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 Topic: An infidel in Mecca

 (Read 13262 times)
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  • An infidel in Mecca
     OP - August 12, 2010, 02:10 PM

    Before Birth
    Location: Syria, an Arab country bordered on the east by Iraq.
    Time: middle seventies.
    A Syrian guy in his early twenties, studying religion in a college in Mecca, travels back to Syria during the holyday season. When he arrives home, he tells his parents about his will to marry, and asks them to look for a wife for him. His father contacts one of his friends, a Muslim cleric, who has a 13 year old daughter. He tells the cleric that he is honored to ask the daughter for his son. The college student and his father both visit the cleric's home. The 13 year old girl enters the room and serves the guests with coffee. The student chats a little with the shy girl, then the guests leave. The college student tells his parents that he liked the girl and he agrees to marry her. The cleric tells the father that the daughter agrees on marriage, and he gives his approval although the daughter's mother had her concerns, not because she thinks that her daughter is too young for marriage, but because she doesn't want her daughter to live 1300 km apart from her.
    Two weeks later, a wedding is held. The college student and the 13 years old girl are announced as husband and wife.
    They spend their first few months as a married couple in a room at the husband's father's home.
    Following these few months, the couple travels to Mecca, where they will live for the next thirty years and give birth to four children, including me.



  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #1 - August 12, 2010, 02:13 PM

    Erm...

    Continue now?

    Otherwise....welcome Cheesy  cheers victory

    "If intelligence is feminine... I would want that mine would, in a resolute movement, come to resemble an impious woman."
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #2 - August 12, 2010, 03:02 PM

    I don't like suspense. Please continue...  yes

    ...
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #3 - August 12, 2010, 03:31 PM

    ^^ yes
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #4 - August 12, 2010, 05:14 PM

    cliffhanger !!

    Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense. - Voltaire
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #5 - August 12, 2010, 07:41 PM

    Child marriage and the problem with Islam
    I am so glad that my mother got married at the age of 13. My mother belongs to a nation that its prophet and top example, Muhammad (570-632), married a child girl when she was 6 and consumed his marriage when she became 9 (Sahih Al-Bukhari vol.5 p.38 .“Sahih Al-Bukhari” is the most authentic collection of the sayings of Muhammad, accepted by Muslims to be entirely and absolutely true) . So I consider my mother to be lucky that she skipped a much worse fate than marrying at 13.
    And since her parents had no problem marrying her off at the age of 13, I don't expect that they would have had a problem if their daughter was asked for marriage at an earlier age.
    In the Islamic world, child marriage is rare, but it happens, and it's lawful, thanks to Islam which preserves this ancient Arab tradition. Child marriage in ancient times was common in most parts of the world; the Arabian Peninsula wasn't an exception. So it was normal for Muhammad as a son of that culture to consider child marriage as uncontroversial. Many of the things that Muhammad is criticized for today are actually justified when they are viewed in their historical and cultural context. Muhammad, as a reformer, abrogated many bad Arab traditions, but he also kept many other bad ones and considered them to be normal. I don't blame him for that; he was just a human being. But the big problem is that he considered the laws of his religion to be the utmost perfect laws for all mankind in everywhere and in every time. He also considered the rejection of any Islamic law an infidelity. That's our main problem with Muslims today: they regard Islam's laws to be valid for our time, 14 centuries after Muhammad. And they consider the rejection of any single Islamic teaching to be infidelity; that what makes secularism in the Muslim world a difficult thing to achieve, and that's why secular Muslims are considered apostates by all traditional Muslim clerics. The Quran, the word of god according to Muslims, is very clear about the position of Islam's laws (Sharia):
    "It's not for a believer, man or woman, when Allah and his messenger have decreed a matter that they should have any option in their decision. And whoever disobeys Allah and his messenger, he is indeed strayed into a plain error." (33-36) (All Quran verses I quote are from Hilali-Khan's translation.)
    "But no, by your lord, they can have no faith, until they make you (O Muhammad) judge in all disputes between them, and find in themselves no resistance against your decisions, and accept (them) with full submission." (4-65)
    "Then do you believe in a part of the scripture and reject the rest? Then what is the recompense of those who do so among you, except disgrace in the life of his world, and on the Day of Resurrection they shall be consigned to the most grievous torment." (2-85)

