Apostating Islam: much like hazing

Act for America: "Why Do Even Decent, Well-Meaning Muslims Try To Whitewash Their Religion?"

IT'S CRAZY. Most Muslims pretend there is nothing about Islam that might inspire terrorism. I get letters from apparently sincere Muslims all the time who try to convince me that violent Jihadis have got it all wrong because Islam really is a religion of peace. (...) some of them even know about the principle of abrogation (I've been asking them lately), and still they want me to stop saying unflattering things about Islam. (...) Why aren't there more apostates? It doesn't make any sense. But I came across an experiment that shed a little light on the situation. I read about it in the excellent book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, which I recommend to you since the most important thing we can do is influence other non-Muslims to stop giving concessions to Islam's relentless encroachment.

We need to master the principles of influence. (...) "persons who go through a great deal of trouble or pain to attain the something tend to value it more highly than persons who attain the same thing with a minimum of effort. (...) There is also the principle of commitment and consistency working against their potential for renouncing the faith or at least criticizing it. Once a person has done something, especially in public, that demonstrates a belief in something, he will find it difficult to reverse his position. And of course, if you add to that the actual danger of leaving Islam, the situation is very much like a person who really has no way out, and must make the best of his imprisonment. >>>

Jan 23, 2009
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New English Review: "Homosexuality – punishable by death?" - From Aftenposten of Norway.

The Norwegian Islamic Council is still waiting for a reply from the European Fatwa Council before it decides whether or not it is in favour of the death penalty for homosexuality."Unacceptable," says lesbian Sara Asmeh Rasmussen. Last November the Norwegian Islamic Council asked the European fatwa council what attitude it should have to homosexuals. The fatwa council, which debates questions of Muslim faith and doctrine, had its annual meeting in Paris three weeks ago, but did not discuss the subject, according to daily newspaper Dagsavisen."It's wrong of the Islamic Council to wait for the "verdict" (...) >>>

Updated: 4th Aug. 2008
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Middle East Forum: "Fear Stalks Muslim Apostates in the West," by David J. Rusin

(...) For other ex-Muslims, the intimidation is far more concrete. Khaled emigrated from Iraq to the Netherlands, hoping to freely practice his new religion; instead he receives death threats from Islamists. Sofia was beaten and told by her father that she deserves to die; she ultimately was thrown out of their London house. Hannah, the daughter of a British imam, has changed residences forty-plus times since converting to Christianity; she went underground in 1994 when her home was attacked by a horde of men that included her father, whom she describes as "shouting through the letter box, ‘I'm going to kill you.'" In April Dutch politician Ehsan Jami announced that he is closing down his Central Committee for Ex-Muslims after less than a year of operation because people are too scared to join. Aiding apostates begins with acknowledging what endangers them: the prescription of death under Shari'a law. Yet Islamist lobby groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations labor to obscure the facts. (...) the perils suffered by Muslim apostates offer a powerful reminder that upholding such freedoms demands vigilance. How our societies respond to this challenge will help set the parameters of freedom in the twenty-first century by determining whether fundamental rights truly are guaranteed for all. (...) >>>

Updated: 4th Aug. 2008
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NPR: "Muslim Activist: 'Multicultural Mistake'" (Second in a six-part series), by Sylvia Poggioli - Hat Tip: Atlas Shrugs

Seyran Ates is a prominent women's rights lawyer in Berlin. A German of Turkish origin, she has been forced to abandon her legal practice because of death threats from Islamic radicals. Ates is a vehement critic of what she calls an excessively benign Western attitude toward the growing influence of political Islam in Europe. (...) In 2005, Seyran Ates was named Germany's woman of the year for her work in defense of Muslim women in immigrant communities. (...) Ates says that brazen incident in public, at a time when she sees increasing Islamization in Europe, convinced her she had to shut down her practice. (...) >>>

Updated: 23rd Jan. 2006
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Politeia: "Al Qaeda Associate Renounces Third Jihad"

(...) This morning Dr Holliday drew our attention to the article on the Middle East Media Research Institute MEMRI's Special Dispatch No. 1785 (...) The new book, which Sayyed Imam al-Sharif wrote while serving a life sentence in Egypt, was published in serial form in two Arab dailies (...) and is since subject of fierce debate among Islamists and observers of Islamist movements. (...)

(...) the document is at once a book and a formal initiative, has been signed by the majority of leaders and members of the hirabahist organization in the Egyptian prisons. For what it is worth, they have promised to stop armed activities.

The entire process was facilitated by the Egyptian authorities, and the document was reviewed by a commission of Al-Azhar scholars. (...) In the coming weeks and months, MEMRI will be providing full coverage of Sayyed Imam's new book and the reactions to it. By way of introduction the current dispatch provides excerpts from the first two segments of a six-part interview granted by Sayyed Imam to the Al-Hayat daily. >>>

Updated: 17th Dec. 2007
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Politeia: "Effective Communication Against the Third Jihad", by Dr Sam C. Holliday

The apparent renunciation of terrorism by the person who provided the rationale for the global Muslim revivalist movement presents an opportunity for the United States to improve its performance in strategic communication. In Foundations of Preparation for Jihad, Sayyid Imam al-Sharif prescribed a Third Jihad for the Islamization of the world.

Al-Sharif founded the Egyptian Islamic Jihad; his supporters assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981 and he was with Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan fighting against the Soviet Union. He is a medical doctor and was an associate of Ayman al-Zawahiri, another Egyptian doctor, who is now Osama Bin Laden's deputy. Al-Sharif was captured after 9/11 and has been in an Egyptian jail since 2004.

There have been several reports that Al-Sharif will soon publish a book in which he states that the use of terror, and the killing of innocent nonbelievers, in the name of Jihad, violate the Qur’an. >>>

Dated: 21st Oct. 2007