Introduction
Former Muslims United does not criticize any religion, in the sense that the religion is practiced as a personal relationship with God. But if a religion expands itself to become a one party totalitarian state, ruled by an elaborate legal system controlling every aspect of private and public life, and requiring the killing and incitement of violence against those who leave it, then that religion cannot be immune from criticism. It is no longer a private religion, but has become instead a totalitarian dictatorship. It is in this sense, since Islam’s apostasy laws condemn former Muslims to death and allows vigilante violence against apostates, that Islam itself has opened itself to criticism. Therefore, Former Muslims United, welcoming all former Muslims including converts to all other religions, as well as atheists or agnostics, will pursue these goals:
Goals
- Develop a legal framework for and ensure the civil rights of American individuals and organizations to provide sanctuary for former Muslims without being subject to legal penalties or threats.
- Call on all Muslims and their spiritual leaders to reject, publicly and without reservation or exception, all Sharia doctrine that permits or calls for punishment or discrimination against former Muslims, including intimidation and threats against person or property. This rejection of violence applies to individuals, Sharia authorities, Muslim courts or other Sharia bodies, governments, and quasi-governmental bodies.
- Form a support group to empower and give comfort to former Muslims enabling them to stand up for their religious liberties under the U.S. Constitution.
- Keep former Muslims informed and aware of matters related to apostasy both inside and outside the United States.
- Educate the American public, especially politicians and those in the U.S. legal system, of Islamic law’s encouragement of extra-judicial enforcement or vigilante street justice against apostates who are subjected to serious death threats in America and from abroad. Denial is a common reaction by many Muslim leaders to those who warn about clear-cut laws in all Islamic legal schools of Sharia. As a matter of fact, Islamic law states that it is permissible to lie to non-Muslims to accomplish a Sharia-sanctioned objective. Thus, since killing apostates is a Sharia-sanctioned objective, misleading Western publics is permissible and practiced regularly. This point must be clear to the public in order to understand the extent of the threat and the disingenuousness of the public response by Muslim advocates of Sharia.
- Publicize how former Muslims, both inside the U.S. and around the world, are treated by their Muslim counterparts, including threats to their lives, physical violence, humiliation, social ostracism, disinheritance, and familial abandonment.
- Demand Muslim leaders reject and denounce all Islamic literature which calls for death or other punishments for former Muslims.