Former Muslims unite themselves in new platform in the Netherlands

Posted : Wed, 02 May 2007 11:32:00GMT
Author : DPA

Amsterdam - Youngsters who renounced Islam have united themselves in a new platform, the Central Committee for Ex-Muslims, reports said Wednesday.

Ehsan Jami, one of the founders of the committee and a city council member for the PvdA Labour Party in Leidschendam-Voorburg, a small city near The Hague, said the committee aimed to help other so- called Muslims apostates. According to Jami, people who officially renounced their Muslim faith often received death threats from former co-religionists.

The committee also aims to discuss issues like domestic violence and the violation of women's rights in the Muslim world, Jami said on Wednesday in the news radio broadcast De Ochtenden. The platform called on the Dutch government to assist former Muslims receiving death threats.

Former Iranian refugee Afshin Ellian, a well-known professor in international law and philosophy who plays an active role in the ongoing public debate about Islam, immigrants and democracy in the Netherlands, has agreed to help the Committee.