To protect the basic rights and dignity of the people who quit Islam, the ExMuslims of Kerala have decided to celebrate January 9 as Kerala ExMuslim Day every year. This is exactly a year after the debate between M M Akbar, an Islamic Dawah propagandist, and E A Jabbar, a freethinker and critic of Islam, in Malappuram that resulted in Muslim people realising the cruelty of Islam.
According to the reports, the debate that was organised on January 9 last year in Malappuram city of Kerala, made a majority of the Muslims in the state understand the ferocity and barbarism posed by Islam. ExMuslims of Kerala is first of its kind organisation that helps and protects all those people who quit Islam and retain to survive without any religion.
The official website of the ExMuslims of Kerala mentions that Muslims who publicly denounce Islam or quit the religion, face severe threats from the community. They are physically and mentally tortured and have to face ostracism with regard to their social existence.
The organisation, in its official statement, has said that it also legally supports all those Muslims who are forced to give up their basic human rights in the name of religious traditions or practices. ExMuslims of Kerala is a team of Muslim intellectuals led by Liyakkathali, the President and Jasla Madasserry, the Vice President.
Motivations for leaving Islam
The 2007 Khalil Bilici study named ‘Conversion Out of Islam- A Study of Conversion Narratives of Former Muslims’ stated that motivations for leaving Islam can be broadly classified into two categories, namely ideological motivations and social motivations. The first group would find religion to be naive and irrational, whereas the second group emphasizes the constraints and breaches of human rights of individuals negatively affecting their progress.
According to the study, some of the Muslims find Islam illogical and prefer to quit the religion following the subordinate status of women, contradictions in Sharia, problematic nature of the Quran, character of the Islamic prophet and other reasons. They also complain about the unnecessary, strict rules put up by Islam on its people and the dubious historicity of the Quran and Hadith.
Most of Muslims who quit Islam are exposed to severe threats by the community and become either atheists or Christians, the study adds.
Instance of persecution and breach of human rights
In August 2021, an ex-Muslim from Kerala named Abdul Khader Puthiyandadi was arrested without bail for criticising Quran and Hadith by the United Arab Emirates. He was charged on the grounds of the blasphemy law. Reports mention that Puthiyandadi used to release YouTube videos and blogs regarding the increasing Islamist terrorist plots in Kerala.
He had, long back, explained to the people of Kerala that the Islamists wanted to dismantle the secular structure of the state. He also had warned about the secret Islamist terrorist cells in Kerala that are channelled through international terrorist networks. The provoked groups had then threatened him to stop speaking out against Islam.
The ExMuslim movement
The formation of ExMuslims of Kerala is a part of the social movement ‘the ExMuslim movement’ who seek to normalize religious dissent and leaving of Islam and support others who have done so or are in the process of leaving by linking them to support networks. Reports mention that an unorganized ex-Muslim movement started to emerge in India in the 21st century, typically among the well-educated Muslim youth in urban areas.
ExMuslims of Kerala conduct several discussions on Islam and Atheism on social media and also conduct public debates with Islamic scholars. Meanwhile, a Muslim scholarly organization from Kerala named Samastha conducts special programs to counter increasing atheism among Muslim youth.
According to the data revealed by the Pew Research Centre, about 100,000 Muslims abandon Islam each year and roughly the same number convert to Islam every year. 55% of the Muslims who quit Islam prefer to follow no religion while 22% specifically adopt to become Christians.
