http://www.google.com/search?as_q=Jami&hl=en&num=10&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=Council+of+Ex-Muslims&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&cr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&as_rights=&safe=images [Close] Ex-Muslims renounce faith across Europe TheSpec.com - CanadaWorld - Ex-Muslims renounce faith across Europe The Associated Press AMSTERDAM (Sep 12, 2007) Ehsan Jami knew he was making himself a target for radical Islamists when he decided to launch a Dutch organization for Muslims who renounce their religion. Five months and three physical assaults later, his Committee for Ex-Muslims was launched yesterday, joining similar groups that have sprung up around Europe. These groups hope to add a new voice to the debate about, and within, Europe's Muslim communities, presenting themselves as diametrically different to the disenchanted and sometimes violent youth who grab headlines, or to immigrants who live cloistered among their own. Instead, they seek recognition from the Muslim mainstream for freethinkers, empowered Muslim women, homosexuals and those who want to renounce their religion without fear. Under some fundamentalist interpretations of Islam, apostasy is forbidden, or is a heresy punishable by death. "We want to support people who want to change their religion but their parents, their society have them clasped in it and won't let them out," said Jami, 22. "They would realize that they are not standing alone." The latest attack on Jami last month, when he was struck and pushed to the ground at a shopping centre by three youths, was widely publicized in the Netherlands. The assailants were arrested but Jami was forced into hiding and receives police protection. He said an earlier attack was even more dangerous, when he was surrounded by a large group of youths at night and had a knife held to his throat. He had anticipated death threats, he said, but had not fully appreciated what they meant. Leaders of ex-Muslim groups from Germany and England attended yesterday's launch, before meeting the European Commission today in Brussels. "Very clearly our intent is to break the taboo" within Islam against renouncing religion, said Maryam Namazie, who in June founded The British Council of Ex-Muslims. "The first step is making it easier to do that. You could compare it to when the first gays came out of the closet," she said. Other groups have formed in the Scandinavian countries. Altogether, the European groups have total membership of no more than several hundred. But the ex-Muslims say they are determined to show "not all people from Muslim countries are religious," said Arzu Toker, vice-president of Germany's Council of Ex-Muslims, the first and largest of the organizations. "If we don't show it, many people (in the West) will think 'all these people are just the same,' and that's simply not true," she said. Akbar Ahmed, who chairs the Islamic Studies department at American University in Washington, said the advent of such groups is not surprising. "Expatriates may be intellectually questioning, given the freedom they have from being abroad. A few may decide they are fed up with Islam ... others become much more vigorously Islamic." He said it is wrong to say Islam endorses killing apostates, though some of the Hadith, or sayings attributed to Mohammed, appear to endorse it -- when taken out of context, he said. Salima Belhaj, who is not a member of Jami's group, says she has been branded as an apostate because of her modern lifestyle. "It's others who decide that I'm an ex-Muslim, because I wear short skirts or don't go to the mosque and drink a glass of wine" now and then. She said she still considers herself a Muslim, "but I don't think that others should decide how I live my life." http://www.google.com/search?as_q=Jami&hl=en&num=10&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=Council+of+Ex-Muslims&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&cr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&as_rights=&safe=images Business Web Studio © Copyright 2007 Metroland Media Group Ltd. All rights reserved. The reproduction, modification, distribution, transmission or republication of any material from www.thespec.com is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission of Metroland Media Group Ltd. Metroland West Media GroupTorstar Digital --------------- Jusfiq Hadjar gelar Sutan Maradjo Lelo Allah yang disembah orang Islam tipikal dan yang digambarkan oleh al-Mushaf itu dungu, buas, kejam, keji, ganas, zalim lagi biadab hanyalah Allah fiktif. ___________________________________________________________ Support the World Aids Awareness campaign this month with Yahoo! For Good http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/ Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! 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