- P80 -

No matter where one lives leaving Islam carries an onerous price. Religious authorities and their most fervent devotees respond too often with violence to criticism of any kind. Blasphemers apostates and freethinkers are socially exiled and hunted down by governments and vigilantes alike all in service of an ideology that rejects science relegates women to secondclass status and demands unquestioning submission. For those of us who value freedom of conscience and expression this is unacceptable.