    Here is a quote from the "Islamic Monotheism" curriculum for the second high grade in Saudi Arabia, a curriculum I studied when I was 16 years old: "The things that abolish the faith are:..6- To believe that the prophet's guidance is insufficient, to believe there's a law better or more suitable to mankind than the prophet's, to believe that the prophet's law isn't the only best law, or to believe that the implementation of any law rather than the prophet's is permissible, even if you believe that the prophet's law is better." (page 15)
    And thus, Muslims are still practicing many ill-natured teachings of Islam, including child marriage. I don't blame Muhammad for having sex with a nine years old child girl 14 centuries ago, but I strongly blame the one who says that child marriage is OK in present time. It's exactly like how I don't blame Akhenaton, the ancient Egyptian pharaoh, for marrying his sister. Because that kind of marriage was normal in ancient Egypt. If present-day Egyptians still believe in their ancient religion, then brother-sister marriage would still be practiced in Egypt today. But today Egyptians don't believe in Akhenaton, they believe in Muhammad, and that's why child marriage is still valid and active in Egypt, and in most Muslim countries, alongside with many other ill-natured practices that are much more common than child marriage, such as the woman's wearing of a veil, the husband's right to beat his wife,  polygamy…etc.
    Child marriage isn't that common in Saudi Arabia, but it's quite common in Yemen, a poor country bordered by Saudi Arabia on the north, and is totally like it in terms of traditions and religion.
    More than a quarter of females in Yemen marry before the age of 15, according to a 2009 report by the social affairs ministry. On March 2010, hundreds of Yemeni women protested near the Parliament against a proposed law banning marriage before the age of 18. The protesting women were holding Qurans in their hands and holding placards that some of them read: "The Quran and the prophet's sayings are above all laws that contradict with our religion" and "Stop assaulting the Islamic law by the name of rights and liberty". Many influential Yemeni Islamic clerics issued a decree declaring as apostates those who supported the banning law. Abdul Majid Al-Zandani, the president of the Iman university and a famous Yemeni cleric well known in the Arab world, threatened to organize a one million person protest against the law. So as you can see, this proposed law has been opposed largely by Muslim clerics for Islamic excuses. This proves that Islam has its big share of responsibility over the prevalence of child marriage in Yemen. Yes, Child marriage is a tradition, but it's Islam that makes many Muslims support it and oppose banning it, because they believe that the Islamic law is suitable for all mankind and for all times, and whoever rejects a single Islamic law is considered an apostate. And that's why those who called for the banning law in Yemen were declared as apostates by Yemeni clerics. And that's only one reason why Islam is a big threat to modern civilization.

  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #6 - August 12, 2010, 08:15 PM

    i agree with you on the cultural context of the time. my grand mother married at 14 and had her first child at 16. it was common just a few decades ago as well.

    Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense. - Voltaire
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #7 - August 12, 2010, 08:57 PM

    Good post, salim munqith.  Afro  Very honest and rational.

    "Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so." -- Bertrand Russell

    Baloney Detection Kit
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #8 - August 12, 2010, 10:15 PM

     signwelcome

    Nice to see you here!

    Can't wait to hear more from you!  It's rare to get a munifiq's insight from inside the Magic Kingdom!

     pccoffee

    Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

    The sleeper has awakened -  Dune

    Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day Give him a religion, and he'll starve to death while praying for a fish!
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #9 - August 13, 2010, 10:48 AM

