The Central Committee for Ex-Muslims ( nl, Centraal Comité voor Ex-moslims) was a Dutch committee that aimed to aid

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

s who wish to leave

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

through the constitutional right of freedom of religion. In addition, the committee fought to break the taboo on apostasy in the Muslim world as well as started a debate on the violation of women's rights in Islamic societies. The committee has urged the Dutch government to offer help to ex-Muslims in exile.

Ehsan Jami Ehsan Jami (born April 20, 1985) is an Iranian-born Iranian-Dutch politician, activist and author who co-founded the former Central Committee for Ex-Muslims. He was previously a member of the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) before becoming active in ...

( Labour Party) and Loubna Berrada ( People's Party for Freedom and Democracy), founded the committee in 2007, with the help of several advisors and other former Muslims and critics of

. The committee officially started its activities in September 2007 after announcing its foundation to the Dutch public in a broadcast on

NPO Radio 1 NPO Radio 1 is a public-service radio channel in the Netherlands, broadcasting mainly news and sport. It is part of the Netherlands Public Broadcasting system, NPO. History The channel originated in 1947 as "Hilversum 2", and transmitted using ...

on 2 May 2007. During the broadcast, Jami announced a wish to offer a helping hand to Muslims who want to abandon their religion since Islamic society does not allow apostasy. Jami pointed out abandoning Islam is an option in most Muslim societies, as long as it is not spoken out and one continues to act as though one is still a believer. Open apostasy in Islamic societies, Jami explained, leads to expulsion and death threats - a manner of conduct he strongly opposes. Later that week, Jami appeared on Dutch television show ' Schepper & Co' defending his remarks by pointing out he, as a politician, has the duty to verbalise worries that exist in society, thereby making full use of Dutch society's

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...

. ''Sharia schools say that they will kill the ones who leave Islam'', Jami said. Gaining support from the Dutch government to permit freedom of conscience is a fundamental aspect of the committee's action plan. Co-founder Berrada quit the committee in June 2007 because she felt Jami acted 'unwise' by criticising the religion of Islam itself, stating: "I don't think it's convenient to question Islam itself. Unwise. I don't want to get involved in that. Keep

he message He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

thus: you should be able to quit Islam without being threatened. That's it." In an August 2007 interview, she said that ' you riticise the Quran and the prophet you will offend lots of people. That will not help in furthering the debate. We are simply not yet at that stage, this must be done step by step.' In 2008 Ehsan Jami announced to dismantle the committee because – according to him – sympathizers had been threatened and therefore feared the consequences of becoming a member.{{cite web, url=http://www.nu.nl/algemeen/1528962/ehsan-jami-heft-comite-ex-moslims-op-video.html, title=Ehsan Jami heft comité ex-moslims op (video), work=Nu.nl , date=16 April 2008 , accessdate=8 April 2019, language=Dutch

References

Islam in the Netherlands Organisations based in the Netherlands Organizations established in 2007 Former Muslims organizations 2007 establishments in the Netherlands Secularism in the Netherlands Anti-Islam sentiment in the Netherlands

See also

References