freed. I owe my liberty to those who defended the principle that free expression is a human right, not a privilege.

That is why I worry when I hear that blasphemy laws might creep back into the UK, whether by the back door or under a different name.

Humanists UK is currently campaigning in Northern Ireland to abolish the last remaining blasphemy law in the UK. At the same time, the organisation has pressed the UK Government to keep its promise not to introduce new measures that could have a chilling effect on speech, including in the context of a proposed official definition of Islamophobia.

Humanists UK is clear that hatred and prejudice must be challenged wherever they appear. But laws or codes that protect ideas rather than people risk silencing the very voices we need to hear most.

We have too much to lose

The freedom to think, to doubt, to question, and to speak is the foundation of all other freedoms. It is also the first to fall when fear takes over. Around the world, humanists continue to stand up for free expression, even at great personal risk.

Defending free speech does not mean endorsing every opinion. It means believing that the best answer to bad ideas is better ones, not censorship, not violence, and not the threat of prison.

The humanist Evelyn Beatrice Hall famously said ‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it’. In places like Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, the accusation of ‘blasphemy’ still really is life or death. 

I do not take my newly found freedom for granted – it could have so easily ended another way. So I will continue, alongside Humanists UK, to help defend life, liberty, and freedom of expression, so that no one else has to endure what I did. And so that every person, everywhere, can speak their mind without fear.