St. Petersburg Declaration

St. Petersburg Declaration is a manifesto and affirmation of Human Rights and Freedom of thought for Muslims and non-Muslims in the Muslim world released in March 2007 in St. Petersburg, Florida, by a group of thinkers and reformers from Muslim societies.

The St. Petersburg Declaration has been endorsed by notable scholars such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali , Magdi Allam, Mithal al-Alusi, Shaker Al-Nabulsi, Nonie Darwish, Afhin Ellian, Tawfik Hamid, Shahriar Kabir, Hasan Mahmud, Wafa Sultan, Amir Taheri, Ibn Warraq, Manda Zand Ervin,Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi.

Text of the declaration

• We are secular Muslims, and secular persons of Muslim societies. We are believers, doubters, and unbelievers, brought together by a great struggle, not between the West and Islam, but between the free and the unfree.
• We affirm the inviolable freedom of the individual conscience. We believe in the equality of all human persons.
• We insist upon the separation of religion from state and the observance of universal human rights.
• We find traditions of liberty, rationality, and tolerance in the rich histories of pre-Islamic and Islamic societies. These values do not belong to the West or the East; they are the common moral heritage of humankind.
• We see no colonialism, racism, or so-called “Islamaphobia” in submitting Islamic practices to criticism or condemnation when they violate human reason or rights.
• We call on the governments of the world to reject Sharia law, fatwa courts, clerical rule, and......
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