"We Have Sworn Off!" - Press Conference by the Central Council of Ex-Muslims in Cooperation with gbs
Next Wednesday, February 28, the first press conference of the Central Council of Ex-Muslims will take place in Berlin, which is eagerly awaited by many observers.
Alongside the two chairwomen of the newly founded Central Council, Mina Ahadi and Arzu Toker, gbs spokesman Michael Schmidt-Salomon will also take part on the podium at the House of the Federal Press Conference. The board of the Giordano Bruno Stiftung developed the campaign "We have sworn off" in close cooperation with ex-Muslims and coordinated the associated public relations work - for the foundation's representatives a "necessary contribution to strengthen the culture of humanism and enlightenment, which has to stand its ground regarding the confrontation with Islamic totalitarianism."
In tomorrow's issue of "Spiegel" there is a short interview with Mina Ahadi as a preliminary report on the press conference. Two weeks ago an article in the magazine "Fokus", which reported the founding of the Central Council of Ex-Muslims, already caused some uproar. Articles in "FAZ", "Berliner Zeitung", "TAZ", "Welt", on "Spiegel online" etc. ensued. Today, three days before the press conference as well as before the official launch of the website www.ex-muslime.de, Google already records 38,000 entries under the keyword "Zentralrat der Ex-Muslime" ("Central Council of Ex-Muslims").
Since there have already been some misunderstandings in media reporting (especially in the Turkish press), Michael Schmidt-Salomon clarified to the Humanistic Press Service that the Giordano Bruno Stiftung supports the ex-Muslims' campaign, but that this does not necessarily mean that the foundation's members therefore agree with every position of the Central Council: "The Central Council of ex-Muslims is an autonomous organization, completely independent of the Giordano Bruno Stiftung - and that is a good thing..."
hpd releases on the topic (in German):
http://hpd.de/node/1154
http://hpd.de/node/1168
http://hpd.de/node/1221
Website of the ex-Muslims (official start: February 28, 2007)