I write a lot here about the troubles the nonreligious have in American and Canada mostly, but sometimes it’s important to remember that compared to many places we have it easy.  We can expect reasonable protection under the law, and that our lives will not be in imminent danger simply for our lack of religion or religious beliefs.  Others, especially in Muslim majority countries, are not so lucky.

I recently received an email from an atheist writer in Sudan who claims to be in fear of imminent death for being open about his atheism.  He told me that his situation was so dire that to save his life he was looking to get out of the country as soon as possible.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t help in that respect.  I haven’t heard from him since, but I hope everything worked out well.  He did give me permission to publish the email he sent me to get the word out about the dangers to atheists in Sudan.  Due to language issues, it was not clear whether he wanted me to remove identifying details or not (he has been writing on atheism publicly), but to be safe I have edited out specific identifying information.

Dear Sir/Madam

I’m 31 years old Sudanese civil engineer, live in [removed] – Sudan.

My problem start years ago, but now it reached dangerous point, because my life is truly in danger.

I’m atheist, and I have nothing to hide, my family and my closed friends knowing that for years and accept it hardly as a fact. Since 2003 – my last year in collage – I start to write a wall newspaper in university a bout atheism and Islam, the news paper name is “[removed]” in Arabic.

Three years ago I start to write articles in several web sites, like [removed], [removed].

My articles almost are about atheism, Islam, Liberalism, the civil state and all of them in Arabic.

After I start writing in [removed] using my real name on 2007. Threats start by any communication tool you know, email, phone calls, sms and directly face to face.

For the first time I did not take those threats seriously, but now I have to.

On Dec. 2008 someone call me and tell me that I have to stop writing on [removed] or thy have to kill me because God is ordering them to kill any one left Islam. After that I wrote article about Hajj the most Muslim holy activity. The same person call me again and tell me this is my last chance, and give me accurate information about me and my family to impress me. I go to police and gave them the number of the phone, after two days I go back to the police station to know who is trying to terrorize me and thy tell me that my case is refused by the higher officer because it is nonsense, can you believe? Killing threat and nonsense?

On Jan 2009 I fired from my job because some on call the manager and tell him that I’m atheist and I did not pray. The manager ask me to pray with him one day in strange way, I refused then after two days fired me and tell me he is sorry but he have to fired me.

On 8 Mar 2009 the women day, after I comment in seminar talking about women rights and my opinion is the Islam constitution lies to women and the truth is women have no rights in Islam, I give my girl friend a ride to her home far from [removed], when I go back I followed by two cars, thy tried to stop me in empty place near [removed]. But I scabbed by miracle.

I live in terror, and I can’t continue my live here in Sudan, unless I hide my believes and live a life of someone else not me, witch it is not one of my choices even if it leading me to lost my life.

I need help to immigrate to any country in Europe or America or Australia. I wont only to be safe.

Thanks for reading my email

Best Regards

[removed]

[removed]

Kathleen M. Goodman and John A. Mueller published a great article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, “Atheist Students on Campus: From Misconceptions to Inclusion.”  The authors discuss the need for colleges to help atheist students break away from misconceptions about atheists and to have access to the same personal resources as religious students.  One of the best points they bring up supporting the need for such resources is that although atheism is not a religion, atheists are concerned with many of the same issues as religious students.

[...] many students who identify as atheist – or related designations, such as humanist or free thinker – are, in fact, quite thoughtful about their purpose, morals, and values.

In fact, as a marginalized group, atheists need these resources more than those in the religious majority.

Atheist students, however, tend to be cautious about whom they share their perspective with because they do not want to offend others or make them uncomfortable. Nor do they want to be put in the position of having to defend their worldview. To avoid being thought of as people with no morals or life purpose who are destined for hell, they choose to remain invisible.

Along with the general recommendation that colleges “create an environment that encourages atheist students to come forward and share their views,” the authors recommend five main actions:

• “Create a welcoming environment for atheist students.”
• “Include atheism in student programming.”
• “Ensure that atheists can, like other students, explore their inner development.”
• “Create safe spaces that are “atheist only” for student.”
• “Look to other institutions for best practices.”

There is a lot of great discussion about the marginalization of campus atheists, misconceptions about them, as well as more on actions colleges should take.  A lot of what is discussed is just as valid for American culture in general. The misconceptions and bigotry mirrors that in the outside world.  Unfortunately, it is likely that any institutionalized attempts at making atheists feel the least bit welcome on campus will be fought tooth and nail by those with an irrational hatred and fear of those who do not share their beliefs, or any belief – that is, if any colleges take their advice.

I almost forgot about Blog Against Theocracy!  This is the last day of it, so at least I noticed before it was too late.  From my earlier post announcing my participation:

“Blog Against Theocracy” is an event happening on blogs of those who understand the importance of defending our constitutionally required separation of church and state.  From April 10-12, look out for posts all over the blogosphere, including here on SDR, concerning varied issues relating to the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.  This is not an atheist blogswarm, per se, but is open all who support Thomas Jefferson’s “wall of separation.”

The Establishment Clause: It Applies to the Nonreligious Too!

