There is an excellent article by Johann Hari in today's Independent and reproduced on his website (which I reached via Harry's Place). Johann is expounding the work of a group that demands our attention: "All over Europe, there are Muslims who are exercising their right in a free society to change their religion, or to become atheists. And they are regularly being threatened, beaten, and burned-out, while the police largely stand by, inert."
The bravery of these ex-Muslims is remarkable, and I pay tribute to them. One of them, whom Johann interviews, is an Iranian dissident, Mina Ahadi, who was awarded the title "Secularist of the Year" by the National Secular Society at the weekend. (Both Johann and I were on the shortlist for this prize as well. I cannot speak for him, but I am plainly not secularist of this or any other year; unlike the winner, I am required to show no personal courage in expressing my irreligious convictions.) It's still more extraordinary how scant, or at least how quiet, is the support for their cause among progressive organisations. Johann nicely expounds their importance:
Women like Mina expose a hole in the stale logic of multiculturalism. She shows that secularism is not a ‘Western’ value: she thought of it all by herself, in a rural village in Iran. Yet the attitudes that lead to the persecution of apostates are widespread even within British Islam, because we patronisingly assume it is ‘their culture’ and do not challenge it. Some 36 percent of British Muslims between the ages of 18 and 24 think apostates should be murdered. The younger British Muslims are, the more they believe it – a bad sign for the future, unless we start arguing back. This isn’t just kids sounding off. Some act on it: a Despatches documentary earlier this year, ‘Unholy War’, found dozens of cases of apostates having their cars blown up, their kids threatened and even being beaten and left for dead, on British streets.Of course, the ex-Muslims have flaws too. Sometimes they can imply there is only one true reading of the Koran – the vicious Bin Ladenist one. In fact, it is a basic atheist truth that superstition is elastic: the ‘holy’ text can mean anything the believers want it to mean, precisely because there is no divine essence to it, only the contradictory ramblings of human beings. If moderate Muslims find a way to relativize away the most abhorrent parts of their holy text, as many Christians have been forced to in a secular environment, then we should cautiously welcome them, while still encouraging them to make the full journey into atheism.
I very much agree with all this, excepting only the final clause. The claims of religion are to my mind incredible and its explanations - for the universe, the natural world, or morality - redundant. But religion, being a durable human construct, is inescapably part of public life. Our aim as secularists should be the separation of religious and civil authority; beyond that, I'm indifferent to what my fellow citizens believe about first and last things. I just require the faithful to leave me alone. It's because ex-Muslims are generally not left alone that they merit our admiration and support.
