How did you come here?

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How did you come here?
OP - February 07, 2009, 05:24 PM

I wonder how ex-muslims are supposed to stumble on this site, unless they are general forum activists or have been recommended by other forum members.

If they are alone in their beliefs, and don't have any Muslims in their peer group, then this site could provide invaluable - like I have said before this site would have been a godsend during my earlier & darker days of apostacy?

It must be a subject worth thinking about it, will start another thread on it. Not sure how highly this appears in googles rankings, as I could not find it any basic searches I used.

Might be a good idea to brainstorm, also interested to see how others first came across this site..

Me?

I was lucky as Humanoid (thanks Humanoid ) knew me before, and stuck my Islamic critique on a thread here, which started my interest. I must admit I was very sceptical at first, as the only experience I had of forums was on facebook and being accused of being a taxi driver just because of the colour of my skin!

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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #1 - February 07, 2009, 05:35 PM

In 2007 I heard Maryam Namazie was launching the Council of Ex-Muslims. I was on FFI in those days with Berbs and Oz and Cheetah and others. Berbs & I agreed we'd contact Maryam about starting an online forum. She agreed and with Oz and Wisey and the help of the guys at Rant n Rave we got this place up and running in late 2007. I've been here (on and off ) ever since!
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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #2 - February 07, 2009, 06:08 PM

Used to browse Arab atheists forum, non-religious Arab forum, and FFI from 2004,

in late 07 or early 08, I youtubed several terms related to apostasy such as:

former Muslim, ex Muslim, and I think I found Hassan's story when I typed "leaving Islam" or "why i left Islam" something like that,

In the Vid. info section he referred to the COEM...

"I'm Agnostic about God."

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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #3 - February 07, 2009, 06:17 PM

Quote from: Hassan on February 07, 2009, 05:35 PM
She agreed and with Oz and Wisey and the help of the guys at Rant n Rave we got this place up and running in late 2007. I've been here (on and off ) ever since!

S'cuse my ignorance, but not been here long - who is Wisey, and the guys at Rant n Rave?

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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #4 - February 07, 2009, 06:33 PM

Wisey is Wise Haven. He was one of the original mods here, he still pops in to visit from time to time. Rants n Raves is another forum, (there's a link to it on our front page), their admin Matt, who also has an admin account here, initially provided us with a server, and we still share server costs with them.

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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #5 - February 07, 2009, 07:30 PM

Quote from: IsLame on February 07, 2009, 05:24 PM
I wonder how ex-muslims are supposed to stumble on this site, unless they are general forum activists or have been recommended by other forum members.

Recommended by Maryam. My opinion of her has changed since then.

Quote from: IsLame on February 07, 2009, 05:24 PM
If they are alone in their beliefs, and don't have any Muslims in their peer group, then this site could provide invaluable - like I have said before this site would have been a godsend during my earlier & darker days of apostacy?

By being more open about my beliefs I've now probably met more ex-Muslims in real life then there are on this forum as most of the regular posters here aren't even ex-Muslims. And there are other groups out there.

Quote from: IsLame on February 07, 2009, 05:24 PM
Not sure how highly this appears in googles rankings, as I could not find it any basic searches I used.

When I searched for ?ex-muslims forum? this came fourth in google. Also if you google some of the more unique user names and thread titles then the site comes high on the list.

just searched for "The Atheist Experience is amazing......check it out" and it was first on the list.

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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #6 - February 07, 2009, 09:38 PM

Quote from: A_G on February 07, 2009, 07:30 PM
Quote from: IsLame on February 07, 2009, 05:24 PM
I wonder how ex-muslims are supposed to stumble on this site, unless they are general forum activists or have been recommended by other forum members.

Recommended by Maryam. My opinion of her has changed since then.

How did you meet her?

Quote from: A_G on February 07, 2009, 07:30 PM
By being more open about my beliefs I've now probably met more ex-Muslims in real life then there are on this forum as most of the regular posters here aren't even ex-Muslims. And there are other groups out there.

I am open to anyone who asks (or doesn't!) about being an ex-muslim, and have had exposure to many Muslims during my lifespan, so how did you get to meet so many ex-muslims? And which forums are you referring too?
Quote from: IsLame on February 07, 2009, 05:24 PM
Not sure how highly this appears in googles rankings, as I could not find it any basic searches I used.

Quote from: A_G on February 07, 2009, 07:30 PM
When I searched for "ex-muslims forum" this came fourth in google. Also if you google some of the more unique user names and thread titles then the site comes high on the list.

Yes, you're right - but I didnt use the words "ex-muslim" because the first time I came across this phrase, was when I joined this website. Its just not something I would have used to search for such a forum. These words only features highly on google algorithim's for the rankings because they are site specific i.e. the exact words are used in the URL of the site.

A question for the the mods, is there any reason why this forum tends to have a British slant on membership, as i would have thought it better to have an even international distribution?

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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #7 - February 07, 2009, 09:55 PM

Well, its attached to the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, which tends to attract more British members. However, the forum is open equally to all, not just British people.

