Over 80 leading secularists and human rights campaigners from primarily the Middle East and North Africa have issued a manifesto for secularism, condemning the unelected Libyan transitional Council’s proclamation of Sharia Law and similar developments in the region.
The manifesto calls for the complete separation of religion from the state: abol-ition of religious laws in the family, civil and criminal codes; separation of religion from the education system; freedom of religion and atheism as private beliefs; prohibition of sex apartheid and compulsory veiling. ■