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In the West abandoning one's religion (apostasy) can be a difficult, emotional decision, which sometimes has social repercussions. However, in culturally diverse societies where there is a mixture of ethnic groups and various philosophies of life, most people look upon such shifts in intellectual allegiance as a matter of personal choice and individual right. By contrast, in Islam apostasy is still viewed as an almost unthinkable act, and in orthodox circles it is considered a crime punishable by death. Renowned scholar of Islamic Studies Bernard Lewis described the seriousness of leaving the Islamic faith in the following dire terms: "Apostasy was a crime as well as a sin, and the apostate was damned both in this world and the next. His crime was treason ù desertion and betrayal of the community to which he belonged, and to which he owed loyalty; his life and property were forfeit. He was a dead limb to be excised."
Defying the death penalty applicable to all apostates in Islam, the ex-Muslims who are here represented feel it is their duty to speak up against their former faith, to tell the truth about the fastest growing religion in the world. These former Muslims, from all parts of the Islamic world, recount how they slowly came to realize that the religion into which they were born was in many respects unbelievable and sometimes even dangerous.
These memoirs of personal journeys to enlightenment and intellectual freedom make for moving reading and are a courageous signal to other ex-Muslims to come out of the closet.
| Preface | 11 | |
| Pt. 1 | Theory and Practice of Apostasy in Islam | |
| 1 | Apostasy | 15 |
| 2 | Early History of Apostasy in Islam: Zindiqs, Atheists, Dualists, Mystics, and Freethinkers | 39 |
| 3 | Al-Rawandi and Al-Razi | 51 |
| 4 | Sufism, or Islamic Mysticism and the Rejection of Islam | 59 |
| 5 | Abu 'l-Ala' Ahmad b. 'Abd Allah b. Sulayman al-Ma'arri | 63 |
| 6 | The Poet of Doubt: 'Umar Khayyam: Medieval and Modern Iranian Freethought | 73 |
| 7 | Apostates of Islam I: Converts to Christianity | 89 |
| 8 | Apostates of Islam II: Converts to Hinduism, Humanism, Deism, Atheism, and Agnosticism | 101 |
| 9 | Apostasy, Human Rights, and Islam | 109 |
| Pt. 2 | Testimonies Submitted to the ISIS Web Site | |
| 10 | Introduction | 115 |
| 11 | Testimonies from the ISIS Web Site | 117 |
| Pt. 3 | Testimonies of Born Muslims: Murtadd Fitri | |
| 12 | Introduction: The Allah That Failed | 135 |
| 13 | Why I Left Islam: My Passage From Faith to Enlightenment | 137 |
| 14 | A Journal of My Escape from the Hell of Islam | 159 |
| 15 | Islamic Terrorism and the Genocide in Bangladesh | 181 |
| 16 | An Iranian Girlhood and Islamic Barbarism | 203 |
| 17 | Leaving Islam and Living Islam | 213 |
| 18 | Thinking for Oneself | 225 |
| 19 | A Rationalist Look at Islam | 227 |
| 20 | Floods, Droughts, Islam, and Other Natural Calamities | 239 |
| 21 | Liberation from Muhammadan Ideology | 251 |
| 22 | A View from the Far East | 255 |
| 23 | An Accidental Critic | 261 |
| 24 | On Being a Woman in Pakistan | 277 |
| 25 | The Lifting of the Veil of Blind Faith | 279 |
| 26 | Autobiography of a Dissident | 285 |
| 27 | Now I Am Guided | 293 |
| 28 | The Wind Blowing through My Hair | 301 |
| 29 | A Philosopher's Rejection of Islam | 303 |
| 30 | My Malaise | 315 |
| 31 | A Nightmare in Tunisia | 319 |
| 32 | An Atheist from Andhra Pradesh | 333 |
| Pt. 4 | Testimonies of Western Converts: Murtadd Milli | |
| 33 | From Submitter to Mulhid | 339 |
| 34 | A Spanish Testament: My Experience As a Muslim | 353 |
| 35 | "Forget What Is and Is Not Islam" | 361 |
| 36 | I Married a Muslim | 365 |
| 37 | Dark Comedy | 369 |
| App. A | Islam on Trial: The Textual Evidence | 391 |
| App. B | Ex-Muslims of the World Unite! | 431 |
| App. C | The Council for Secular Humanism | 439 |
| App. D | A List of Web Sites Critical of Islam | 441 |
| App. E | Bibliography of Books Critical of Islam | 467 |
Anonymous
Posted June 9, 2003
In order to rebut the army of apologists who deliberately deflect attention away from central tenets of Islam, one should read this book, which contains the testimonies, touching and amusing and enraged and always convincing, of those who, having been born into Islam or having at one point converted to it, became appalled by aspects of Islamic teachings and practice -- its misogyny, its anti-scientific dogmatism, its violence (as in Bangladesh in 1971) -- and thereby were led to abandon belief. Above all, the inculcated contempt and hostility for Infidels to which many of these witnesses attest, and which are not tangential but central, in Koran and hadith, in Muslim teachings and in practice toward non-Muslims, helped drive many of these former Muslims out of Islam. Given that apostasy from Islam is punishable by death, some of the testimonies are necessarily anonymous; but many are not. Whether written by the wary, or by the brave, they are all memorable. If you are worried about the flood of Muslim apologetics all over the Western world, and the repetition of those apologetics by many Infidels who have never taken the trouble to actually study the teachings, or closely observe the practice,of Islam. both in time and space, this is the book to buy and distribute to children, family, friends, government officials. This book is indispensable (along with the same author's Why I Am Not a Muslim) not only for the many Infidels who have been fed a steady diet of bromides and platitudes. It is essential as well for those who, either born into Islam, or tempted by some aspect of it, need to be made aware that no belief is inevitable or unavoidable, that even Muslims can dare to exercise freedom of individual conscience -- at least in the Infidel lands -- and that life outside Islam is possible. The testimony of these former Muslims, who in many cases offer precise details about their own intellectual trajectory, is of value both to Infidels, and to those Muslims who may feel they are imprisoned within a system that will never allow them to make their own choice, and who cannot imagine any way out for themselves. This book offers examples of other possibilities.
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Overview
In the West abandoning one's religion (apostasy) can be a difficult, emotional decision, which sometimes has social repercussions. However, in culturally diverse societies where there is a mixture of ethnic groups and various philosophies of life, most people look upon such shifts in intellectual allegiance as a matter of personal choice and individual right. By contrast, in Islam apostasy is still viewed as an almost unthinkable act, and in orthodox circles it is considered a crime punishable by death. Renowned ...