The global Freedom of Thought Report for 2015, published today, begins with a map of the world where every country in the MENA region, from Morocco and Mauritania on the Atlantic coast to Iran in the Gulf. is coloured either black (indicating "grave violations) or red (indicating "severe discrimination").

The Middle East is not by any means the only problem area and the 542-page report, compiled by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), also highlights Bangladesh where four humanist bloggers and one secular publisher were hacked to death.

But the Middle East is striking in – shall we say – its consistency and a prime illustration of the way humanists, atheists and the non-religious are increasingly persecuted and discriminated against. Across the globe there has been a rise in extrajudicial violence targeting such people, the report says, and in some states "harsher judicial sentences have been handed down for crimes such as 'blasphemy' and 'apostasy'."

Even in Kuwait, which in comparison with its neighbours ranks well in terms of civil liberties, press freedom and judicial independence, the past few years have seen a notable crackdown, the report says. The country "is found to be declining due to recent prosecutions for 'blasphemy' and a general deterioration of freedom of expression post-Arab Spring."

Although Kuwait's Council of Ministers rejected attempts by parliament in 2013 to make blasphemy a capital crime, the existing Press and Publications Law has been used to prosecute and imprison individuals for criticising religion, the report says. Publishing material (including posts on social media) that could be perceived as offensive to religious groups is also criminalised by the National Unity Law and the punishment includes up to one year of prison and/or a fine of 1000 dinars ($3,300). 

The report cites two recent cases in Kuwait:

• The summer of 2014 saw the release of Abdul Aziz Mohamed El Baz (also known as Ben Baz Aziz), a 28-year-old Egyptian secularist and supporter of LGBT minorities and atheists who had been jailed on blasphemy charges in Kuwait. In February 2013, his employer reported him as a blasphemer after seeing his online writings on religion and secularism, and he was found guilty of “contempt of religions and attempting to spread atheism” and sentenced to one year in jail plus forced labour, a fine, and deportation to Egypt.

• In August 2014, human rights activist and satirist, Abo Asam, was arrested and detained by police because one of his tweets was deemed to be "in contempt of religion". His tweet had accused the Jamiya, from the Islamic Salafi sect of blindly following their religious leader, Hamad al-Uthman. The authorities considered the tweet offensive enough to warrant his arrest.

Growing repression in the Middle East is also occurring against a background where the world, as a whole, is becoming more secular. The report cites surveys showing that adherence to religion dropped by 9% and atheism rose by 3% worldwide between 2005 and 2012. It adds that religion generally declines in proportion to the rise in education and personal income – a trend that looks set to continue.

The more extreme examples of religious repression – such as Saudi Arabia and Iran – are well known but they tend to distract attention from what is happening in the region's more "moderate" countries. The Sisi regime in Egypt, for example, promotes a centrist version of Islam which serves its political goals, providing a religious basis for its crackdown on Islamists as well as religious non-conformists and non-believers (who are portrayed as a threat to national security).

But it's not only the government. While accusations of apostasy have been used in attempts to marginalise some of Egypt's intellectuals and politicians, greedy individuals treat apostasy as a money-spinner:

"During the 1990s and the 2000s there was a surge in apostasy accusations between siblings and others, trying to obtain a judicial decree that a family member had 'renounced' Islam in order to disinherit the 'apostate' and accrue their share of an inheritance."

However, recent prosecutions have focused on blasphemy rather than apostasy, using "public order" as a rationale for action against the non-religious, atheists and political critics, the report says.

"The Egyptian Criminal Code explicitly outlaws blasphemy. Nestled among prohibitions on advocating 'extremist thoughts', 'instigating sedition' or 'prejudicing national security', Article 98 (f) outlaws 'disdaining and contempting any of the heavenly religions or the sects belonging thereto'.

"Demeaning any of the Abrahamic religions or harming 'national unity' carry jail terms from six months to five years and/or fines of up to LE1,000 ($127) ...

"The propagation of atheism in words, writing, or other means, is punishable by sentences of up to five years imprisonment. The law has been used to limit the freedom of speech of religious and non-religious groups and individuals alike."

In addition to that, there is also what the New York Times described as "Egypt's war on atheism". IHEU's report says:

"Beginning in June 2014, the Ministry of Youth, Ministry of Endowments began a media and reeducation campaign to 'eradicate' atheism. The initiative was linked to a wider campaign that also targeted 'religious extremists', most of whom were associated with the recently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, and there were overt attempt[s] to explicitly associate atheism per se with threats to national security and extremism ...

"The backlash against the apparent growth of atheism, increasingly associated with young people and expressed on social media, has come primarily from government leaders and Islamic clerics and
scholars. However in November 2014 it was reported that Christian churches held a joint conference and were 'joining forces' with Egypt's al-Azhar to fight the spread of atheism. The new Egyptian Council of Churches organised, in late October 2014, a workshop for young people discussing the 'dangers' of atheism. 

"IHEU is deeply concerned that these organised, authoritarian programmes against the organic growth of non-religious thinking. while pretending to be a 'scholarly' response to a social trend or a lawful process in favour of public order or national cultural identity, the authorities are in fact maligning atheists as dangerous and a threat to the state and society, in such a way that demonises individual atheists and presents a clear threat to atheists’ freedom of thought and expression."