Last month Mark Thompson, the director-general of the BBC, admitted that he thought Islam should be treated more sensitively than other religions. As the London-based publisher of The Jewel of Medina (the novel about Muhammad and his youngest wife Aisha) could tell you, it can pay to be careful. Gibson Square had its London offices firebombed just before publication. But this is no time to accept any kind of censorship - whether self-imposed or worse.

The Centre for Social Cohesion has produced a publication which details the cases of almost 30 Europeans born to Muslim parents who are risking their lives to speak out against aspects of their faith and culture. The most important rarely receive more than passing attention. But they deserve our focus. For the risks that they – and many other reformers – are taking will in the end be for us all.

The individuals profiled range from cabinet ministers to journalists, writers, academics, artists and even pop singers. Most are in trouble for having criticised elements of what they see in Europe’s Muslim communities, particularly the treatment of women. Nyamko Sabuni, the Swedish minister for integration and gender equality, has been the subject of death threats since speaking out against female genital mutilation and proposing that all Swedish schools should have mandatory gynaecological examinations to discourage the practice.

In Denmark, Manu Sareen, a city councillor and social worker who helped victims of “honour violence”, was forced to give up his job after being approached on the way to his office by two men who told him that if he helped more of their women he would be killed.

Governments across Europe, including our own, make regular pronouncements about helping moderate Muslim voices to emerge above the din of radicals and radical-affiliated groups who have such a knack of grabbing the headlines. But the truth is that many of the individuals detailed in Victims of Intimidation either never had, or took a long time to get, the support they deserved.

Ehsan Jami, 23, the Dutch Labour party politician and founder of the Central Committee for Ex-Muslims, was repeatedly assaulted before being guarded by the Dutch police. He now requires constant protection but his own political party, instead of assisting his right to speak out about what he saw in the religion he was born into, tried to make him tone down his public statements about the treatment of women, apostates and homosexuals within Islam.

Those like Jami who have left Islam are often treated, by our governments and broadcasters as much as by the Muslim communities, as though they are out of the discussion. The British government has repeatedly elevated orthodox and highly conservative Muslim groups here but steers clear of former Muslims or still-practising Muslims who are seen to have harsh critiques of certain Islamic practices. In doing so it operates a terrible double standard. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares “freedom of speech and belief” as among “the highest aspirations of the common people”. But freedom of belief for Muslims in Europe seems not to operate in the same way. A different standard is expected.

Deepika Thathhaal (or Deeyah), the Norwegian-born London-based pop singer, was attacked on stage at a concert in Oslo and has had her life repeatedly threatened. She has been criticised for her dress, dancing, music and her music video What Will It Be? which highlights the victims of “honour killings”.

As Deeyah has said herself: “What’s been a hard and sad thing for me to realise is how not one single person from the religious establishment within the community has shown any support.” Earlier this year she launched a project called Sisterhood to support female Muslim rappers and singers. Daud Abdullah, deputy secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain (who both the government and the Conservative party continue to deal with) responded to this modern woman’s right to self-expression by saying: “The moral framework of Islam has already been laid down and women should not push beyond its boundaries for the sake of commercial gain.”

Muslim reformers, whether believers or not, are not extended the same rights that the rest of us enjoy. They find themselves stuck between reactionary, self-appointed Muslim spokesmen and a European artistic and political establishment which is either too cowed or too misguided to notice that it is applying a different standard to people born here to Muslim parents.

Government talks a lot about elevating the right voices in the Muslim community. None hit more important or more fundamental notes than the figures profiled in Victims of Intimidation. It is time that our leaders finally started encouraging the true progressives – the people who are the best hope not just for Muslims but for us all.

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