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LINK A question of faith: Atheism as grounds for asylum - InfoMigrants

Technically, the issue of atheism and its repercussions in the Islamic world in particular should be more familiar in legal and political circles: In 2006, the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of Parliament, published a research paper entitled "Freedom of religion and apostasy in Islam."

The paper says that "not believing in God is regarded as the worst kind of sin in the Quran," stressing that while it only mentions punishment in the afterlife, the reality across the Islamic world is rather different due to religious interpretation.

The document also highlights the case of Afghan refugee Abdul Rahman, who, because of his conversion to Christianity, was sentenced to death in Afghanistan and was later granted asylum in Italy.

zblaze 7 May 11
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5 comments

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First off, great post and thank you.
I'd argue the problem is that being closeted in other minorities is incredibly difficult in comparison to atheism. And though non-believers are the largest and fastest growing minority group, politically speaking, choice is belief seems to be viewed as a small issue. Maybe this is because I have always lived in the US, but where freedom of religion and free speech seemed to be the first things the founders thought of when creating our government, it seems maybe we have become complacent because we have had it for so long. I don't know too much about this or have a good answer. But this is a great post and I'd love to hear more thoughts on this to help me develop my own. Because I do believe this is an important topic.

Atheists as a minority recieve the most vial acceptance because how could anyone reject god.They religious cannot conceive of anyone being a good person that does not believe in god ie they do not judge by what you do but what you believe.

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The evangelicals would still like to burn us at the stake, minimum sentence.

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Given the fact that disavowing belief in Allah is grounds for execution in most Islamic countries, it MUST be legitimate grounds for asylum in the U.S.

I would've count on it. Especially today.

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I don't know why you put this up here. Don't you think that Muslims get enough of flak without this? If you want to talk about religion and the people who insist on it being the only thing that matter and punishment, how about you talk about the Spanish Inquisition. That was really horrific and lasted for 600 years, and to this day there are still "Christians" who flagellate themselves and others for their sins until blood flows.

I agree that Atheism is equally disapproving of all faiths for both violence and magical thinking

@Beach_slim No I am not attacking any religion, just point out what is happening around the world. Don't you realise that our governments are happy with us being preoccupied with some or other religion or race, so we do not pay attention to the horrible things that they do.

This is a good question and deserves to be posted. the problems with Christianity both past and present only serves to prove the problems religion can bring to open and honest conversation as well as the misery it does all over the world. Muslims need to challenge there religious institutions as much or even more then some.

@River-david They do, however we do not hear about it because our press doesn't want us to see them as being less than human.

All religions must be exposed for the frauds they are. All religions must burn.

Muslim, christian and jewish are all Abrahamic religions. Same roots. All bullshit.

@Bakunin Well, I guess that you don't like that people get angry, upset or anything els about the fact that you are an agnostic. How about letting people believe in what they want to believe without getting aggressive or nasty about it, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone.

@Jolanta people can believe whatever they want. But religion has started many wars, the Inquisition , the crusades, the "peace loving" Buddhists oppressing muslims in Myanmar.

The rack, thumb screws, the lead boot. Vlad the Impaler all in the name of religion.

Not to mention the fuckers that wake me up on my day off by knocking on my door with some kind of inane message to attempt to "save me".

Atheists NEVER EVER do this. I don't proselytize my atheism. Why do religious zealots have to push their filthy tripe??? I hate it. It DOES hurt people. Millions upon millions.

@TheMiddleWay I like your reasoning, even if I do not completely agree with it.

Politics and religion are my two natural enemies and I have to try hard not to bristle when confronted by them. This is where my anger comes from.

Yes, I am a die hard atheist and want reason and science to back up facts, rather than someones ancient outdated collection of fanciful texts and scriptures. And I want the same from my politics. If you expect me to respect your heirarchical structure, then you need to prove it's necessity to me. Sometimes top down structures work well, but they shouldn't be automatic.

As there are plenty of jihadists blowing themselves up in suicide attacks these days, and as we have bombed many thousands of civillians there certainly seems to be a corollation there. That to me is a holy war of sorts.

If 5000 people were killed in defense of religion during the inquisition, isn't that the same thing? People died for a belief that is untenable.

Vlad may not have killed directly along religious lines, as politics and religion were quite blurry then, but he was christian and many of those impaled were muslim Turks. Just saying.

@Bakunin You know many a people who say they are christians never set foot in a church except to go to wedding, funerals and baptism.

@Jolanta I rarely target religion or religious peoples beliefs outside of "safe" venues, like this agnostic site, punk rock clubs (which are exceedingly rare anymore) and similar places where I won't get my ass kicked. I do encourage intelligent debate with religious people.

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Personally, deep in my heart of hearts, I would prefer to grant asylum to atheists over religious believers.

Me Too! lol

How about granting them asylum on humanitarian grounds and not worry about what they believe in, after all if the US and its "friends" would stop invading and bombing countries the problem would not be here.

@Jolanta violent belief matters. ....I agree humanitarian grounds should be enough for Atheist asylum seekers BUT xians still harm gay teens inside USA muslims are throwing gays off tops of roofs and Hindu widows are being thrown on funeral pyres to burn alive with dead husbands. ...religion IS FUCKED UP violent and terroristic

@Jolanta, with atheists you'd be worrying about what they 'don't' believe......

@GreenAtheist You know what you are saying is partly true, however you make it out to be the norm which it is not. Very few muslim countries do this and Hindu widows are not being thrown of funeral pyres to burn alive with dead husbands. They used to do it themselves once upon a time but that is no longer so.

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