Islam's non-believers: a film by Deeyah Khan
“I remember saying
to my mum, ‘I don’t think I believe in God any more,’ And her saying, ‘You
can’t tell anybody else because they’ll kill you, we are obliged to kill
ex-Muslims,’ and that it would put me at extreme risk if anybody else was to
find out, so that conversation ended there.” – Sadia, a former Muslim. See video of panel discussion
This new documentary
by Fuuse Films investigates the lives of ex-Muslims, who face extreme
discrimination, ostracism, psychological abuse and violence as a result of
leaving Islam.
Islam’s
Non-Believers paints a
vivid picture of the dangers facing those who renounce their faith. Some are at
risk of suicide, or self-harm, or have been physically and psychologically
abused by their closest family members. Most are terrified of being shunned by
their own family and friends if their true beliefs become known.
Made by award-winning
film-maker Deeyah Khan, who also directed the Bafta nominated Jihad - A
British Story and Emmy award
winning Banaz:
A Love Story, finds that many young British ex-Muslims live in the
shadows hiding their true beliefs, running huge risks if they ‘come out’ as
atheists within their religious communities. Some of those who speak in the
film have asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.
The film follows the
Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, a volunteer support group led by Iranian-born
activist Maryam Namazie which supports ex-Muslims, often referred to as
apostates or unbelievers, both in the UK and abroad. Maryam says: “They
see us as people who are troublemakers, deviants, apostates and blasphemers…
There is nothing, nothing more intolerant than religion.”
One ex-Muslim, Sadia,
talks about her brother Razaa, who killed himself. She says it was partly
because he felt sidelined and misunderstood by his community all his life, one
reason being his atheism. She says: “I feel like when you leave Islam, your
intelligence gets attacked. They make you feel like you’re stupid for making
such a decision, which he felt like his entire life. Leaving Islam, becoming an
ex-Muslim, all of a sudden you feel like you’re dirty, and you become
unimportant within the community.”
Dr Omer El-Hamdoon
from the Muslim Association of Britain says people can leave the religion of
their own free will and should not be punished. But he says it is not
surprising that those who do leave are shunned. He says: “The Muslim
community is a community based on religion, so if a person chooses to stop
being a Muslim they can’t really expect that the Muslim community is still
going to say to them, ‘You are still part of our community.’”
The documentary also
highlights how the danger for ex-Muslims who live in Islamic countries can be
even higher. Apostasy carries the death penalty in a dozen Islamic countries.
Atheists face a double threat – persecution by their own government, and the
risk of murder at the hands of Islamist gangs.
Bonya Ahmed, whose writer
and blogger husband Avijit Roy was brutally killed in the streets of
Bangladesh, speaks about the attack and how she is trying to rebuild her life
in America. Avijit was murdered because he spoke out against religious
fundamentalism. They are just two of many atheist bloggers and intellectuals
who have been attacked by Islamist gangs wielding machetes in Bangladesh.
Also featured is an
international network of atheist writers, bloggers, academics, intellectuals
and artists who form a resistance movement against what they see as the growing
oppression, violence and political power of Islamic fundamentalists. Many live
in Muslim countries where leaving Islam carries the risk of prosecution,
violence and discrimination. Arif Rahman, a
Bangladeshi blogger now in hiding in London, says he sees the bloggers as part
of a resistance movement against religious extremism. He says: “When we
started writing in 2006, we did not think that people would be killed over
this. And in 2013 our first colleague Ahmed Rajab Haidar, he was an architect,
was hacked to death in front of his house. That was the first time we realised
this was real this could potentially happen.”
The documentary finds
that a number of senior British Bangladeshi imams, mainstream figures in
society, have called for the execution of atheist bloggers in Bangladesh,
claiming they have insulted Islam, and making a number of anti-atheist
statements. The film hears from
Rayhana Sultan, a young ex-Muslim from Bangladesh who is a passionate activist
with the CEMB. She says preaching like this can further intimidate ex-Muslims,
forcing them back into the closet. She says: “These kind of lectures
create an environment that subconsciously teaches devout Muslims to see
ex-Muslims or anyone who thinks out of the box as a threat, further ostracizing
them, de-humanizing them, bullying them, so it further creates so much dangers
for people to come out as an ex-Muslim.”
Imad Habib, from
Maryam’s CEMB organisation, is filmed on his way to help two girls escape from
their Muslim family while they are on holiday in London. He says he had
undertaken a similar journey – after he came out publicly as an ex-Muslim, he
had to leave Morocco to escape prosecution by the authorities and attacks by
religious extremists. He says: “First of all you suffer, you suffer, there
is no one to help you, if you speak out at any moment you are going to be at
risk, you speak out you feel afraid that anyone might find out who you are
really, it is a really risky journey that those people take.”
This documentary sees
how ex-Muslims continue to struggle to be heard and to express themselves, with
religious fundamentalist protesters often trying to shut down their talks and
events. This documentary film identifies these as a part of a growing international
movement which is confronting religious extremism both in the UK and the
Islamic world. Maryam says they remain defiant: “The internet and social
media is doing to Islam what the printing press did in the past to
Christianity, because it’s one way in which masses of people can connect with
each other, can hear ideas that are taboo and forbidden.”
http://fuuse.net/islams-non-believers/