The Central Council of Former Muslims in Germany is a testiment of courage. They went public in February with the following statement, taken from their homepage. My translation:

We Renounce!

The freedom of conscious and religion is among the most fundamental human rights which are not sufficiently guaranteed in countries with Islamic legal systems. Within the Muslim religious community, apostasy is considered a deadly sin and is punished accordingly.

Unfortunately the loss of Muslim faith is a tabu even in Germany. It has hardly been noticed that there is a significant number of "ex-Muslims" (primarily among Iranian dissidents). One sign of this is that in the German media authors critical of Islam such as Salman Rushdie, Talsima Nasreen and Ibn Warraq are absurdly labelled "Muslim intellectuals." (Imagine someone would turn the tables and refer to Friedrich Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell or Karlheinz Deschner as "Christian intellectuals"!)

It is no coincidence that we have chosen the slogan "Wir haben abgeschworen!" ("We renounce/abjure/forswear") similar to the one-time campaign of the women's rights movement "Wir haben abgetrieben!" ("We have had abortions"). We are also breaking a taboo. Just like back then, the right of self-determination has to be won. Just like back then, on the other side stand religious forces who presume to be speaking in the name of "eternally valid, holy truths."

There are certainly differences. While European Christianity, against the traditional values of which the women's movement had to fight, had already gone through the hard school of the Enlightenment and hence been forced to learn more civil forms of dispute, Islam remained for the most part free from interference by any "enlightening nuisance," despite the great beginnings in the 9th and 10th centuries (for example the great former-Muslim thinker Al-Razi). We want to see that this changes!

"Sapere aude! Habe Mut, dich deines eigenen Verstandes zu bedienen!" - "Have the courage to use your own reason!" - This old motto of the Enlightenment should be taken to heart by all - regardless of which culture they come from.

Those are courageous words in today's political-religious climate. I would like to encourage everybody, whatever your faith or lack thereof, to encourage them in their efforts to support the culture of the Enlightenment.