—

I started the conversation for this session by asking about the prospects for increased secularization in France, especially as he founded the Council of Ex-Muslims of France.

It is important to keep some of these activities in mind as secularism is something not only protects the citizens from religious encroachment but also protects some citizens more who tend to be vulnerable within the context of religious threats, including death threats.

Al-Husseini stated, “Our secularism is dangerous in 2019. We are losing. They were talking about reforming the law of 1905 at this time. I don’t agree with doing this now. Because they are doing this bless Muslims and Islamists, and let more Islamic values into society. To be more clear, I’m with reforming it to go forward not backward, like what they will do now. I want to keep all religions and religious values out of public life. That’s why our fight now should not let this happen. We should stand up against it and show the dangers of this.”

Then I asked about the robustness of the ex-Muslim network in France. Al-Husseini noted the strength of it. That they continue to stand for their secular and areligious values within France.

He wants to point to the dangers of Islamism or political Islam. It has been a bane in the work of the ex-Muslim community, especially as there are open death threats against them. In addition, it can prevent furtherance of secular values within Europe as a whole.

Al-Husseini stated, “… for ex-Muslims we still follow some cases in Arabic countries who face ‘justice’ for blasphemy. In France, we still meet to support each other and to not feel alone in this belief and kind of discussion about the situations in Islamic countries.”

Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad free

Then I asked about the channels for ex-Muslims to be able to challenge religious fundamentalisms and then find some asylum within nations around the world. He noted that there aren’t really channel and the work of the Council of Ex-Muslims of France can be simply to contact various human rights organizations in order to provide ex-Muslims with their rights.

“We just give the testimony to be acceptable of asylum,” Al-Husseini noted, “That’s the maximum that we can do: the testimony for the time being. To fight fundamentalists, it will require more, especially working with other organizations and publishing articles in the name of all of us to face the dangers of Islamism.”

Now, the Council of Ex-Muslims of France and others reach out to the media to change the thinking of more people, in order to understand the threat with greater clarity. I asked about some of the prominent anti-ex-Muslim figureheads in France and things being done about them.

“The most anti-ex-Muslim groups in France are these Islamist organizations who just attack us. It is an injustice all the time. They try to make us stop talking. There a lot of these types of organizations. Also, we don’t forget the Far Left who attack us in the name of racism: imagine that,” Al-Husseini stated.

But he also pointed to the serious danger of, literally, ordinary Muslims attacking them because they’re ex-Muslims. He noted the complex nature of the situation there.

Then I asked what the government is doing, the work to protect a vulnerable minority within a minority, or ex-Muslims. Al-Husseini stared that the situation is complicated and, in fact, is limited, especially with the recent events around yellow jackets and other, as the government simply has a lot on its hands now (the Government of France).

He concluded, “The government has a lot of things on their hands, but they can arrest the individuals who call for killing us and killing others like us. However, you can see how things are complicated even with terrorists’ attacks.”