Oh what a happy world it will be, when there are no longer
any religious Muslims, Christians or Jews, and intelligent, reasonable
people are in charge!

"Ex-Muslim" group launches in Britain

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor
PARIS (Reuters) - "Ex-Muslims" hoping to change the terms of debate about
Islam in Europe will launch a British group in London on Thursday.

The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain will be the latest addition to
groupings that began in Germany in February and spread to Scandinavia in
May. A Dutch group will hold its launch in September.

The activists, many of them Iranian exiles, support the freedom to criticize
religion and the end to what they call "religious intimidation and threats."

"Too many things in the media and government policies have been geared to
pandering to the political Islamic movements and Islamic organizations,"
Maryam Namazie, head of the British group, told Reuters by telephone from
London on Wednesday.

"I hope we'll get a lot more attention and begin to change the debate," said
Namazie, who left Iran in 1980 after the Islamic revolution there.

Leaving Islam is considered a crime punishable by death in some
Muslim-majority countries. Muslims in Europe practice their faith less than
their co-religionists in the Middle East but few openly proclaim themselves
apostates or atheists.

There are more than 15 million people of Muslim origin in western Europe,
mostly in France, Germany and Britain. Spokesmen for Muslims are often
religious leaders, some more conservative theologically or active
politically than the silent majority.

Since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, many Muslims in
Europe have complained they are suspected of being terrorists or supporting
extreme religious views.

Namazie said the launch of a Central Council of Ex-Muslims in Berlin
inspired groups elsewhere to follow suit. The Central Council of Ex-Muslims
in Scandinavia is based in Sweden with branches in Denmark, Norway and
Finland.

Namazie said the British group had about 25 activists so far. She said
expressions of support or interest had come in from the United States,
France and Australia.

France, whose five million Muslims make up Europe's largest Islamic
minority, has many non-observant Muslims but few describe themselves as
atheists.

Several small groups call themselves "secular Muslims" who respect France's
separation of church and state. They include some believers who want to keep
religion out of politics.

Namazie said many ex-Muslim activists were Iranian exiles who did not fear
reprisals from Muslim militants because they already had long experience
opposing an Islamic government.

"We have been apostates for a long time," she said.
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