Rejecting the Bad: A Muslim Manifesto

Rejecting the Bad: A Muslim Manifesto - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

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UPDATE: The link below to the list of signers of the Muslim Manifesto has changed. Here is a new link.
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A couple of young, modern, moderate muslims, Zeyno Baran, of The Nixon Center, and Mustafa Akyol, a journalist from Turkey, have penned a worthy manifesto.

The manifesto was originally published by National Review Online, then picked up by Spiegel Online, bearing the title: Rejecting the Bad. It is the centerpiece of MuslimManifesto.org, where the title is: A Muslim Manifesto Against Violence & Tyranny In The Name of Islam.

Like-minded muslims are urged to sign the manifesto, and all are invited to view the list of those who have signed it, at the MuslimManifesto.org website.

One of the authors, Turkish journalist Mustafa Akyol, also has a US-hosted blog called The White Path, where he posted the manifesto on March 1.

I think the manifesto is fine. I could live next to, or become friends with religious people like these. Unfortunately, the authors are very open about not being religious authorities. That being the case, they are as much pissing in the wind as I am when I support advocacy of rational drug policy or optimization of the application of the death penalty.

In any event, more power to Zeyno Baran and Mustafa Akyol. May they enjoy long lives, safe from the sort of muslim that kills Theo Van Gogh, threatens Ayaan Hirsi Ali and blows things up in the name of mythology.

It seems fitting to include a link here to the ApostatesOfIslam website.

As for me, I am a bright with Universist sympathies, and I wish my departed uncle Paul had survived to continue development of his SelfMakeover website.

Organized religions are players in a perpetual power struggle featuring myth as the primary weapon. Whereas in times past the power of myth provided selective advantage to the human species (as well as to individuals and groups), conditions are now such that the side effects of myth pose a severe threat to the continuation of civilization, primarily by preventing deliberate actions to save the biosphere of which we're a part.

Unfortunately, I don't see us shaking loose from myth any time soon. Quite the contrary, I'm afraid.