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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #8 - February 07, 2009, 11:46 PM

Quote from: Cheetah on February 07, 2009, 06:33 PM
Rants n Raves is another forum, (there's a link to it on our front page), their admin Matt, who also has an admin account here, initially provided us with a server, and we still share server costs with them.

I took a quick butchers at their site, and it seems you share a similar interface, but this one looks much more advanced & refined - who did all that?

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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #9 - February 08, 2009, 01:18 AM

I found this site through google. I can't remember what I searched though but I spent a while looking for a site more sensible than FFI.

This site really needs to be advertised better though. It doesn't appear on many keywords such as 'muslim apostate'.

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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #10 - February 08, 2009, 02:36 AM

My parents came from different faiths, and my father was more insistent than my mom that we join his faith. I and my brother always believed that we were non religious without going into the details.Here is my story in brief:

Was sent to boarding school- Had a fundie Christian Scriptures teacher- Became interested in religion and decided to read up more to decide to join a faith (or have sound reasons, not just ignorance, as my reason for being non religious)-read the Bible, Quran and Zend Avesta none of which particularly impressed me- went home for my holidays and found Ibn Ishaq's Sira and had a very poor impression of Islam's Prophet after reading it- asked my mom and her dad about it, and both now claimed that the story in it was dubious although they'd earlier said that its a good source on the Prophet- I became suspicious and decide to do some online sleuthing to know exactly what king of man Prophet Mohammed(PBUH) was and what Muslims' and non Muslims' thought about him- found Muslim sites which gave peculiar reasons for Mohammed's questionable actions, which sort of confirmed my poor impression of him- found Faith Freedom and read many more such stuff about him- showed FFI to my mom,and she explained pretty well that any faith can be made to look this way- googled Muslim apostates, ex Muslims' and British ex Muslims and found CEMB!

Phew!

What made me realise that Sina's approach was wrong and biased was reading the debates he had with Muslims', the man was completely unwilling to accept any good in the faith, but ranted about all stuff bad and blamed everything, even forced veiling in Iran on Mohammed's poor character!However, this is one debate Sina had which I really enjoyed! I was rolling with laughter.

www.faithfreedom.org/debates/alAssadi.htm

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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #11 - February 08, 2009, 02:45 AM

Well done, Rashna. Can I ask you a question, though?

Quote
Had a fundie Christian Scriptures teacher

What did he/she teach you?

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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #12 - February 08, 2009, 02:54 AM

She taught us that all non Christians go to Hell, and Catholics' have greater difficulty going to Heaven than Evangelical Protestants, that the vast majority of my classmates who're non Christian will end up in Hell, however, if we convert Jesus will favor us more as we're lost sheep. The worst stuff she said was that hominid bones were constructed and put on the Earth's surface by atheist geologists(who also pre dated dinosaur bones, or constructed them as well, she's not clear on this) and one day when people regain their faith, they'll see through the hoax!

She also said that all Hindu gods and goddesses are demon like characters, Jews have not been perfected and as for Islam she called Mohammed all the names she could, although she isn't particularly knowledgable about him.

World renowned historian Will Durant"...the Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precious good, whose delicate complex order and freedom can at any moment be overthrown..."
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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #13 - February 08, 2009, 06:23 AM

Quote from: PeruvianSkies on February 08, 2009, 01:18 AM
I found this site through google. I can't remember what I searched though but I spent a while looking for a site more sensible than FFI.

This site really needs to be advertised better though. It doesn't appear on many keywords such as 'muslim apostate'.

What we need are some naked pics of celebrities. That'll get the hit rates up.

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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #14 - February 08, 2009, 06:32 AM

I first posted on FFI when I was in the early stages of my doubts, and hated the nastiness there and didn't stay long (on my intro post they'd tell me about how evil Islam and Muslims are, I wasn't feeling that then, or now), someone from there pointed me to here, where they're more understanding and friendly.

I lurked back when it was "Murtad Heaven", funny name I thought, turned me off a bit. I remember I liked "CosmicDancer"'s (Hassan)'s post on "Favourite verses from Qur'an", that showed ex-muslims could still see value in Islam, even though they can't believe in it anymore, and not villify everything Islamic as "evil".

I didn't lurk for long, and forgot about this site, wrote it off as people too bitter about Islam; then I stumbled across Hassan's vids somehow. Then I registered.

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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #15 - February 08, 2009, 08:27 AM

I first encountered my good friend Hassan on Ummah.com back at a time when I was still muslim and when he was posting as "Peace". At the time I thought he was the only one talking any sense, a good antidote to the literalists who populated that forum.

I had a few nicks on ummah.com as I went through my muslim>not sure>ex-muslim progression.

Eventually I contacted Hassan when he posted as "Cosmicdancer" ( not initially realising he had been "Peace" aswell ) and also got in touch with Berbs who started posting - she was Arrakis IIRC.

Berbs and Hassan let me know a few months later that they had helped put this forum up and I registered here.

HOWEVER, it took me a full year or so to begin posting as I was still active on ummah. Because my wife is still quite devoutly muslim , the amount of time I can spend on the net looking at ex-muslim stuff without arousing suspicion is minimal.
So my reasoning was that it was better me spending my time talking on ummah.com to muslims and trying to get them to at least think rationally about islam than spending time here with the converted .

