The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain or CEMB (pronounced as ''see-em-BEE'') is the British branch of the

Central Council of Ex-Muslims Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

.Jonathan Petre
New group for those who renounce Islam
, ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'', 21 June 2007 It was launched in

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

on 22 June 2007.

Manifesto

The CEMB in its

manifesto A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent ...

states that its members do not desire to be "represented by regressive Islamic organisations and 'Muslim community leaders'". It says that by the choice of members to openly publish their names and photographs, they act as representatives of many other apostates who fear coming out in public due to death threats they expect to receive. The CEMB members state they are both breaking the

taboo A taboo is a social group's ban, prohibition or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, offensive, sacred or allowed only for certain people.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

of quitting Islam and "taking a stand for reason, universal rights and values, and secularism". The Council in its manifesto also demands several things such as freedom to criticise religion, separation of religion from the state and the "protection of children from manipulation and abuse by religion and religious institutions".

History

The Council plans to protest against Islamic states that still punish Muslim apostates with death under the

Sharia Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...

law, as prescribed by the scriptures of that religion. The Council is led by

Maryam Namazie Maryam Namazie (; born 1966) is a British-Iranian secularist, communist and human rights activist, commentator, and broadcaster. She is the Spokesperson for Fitnah – Movement for Women’s Liberation, One Law for All and the Council of Ex-Musl ...

, who was awarded ''

Secularist of the Year Secularist of the Year, also known as the Irwin Prize, is an award presented annually in the United Kingdom by the National Secular Society in "recognition of an individual or an organisation considered to have made an outstanding contribution to t ...

'' in 2005 and has faced death threats. The

British Humanist Association Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent non-religious people in the UK through a mixture of charitable servic ...

and

National Secular Society The National Secular Society (NSS) is a British campaigning organisation that promotes secularism and the separation of church and state. It holds that no one should gain advantage or disadvantage because of their religion or lack of it. The Soc ...

sponsored the launch and support the new organisation. The activists of the organisation, many of whom are Iranian exiles, support the freedom to criticise religion and the end to what they call "religious intimidation and threats", Namazie says they have 4,000 users on their forum and assist around 350 people a year, "the majority of whom have faced threats for having left Islam – either by their families or by Islamists".

Activities

The CEMB seeks to provide a safe haven for ex-Muslims in trouble, raise awareness about the problems surrounding apostasy, blasphemy, homophobia, sexism and other forms of repression, intolerance and discrimination in Islam, organises and attends public protests and online campaigns for the human rights of ex-Muslims and other victims of Islamism, hosts a weekly television programme called ''Bread and Roses TV'', and holds an annual Secular Conference.

#ExMuslimBecause

In November 2015, the CEMB launched the social media campaign #ExMuslimBecause, encouraging ex-Muslims to

come out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

as apostates, and explain why they left Islam. Within two weeks, the hashtag had been used over 1,000 times. While proponents argued that it should be possible to freely question and criticise Islam, opponents claimed the campaign was amongst other things 'hateful'.

CEMB at Pride

On 8 July 2017, the CEMB took part in the

Pride in London Pride in London is an annual LGBT pride festival and pride parade held each summer in London, England. The event, which was formerly run by Pride London, is sometimes referred to as London Pride. Pride in London celebrates the diversity of the ...

march for the first time in order to highlight the fact that 13 states under Islamic rule (14 if

Daesh The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signif ...

-held territories were included) impose the

death penalty for homosexuality Capital punishment as a criminal punishment for homosexuality has been implemented by a number of countries in their history. It is a legal punishment in several countries and regions, all of which have Islamic-based criminal laws, except for ...

, and many of these also execute apostates and blasphemers if they criticise or leave the religion. Afterwards, the CEMB was the subject of a complaint from the orthodox

East London Mosque The East London Mosque (ELM) is situated in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets between Whitechapel and Aldgate East. Combined with the adjoining London Muslim Centre and Maryam Centre, it is one of the largest mosques in Western Europe accomm ...

