Great idea. Visibility of former Muslims is very important in
(a) reducing and removing the stigma among Muslims (over time) of leaving the religion
(b) challenging the supposed authority of Mullahs
(c) demonstrating that lightning bolts don't come out of the sky for you when you declare to yourself and others that you are no longer a Muslim
(d) differentiating between the religion Islam and the various cultures that people associate with Islam - e.g. the South Asian culture which is what many Pakistani and Indian Muslims associate with Islam, Persian culture which gets jumbled up with Islamic religion etc.
(e) allowing for intellectual debates about Islam and other religions just by the sheer fact that once we are visible as individuals and as an organized group, we can no longer be dismissed or ignored
(f) showing that not everyone who leaves Islam automatically becomes Christian or Hindu (which is an assumption many Muslims make)
(g) bringing to light the crimes committed against those who choose to leave Islam
Does the CoEM or any other Ex Muslim organization have an active press release system or public representation already?
Because I see more and more Muslims becoming disenchanted with Islam and they don't always know where to go to get support and information. I've referred a few people to this board and the CoEM website and I think Maryam and Ayaan Hirsi Ali's voices are the only ones that I see actually being covered in the media. But 2 people can't be expected to carry the weight of an entire, growing community of people. Due to the lack of visibility and support among the larger communities we live in (especially in secular countries), some ex Muslims have nobody but the right wing elements who are willing to support them. This is why some assume that we ex muslims are anti-Muslims when in reality I'd say we are more anti-Islam, the ideology, not the people who are victims themselves of the ideology and its beneficiaries, the Mullahs and "scholars" and weapons makers.
You articulated perfectly what was in my mind
The CoEMB main site does have a section for press releases:
http://www.ex-muslim.org.uk/indexPressreleases.htmlI will send a link to this thread to Maryam as she doesn't pop in that much.
Topic: Press Releases (WIP)