Atheist Republic: Difference between revisions
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Atheist Republic is the largest online Atheist Community with over one million registered users. It comprises a website, forum and social media pages. |
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#REDIRECT [[Armin Navabi]] |
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Atheist Republic |
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Foundation |
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While still living in Iran, Navabi founded the group "Iranian Atheists" on Orkut around 2003, to connect with other nonbelievers in his country. He was shocked, surprised and delighted there were so many others like him, and those feelings were mutual: "It felt like coming home to a family you didn't even know you had."[7] After some time, Navabi decided to try and reach atheists beyond the Islamic Republic of Iran, and created the contrastingly named page "Atheist Republic" on Facebook in January 2012. It was followed by the website atheistrepublic.com in 2012, which as of July 2017 received approximately 5 million views per week.[6] |
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Growth |
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Rana held this Atheist Republic paper in the Great Mosque of Mecca.[8] |
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Speaking of the Atheist Republic community on BBC Trending in June 2014, Navabi said: "We want people to realise that they're not alone. We want people to realise they don't have to be ashamed of who they are."[9] |
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In 2014 Saudi ex-Muslim Rana Ahmad was having trouble in her family, and sought and found the help of Atheist Republic and other similar organisations online. When her family forced her to come along with the hajj, she took a picture of herself holding a piece of paper with "Atheist Republic" written on it, while standing inside the Great Mosque of Mecca, the holiest site of Islam.[8] She subsequently fled to Germany, aided by Faith to Faithless.[10] |
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In May 2017 admins of the Atheist Republic claimed their Facebook page had been shut down three times after what appeared to be a co-ordinated campaign by religious activists. With over 1.6 million likes at the time, it was alleged to be "the most popular atheist community on any social network." Having been restored again, Atheist Republic requested to be exempt from the automatic "unpublication" system that is activated as soon as the page is flagged often enough, which leaves any page vulnerable to be shut down by sheer numbers of opponents.[11] |
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==Malaysian government crackdown attempts== |
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File:Should We Leave Islam - Armin Navabi.webm |
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Navabi on the benefits and costs of being an outspoken ex-Muslim (2017). |
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In August 2017 a picture from a gathering of the Atheist Republic Consulate of Kuala Lumpur was posted on Atheist Republic's Facebook page. This stirred up controversy when Deputy Minister of Islamic Affairs Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki ordered an inquiry into whether the people in the photograph had committed apostasy, which is illegal in Malaysia, and ex-Muslims can be fined, jailed or sent for counselling. The next day, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Shahidan Kassim went as far to say that atheists should be "hunted down", as there was no place for groups like this under the Federal Constitution. Atheist Republic members present at the gathering, who reportedly received death threats on social media, were being investigated about whether they had 'spread atheism to Muslims', which has also been outlawed in the country. Navabi asked: "How is this group harming anyone?", warning that such actions by the government damaged Malaysia's reputation as a "moderate" Muslim-majority (60%) country. The uploads sparked violent protests from some Malaysians, who called Navabi an 'apostate', and threatened to behead the Atheist Republic's leader. |
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Under the pseudonym of "Michael", one of the Kuala Lumpur AR Consulate admins told BBC OS that meetings occur about two or three times a year between people who normally only communicate on the Internet: |
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When we meet, we just sit down, we get to know each other (...), we have drinks, we eat a bit, and we just talk about our lives, that's it. (...) Of course, it will involve people who are legally Muslims, and atheists, and people from other religions as well. Basically, we want to get to know each other better, and we want to be friends. (...) And so we took a group picture and asked Atheist Republic to post it. Next thing you know, some Malaysian Muslim groups got hold of the picture (...), and made assumptions about Muslims being among those in the picture. [Through the media] it lands at the government, who then act surprised at the existence of ex-Muslims in Malaysia and that something needs to be done. (...) A lot of people, especially those involved in the photos, are now going into hiding, because we don't know what's gonna happen. (...) Of course [I'm afraid too]."[13] |
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In November 2017, it was reported that the government and the Internet regulator Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission had demanded that Atheist Republic's page and similar atheist pages on Facebook should be taken down. However, Facebook refused to do so, because the pages did not violate any of the company's community standards. |
