International Association of Free Thought (IAFT)

2018-11-15

The association Atheist Freethinkers (LPA-AFT) was affiliated with the International Association of Free Thought (IAFT) from the IAFT’s foundation in 2011, up until 2018. At its annual general meeting, held on 10^th November 2018, LPA-AFT decided to withdraw from the IAFT.

WHEREAS:

1. Our organization LPA-AFT is affiliated with the International Association of Free Thought (IAFT) and has been since its foundation in Oslo in 2011;
2. The principal founding organization and leading organization of the IAFT is the Fédération nationale de la libre pensée (FNLP, National Federation of Free Thought) of France, which has always dominated the IAFT and continues to dominate it;
3. The FNLP is an organization with a strong Islamoleftist tendency. That is, despite its left-wing political orientation, the FNLP displays an obvious prejudice in favour of Islam, refusing to criticize it to the full extent to which every religion should be criticized, especially monotheisms;
4. Fundamentalist, politicized and extremely virulent variants of Islam currently constitute a particularly dangerous threat to secularism, to human rights, to female-male equality and to everyone’s freedom of conscience and expression;
5. The FNLP’s pro-Islam prejudice strongly influences the orientation and priorities of the IAFT;
6. An individual who is both a leader of the FNLP and a spokesperson for the IAFT has used the services of a mole in order to infiltrate our organization LPA-AFT and gain access to confidential internal communications of our organization, and has disseminated such communications to others, thus destroying any confidence in the integrity of the leadership of the FNLP;
7. Our organization LPA-AFT does not wish to be associated, nor should it be associated, with any organization which claims to promote free thought but which chooses complacency and abdication in the face of one of the greatest global threats to such freedom;

It is therefore proposed that our organization LPA-AFT formally withdraw from the IAFT and that it inform the IAFT leadership of that decision.

Supporting document: Why Withdraw from the IAFT?

History

The International Association of Free Thought was founded in August of 2011 in Oslo, Norway. It groups a large number of organizations from most of the world’s continents. Our organization AFT participed in the founding meeting of the IAFT, and in several subsequent gatherings. Our delegate David Rand spoke at several of these events. Here is a list of these international meetings, held during the period of our affiliation, in antichronological order:

• VII^th IAFT Congress, 2017, Paris, France.
  (Talk given by AFT delegate: Communitarianism, the Main Threat to Secularism in Canada)
• VI^th IAFT Congress, 2015, Quito, Ecuador.
• V^th IAFT Congress, 2015, Montevideo, Uruguay.
• IV^th IAFT Congress, 11^th August 2014, London, United Kingdom.
• III^rd IAFT Congress, November 2013, Concepción, Chile.
  (Talk given by AFT delegate: Quebec Plans to Adopt Secularism as Official Policy)
• II^nd IAFT Congress, November 2012, Mar del Plata, Argentina.
  (Talk given by AFT delegate: Prospects for Secularism in Canada & Quebec)
• Colloquium, Beirut, Lebanon, 13^th April 2012, in collaboration with the Association libanaise de philosophie du droit (ALIPHID, Lebanese Association for the Philosophy of Law). (Talk given by AFT delegate: The Relationship Between Atheism and Secularism)
• Founding Meeting, 11^th August 2011.