I know this is a website mainly for ex-Muslims but I feel like what I went through being an Agnostic in a Middle Eastern Christian household gives me a reason to be here
I was born in Cairo to an Egyptian father and Assyrian/Persian mother both of whom were deeply religious. We ended up moving to America when I was about 6 and I've been back quite a few times. I probably won't be going anytime soon given the current situation. Anyways, I was essentially raised to have a deep resentment towards the religion of Islam, not the people. Sometimes in Church, I thought they talked more about hating Islam more than they talked about being a Christian. They used to scare me into believing. I was threatened with going to Hell for any transgression. I knew by the time I was 14 that it was all BS. When I told my parents that I was Agnostic they kicked me out of the house when I was 17.
I don't like the religion of Islam at all. I hate what it instructs Muslims to do in regards to non-believers and women but I can't really say that Arab Christians are much better. Sure, my parents didn't threaten to kill me but they disowned me for such an unimportant reason. I could understand if I was a hard drug user or gang-banger but my faith? What made the situation worse was they constantly pissed and moaned about how Muslims were so intolerant of other faiths........surely you can see the hypocrisy in their actions.
I know there are many, many ex-Christians and Muslims of Middle Eastern descent perhaps even among my own peers but I also know very well their fear of coming out. You become isolated and people look at you as a black sheep. Luckily, my close friends many of whom are either Christian or Muslim of various origins in the Middle East have accepted who I am. However, there are still quite a few who look at me with disgust when I tell them I'm Agnostic. I'm even luckier to have a great gf who is Syrian and also Agnostic.
Well, I won't bore you anymore with myself lol I'm glad to have found this website and look forward to meet and getting to know some of you
Topic: Former Egyptian/Persian Christian. I'm new!