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==External Links== |
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*[http://www.AtheistRepublic.com Atheist Republic website] |
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*[http://www.AtheistRepublic.org Atheist Republic community] |
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*[https://www.youtube.com/c/AtheistRepublic Official Atheist Republic YouTube channel] |
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*[https://www.facebook.com/AtheistRepublic Official Atheist Republic Facebook page] |
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Revision as of 06:44, 8 April 2018
Atheist Republic is the largest online Atheist Community with over one million registered users. It comprises a website, forum and social media pages. Atheist Republic Foundation While still living in Iran, Navabi founded the group "Iranian Atheists" on Orkut around 2003, to connect with other nonbelievers in his country. He was shocked, surprised and delighted there were so many others like him, and those feelings were mutual: "It felt like coming home to a family you didn't even know you had."[7] After some time, Navabi decided to try and reach atheists beyond the Islamic Republic of Iran, and created the contrastingly named page "Atheist Republic" on Facebook in January 2012. It was followed by the website atheistrepublic.com in 2012, which as of July 2017 received approximately 5 million views per week.[6]
Growth
Rana held this Atheist Republic paper in the Great Mosque of Mecca.[8] Speaking of the Atheist Republic community on BBC Trending in June 2014, Navabi said: "We want people to realise that they're not alone. We want people to realise they don't have to be ashamed of who they are."[9]
In 2014 Saudi ex-Muslim Rana Ahmad was having trouble in her family, and sought and found the help of Atheist Republic and other similar organisations online. When her family forced her to come along with the hajj, she took a picture of herself holding a piece of paper with "Atheist Republic" written on it, while standing inside the Great Mosque of Mecca, the holiest site of Islam.[8] She subsequently fled to Germany, aided by Faith to Faithless.[10]
In May 2017 admins of the Atheist Republic claimed their Facebook page had been shut down three times after what appeared to be a co-ordinated campaign by religious activists. With over 1.6 million likes at the time, it was alleged to be "the most popular atheist community on any social network." Having been restored again, Atheist Republic requested to be exempt from the automatic "unpublication" system that is activated as soon as the page is flagged often enough, which leaves any page vulnerable to be shut down by sheer numbers of opponents.[11]
Malaysian government crackdown attempts
File:Should We Leave Islam - Armin Navabi.webm Navabi on the benefits and costs of being an outspoken ex-Muslim (2017). In August 2017 a picture from a gathering of the Atheist Republic Consulate of Kuala Lumpur was posted on Atheist Republic's Facebook page. This stirred up controversy when Deputy Minister of Islamic Affairs Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki ordered an inquiry into whether the people in the photograph had committed apostasy, which is illegal in Malaysia, and ex-Muslims can be fined, jailed or sent for counselling. The next day, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Shahidan Kassim went as far to say that atheists should be "hunted down", as there was no place for groups like this under the Federal Constitution. Atheist Republic members present at the gathering, who reportedly received death threats on social media, were being investigated about whether they had 'spread atheism to Muslims', which has also been outlawed in the country. Navabi asked: "How is this group harming anyone?", warning that such actions by the government damaged Malaysia's reputation as a "moderate" Muslim-majority (60%) country. The uploads sparked violent protests from some Malaysians, who called Navabi an 'apostate', and threatened to behead the Atheist Republic's leader.
Under the pseudonym of "Michael", one of the Kuala Lumpur AR Consulate admins told BBC OS that meetings occur about two or three times a year between people who normally only communicate on the Internet:
When we meet, we just sit down, we get to know each other (...), we have drinks, we eat a bit, and we just talk about our lives, that's it. (...) Of course, it will involve people who are legally Muslims, and atheists, and people from other religions as well. Basically, we want to get to know each other better, and we want to be friends. (...) And so we took a group picture and asked Atheist Republic to post it. Next thing you know, some Malaysian Muslim groups got hold of the picture (...), and made assumptions about Muslims being among those in the picture. [Through the media] it lands at the government, who then act surprised at the existence of ex-Muslims in Malaysia and that something needs to be done. (...) A lot of people, especially those involved in the photos, are now going into hiding, because we don't know what's gonna happen. (...) Of course [I'm afraid too]."[13]
In November 2017, it was reported that the government and the Internet regulator Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission had demanded that Atheist Republic's page and similar atheist pages on Facebook should be taken down. However, Facebook refused to do so, because the pages did not violate any of the company's community standards.