Mubarak Bala, Blasphemy, and a Year of Nightmares

Mubarak Bala, president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, was arrested in April for unspecified crimes, during a year of aggressive invocation of Nigeria’s blasphemy law. The fact that a judge has now decreed that Bala must be released—eight months after being detained without charge—is what passes for good news in 2020. We’ll take it. The …