The Struggle for the Soul of Young Muslims

While Osama bin Laden renewed the call for young Muslims to become "martyrs" (read murderers) in his newest video released today, other Muslims in Europe today began a campaign to be able to leave Islam without being killed as apostates:

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.”

While there obviously should be no compulsion to join a religion one doesn't want to, there should also be no room in a civilized society for compelling someone to remain in a religion they no longer want to be part of. We take freedom of religion and freedom of conscience for granted in the West, but this right is threatened or nonexistent in large parts of the world. Prayers for those brave persons who want to be free to follow God's call or their own conscience wherever it takes them.

H/t Howie, Michelle Malkin

Posted by: noburqa at 01:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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