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          Some Young Arabs See Secular State as Solution to Terrorism

   by Esha Sarai

   As terrorist attacks linked to radical Islam leave more and more
   families devastated, some are suggesting a separation of mosque and
   state in Middle Eastern nations.

   Faisal Saeed Al-Mutar, writer and humanist, spoke with Hashtag VOA
   about the importance of supporting young Arabs who are fighting to take
   religion out of politics.

   "There is a growing number of Arab young millennials between 20 and 30
   who are mostly advocating for human rights and secular liberal values,"
   Faisal told VOA. "I think that the United States and the West should
   stand in solidarity with these people."

   The recent shooting of 49 people at a gay club in Orlando, Florida was
   very quickly politicized, as American presidential candidates Hillary
   Clinton and Donald Trump explored how to prevent future attacks with
   their respective agendas.

   Faisal, though deeply saddened by the event, is also politicizing it -
   but he is looking to politics in the Middle East as the root of the
   problem.

   "Unfortunately the issue is political," Faisal said, citing the long
   list of Arab countries where homosexuality is punishable by death.  "I
   lived in Iraq - I lost my brother, my cousin, and al-Qaida targeted
   many of my friends and I would like to see less of these attacks."

   Faisal does not seem optimistic that the Islamic faith will grow to
   accept the LGBT community, citing not only government punishments for
   homosexuality, but also both Islamic State and Al-Qaida, who use
   religion to claim that homosexuals should be thrown off the 10th or
   12th floors of buildings.

   "If religions don't modernize to accept LGBT & women's rights, then
   religions need to die, not people" Faisal commented when posting the
   Hashtag VOA video on his facebook page.

   Faisal, a former refugee from Iraq now working in New York City,
   founded the Global Secular Humanist Movement in 2009 - an organization
   promoting secular humanism which focuses on human interests and the
   worth of individuals as a nontheistic religion.

   "The Global Secular Humanist Movement is a social movement that aims to
   promote public understanding and acknowledgment of the secular
   humanistic worldview, including economical freedom, equal individual
   rights and acceptance for people who hold it," the organization's
   Facebook page says.

   The Facebook page, awarded Favorite Agnostic/Atheist Facebook Page of
   2011 by Readers' Choice Awards, has over 300,000 likes.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/some-arabs-see-separation-of-mosque-a
   nd-state-as-solution-to-terror/3376663.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/some-arabs-see-separation-of-mosque-and-state-as-solution-to-terror/3376663.html