    Landing on earth

    It was in December 1983, in the middle of the night, in a hospital close to the holy mosque in Mecca. It was there when I had my first gasps of air. This first-time breathing, as scientists believe, makes the new born child cry loudly during his very first moments of life. But Muslims have a different explanation for this crying. Muhammad says: "No child is born but that, Satan touches it when it's born where upon it starts crying loudly because of being touched by Satan, except Mary and her son." (Sahih Al-Bukhari, p. 11 vol.6 )
    Other sayings of Muhammad showed that the "touching" thing is actually striking! ( for example, see Sahih Muslim, book 33, hadith number 6429. Sahih Muslim is the third authoritative book in Islam next to the Quran and Sahih Al-Bukhari)
    Since surely I am neither Mary nor her son, I hope that this Islamic explanation didn't affect the way my parents saw me on my first moments. I hope they were only happy and not worrying about how Satan is beating their poor baby's ass.
    Islam teaches for the father to recite the Adaan in the new born baby's right ear (Sahih Sunan Abi Dawoud, Hadith no. 5105 (Arabic) ) . The Adaan is the Islamic call for prayer. Muslim Scholars listed a few reasons for why Islam teaches this, they include forcing the Satan to run away from the baby!! (See Tohfat Al-Mawdood, by Ibn Al-Qayyim, p.31 (Arabic) ). Well, surely it didn't work for me, because me and Satan not only became best friends, but 18 years later he convinced me to leave Islam, and that's the biggest achievement listed in my dear Satan's resume.
    Seven days after my birth, my father performed another Islamic rite. Islam teaches that seven days after birth, the newborn (usually male, I will explain) gets to have two sheep offered as a sacrifice of thanksgiving on his behalf. This rite is called Aqeeqa, and I have been to several Aqeeqas. I can imagine how my Aqeeqa was like based on the ones I attended. The father invites a number of his friends and relatives to lunch – or dinner- that consists mainly of rice with cooked meat of the sacrificed sheep. They meet and congratulate the father for having the new baby, they chat, eat, and then leave. If the new born baby is a male, then the Aqeeqa tends to be much more lively, happier and has a larger number of invited people. But if the baby is a female, then she will have an Aqeeqa if she's the first born baby to the father. If the second born baby is also a female, then it's possible to get an Aqeeqa. But if the third baby or more is also a female, then her arrival to this world is fairly unwelcomed, and an Aqeeqa is not expected at all. That's the case in typical Muslim families, but it's more severe in Saudi families.
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #10 - August 13, 2010, 11:11 AM

    Dears canex, ateapotist and Nour,
    Thank you very much for your comments.
    Regards
    Salim
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #11 - August 13, 2010, 11:34 AM

    oh allah

    make salim post more

    <3

    welcome to the forum

    [13:36] <Fimbles> anything above 7 inches
    [13:37] <Fimbles> is wacko
    [13:37] <Fimbles> see
    [13:37] <Fimbles> you think i'd enjoy anything above 7 inches up my arse?
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #12 - August 13, 2010, 11:42 AM


     salim munqith keep the chapters coming, your story is very interesting and well written.

    Like a compass needle that points north, a man?s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always.

    Khaled Hosseini - A thousand splendid suns.
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #13 - August 13, 2010, 12:03 PM

    Yes salim, please keep it coming.  I may not have posted but I'm eagerly checking for new posts and reading this.  yes

    Welcome to the forum.  Afro

    "The greatest general is not the one who can take the most cities or spill the most blood. The greatest general is the one who can take Heaven and Earth without waging the battle." ~ Sun Tzu

  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #14 - August 13, 2010, 12:23 PM

    Can you export a PDF file? I could upload it to this server.

    German ex-Muslim forumMy YouTubeList of Ex-Muslims
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  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #15 - August 15, 2010, 03:25 AM

