Mick Hartley

From the Mail:

Young Muslims who abandon their faith face violent retaliation and abuse from their families, a support group said yesterday.

The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain said those born into the religion are often frightened of speaking out – and those that do are in danger of attack.

It said one former Muslim said she was warned by her mother that she would be killed if she said she no longer believed in Allah.

The concern over the risk of reprisals against apostates – those who renounce their religion – was made public at a time of deepening scrutiny of the behaviour of some Islamic communities and institutions.

The risks to Muslims who abandon their religion were set out by former believers and campaigners in an ITV documentary to be broadcast on October 13.

Council of Ex-Muslims leader Maryam Namazie told the makers of the film, Exposure: Islam's Non-Believers: 'They see us trouble-makers, deviants, apostates and blasphemers. There is nothing, nothing, more intolerant than religion.'

One former Muslim, who identified herself only as Sadia, told the documentary makers: 'I remember saying to my mum, I don't believe in God any more. And her saying, 'you can't tell anybody else because they'll kill you, we are obliged to kill ex-Muslims'.

'And that it would put me at extreme risk if anybody else was to find out, so that conversation ended there.'

Young Muslims who renounce their faith are said by campaigners to risk discrimination, ostracism, psychological abuse and violence. Some are said to have suffered abuse by family members and to be in danger of suicide or self-harm.

There's nothing new here, but it's good to see this stuff get more exposure – even if it is in the Daily Mail.

Meanwhile, here's Maryam Namazie at The Freethinker – The Disappeared: The veil and the erasure of the female body:

When I was 12 years old, soon after the Islamists took power in Iran, their thugs came to my school to keep boys and girls separate in the playground.

Even at 12, we girls were seen to be the source of chaos and fitnah in society.

This Islamist obsession with sexualising the girl child and controlling the female body seeps into and rots everything. In September 2013, for example, the Islamic assembly in Iran passed a law allowing for step-fathers to marry their adopted daughters arguing that since she is not a “real” child and will need to be veiled upon reaching puberty, the “marriage” will allow her to remain unveiled in the home.

The veil and gender segregation are regularly promoted as a deterrent – ie if women and men mix freely, women will lead men astray and will need to be stoned to death for adultery so better to prevent it from the get go.

Improper veiling is also blamed for rape: since men have not “granted” women permission to “show off their beauty”, men who become “aroused by women’s ‘nakedness’ need no permission to pursue their sexual urges”.

The veil is central to the Islamist project for the control and complete erasure of the female body from the public space….

Despite the sinister and oppressive campaigns to put women in their “place”, here in the west, discussions around the hijab are sanitised, says Nushin Arbabzadah.

There is never a mention of how veiling has been imposed on the back of slogans like “death to the unveiled woman” and “either the veil or a beating”. Women have been intimidated, terrorised and shamed into wearing the veil, including via acid-attacks and assassinations. ISIS rips off the skin of women who violate veiling rules.

Even in places where it isn’t compulsory, there is immense pressure. In Turkey, a young nurse wearing shorts on a bus was recently attacked for her “immoral” dress. In Malaysia, salon owners are giving warnings against posters of unveiled women’s hairstyles. In Britain, “improperly” veiled girls are called hoejabis. And every day, the fatwa factories and propaganda machinery churn out further warnings to ensure that women toe the line.

Namazie, of course, will look in vain for any support here from the left – the regressive left, that is. That would be "Islamophobic".

I've argued before that this is, basically, a feminist issue. As Namazie herself discovered last year, however, she'll get no help from that quarter. In last year's Goldsmiths debacle the feminist society came down firmly on the side of the Islamists who'd intimidated her.

The message from western feminists to their Muslim sisters is clear: you're on your own.