A group of young Muslim apostates launches a campaign today, the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America, to make it easier to renounce Islam.
The provocative move reflects a growing rift between traditionalists and a younger generation raised on a diet of Dutch tolerance.
The Committee for Ex-Muslims promises to campaign for freedom of religion but has already upset the Islamic and political Establishments for stirring tensions among the million-strong Muslim community in the Netherlands.
Ehsan Jami, the committee’s founder, who rejected Islam after the attack on the twin towers in 2001, has become the most talked-about public figure in the Netherlands. He has been forced into hiding after a series of death threats and a recent attack.
The threats are taken seriously after the murder in 2002 of Pim Fortuyn, an antiimmigration politician, and in 2004 of Theo Van Gogh, an antiIslam film-maker.
Speaking to The Times at a secret location before the committee’s launch today, the Labour Party councillor said that the movement would declare war on radical Islam. Similar organisations campaigning for reform of the religion have sprung up across Europe and representatives from Britain and Germany will join the launch in The Hague today.
“Sharia schools say that they will kill the ones who leave Islam. In the West people get threatened, thrown out of their family, beaten up,” Mr Jami said. “In Islam you are born Muslim. You do not even choose to be Muslim. We want that to change, so that people are free to choose who they want to be and what they want to believe in.”
Mr Jami, 22, who has abandoned his studies as his political career has taken off, denied that the choice of September 11 was deliberately provocative towards the Islamic Establishment. “We chose the date because we want to make a clear statement that we no longer tolerate the intolerence of Islam, the terrorist attacks,” he said.
“In 1965 the Church in Holland made a declaration that freedom of conscience is above hanging on to religion, so you can choose whether you are going to be a Christian or not. What we are seeking is the same thing for Islam.”
Mr Jami, who has compared the rise of radical Islam to the threat from Nazism in the 1930s, is receiving only lukewarm support from his party which traditionally relies upon Muslim votes. His outspoken attack on radical Islam has led to a prelaunch walk-out from fellow committee founder Loubna Berrada, who herself rejected Islam.
She said: “I don’t wish to confront Islam itself. I only want to spread the message that Muslims should be allowed to leave Islam behind without being threatened.”
...Jannie Groen, a writer for De Volksrant newspaper, said: “[Among Muslims] he is getting the same reaction as Ayaan Hirsi Ali that he is too confrontational but you are seeing other former Muslims now coming forward. So he has been able to put this issue of apostasy on the agenda, even though they do not want to be in the same room as him and he has had to pay a price.”
Times Online, via Reddit.
4 comments:
I would like to wish Jewish Atheist a Shona Toiva Umesuke, may he continue to grow in Torah and Yiras Shomayim, and be zoche to see biyas goel tzedek b'meheiro b'yomeinu, amen selah, amen amen ken yihi ratzon.
These are exactly the types of discussions and organizations that Muslims need. Not necessarily one that encourages abandonment of faith (though that should be an option for those who choose to) but the broader notion that it is OK (and in fact, encouraged in the Qur'an and Hadith) to question, interpret, and practice Islam independently without having to cowtow to the political/cultural imperialism of 7th century Arabia that has overtaken the faith. As more young Muslims speak out (in the West where they are allowed to), the reform community will grow and it will create a momentum for those who are more timid to feel safe to speak out. Only time will tell what will happen.
This discussion lays bare a fundamental distinction (akin to an idea pointed out by Ilkka Kokkarinen on his Fourth Checkraise blog): 'loser' ideologies (in other words, BS) are the ones that have to force their members to stay in, whereas ideologies involving actual truth never have to do so. Radical Islam has clearly shown itself to be one of the first.
I'm sorry but this article is just bogus.
First of all even the Dutch no longer take Ayan Hirsi Ali seriously after the lies and scandels she gave out with her immigration forms.
In actuality the racism of the Dutch is pushing muslims to more adherance to their faith. I am talking about programs that prohibit for example iranian students from taking courses that lead to upper class jobs. I'm not joking, this is what the Dutch are doing and this is supposed to be the tolerant West as the article claims...lol
Anyway islam ironically is growing in that country, through massive conversion rates to the religion. One would wonder if islam is so totalitarian then where do these white converts come from, and most of them being women. The stats show that for every 4 female converts in the West, there is 1 male convert. Pretty good for a "misogynistic" religion I'd say.
Oh well!
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