    So Lucky to Be a Male

    Favoring males over females starts from the very first moment of the birth of the baby. When the father receives the news and knows that the baby is a female, he gets disappointed, and starts saying things that show his disappointment such as the famous expression that's usually said at such occasion, which is: "What ever Allah gives is OK". That's also what the mother says! Women in Muslim countries share with men the belief of man's superiority over women, thanks to Islam and traditions.
    It's something I experienced with my female relatives; when my mother for example receives the news about a new born baby of another relative, such as her sister, and when the baby is a male, I can see real happiness in her face, and she praises Allah a lot and floods the mother with congratulations. But when the baby is a female, I could barely see a smile on her face, but I could clearly see disappointment. That's what makes the equalization between men and women in the Muslim world an impossible mission; because women themselves believe in men's superiority over them, sometimes even more than men do.
    That's because of religion and traditions which both make a woman's social role much smaller than that of a man, make women a source for much more and serious troubles, and establish the belief of man's superiority over women.
    "In this book we adhered to showing the importance of educating a girl so that she becomes well prepared for the most important task in her life which is being a housewife, a mother of children and a good citizen."
    The previous quote is from the introduction of the "Housekeeping" curriculum for first intermediate grade for female students in Saudi Arabia.
    Females in typical Arab families are raised from childhood to believe that their main and only goal in this life is to get married, have kids and become a housewife that's staying at home all the time. They are taught from early age that the most important thing they have is their virginity. They are warned from early childhood from making any wrong moves like inserting anything inside the uterus or doing extra leg stretching; moves that could tear the hymen, the most important part of their bodies, even more important than their brains! Because a typical Arab woman with no virginity has zero chance to get married, while a virgin girl with zero brain does absolutely have a chance, a crazy man might marry her, but even this crazy man would never accept to marry a "bitch".. that's what women with premarital sexual experience are called in the Arab world. For a girl in the Arab world, having a sexual relationship before marriage is not only very dangerous, it also might be a life threatening act. Honor crimes are common; it's typical to read in a local Arab newspaper about a brother who killed his sister because she was seeing somebody. When a girl has a boyfriend, that's considered a disgrace to the family's honor, because people will start to gossip about how this family includes sluts, and that's the worst thing that could happen to a typical Arab family. It's easier to be said about the family that it includes robbers, murderers, cheaters; but to be said it includes a slut is the worst thing in the world; if it happens, then murdering the girl is a common solution. But a more common one is to get the girl a less-severe punishment like beating her badly and completely banning her from going out of home.
    On the extreme contrary, it's totally OK for the Arab family if one of its males falls in love with a girl!; believe it or don't, this boy's love story makes the family proud that the boy is proving his manhood; his sisters proudly tell their friends about their brother's romantic adventures.
    One of my uncles was once in love with a girl; I was there when he showed his mother and sisters photographs of him with his loved one. They asked him a lot about her, they were delighted. But if one of his sisters did the same and showed photographs of her with her boyfriend... well.. that's impossible to happen, because if an Arab girl is fearless enough to have a relationship with a man, then that doesn't mean she is crazy enough to tell her family about it, because that would be suicidal.
    This "honor" thing, gives the typical Arab woman the belief that she doesn't own herself, she is the property of her family's men.
    And this honor thing is what makes a woman in a typical Arab family a burden; that's one of the reasons for why nobody in the family is delighted by the birth of a female; Because she is a potential threat to the family's honor, and because the biggest achievement expected from her is to only get married and have kids; if she doesn't and becomes a spinster then she becomes a huge burden that the whole family can't wait to get rid of. On the other hand, a male can never be a threat to the family's honor. The difference between the man's honor and that of a woman is well demonstrated in many very common Arab sayings such as: "The only possible source for blame to a man is his pocket (meaning how much money he has)". "A woman's honor is like the glass, if it gets broken then it can never be the same again". "A woman's honor is like a match, it can be used once only".
    Hence, a male is no threat to the family's honor, has a much larger social role to play in his life, can be more beneficial to the family and can be a man his father can be very proud of.
    That's why one son is more important to his father than all of his sisters even if they were ten. I was once in a family meeting, they were talking about politics. A friend of the family said: "Of course Israel is, to the US, much more important than all the Arab countries; because Israel to the US is like a son to a father who has ten daughters; the son is more important than them!"
    That's why when a friend or a relative of mine gets a new born male baby, all the world knows about it. But when he gets a female, I hardly hear about it, and sometimes I know about it only by accident.
    In the Arab world, a man with no brothers is called "His mother's only" even if he has 10 sisters! I used to think that this title applies to a man with no siblings at all. But I learned the true meaning after a funny incident: A friend of mine told me that he was "His mother's only". And one day I was joking and said to him that his sisters are sluts. I was surprised by his angry reaction saying to me: "stop insulting my sisters!", I said to him: "Didn't you tell me that you are your mother's only?, so I thought you didn't have any sisters". He said: "You idiot!, This title means that I am the only boy to my mother; I do have sisters.". Of course, as you can guess, a girl with no siblings at all would never be granted this title.
    There are also plenty of Arab sayings of insulting nature against women; a famous one is this, which I once heard my aunt saying it:  "A girl is a worry (to her family) until death". Another famous saying: "A woman is a necessary evil". (This common saying is a shortened version of a saying by Ali Bin Abi Talib, a cousin of Prophet Muhammad and his fourth successor: "A woman is wholly an evil, and the most evil thing about her is that she is a must to have.")
    Man's superiority over women is frequently demonstrated on Arab soap operas. A frequent theme is of a father that keeps trying to get a male baby, but every time his wife gives birth he gets a female. They show how every female's birth moment is like a disaster day to the father, how his life is devastated for not having a son, how people grant him the title of "The father of girls", how he keeps praying for having a son and how he sees doctors asking if there is any way to help make his wife get pregnant with a male baby. I watched a soap opera of this theme when I was an early teenager. This Syrian soap opera ended like this: The father married another woman; both of his wives were giving birth at the same day; the second wife gave birth to a female, but the first one gave birth to male twins. It's a happy ending with a very great lesson of life: Be patient, and you will get the greatest reward!

