London (CNSNews.com)– Sweeping legal challenges must be made against the creeping introduction of Islamic law (shari’a) in the United Kingdom, the head of a new body of former Muslims said here Friday.
The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, a group bringing together former adherents of the Islamic faith as well as humanists, held its first international conference in London. Several speakers decried the rise of what they called “political Islam” across Europe.
Maryam Namazie, head of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, told Friday’s audience of several hundred that shari’a courts were part of the growing influence felt by politically motivated Islamists.
Namazie, a feminist and communist activist who left her native Iran several years ago, charged that the courts victimize poor, immigrant women, forcing them to remain in situations where domestic abuse was common.
By bowing to political correctness, she said, the British government had abetted a terrible situation.
“Opposing shari’a is not racism,” she said. “It’s racist to demand backward, medieval laws for people living in the 20th century.”
The council wanted humanists and secularists to band together to legally challenge Islamic tribunals, taking their argument to the European Court of Human Rights.
Namazie and other speakers said countries such as Germany and Sweden were becoming more accepting of Islamic law. Roy Brown, who represents the International Humanist and Ethical Union at the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, said influential Islamic countries have been successful at shaping debate in the Geneva-based council.
“We’ve been told not to mention Islam,” he said. “We’ve been told not to mention shari’a.”
Members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a grouping of Islamic countries, hold one-third of the seats in the 47-member Human Rights Council. The OIC has come under fire for promoting resolutions at the council and other U.N. bodies seeking to oulaw what it calls the “defamation” of Islam.
Throughout the day, speaker after speaker railed against the British government’s decision to increase the number of state-funded faith schools of all religions.
To combat the rise of shari’a, they agreed that humanism should be promoted both in Britain and around the world, sidelining the influence of religion.
In which I believe that they are very wrong. It is the faith of Christians, Jews Sikhs, Buddhists and Hindus which has the strength to overpower that which threatens us. People of faith will die for that faith.  I admire the courage of former Muslims in becoming apostates and I think the Council of ex-Muslims deserves support and should be listened to. Of course it is not racist to oppose the human rights abuses of sharia law, not to mention cultural abuses like FGM.
However I would be surprised to find humanists dieing for their belief in nothing. I fear when push comes to shove many (not all, there will be honourable exceptions) will recite the shahada and dissemble.