London ex-Muslim world meet seeks right to criticize Islamism

Solidarity protest with persecuted atheists

By A Representative
In what is being described by its organizers as “the largest gathering of ex-Muslims in history”, an International Conference on Freedom of Conscience and Expression, held in London on July 22-24 was participation of delegates as “Islam's apostates, many from countries where the legal penalty for apostasy is death.”
Participated by 70 speakers from 30 countries, the conference honoured dissenters and defenders of apostasy, blasphemy, and secularism, with participants pointing out that the “criticism of Islam is no different the “criticism of Islamism is no different from criticism of the Christian-Right, Jewish-Right or Hindu-Right.”
The conference highlighted the voices of those described as being on the frontlines of resistance, many of them persecuted and exiled, and saw the first London film screening of Deeyah Khan's film, “Islam's Non Believers”, and a public art protest of 99 balloons representing those killed or imprisoned for blasphemy and apostasy.
Discussions centres around Islamophobia and its use by Islamists to impose de facto blasphemy laws, the relation between Islam and Islamism as well as communalism's threat to universal rights, art as resistance and Laicite as a human rights. “The conference hashtag, #IWant2BFree, trended on Twitter during the two days”, said a communiqué.

The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB), which organized the conference, honoured ten individuals to mark its tenth anniversary – Bangladeshi freethinker Bonya Ahmed, Saudi freethinkers Ensaf Haidar and Raif Badawi, Moroccan atheist Zineb El Rhazoui, philosopher AC Grayling, Centre for Secular Space's Gita Sahgal and Yasmin Rehman, Algerian sociologist Marieme Helie Lucas, Jordanian Atheists' Founder Mohammad AlKhadra, Egyptian atheist founder of The Black Ducks Ismail Mohamed, and scientist Richard Dawkins.

The conference issued resolutions against the no-platforming of Richard Dawkins by KPFA, a listener-funded talk radio and music radio station in Berkeley, California, US, and in defence of Ismail Mohamed who was prevented from leaving Egypt to speak at the London conference.
Prof Dawkins, an invited speaker at the conference, was de-platformed because of his alleged “hurtful” comments on Islam. A well known critic of all religions, his “long-standing attacks on Christianity have never resulted in anything approaching de-platforming”, a conference resolution claimed.
The resolution expressed “outrage” that the Egyptian government prevented Ismail Mohamed from speaking at the London conference, demanding the Egyptian government allow him freedom of movement and end his persecution and that of all freethinkers.
CEMB calls itself a “world-wide movement that supports people who wish to leave Islam and declare themselves ex-Muslim”, using the term “ex-Muslim” to highlight that the danger of leaving Islam risks death for apostasy. It works to ensure that people are safe from hate and violence from their families, communities and states.
The resolution took strong exception to 14 Islamic states (15 if ISIS-held territories are included) punish homosexuality with the death penalty, pointing out that its aim is to “expose Islamist-affiliated mosques, like East London Mosque, which have given a platform to hate clerics who have justified the murder of gays and apostates.”
The resolution said, “There is a tsunami of freethinking and atheism that is challenging religious fundamentalism, especially Islamism. The Internet is doing to Islam what the printing press did to Christianity”, though regretting, “This peaceful resistance movement is often characterised as ‘offensive’ against religion, nation, tradition or culture.”