Mick Hartley

Today is International Apostasy Day. At the National Secular Society, Dr Ben Jones reflects on his recent research into "the experiences of ex-Muslims and their increasingly precarious position in Britain":

That former Muslims face persecution across the world, including in Britain, will not be news to anyone who has followed the work of the National Secular Society or the Council of ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB), or read the books of Ayaan Hirsi Ali. But the extent of the persecution they face in Britain is poorly understood, as is the extent of apostasy from Islam: I lost count of the number of times I explained what my research was about, to a reaction of incredulity than anybody left, or was able to leave, Islam.

Yet research suggests that as many as 7% of children raised in the United Kingdom as Muslims will leave the religion by adulthood. This is a small figure compared with other religions, which shed followers at devastating rates: Islam and atheism are uniquely successful at transmitting belief and values from parent to child. But that 7% is equivalent to hundreds of thousands of former Muslims living in Britain today.

Perhaps the threats against prospective apostates has some bearing on that low 7% figure. Just a thought.

Of that number, some have become high profile public activists, some for secular atheism like the CEMB, or for Christianity. The latter include street preacher Hatun Tash, who was lucky to escape with her life after a knife attack and a separate plot to buy a gun to murder her. In in a dark irony, her would-be assassin Edward Little was a convert to Islam….

Farah, also 19, compared her situation as a secret apostate to that of Winston Smith in 1984: "I live in a very Muslim area and it's impossible to detect other ex-Muslims since you can't just go up to people and ask them if they're ex-Muslim.

The process of finding other apostates in real life parallels 1984. It's like when Winston observes other characters looking for signs of 'unorthodoxy' that would prove that they're against the party. Maybe, that hijabi who is too passionate about women's rights is an apostate or that guy who attends every Friday prayer, you don't really know."

And the consequences of getting it wrong, and outing yourself to the wrong person, could be disastrous.

The latest challenge for apostate Muslims to face: the threat of new "Islamophobia" laws. 

But by far the most dangerous threat on the horizon for ex-Muslims (and many other people besides) is the definition of 'Islamophobia' being advanced by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims. This definition, among other things, brands as Islamophobic anyone who makes "mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Muslims".

How does that leave the ex-Muslim who draws a link between the treatment they suffered and the treatment suffered by tens of thousands of others? Would drawing an adverse inference about the entire religion from this overwhelming data be branded as Islamophobic on the basis of stereotyping? If translated into law, as seems possible under a new government, ex-Muslims' strident criticisms of Islam and elements of the Muslim communities they grew up in could well be criminalised as hate crimes.

The definition would also prohibit "claims of Muslims spreading Islam by the sword". Which again, if translated into law, could easily criminalise Iranian dissidents who celebrate and mourn pre-Islamic Persia, or mainstream historians like Tom Holland who have written about the early Islamic conquests and the wars of Muhammad's followers against the Eastern Roman Empire. Indeed, the definition is so inimical to freedom of speech that it has united no two more disparate figures in opposition than one of religion's staunchest critics, Richard Dawkins, and Tim Dieppe of Christian Concern.

Ex-Muslims are in the unenviable position of being canaries in the coal mine for the rest of us: if ex-Muslims cannot speak freely then none of us can. If they cannot criticise or satirise religion, nobody else is safe to. Their warnings should be heeded most urgently.