There is a bigoted and invalid criticism some religious bigots levy against the nonreligious.  It isn’t a criticism of the lack of religion or belief in a god, which is, true or false, a completely valid intellectual argument to make in good faith.  No idea is beyond criticism.   This specific claim is different; it is not in good faith.  Some claim that the nonreligious are not protected under the United States Constitution’s freedom of religion as religious citizens are!  This is so unbelievably disgusting I must repeat it: they claim that atheists and others with no religion do not have one of the most basic rights that our country was founded upon.

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Just when you think the anti-atheist bigots have blamed atheists for everything under the sun, they manage to outdo themselves.  Star Tribune columnist David Lebedoff is claiming that, get this, atheists are responsible for the economic downturn.  Here we see one of the numerous examples of bigots making claims against atheists that are so ridiculous they make themselves look foolish.  Sure, his commentary is a bigoted and hateful screed against a significant population of people of which I am a member, but it’s so ludicrous I can’t even bring myself to feel the least bit peeved about it.

As for the actual content, the article is based around the same basic tired old attack bigots always levy against the nonreligious: there is no other basis for morality than religious belief, and therefore those without religion are immoral, being able to do whatever they like without any conscience.  That’s news to me and the many others like me who have no religious faith, yet have quite a strong sense of right and wrong.

From the article:

If you only go around once, then the main thing is to have fun. If you start by admitting that from cradle to tomb it isn’t that long of a stay, then life is a cabaret, old chum, and so, by the way, is Wall Street. There is a bumper sticker favored by some of the recently rich that proclaims “he who dies with the most toys wins.” This is indeed the moral philosophy of those who believe that death is the final closing bell. Materialism, hedonism and Stairmasters are what people do until the clock stops ticking.

I’m not going to go through a whole debunking of this claim.  The entire history of the fields of ethical studies, philosophy, and reality show this claim to be untrue on its face – morality is not the exclusive domain of religion by any means.  To then take this argument and use it to claim we are therefore responsible for the economic collapse – without one shred of evidence to show that a large percentage of those in economic fields who are responsible are actually atheist – is ignorant, hateful, ridiculous, but also quite sad.
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I have to post this because it made me laugh.  I was going through the logs and saw this gem.  Someone got here through a Google search of the term “aethists are ignorant.”  I don’t know what an “aethist” is, but if they are ignorant I’m glad not to be one!  To be fair, atheist can be a tricky word to spell.  You rarely see an “i” after an “e” when not after c or making the sound “ay” (I’m sure you remember the old rhyme we all learned in elementary school, “i before e, except after c….”).  This is just not even trying or caring.  Even then, I could see accidentally putting the “e” before the “th” if typing fast.  Pointing out the irony, though, of such a misspelling in a search term decrying atheists as ignorant is too good to pass up.

Hemant Mehta pointed me to an article from The Dallas Morning News, “Dallas-area atheists discuss their outlook, relationships.”  It discusses the lives of atheists in the area, their growing socialization with each other, and socialization with their fellow citizens who are religious.  There is a lot that is interesting in the article, but I will focus on the example of discrimination – this is Secular Discrimination Report after all.

From the article:

Clark Vinson, a Baptist-turned-atheist who grew up in Irving, said he believes he has been discriminated against in the Bible Belt because of his lack of religion.

“I was on the verge of sealing a contract for $105,000 a year for a school district in the area for counseling services,” said Vinson, who was a therapist at the time. “I lost the contract suddenly.”

He said a friend who worked for the district told him a school official was disturbed after seeing a Darwin fish on his car.

This type of discrimination is exactly what atheists and others who lack religion or religious supernatural belief deal with throughout the United States, from the East to the West to the North to the South.  The dominance of religion and expectation that everyone at least believes in some deity leads to some level of innate distrust of the nonreligious in even the most liberal of areas. We don’t always see examples such as this because it is avoided by atheists hiding or at the least not being open about our lack of faith.  If not, discrimination such as this would happen much too often.  If we look at history, as the nonreligious civil right movement is growing and there are more open atheists, we are already and will undoubtedly see more of this in the future.
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TheChronicleHerald.ca is reporting that a recent Harris-Decima survey from The Canadian Press is showing that Canadians are “indifferent” to the atheist bus ads.  This is as opposed to the strong negative reactions to the ads in America and also Britain, which is more surprising than the American reaction considering that Britain is commonly considered much more secular.  There has been opposition from religious groups, such as the United Church of Canada, who have run their own counter bus ads.  There has not been outrage in the same way as in America and Britain, though.

From the article:

The poll found 32 per cent of respondents opposed the ads, 20 per cent supported them and 43 per cent didn’t care one way or the other.

Support for the ads was strongest among respondents in British Columbia and Ontario, with the highest opposition in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Support also varied by age and income, with younger respondents and those making more than $60,000 a year more likely to favour running the ads.

Some nonreligious activists might see this as a failure.  This is understandable; the more controversy they create the more visible they are and the further their message spreads.  I don’t see it this way.  From the beginning, organizers of the various bus ads have asserted that they are not meant to be insulting to the religious (although many do see  anything contrary to their beliefs as an insult), nor are they specifically geared towards creating controversy, although they certainly do want attention drawn to them so that people know they exist.  They ads were created mostly to let the nonreligious know they are not alone in a world dominated by the religious, and to let others know that we exist and we will demand our place in the public discourse, no matter how forcefully the bigots try to quiet our voices.
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