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The Secular Islam Summit was an international forum for secularists of Islamic societies, held in March 2007 in St. Petersburg, Florida, organized by the Center for Inquiry, a secular humanist educational organization, and by secular Muslims and in partnership with the International Intelligence Summit, a forum on terrorism.

Speakers

Speakers included Muslims who ranged from ex-believers to devout reformers, and attendees included government officials from Arab countries, Europe, Canada, and the US. The speakers shared the conviction that Islam should be compatible with secular democracy. They agreed that Islam could not remain both a political and religious teaching, and needed to choose one or the other.

Reception

The summit was broadcast live on CNN's Glenn Beck program and described by the Wall Street Journal as "a landmark".

Members of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil liberties advocacy organization, criticized the summit for featuring ex-Muslims, saying that the speakers were hostile to Islam. Yvonne Haddad, a professor of Christian and Muslim history at Georgetown University, shared CAIR's apprehension, agreeing that the speakers promoted unscholarly anti-Islam views and questioning the summit's claim to nonpartisanship.

St. Petersburg Declaration

Although delegates to the summit "differed sharply on particulars", on March 5 they released a public manifesto calling for reform within Islam. The text, known as the St. Petersburg Declaration, affirmed the separation of mosque and state, gender equality in personal and family law, and unrestricted critical study of Islamic traditions. It states, for instance,

We are secular Muslims, and secular persons of Muslim societies. We are believers, doubters, and unbelievers, brought together by a great struggle, not between the West and Islam, but between the free and the unfree...

We insist upon the separation of religion from the state and the observance of universal human rights...

We call upon the governments of the world to reject Sharia law, fatwa courts, clerical rule, and state-sanctioned religion in all their forms; oppose all penalties for blasphemy and apostasy, in accordance with Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; eliminate practices, such as female circumcision, honor killing, forced veiling, and forced marriage, that further the oppression of women...

We say to Muslim believers: there is a noble future for Islam as a personal faith, not a political doctrine; to Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Baha'is, and all members of non-Muslim faith communities: we stand with you as free and equal citizens; and to nonbelievers, we defend your unqualified liberty to question and dissent."

Those who signed the declaration were:

Irshad Manji, who attended the summit, refused to endorse the declaration, saying it was not inclusive of practicing Muslims like herself. She wrote on her blog, "This summit cannot be used to alienate people of faith who are on the side of secularism...In our view, the summit Declaration fails to meet this challenge. It should clarify that secular Muslims are not necessarily atheists or people who have renounced the faith; rather, secular Muslims believe in separating clerics and politics, and this isn't any less loving of Allah, respectful of the Prophet Muhammad, or appreciative of the Quran." Efforts by Manji's group to amend the declaration to address these concerns were ignored.

Notes

1. "...the frequent intemperance of the secularists' remarks, including the claim by the Syrian-American psychiatrist Wafa Sultan that there is no difference between 'radical Islam and regular Islam,' played almost perfectly into the hands of CAIR. As its board chairman, Parvez Ahmed, noted, 'The drew an amalgam of extreme right-wing and neocon voices who touted as role models of "reform" those who are deep in their hostility to Islam.'"
2. "Legitimate scholars are horrified by the lineup. The speakers are extreme in their views. Basically, it's everyone known for damning Islam."

References

1. ^ First "Secular Islam Summit" to convene early next month in Florida, Kuwait News Agency, Feb 2007
2. Susan Jacoby (April 19 2007), Diverse Muslims, Violent Islamist Fundamentalism, Washington Post {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
3. ^ Fighting for the soul of Islam, US News and Word report
4. Andrew Bieszad, The Conference on Secular Islam, Telospress.com ("...all speakers agreed that Islam cannot remain both a political and religious teaching. For its own survival, it needs to choose.")
5. Geneive Abdo (March 17 2007), A More Islamic Islam, Washington Post {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
6. Stephens, Bret (2007-03-06). "Islam's Other Radicals - WSJ.com". Online.wsj.com. Retrieved 2012-01-27.
7. ^ Laughlin, Meg (March 6, 2007). "Intelligence conference draws criticism". Tampa Bay Times.
8. ^ "The St. Petersburg Declaration". Centerforinquiry.net. 2007-04-05. Retrieved 2012-01-27.
9. Susan Jacoby, "Diverse Muslims, Violent Islamist Fundamentalism", On Faith, Washington Post
10. Elfenbein, Madeleine (April 19, 2007). "Irshad Manji's Flying Leap". The American Prospect.
11. Manji, Irshad (March 12, 2007). "Your letters".

External links

• Official website

• Islamic politics and Islamic world studies
• Secularism
• 2007 in the United States