There’s an interesting article published on the Radio Netherlands web site today. It’s an interview with Farish Noor. He’s clearly an example of a Muslim who embodies nuanced thinking about his religion, and rightly warns against an over-simplistic interpretation of the Koran as evidenced by much of the media, and the Dutch right-wing parties in particular.
All the same, I couldn’t help but be slightly taken aback by one thing in the article:
Labour party member Ehsan Jami established a committee of ex-Muslims in order to support the right of Muslims to leave Islam. What do you think of his initiative?"If someone decides to leave his religion, then this is his fundamental freedom of choice and the Labour party should support it of course. But the party has to be careful not to give the impression that it only supports apostates. I wanted to meet Ehsan Jami, but unfortunately he could not make it. If there is one thing I would like to tell him it is that he should be very careful not to be used by the right wing by implying that the only good Muslim is an ex-Muslim. He should not forget that progressive Muslims like myself and many others have been fighting since a long time for the freedom of Muslims to leave Islam. And we paid the price for it. A friend of mine had his house bombed. I have lived with death threats for 10 years. People have come to my house to kill me. When people like Jami start to distort the debate in this manner, it may put back our effort 30 years."
Erm, who is distorting the debate here?
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