Anyone who has ever spent some time reading this blog in depth,will know that I have immense admiration for ex Muslims. Those who have been brought up in Islam but who later choose to reject it, are stepping away from an all encompassing political and religious cult that allows no freedom for any of its adherents.

There are many ex-Muslims, especially in the United Kingdom who have the good luck to come from relatively liberal Muslim families and they can leave Islam without too much trouble. But there are others for whom the struggle to leave Islam is much harder and carries with it the threat of violence and death from other Muslims. From talking to those who have had difficulties escaping from Islam, I get the impression that there are a great many Muslims in Britain who feign adherence to Islam, but who either do not believe or have come to despise the ideology that keeps them spiritually imprisoned. I tend to refer to such individuals as hidden apostates. The existence of these hidden apostates is also why I vehmently disagree with the idea of attacking individual Muslims, as one cannot tell just by looking at a Muslim whether they are a jihad supporter, a liberal Muslim, an out and proud ex Muslim or someone who is desperate to leave Islam but dare not.

Those who come from liberal Muslim families and who want to leave Islam are not my main concern in this piece. Such individuals are not facing any immediate or credible threat to their person. What I am concerned with is those who desperately want to leave Islam but who are scared not just of losing contact with their families, but of facing violence for leaving Islam.

How can we, as a nation and as individuals help those hidden apostates who not only want freedom but deserve it? This is a huge question for me and one that I do not have all the answers to. However, there are a few things that have been running around my mind recently that I would like to share and also to find out what others may think.

I believe that the primary help that is needed to be given to the currently hidden apostates is security and a secure place to live. I wonder whether it would not be possible to set up ‘safe houses’ for those leaving Islam run along similar lines to domestic violence refuges? There would also need to be steps taken to educate those fleeing Islam to make them fit for work and for wider society. This is especially important for women leaving Islam as the isolation suffered by many Muslim women in Islamic communities should not be overlooked and this harms this demographic’s ability to integrate and take part in British society.

So my question for anyone reading this piece is how do we protect and nurture those who have come to hate Islam whilst living deep within this ideology? It is I believe only moral that we support those who wish to leave Islam just as it was the moral path for the Allied occupying forces to engage in de-Nazification in post WWII Germany.

So what do you think? How do advanced societies help people leave a seventh century cult and give these individuals the freedom to be who they want to be?