    The chapter to be continued...
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #16 - August 15, 2010, 03:53 AM

    Can you export a PDF file? I could upload it to this server.


    After I finish posting the book, I will export it as a PDF file, and I would be grateful for you to upload it on the server.
    Regards
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #17 - August 15, 2010, 05:34 AM

    Very nice and well written. Being an Arab, I actually can relate to the last chapter. It is very sad that we view females as a burden on the family. There is currently a TV series running this Ramadan on MBC channel called "I want to get married". The main character is an Egyptian woman desperately looking to get married.  idiot2
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #18 - August 15, 2010, 08:03 AM

    Dear Salim, I love your story. Very true indeed.  Afro

    I am too from an Arabic country that always see women as second class citizen.... no, I take it back. They see them as 3rd or 4th class citezens. Unfortunately and ironicaly, seen so by women themselves. Yes women think (or made to believe) that they are half a male's worth.

    I would like to remind you that actually, the word woman is an insult to a man. If you say to a man that you are a woman, he may shoot you and will be happy to go to prison for shooting you rather than being called a woman.

    Also you might want to consider replacing the word uterus with vagina.

    Quote
    They are warned from early childhood from making any wrong moves like inserting anything inside the uterus or doing extra leg stretching; moves that could tear the hymen


    ...
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #19 - August 15, 2010, 08:29 AM

    Dears ZBS and RIBS, thank you very much, glad that there are Arabs in here!
    يا أهلاً وسهلاً بالحبايب، بوجودكم يزول مني الشعور بالاغتراب في هذا المنتدى Smiley
    عزيزي "ضلوع"، تذكر أيضاً أن المرأة قد خُلقت من ضلع أعوج Smiley
    فعلاً ملاحظتك عن الجانب "الشتائمي" لكلمة "مرة" هى ملاحظة ممتازة وسأضيفها بعد إذنك إلى النسخة البي دي إف من الكتاب
    concerning your remarks about replacing "uterus" with "vagina", may you explain  the difference between the two words?? explain it with pics if possible grin12
    يعني لا أعتقد أن الفرق بين الكلمتين قد يسبب سوء فهم
    Best Regards
    تحياتي لكم
    بالمناسبة: شعور جميل أن أكتب باللغة العربية في منتدى غير عربي بحيث أن معظم القراء حالهم كحال "الأطرش بالزفة"،  ينظرون إلينا ونحن نتخاطب بـ"لغة سرية" لا يفقهون فيها حرفاً
    تحياتي لكم
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #20 - August 15, 2010, 08:46 AM

    Here you go  :



    Edit : It seems, I can´t get it to show the picture, but you can see it at the link below.