(ELM) and others about CEMB's placards used during the march, with claims they were "Islamophobic" and "incited hate", in breach of Pride's guidelines. They specifically objected to one banner that suggested their

Masjid A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were simple p ...

incited murder - the placard read "East London Mosque incites murder of LGBT." Namazie responded that the term 'Islamophobia' is abused to conflate '

criticism of Islam Criticism of Islam can take many forms, including academic critiques, political criticism, religious criticism, and personal opinions. Subjects of criticism include Islamic beliefs, practices, and doctrines. Criticism of Islam has been present ...

or the political Islamic movement or

Islamic State The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadism, Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS ...

ith The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometers, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is i ...

bigotry and racism.' She stated that 'we’re obviously opposed to bigotry ourselves. We need to stand up to racism and bigotry and at the same time we should be able to criticise religion and the religious right.' 'Pride is full of ‘God is gay’ and ‘Jesus had two fathers’ placards as well as those mocking the church and priests and pope, yet hold a sign saying ‘Allah is gay’ – as we did – and the police converge to attempt to remove them for causing offence.' After a brief inquiry into the 'Allah is gay' placards, London police allowed the CEMB protesters to proceed. Pride in London organisers launched an investigation into the matter, with a spokesperson saying: "If anyone taking part in our parade makes someone feel ostracised, discriminated against or humiliated, then they are undermining and breaking the very principles on which we exist. Our code of conduct is very clear on this matter... We will not tolerate Islamophobia." The row escalated when Pride organisers published a statement in August along the same lines, and CEMB responded with a fierce statement criticising the policy of Pride organisers, whom they accused of 'a cultural relativism and tone policing that is only applicable to critics of Islam and never ocritics of Christianity,' and ' uyinginto the Islamist narrative that betrays the persecuted and defends the persecutors. This is a politics that rewards bullies and blames victims.' CEMB went on to highlight instances of homophobia committed by the East London Mosque, for which the mosque apologised and promised not to let it happen again.

Peter Tatchell Peter Gary Tatchell (born 25 January 1952) is an Australian-born British human rights campaigner, best known for his work with LGBT social movements. Tatchell was selected as the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party's Parliament of the United Kingdo ...

, co-organiser of the first Pride in London in 1972 and Patron of Pride in London, came out in support of CEMB, while confirming the ELM's track record of homophobic incidents. Several other prominent activists such as atheism advocate professor

Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biology, evolutionary biologist, zoologist, science communicator and author. He is an Oxford fellow, emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was Simonyi Professor for the Publ ...

and Muslim reformist

Maajid Nawaz Maajid Usman Nawaz (; born 2 November 1977) is a British activist and former radio presenter. He was the founding chairman of the think tank Quilliam. Until January 2022, he was the host of an LBC radio show on Saturdays and Sundays. Born in ...

sided with CEMB as well. 8 months later, Pride organisers met with CEMB and agreed to let them participate again in future Pride marches.

''Bread and Roses TV''

''Nano GoleSorkh'' (Persian) or ''Bread and Roses TV'' (English) is the CEMB's weekly bilingual television programme and YouTube channel. It is hosted by Maryam Namazie and Fariborz Pooya. The programme aims to promote freethought and break religious taboos around the world. A typical episode is about 25 minutes long, features news about ex-Muslims and human rights issues around the world, an interview with a prominent atheist or secularist activist, the "Insane Fatwa of the Week", and a "Slice of Life".

Secular Conference

Since 2014, the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain has organised a Secular Conference to discuss issues relating to the situation of ex-Muslims, how to strengthen and grow the movement and how to address Islam, Islamism and other opponents of ex-Muslims, such as Western

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

and

regressive left Regressive left, also referred to as regressive liberals or regressive leftists, is a pejorative term to describe by its proponents a branch of left-wing politics that is accused of being accepting of, or sympathetic to, views that conflict wi ...

groups. The 2017 conference was claimed to be "the largest gathering of ex-Muslims in history". * 2014 Secular Conference: Religious Right, Secularism and Civil Rights Conference * 2015 Secular Conference: Sharia Law, Apostasy and Secularism Conference * 2016 Secular Conference: Sharia Law, Legal Pluralism and Access to Justice Conference * 2017 Secular Conference: International Conference on Freedom of Conscience and Expression * 2018 Secular Conference: International Conference on Sharia, Segregation and Secularism

News coverage

The courage of their convictions
-

Guardian Unlimited ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

NSS supports the launch of the Ex-Muslim Council of Britain
-

References

External links

*
''Bread and Roses TV'' / ''Nano GoleSorkh''Secular Conference
{{Authority control Organizations established in 2007 Former Muslims organizations Anti-Islam sentiment in the United Kingdom Articles containing video clips