But eventually I got here and am glad I did. Have met some great characters ( online and in person) and introduced a close friend IsLame, (an apostate from before it was fashionable ) to this forum.

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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #16 - February 08, 2009, 09:05 AM

I was an FFI guy until I realised all the fun had gone from there to here.
All the fun people left there and went here.
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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #17 - February 08, 2009, 09:07 AM

Quote from: Lana on February 08, 2009, 06:23 AM
Quote from: PeruvianSkies on February 08, 2009, 01:18 AM
I found this site through google. I can't remember what I searched though but I spent a while looking for a site more sensible than FFI.

This site really needs to be advertised better though. It doesn't appear on many keywords such as 'muslim apostate'.

What we need are some naked pics of celebrities. That'll get the hit rates up.

What about a member's calender? I mean everybody's doing it nowadays.
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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #18 - February 08, 2009, 09:16 AM

Quote from: Humanoid on February 08, 2009, 08:27 AM
(an apostate from before it was fashionable

It's still not yet fashionable. Though give it a decade or two and many Muslims will wonder what they ever saw in Islam.
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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #19 - February 08, 2009, 09:20 AM

Quote from: speaklow on February 08, 2009, 09:07 AM
What about a member's calender? I mean everybody's doing it nowadays.

What about a member's members calender? Something for the laaaaydeez.....

or perhaps not...

We are in favor of tolerance, but it is a very difficult thing to tolerate the intolerant and impossible to tolerate the intolerable.

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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #20 - February 08, 2009, 09:25 AM

Oh gawd

I chose to get circumcised at 17, don't tell me I never believed.
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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #21 - February 08, 2009, 09:34 AM

Quote from: Humanoid on February 08, 2009, 09:20 AM
Quote from: speaklow on February 08, 2009, 09:07 AM
What about a member's calender? I mean everybody's doing it nowadays.

What about a member's members calender? Something for the laaaaydeez.....

If it's going to be that sort of calender then you'd better count me out. A3 is always more expensive than A4 so I wouldn't want to blow the council budget.
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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #22 - February 08, 2009, 09:46 AM

Quote from: speaklow on February 08, 2009, 09:34 AM
Quote from: Humanoid on February 08, 2009, 09:20 AM
Quote from: speaklow on February 08, 2009, 09:07 AM
What about a member's calender? I mean everybody's doing it nowadays.

What about a member's members calender? Something for the laaaaydeez.....

If it's going to be that sort of calender then you'd better count me out. A3 is always more expensive than A4 so I wouldn't want to blow the council budget.

A3, A4?

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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #23 - February 08, 2009, 10:01 AM

Quote from: awais on February 08, 2009, 09:46 AM
Quote from: speaklow on February 08, 2009, 09:34 AM
Quote from: Humanoid on February 08, 2009, 09:20 AM
Quote from: speaklow on February 08, 2009, 09:07 AM
What about a member's calender? I mean everybody's doing it nowadays.

What about a member's members calender? Something for the laaaaydeez.....

If it's going to be that sort of calender then you'd better count me out. A3 is always more expensive than A4 so I wouldn't want to blow the council budget.

A3, A4?

Paper sizes.
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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #24 - February 09, 2009, 03:26 PM

I'd like to know how Buster came to be here. Clearly a white man with racial and immigration issues and a hatred for Islam and people with left wing views.

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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #25 - February 09, 2009, 03:28 PM

Hey, the curtain twitcher!

Yep, you got it. I'm like an open book
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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #26 - February 09, 2009, 03:36 PM

Quote from: speaklow on February 08, 2009, 09:07 AM
Quote from: Lana on February 08, 2009, 06:23 AM
Quote from: PeruvianSkies on February 08, 2009, 01:18 AM
I found this site through google. I can't remember what I searched though but I spent a while looking for a site more sensible than FFI.

This site really needs to be advertised better though. It doesn't appear on many keywords such as 'muslim apostate'.

What we need are some naked pics of celebrities. That'll get the hit rates up.

What about a member's calender? I mean everybody's doing it nowadays.

How about the nekkid laydeez of CEMB?

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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #27 - February 09, 2009, 03:40 PM

Quote from: PeruvianSkies on February 09, 2009, 03:36 PM
How about the nekkid laydeez of CEMB?

With a veil on? Might be more sensual!

What about men?

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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #28 - February 09, 2009, 03:47 PM

I was on YouTube, about Oct last year, and came across a Richard Dawkins video about a creationist book by a Turkish Muslim. He was giving a lecture at some Council of Ex Muslims of Britain. I never heard about it.

So I googled it and found the website watched some videos by Maryam and realised she had a position similar to where I wanted to head. The there was the Forum Link and voila!

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Re: How did you come here?
Reply #29 - February 09, 2009, 04:04 PM

Quote from: A_G on February 09, 2009, 03:26 PM
I'd like to know how Buster came to be here. Clearly a white man with racial and immigration issues and a hatred for Islam and people with left wing views.

Buster is a SHE, lord knows what you are A_G, but I don't think you can put a gender on it.

Inhale the good shit, exhale the bullshit.
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