    Quote
    The female reproductive system (or female genital system) contains two main parts: the uterus, which hosts the developing fetus, produces vaginal and uterine secretions, and passes the male's sperm through to the fallopian tubes; and the ovaries, which produce the female's egg cells. These parts are internal; the vagina meets the external organs at the vulva, which includes the labia, clitoris and urethra. The vagina is attached to the uterus through the cervix, while the uterus is attached to the ovaries via the Fallopian tubes. At certain intervals, the ovaries release an ovum, which passes through the Fallopian tube into the uterus.


    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_reproductive_system_(human)

    Like a compass needle that points north, a man?s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always.

    Khaled Hosseini - A thousand splendid suns.
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #21 - August 15, 2010, 08:51 AM

    Hey Salim, by the way I am RIBS as in Religion Is Bullshit!  whistling2

    And yes you can add the terrible use of the word "Woman" as an insult if you are addressing a man. I always found it weird.

    نعم يوجد هنا الكثير ممن يتحدثون العربية و أولهم أخونا حسن (أكثر الله حسناته في الدنيا و في الأخرة... هههههه) ويمكنك إستخدام القسم العربي من المنتدى إن أحببت.

    Back to the difference between Uterus and Vagina. See the image I am attaching. The uterus is the place where the baby grows and it is not easy for women to insert anything in it as the cervix which is basically the gate of the uters is closed and opens slightly for several days to let the menstrual blood escape only to close tight again to preven infections. The vagina, on the other hand is where all the fun happens. The hymen, is the thin membrane like structure that is located near the opening of the vagina. Note that there are more than seven types of hymens. The round openining, the slit, the firm, the elastic etc ect. The interesting one is the elastic type. It can acomodate large objects as large as a penis and wont break. Some cases of honor killings happened becasue of this type. The bride does not bleed and the ignorant husband will panic and tell her parents that she was not virgin and tragically they might murder her.

    ...
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #22 - August 15, 2010, 01:33 PM

    Just a change of subject here, looking at RIBS reproductive system pic and it made me wonder.  Why do we have an erogeneous zone within our anus?

    Either from an evolutionary perspective or a religious one.

    Kthnxbai

    nevermind - will start another thread, dont want to hijack this one..

    My Book     news002       
    My Blog  pccoffee
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #23 - August 15, 2010, 01:34 PM

    Just a change of subject here...

    No.

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  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #24 - August 22, 2010, 08:33 AM

    I have decided not to post the rest of the "so lucky to be a male" chapter, so lets move to the next chapter:


    So unlucky to be a Muslim
    Muslims believe that every human being is born to Islamic monotheism, but it's his parents who change his faith. That's why many converts to Islam call themselves 'reverts to Islam'. Muhammad said: "Every child is born with a true faith of Islam (i.e.  to worship none but Allah alone- faith of Islamic Monotheism), but his parents convert him to Judaism, Christianity or Magainism (an ancient Persian religion), as an animal delivers a perfect baby animal. Do you find it mutilated?". (Sahih Al-Bukhari, vol.2, p.57)
    But to me, god never came to my mind until I was taught about him. I think Muhammad's saying should go like this: "Every child is born an atheist, but his parents convert him to Judaism, Christianity or Islam."
    I do remember the first time I was taught about god and religion. I was around the age of 4 or 3, at my uncle's home in Jeddah (a city near Mecca). My older brother asked me: "who created you?". I didn't understand what the word "create" means, so I gave no answer, and my brother kept asking me: "who created you?". I finally answered: "My uncle!". He was annoyed by this answer, and started teaching me some fundamentals of faith. He told me that there is a god, named Allah, and he is above us and knows everything, and he is the one who created me. I started asking questions I don't remember, but I remember that he had to draw on a paper to explain his answers. I remember a drawing showing my position in relation to Allah's. He told me about hell, and how doing "bad deeds" will grant me a place in it. That night I had difficulty getting to sleep, I was terrified by the hell thing. I did picture hell in a weird way: a gas station on fire!
    And here we come to the first of things that make me unlucky for having been born to Islam:

