Dear Western Atheists

[Lebneni Murtad]

As u know from my profile and threads that I am an ex-Muslim, we ex-muslim atheists value your courage and bravery for being critical of Christianity, Christian fundies, young earth creationists.
But you folks have freedom of expression, we atheists living in Muslim countries have no rights, we are the most likely to be killed by ISIL & Al Qaeda, before they invade USA, France, UK Germany etc.
I think it is about time to wage war against Islam, there are millions of us in Arab & Islamic countries.
And I know how atheists are very vocal, and you should use your voices to help us with reforming our laws in the Arab world.
Thank you, in advance.

[Minimalist]

No one can give you freedom.  You have to fight for it.

To quote Thomas Paine:

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.


But Paine also noted, and this is more the problem besetting the Islamic world:

Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.


The West had to endure a century+ of religious warfare culminating in the 30 Year's War before xtians of all stripes had enough.  There are no shortcuts.

[Shell B]

Yeah, it takes a lot of resistance. I'm sure you'll have the support of Western Atheists, but the fight has to start at home. If there aren't enough people there to combat the negative impact of Islam, then it'll never work.

[Minimalist]

The problem with western assistance is the terrible legacy of colonialism.  As we (should have) learned in Iraq and Afghanistan the one thing that makes these people stop fighting each other is to have a western army in their midst.  It's just too easy for the power structure to say "SEE!  Here they come AGAIN."  Throw in an asswipe like Dubya with his Crusades references and the whole thing goes to shit in no time.

[Aoi Magi]

The cause behind religion is ignorance, and it's supporting pillar is poverty. Seek to eliminate these two and religion will fall on it's own.

[Shell B]

The problem with western assistance is the terrible legacy of colonialism.  As we (should have) learned in Iraq and Afghanistan the one thing that makes these people stop fighting each other is to have a western army in their midst.  It's just too easy for the power structure to say "SEE!  Here they come AGAIN."  Throw in an asswipe like Dubya with his Crusades references and the whole thing goes to shit in no time.

Yeah, I mean support more in terms of "we believe in you!" Atheists can't just form an army and go into the Middle East. These people really need to have to want to stop fighting.

[AceBoogie]

As u know from my profile and threads that I am an ex-Muslim, we ex-muslim atheists value your courage and bravery for being critical of Christianity, Christian fundies, young earth creationists.
But you folks have freedom of expression, we atheists living in Muslim countries have no rights, we are the most likely to be killed by ISIL & Al Qaeda, before they invade USA, France, UK Germany etc.
I think it is about time to wage war against Islam, there are millions of us in Arab & Islamic countries.
And I know how atheists are very vocal, and you should use your voices to help us with reforming our laws in the Arab world.
Thank you, in advance.

Unfortunately this is something that predominantly Muslim countries are going to have to fight from within. Atheism is still terribly unpopular even in the United States, trailing far behind places like Norway, Switzerland, I think even Italy now has more people who consider themselves "nonbelievers" than the US... yes the place where the Vatican lies has more nonbelievers than the United States...

Couple this with the fact that our overly politically correct culture has made it taboo to criticize any religions that are not "western" and we're all left in a horribly futile position.

I wish I knew which angle was best to attack this problem from. I would argue that it all starts with teaching children the skills of critical thinking. We need to get creationism and all this other nonsense out of schools. That's fine if you want to teach your children historically incorrect bullshit at home, but don't bring it into the public schools system.

I think we all need to encourage our children to ask questions. Question authority. Find out what makes sense to them. Not just push them into believing something just because we say it's true. For example I don't think I would ever tell my niece that there is no god... I would however, if she was the appropriate age, explain that I don't really believe in that stuff and maybe give her my reasons as to why.

I think we also need to enforce a strict separation of church and state and begin taxing churches.

As far as waging war on Islam... I just don't know how realistic that is.

We all have to fight this war, if we choose to, on our own personal level.

[Crunchy]

Yeah, it takes a lot of resistance. I'm sure you'll have the support of Western Atheists, but the fight has to start at home. If there aren't enough people there to combat the negative impact of Islam, then it'll never work.

I wish this were true but from what I see Islam gets a free ride in an armored car from Western Liberals, even liberal atheists. They conflate race with religion at every turn.
Christian opposition never had to deal with accusations of racism (just satanism) but even ex Muslims like Ayaan Hirsi Ali are dogged by accusations of bigotry and she was mutilated by Islam.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyath...xtremists/

[Shell B]

I don't think that's true in general, but only going by experience. I'm not sure I've met an atheist who would call an ex-Muslim a bigot based solely on the fact that they're ex-Muslims.

[Minimalist]

I wish this were true but from what I see Islam gets a free ride in an armored car from Western Liberals, even liberal atheists. They conflate race with religion at every turn.

Overstated.  There are some to be sure but I have no use for any asshole who believes in invisible sky-daddies and, when last I checked, "assholes" were not a race.