21 March 2007

Cologne, Germany (dpa) - A group of former Muslims in Germany who have formed a society of atheists have been sent threatening letters, have been pronounced fit for death and have been given police bodyguards.

Mina Ahadi, an Iranian-born woman, founded the society in Cologne with 10 sympathizers several weeks ago and called it the National Council of Ex-Muslims. At the end of February she called a news conference in Berlin to publicly pronounce herself non-Islamic.

The police have assigned plainclothes bodyguards to protect her ever since.

"I'm a target," said Ahadi, 50. She said members had received letters telling them they would be shot in the back. When she went online with a fierce attack on Islamic organizations, somebody circulated a statement suggesting she was fit to be killed, she said.

Mainstream Muslims have not stooped to such behaviour, but have coolly set out why they think Ahadi is wrong. Ahadi, who has lived in Germany since 1996, has also received a degree of support.

"We are going to get involved in politics, oppose women wearing head-scarves, oppose building plans for mosques," she said. Referring to practices many Germans believe are typical of Islam, she said, "We'll stop honour killings, stop people being stoned to death."

"The basis of Islam is inhumane and anti-woman," asserted Ahadi. "We want to make clear that the 3 million to 3.5 million people from Islamic nations who live in Germany are people first of all and should not be branded primarily as 'Muslim'."

Ahadi, whose husband was executed by the Islamic rulers of Iran, is demanding that Germany do more to help women and girls, who she claims are oppressed, even in Germany, by "political Islam."

"The girls are not allowed to have boyfriends. They are forced to marry. They have to wear head-scarves. If they get pregnant outside marriage, people call them sluts," she said.

Nur Gabbari, 40, a former Muslim and refugee from Iran who is on the committee of the society, said he knew it was very dangerous to form such a group: "But we cannot remain bystanders, as if we were in a theatre, when we see what religion is doing to people.

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