     1-The terror from hell
    No religion in this world provides as comprehensive details about hell as Islam does, and no holy book in this world mentions hell more frequently than the Quran does . Nearly on every page of the Quran hell is mentioned. And many Quranic verses and Muhammad's sayings provide terrifying details about hell and what happens to the people in it. It's not only about hell, it's also about all that happens after death according to Islam:
    Once a man dies, if he is an infidel, the angels welcome him with punches and ass kicking:
    "And if you could see when the angels take away the souls of those who disbelieve (at death); they smite their faces and their backs, (saying): "Taste the punishment of the blazing Fire." (Quran 8:50).
    The angels take the soul to heaven. But heaven's doors don't open for an infidel soul. When the body gets buried, the soul returns to the body. The dead man wakes up finding himself in the grave with two scary looking angels. They ask him three questions: Who is your god? What is your religion? Who is your prophet?. If he fails to answer correctly, the two angels hit him with an iron hammer between his ears, and he will cry and that cry will be heard by whatever approaches his grave except humans and jinns. Then a door to hell is opened making the grave very heated, and the grave shrinks until the man's ribs mix with each other (See Sahih Al-Bukhari, vol.2 p.54. and Musnad Ahmad Bin Hanbal, vol.4 p.287 Hadith no.18557 (Arabic) ) . He remains in this torment until the day of resurrection when all dead people are resurrected and gathered in a land where they will be judged by god. On that day all people are naked, the sun gets so close to them so people are enveloped by their sweats up to their ears (Sahih Al-Bukhari, vol.6 p.80). After the judgment Muslims go to paradise, sinner Muslims go to hell for a while until after a time they go to paradise and infidels go to hell and remain there forever.
    Here are a few Quran verses describing hell:
    "Surely! Those who disbelieved in our revelations, we shall burn them in Fire. As often as their skins are roasted through, we shall change them for other skins that they may taste the punishment." (4:56)
    "As for those who disbelieved, garments of fire will be cut out for them, boiling water will be poured down over their heads. With it will melt what is within their bellies, as well as (their) skins. And for them are hooked rods of iron (to punish them). Every time they seek to get away therefrom, from anguish, they will be driven back therein, and (it will be) said to them: 'Taste the torment of burning!' ". (22:19-22)
    "And you will see the Mujrimun (criminals, disbelievers in the oneness of Allah, polytheists) that day bound together in fetters. Their garments will be of pitch, and fire will cover their faces." (14:49,50)
    "On the day when we will say to Hell: 'Are you filled?' It will say: 'Are there any more (to come)?' "
    .(50:30)

