Islam
The Religion of Islam is a set of beliefs: ideas that drive behavior, culture, and legal systems. Like any set of ideas, Islam should be open to criticism and debate. The lack of such debate and increased immigration of migrants from war-torn nations in the Muslim world with insufficient vetting has lead to the creation of theocratic ‘No-Go Zones’ throughout the west, which are putting a halt on policing in Europe which puts many citizens including women and the LGBT community in danger. In Bangladesh, atheist bloggers are being killed for expressing ideas that are in favor of secularism and freedom. On college campuses throughout the west, ex-Muslim speakers invited by atheists and free speech activists are regularly harassed by Islamist Muslim students and in many of these cases feminist and left-leaning organizations support the Islamists. Overall there is a dangerous and increased Islamization of democratic institutions across the globe. There is a growing trend of people preventing the critique of Islam as a set of ideas, and defending the bad behavior that results from these ideas, under the unfortunately named rubric “Islamophobia”.
While we strongly believe that no individual Muslim should ever be denied rights on account of their beliefs, individuals must all be held to agreed-upon standards of modern behavior and held accountable for bad behavior. Further, all beliefs and ideas, including atheism, are up for debate and criticism.
Atheists for Liberty continues the long-standing defense of individual rights for Muslims while pulling no punches in criticism of Islam.