Ex-Muslims of North America (EXMNA) was recently made aware that Facebook is blocking links to WikiIslam, a website owned and operated by EXMNA, on the grounds that it violates Facebook’s Community Standards. Other Meta platforms including Instagram are similarly blocking links to the site.
WikiIslam is an informational resource providing a skeptical, thorough, and objective perspective on Islamic scripture, theology, and history. Both before and after EXMNA took ownership of the website in 2015, it has served as an indispensable resource for Muslims engaging with Islam critically as well as curious non-Muslims, providing both with a perspective that is often missing from the apologetics and religious interests that dominate the discourse around these subjects.
Since acquiring WikiIslam, EXMNA has also undertaken a total overhaul of the website to bring it into line with new, higher standards for objectivity, scholarly rigor, organization, and writing quality. Many hundreds of articles have been renovated in order to achieve this goal, and the site has been restructured from the ground up.
WikiIslam, as it exists today, does not violate any of Facebook’s Community Standards regarding hate speech or incitement by any reasonable metric. It is our hope that the decision to block links to WikiIslam was made in honest error rather than in service to the whims of religious censors and that Facebook will act quickly to reverse it. To keep WikiIslam blocked would be a clear violation of the principles of free speech, free expression, and open dialogue, not only inconsistent with Facebook’s own Community Standards but totally arbitrary in the misapplication of said Standards.
EXMNA looks forward to resolving this matter and restoring access to WikiIslam links on all Meta platforms as soon as possible.