The St. Petersburg Declaration

[varian]

This may have some interesting possibilities:

Released by the delegates to the Secular Islam Summit, St. Petersburg, Florida on March 5, 2007

We are secular Muslims, and secular persons of Muslim societies. We are believers, doubters, and unbelievers, brought together by a great struggle, not between the West and Islam, but between the free and the unfree.

We affirm the inviolable freedom of the individual conscience. We believe in the equality of all human persons.

We insist upon the separation of religion from state and the observance of universal human rights.

We find traditions of liberty, rationality, and tolerance in the rich histories of pre-Islamic and Islamic societies. These values do not belong to the West or the East; they are the common moral heritage of humankind.

We see no colonialism, racism, or so-called “Islamaphobia” in submitting Islamic practices to criticism or condemnation when they violate human reason or rights.

We call on the governments of the world to

reject Sharia law, fatwa courts, clerical rule, and state-sanctioned religion in all their forms; oppose all penalties for blasphemy and apostacy, in accordance with Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human rights;

eliminate practices, such as female circumcision, honor killing, forced veiling, and forced marriage, that further the oppression of women; protect sexual and gender minorities from persecution and violence;

reform sectarian education that teaches intolerance and bigotry towards non-Muslims;

and foster an open public sphere in which all matters may be discussed without coercion or intimidation.

We demand the release of Islam from its captivity to the totalitarian ambitions of power-hungry men and the rigid strictures of orthodoxy.

We enjoin academics and thinkers everywhere to embark on a fearless examination of the origins and sources of Islam, and to promulgate the ideals of free scientific and spiritual inquiry through cross-cultural translation, publishing, and the mass media.

We say to Muslim believers: there is a noble future for Islam as a personal faith, not a political doctrine;

to Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Baha’is, and all members of non-Muslim faith communities: we stand with you as free and equal citizens;

and to nonbelievers: we defend your unqualified liberty to question and dissent.

Before any of us is a member of the Umma, the Body of Christ, or the Chosen People, we are all members of the community of conscience, the people who must chose for themselves.


Endorsed by:

Mona Abousenna
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Magdi Allam
Mithal Al-Alusi
Shaker Al-Nabulsi
Nonie Darwish
Afhin Ellian
Tawfik Hamid
Shahriar Kabir
Hasan Mahmud
Raquel Evita Saraswati
Wafa Sultan
Ibn Warraq
Mourad Wahba
Manda Zand Ervin
Bonafsheh Zand-Bonazzi

http://secularislam.org/blog/post/SI...rg-Declaration

[Illuminatus]

If they truly believe that Sharia, forced marriage, honor killings, blasphemy penalties, Martyrdom Operations and all the rest can be debated and opposed, are they still Muslims?

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1924, the end of the last Caliphate and the rise of Salafism (joined in the 1970s by Khomeinism) many Muslims who accepted Democracy experienced savage rebukes and met tragic destinies as they rose to oppose Islamo-fundamentalism.

Since then, high profile authors and intellectuals have spoken against authoritarianism and Islamism from the sub Indian continent to the sub Saharian desert. Many were forced into hiding or just "disappeared" and fear has silenced the vast majority of the world's 1.6 billion Muslims.

Now in the post 9/11 era, still more questions are being asked worldwide:

-- What went wrong (in the Muslim world)? wrote Bernard Lewis
-- Thousands of "Why do they hate us?" articles in a hundred different languages appeared in the press after 2001.
-- Where are the moderates (within the Muslim world)?

Since there are no answers (or they're too afraid to answer), a declaration issued in a open liberal democracy and not in Makkah is imho, five years too late and basically worthless.

^_^