Separation of Mosque and State
The following video is of the St. Petersburg Declaration from the Secular Islam Summit, read in English by Ibn Warraq.
You can also see it read in Arabic, Bengali, and Farsi.
You can find the full text here, but here are the essential points:
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 apostasy, 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.
If you live near a mosque, you may wish to ask the leaders there whether they support the declaration, and if not, then why not. Certainly, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has nothing positive to say:
April 7th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
The second dialog engenders some hope for a future free of human persecution. I often think that too many people in American and other societies are so blinded by their upbringing and the biases within them that they fail to even entertain the possibility that there are Muslims in the world that are free thinkers, that are not terrorists, that long for freedom and universal human rights observance.
While I agree that practicing Muslims should be present when working towards reform, I also feel that having voices from every belief or non-belief is equally important. The issue is not strictly and Islamic one. The issue of secular governments is a global issue that affects every man, woman, and child on the planet. The only solution (in my humble opinion) is for all people to work cooperatively to better our world in every way possible.
Thank you so much for sharing this.