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The Unbelief Brief: the Paris Olympics have incited multiple issues, and a new Gallup poll shows a fascinating update on creationism.

EXMNA Insights: Iraq just tried to legalize child marriage, but where does that disturbing Islamic tradition even come from?

Persecution Tracker Updates: Pakistan strikes again

EXMNA Updates: Meta is threatening our free speech, and we need your help

The Unbelief Brief

The French Olympics generated a lot of headlines about blasphemy and religious orthodoxy over the last week. Of particular note was the controversy around athletes being disallowed from wearing the hijab. It was not surprising that France would set this policy, given their uniquely stringent brand of secularism, but it prompted condemnations from human rights organizations including Amnesty International. The condemnations rightfully advocate for women’s freedom to make decisions about their own lives, while unfortunately not also pointing out how the hijab itself is often socially and legally enforced specifically to restrict women’s freedom. 

It initially appeared that one athlete who refused to remove her hijab, sprinter Sounkamba Sylla, would not be allowed to participate in the opening ceremony, though a compromise was later reached where she was permitted to wear a hat. The whole issue is a conundrum of liberties with no easy answer: Muslims are not being targeted by the letter of the law, and if there were any Mennonite or Amish women participating, they would surely have to remove their bonnets, too. And, of course, all Olympic athletes have uniform requirements. But does it really matter in principle whether a female athlete happens to don a hijab when competing? We think not.

But, not to worry—Christians found something to be upset about too. Images from the opening ceremony of the Olympics, in which drag queens seemed to recreate Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, have circulated so widely on social media that most have probably already seen them. But, unlike when the scene was recreated on The Simpsons using a group of alcoholics, these drag queens are making religious conservatives angry. 

Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who pleaded guilty last year to aiding and abetting false statements and had her law license suspended for frivolously attempting to overturn the 2020 US presidential election in Georgia, said the opening ceremony contained “overt pagan and satanic imagery.” The Olympic organizing committee has even issued an apology in the wake of the backlash.

If nothing else, the story has a warm quality of nostalgia about it, recalling simpler, quainter times when “Satanic panic” seemed so important—but also possibly foreshadowing a return to such times. A Minnesota bishop asked: “Would they ever have dreamed of mocking in this gross, public way, a scene from the quran?” Perhaps this question would be better asked of a country like the UK, or even the United States: France has proven its convictions on the right to blaspheme against any religion, as well as its insistence that all religions must adhere to the same set of rules. After all, they won’t even let their female athletes wear the hijab!

Finally: belief in creationism continues to decline in the United States, according to a new Gallup poll. The recent finding indicates that a plurality of Americans—37%—still believe that God created humans in their present form. But a solid majority now accepts the theory of evolution in some way, with 24% believing that humans evolved without divine intervention and an additional 34% believing humans evolved with “help” from God. 

If religious extremists are looking to “make America pray again,” there is no sign as yet that their efforts are yielding any fruit.

EXMNA Insights

In Iraq, there has been a recent attempt to amend Iraq's Personal Status Law, effectively lowering the age of marriage from 18 to 9 years old. This is deeply troubling, unethical, and morally incomprehensible, to say the least. That said, it would be remiss not to understand the genesis and motivation behind the proposed change in the first place. For 1,400 years, the generally accepted interpretation of the Prophet Muhammad's marriage to Aisha is that she was a child somewhere between the age of 6 and 9. Her age when the marriage took place and when it was “consummated” (read: when the child sexual abuse occurred) has been universally agreed to by Muslim scholars until Western criticisms in the modern era forced Muslim scholars to mount a defense. Regardless, their marriage is the basis for why laws, policies, and social attitudes around the age of marriage and age of consent remain so tenuous in Muslim and Muslim-majority countries. 

Child marriage is without a doubt a social evil, harmful not only to girls themselves but also to the overall well-being of societies that continue to sanction such practices. Despite the obviousness of this fact, Muslim and Muslim-majority countries are unable to agree how exactly to deal with the issue as attempts to modify the legal age of marriage have faced significant opposition. For instance, efforts in Yemen to raise the marriage age have been repeatedly thwarted by conservative religious factions who argue that any reforms that attempt to deny men the right to marry girls are un-Islamic. In Pakistan, the Council of Islamic Ideology argued that rulings to raise the age of marriage were in fact “blasphemous”. In countries like Morocco and Tunisia, progressive reforms to raise the marriage age have seen some success due to strong advocacy from women's rights organizations and international pressure, despite resistance from religious conservatives. Due to the constant religious pressure any gains made in safeguarding children from abuse remain at risk as demonstrated in Iraq. We at EXMNA add our voices to the outrage at Iraq’s disturbing attempt to legalize child marriage, while also continuing to advocate for women’s and children’s rights in Muslim and Muslim-majority countries.

Persecution Tracker Updates

A man in Pakistan has been sentenced to death on blasphemy charges. Read our Tracker entry on the case here.

EXMNA Updates

Ex-Muslims of North America has recently learned that Facebook is blocking links to WikiIslam, a website owned and operated by EXMNA, due to alleged violations of Facebook’s Community Standards. This issue also extends to other Meta platforms like Instagram. WikiIslam is an essential resource that provides a skeptical, thorough, and objective perspective on Islamic scripture, theology, and history. Since EXMNA took ownership in 2015, we have overhauled the site to ensure it meets high standards of objectivity, scholarly rigor, and quality.

We firmly believe that WikiIslam does not violate any of Facebook’s Community Standards, including its policies on hate speech or incitement. We hope this block was an error and not Facebook bowing to religious censors. We urge Facebook to reverse the censorship promptly. Keeping WikiIslam blocked goes against principles of free speech and open dialogue, which Facebook claims to uphold.

Help us by posting any link from wikiislam.net on your Facebook Page. If you are closeted and require  privacy, set your audience to “Only Me.” If you receive the error, click the link "If you think this doesn't go against our Community Standards let us know." We appreciate your support and look forward to resolving this issue and restoring access to WikiIslam links on all Meta platforms as soon as possible. Stay tuned for updates!

Until next week,

The Team at Ex-Muslims of North America

P.S. We’d love to hear from you! Share your feedback at [email protected].

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