Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Towards a secular Islam

Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society

From their mission statement:
We believe that Islamic society has been held back by an unwillingness to subject its beliefs, laws and practices to critical examination, by a lack of respect for the rights of the individual, and by an unwillingness to tolerate alternative viewpoints or to engage in constructive dialogue.

The Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society (ISIS) has been formed to promote the ideas of rationalism, secularism, democracy and human rights within Islamic society.

ISIS promotes freedom of expression, freedom of thought and belief, freedom of intellectual and scientific inquiry, freedom of conscience and religion – including the freedom to change one’s religion or belief - and freedom from religion: the freedom not to believe in any deity
That last point is important considering that apostasy is a crime punishable by death in parts of the world.

2 comments:

wildhera said...

words,words and words...islamic people to have freedom?...i don't think so, but who knows? maybe the world is changing and i don't see...

Hume's Ghost said...

I don't think they can have freedom under Islam since freedom is not a value of Islam, but I believe they can have freedom if they move away from accepting the Koran as the literal source of ultimate authority.