Hello! I've enjoyed reading these forums and thought it was about time I became a member! A little about myself: I've been an ex-muslim (read atheist) for 3 years now. I'm 23 years old, am a first-gen Indian living in Canada, and attending grad school in stats.
I basically grew up in a typical Sunni household: mom would always pester us to pray, we would fast like it was a competition, and all the '-llahs' you can imagine were part of natural conversation. In my teenage years, I had associated myself with the tablighi movement which made me somewhat zealous for the din. Around that time, my knowledge of hadith was very high, though my knowledge of the quran (i.e. translations) was nearly nil.
When I was about 20, I had taken my first course in Calculus (with all the epsilon-delta jazz). It was a great for me because I had never thought of ideas from an argumentative perspective (assumption/premise => rationale and validity of assumptions => conclusion). The method of questioning ideas then spilled over from mathematics to my ideologies. I had now begun to consider many of the confusing (read contradictory or false) claims from the hadith and the quran (the ones I was aware of anyhow) such as the meraj (when Muhammad traveled to the heavens in the 'blink of an eye'), or the fact that slavery was allowed. I started to question why I believed what I believed. It took time, but I eventually came to the conclusion that Islam is not the right religion, and within a much shorter time frame, no religion was right.
The family was my next hurdle. One day as my brother (26 yo) and I were driving by the mosque, I summed up my courage and told him, "I don't think I'll ever get in to tabligh as thickly again". He replied, "I won't ever. I don't even pray dude". I heaved a heavy sigh, and admitted to him that I'd been having serious doubts about Islam and my faith, to which he reciprocated. It was a glorious moment for me, and for my brother as well I think. We immersed ourselves in documentaries about astronomy and biology, devoured reading material on science, and discussed the various fallacies or moral issues with Islam (as well as other religions). We had become atheists.
My younger sister (18 yo) though was a different story all together. She was your typical 'good muslim girl': wouldn't argue with my parents much, wore a scarf, did most of the chores around the house, etc. On another drive, my brother and I both admitted to her that we were no longer muslims. She was shocked to say the least, and eventually we left the topic be. In about a year (by the time she turned 18 and had done half her first year of University), she and I had a frank discussion: she admitted that she herself had been doubtful of her faith and only now realized that Islam belongs to the Mythological canon, along with Greek, Roman, Christian, etc. religions.
So now, both my siblings and I are atheists (she stopped wearing a scarf and is now more and more assertive of her freedom from religion, although she still does most of the chores to which I have no objection
). Now the part you've all been waiting for: my parents. Basically, I've bashed Islam in the face whenever we discuss it. They see that I've poked great holes in Islam (rape of slaves, slaves, Aisha's age at the time of consummation), yet they have the impression that I'm still a muslim (i.e. I supposedly still pray when they tell me and I fast in Dennis Radaman). I haven't come out to them yet because I feel that it would cause my father (who is a hypochondriac) to get upset easily (he is however a heart patient). My mom is a little reasonable but thinks that it's best to keep my daily prayers (I don't pray) and my fasts (I don't fast) at the least. When the moment is right however, I do strike and let them know what's what.
I'm hoping to come out to my parents full force: I've already come out to my cousin who is a hafiz, but he's a cool cat and was happy that I was happy. I think when the time is right (hopefully soon when they bring something up that is up-the-wazzoo religious), I will declare my indifference and then rejection of all religions.
So here I ham at the moment. I'm happy to have found this forum and hope that we'll all be getting along swimmingly!
Deine kleine Bruder (I don't speak German but I love opera
).
Topic: Hi all, glad to be here!