    The fear of hell hugely influences the life of a Muslim, and I wasn't an exception. At the very first day I knew about hell at the age of 4 or 3, I couldn't sleep at night thinking about it. Throughout childhood I used to have nightmares about hell.  When I became an early teenager I was then fully informed of the details of hell and the terror of the after life, therefore from that early age the terror of hell started to ruin my life specially that then I have become an adolescent, which makes me according to Islam obligated with its endless obligations. These endless Islamic obligations, such as the five prayers everyday, are a constant reminder of hell, because if you miss a single obligation you could be punished with the blazing fire of hell. And that's why I was a practicing Muslim, I used to pray the five prayers and commit to Islam's obligations largely due to the fear of hell although I was promised to join a wonderful paradise in case I commit to the obligations, but of course, fear has a greater impact than anything else. As a Muslim, you can't escape thinking about hell, it's everywhere around you: The daily Islamic obligations remind you of it, religion classes at school, preachers keep warning about hell and using it as a scarecrow and almost all Islamic prayers include praying for god to save us from hell. Avoiding hell becomes a part of the meaning of life, which is according to Islam: worshiping god to join paradise and to avoid hell. So no wonder that I spent the majority of my prayers as a Muslim praying for god to save me form the torment of hell. Even the burning accidents I used to have were a powerful reminder to me; if fire can cause such a terrible pain, then how would it be like to be wholly burnt with a fire that is 70 times more burning than this earthly fire?.  On Arab non-believers forums I read many accounts by ex-Muslims telling how the fear of hell ruined their lives even from early childhood. And I noticed how many of the fresh apostates do still suffer from the fear of hell even after they leave Islam. That's exactly what happened with me. On my first year as an apostate I was frequently asking myself whether I did the right thing by leaving Islam or not. I was frequently reviewing the reasons of why I left Islam. Because being an infidel is the worst case; an infidel will be in hell for eternity while a sinner Muslim won't, a sinner Muslim will eventually be taken away from hell to join paradise. That's what makes apostasy a very terrifying thing to Muslims because it's the utmost failure that grants the ultimate: Ever-lasting torment. And that's why "Pascal's wager" is very common among Muslims: If there is nothing after death then both believers and non-believers would lose nothing, but if there is an after life then the believers will be the winners and the non-believers will be the biggest losers.
    Well, here is my own wager: If there is nothing after death, then I have won living a normal life not ruined by a constant fear of hell, committing to many nonsensical time wasting obligations and believing in many stupid superstitions that damage my logic. But if there is an after life, then according to which faith would it be? There are thousands of religions in this world, every one of them claims to be the only true one and the only path to heaven and that all the other ones grant free tickets to hell. And every one of them – especially the major ones- are severely divided into many sects, with every one of them in turn claiming to be the only right sect. And thus if I stayed a Wahhabi Sunni Muslim, then I would have at best a 1/10000 chance to go to paradise and avoid hell. Such a tiny chance is not worth ruining my life.
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #25 - August 22, 2010, 09:57 AM

    good stuff from you salim munqith,  boy this picture



    scars the hell out of me..  they look like group of Black cats looking for victims..

    Do not let silence become your legacy.. Question everything   
    I renounced my faith to become a kafir, 
    the beloved betrayed me and turned in to  a Muslim
     
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #26 - August 22, 2010, 11:33 AM

    Looks like a colony of bats to me.  wacko

    "The greatest general is not the one who can take the most cities or spill the most blood. The greatest general is the one who can take Heaven and Earth without waging the battle." ~ Sun Tzu

  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #27 - August 30, 2010, 04:24 AM

    Awesome stuff Salim. Will be waiting for more.

    مودتي
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #28 - August 30, 2010, 07:33 AM

    Quote from: salim munqith
    Seven days after my birth, my father performed another Islamic rite. Islam teaches that seven days after birth, the newborn (usually male, I will explain) gets to have two sheep offered as a sacrifice of thanksgiving on his behalf. This rite is called Aqeeqa, and I have been to several Aqeeqas. I can imagine how my Aqeeqa was like based on the ones I attended. The father invites a number of his friends and relatives to lunch – or dinner- that consists mainly of rice with cooked meat of the sacrificed sheep. They meet and congratulate the father for having the new baby, they chat, eat, and then leave. If the new born baby is a male, then the Aqeeqa tends to be much more lively, happier and has a larger number of invited people. But if the baby is a female, then she will have an Aqeeqa if she's the first born baby to the father. If the second born baby is also a female, then it's possible to get an Aqeeqa. But if the third baby or more is also a female, then her arrival to this world is fairly unwelcomed, and an Aqeeqa is not expected at all. That's the case in typical Muslim families, but it's more severe in Saudi families.


    In some Bangladeshi families the Aqeeqa is not even recited for girl babies at all, not even the firstborn.  My ex-husband has three sisters and none of them had the Aqeeqa whispered in their ear at birth, only he did.

    Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

    The sleeper has awakened -  Dune

    Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day Give him a religion, and he'll starve to death while praying for a fish!
  • Re: An infidel in Mecca
     Reply #29 - August 30, 2010, 01:40 PM

    No.

    No.
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