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International Committee to Protect Freethinkers (ICPF)
Announcement of Formation

An announcement from Jaya Gopal, Coordinator of the newly formed ICPF:
"I am pleased to forward herewith the Announcement on the formation of the International Committee to Protect Freethinkers for your information and request you to publish the announcement.... On behalf of the Executive Committee of the ICPF I seek your support in advancing the objectives of this organization. With esteem regards and Solidarity Greetings."

2005-03-28


Announcement of Formation of the ICPF

Announcement to the World
International Executive Committee (IEC) of
International Committee to Protect Freethinkers (ICPF)
June 8, 2004

"What you call freedom I call freedoms. The battle for freedom is nothing but the continuous pursuit of the idea of freedom."

— Henrik Ibsen

"There are no boundaries or chains for freedom of thinking....To deny secularism is to ignore the essence of modern civilization....To call for a religious state is to ignore human rights....To call for a return to the Islamic Khelafa is to ignore history....Oh, Reader of future times: read what we wrote, learn how a human being can take a stance, how we crafted with our pens a new age of enlightenment, and how words are more powerful than bullets."

— Farag Foda

FROM India, Germany, the USA, and Canada, the Executive of the International Committee to Protect Freethinkers announces to the world the establishment of this movement on three continents on this 8th day of June, 2004.

By choosing this symbolic date, we intend to signify the universality and global consciousness of our new entity. On June 8th, 1992, the Egyptian secular thinker and writer, Dr Farag Foda, was sprayed with bullets by Muslim fundamentalists in Cairo.

We consider our entity to be a member of the world family of the human rights, freethought, atheist, and humanist movements. It is not our intention to undermine or fragment the noble work and missions of other current and active entities. What we are seeking to do is add another human power to them and to become part of global light- holders who are anticipating and struggle against the global forces of darkness in the forest of cultures.

Our current world is too complicated, too wide, and too variegated. The cases of suppression of free thought and expression, civil rights and freedom of consciousness are too numerous. The global forces of darkness, in the clear-minded pursuit of their objectives, are more powerful than the holders of enlightenment values. Therefore, we trust that our newly established entity will shine a new light, particularly in the tragic darkness of the Islamic world. The articles of our mission statement genuinely reflect what we mean to be and to do. We extend our hands to every worldwide group, organization, and association that is in agreement with our principles.

For the history of truth, I am obliged to mention that the initial idea for the ICPF sprang from India, the land of mystic freedom and largest democracy on earth, through our friend Jaya Gopal. While the second idea for the structure of the IEC sprang from Canada through the writer of this statement. But above all, without the La Cena conference held in Freiburg, the home, the head and the heart of the Alliance Against Conformism, and the members of AAC, this history would have not been written. Moreover, without the collective efforts of other members in the US and Canada, this entity would have not been born. The truly intellectual task is to see, not to mirror, human endeavors, and to defend, not just to record them.

I am overwhelmingly honored by the intellectual trust that my friends put in me to write the announcement of this entity on their behalf.

Dr. Marvin F. Zayed [icpf_president@sympatico.ca]
Current Elected President and member of the International Executive Committee (IEC)


Aims and Objectives of the ICPF

  1. The principal aim of the International Committee to Protect Freethinkers shall be the protection of the Human Rights of Freethinkers across the world. Freethinking or Freethought has been defined as the assertion of reason over faith and all arbitrary assumptions based on authority.
  2. The prime task of the ICPF shall be to secure internationally the Right to Freedom of Religion, the Right to Freedom from Religion, and Belief as well as the Right to Freedom of Expression as enshrined in the United Nations Charter on Human Rights.
  3. The ICPF shall oppose every form of undemocratic persecution of individuals or groups or ethnics oppose censorship, violence or torture and shall secure the release of the persecuted.
  4. The ICPF shall actively endeavor for an absolute and complete separation of Religion from State and thereby the separation of religion from education, laws and politics.
  5. The ICPF shall seek to create awareness on the importance and value of Human Rights and the necessity to defend all such Rights for the creation of a sane and humane world.
  6. The ICPF shall establish close contacts with all secular and democratic minded individuals, NGO’s, atheist, rationalist, secularist and humanist associations internationally to further the cause of human freedom and to undertake activities that are in a consonance with its objectives.
  7. At no time shall the ICPF participate in agitations, organize or participate in any activity against any State, which may effect its members or the persons or cases it deals with.
  8. The ICPF will give a particular focusing to the cases of women and men free thinkers in the Islamic societies.
  9. The ICPF shall, if need be, probe into cases of persecution and publish Reports or Bulletins, hold national and international seminars and meetings on the issues of human concern, freedom and peace.

All Contacts should be made with the coordinator: Jaya Gopal
Email: icpf_president@sympatico.ca


International Executive Committee (IEC)

The International Executive Committee (IEC) is the formal and the active leadership of the ICPF.

The AAC: Bundgegen Anpassung/Alliance against Conformism in Freiburg, Germany is the home-base of our entity.

Responsibilities

Mailing Addresses of the IEC/ICPF


Journal Brave Minds

The Journal Brave Minds is the Chronicle of the ICPF.

Issue # 1, June-July 2004. Issue #2, August-September 2004

Email: braveminds-editor1@sympatico.ca

Editorial Board

Advisory Editors:

International Advisory Board

Published by DiaHumanism Institute for Studies in Freethought
PO Box: 41153, Elmvale, 1910 St. Laurent Blvd.,
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1G 5K9
Email: diahumanism-institute@sympatico.ca


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