Yup it turned out he is.
I think I have talked about him before. He's been here in the UK since the 70s when he was in his late teens. He's married to an English lady and his children don't speak a word of Arabic.
Everybody in the family knows he's pretty liberal, drinks and gambles, and doesn't pray or fast. He doesn't give a fuck about religion and he's always been straightforward in his views. But still t I thought he considered himself a Muslim.
His wife is a Christian and believes in God but she doesn't go to church and they didn't baptize their kids.
They're the only ones in my family who know I drink and eat pork. They also know I don't believe in God although I hadn't gone into much details before.
He invited me over for dinner yesterday. He made some lovely chicken and lamb kebabs and his wife made a beautiful prawn salad.
After dinner we started talking about the election then politics in general then Muslims in the UK. His wife was trying her best to be politically correct but after some rum and coke and multiple beers we all got tipsy
so we started telling it like it is.
We talked about arranged marriages in the UK. My uncle mentioned an 37-year old Arab guy he knows who married an 18-year old girl last year.
So we all slagged him off a bit. Then I couldn't hold it anymore and said
"well Mohammed married a 6 year old and consummated the marriage when she was 9 and he's supposed to be best man who ever lived. So we can't blame Muslims if they followed his Sunnah". My remark was followed by 5 seconds of awkward silence which made me regret saying it!
Then my uncle laughed out loudly and said
"that's why my friends and I always called him Mohammed the paedo" !!
I was surprised to be honest. So was his wife. He then when on to say
"I don't really think of myself as a Muslim" and his daughter responded
"why haven't said this before?" It was a great moment. It turned out he, his daughter, and his son are all atheists/agnostics but have never told each other about it.
His wife said she believes in a god but that's just about it.
Not only that but he also told me that his circle of friends (which consists of Arab kebab shop owners in their 40s and 50s) are almost all non-believers. Really shocking !! And encouraging of course.
I felt so comfortable and told them about my experience and my beliefs and this forum. I told them that I told my parents and that they were OK with it but that I still think they expect me to marry a Muslim girl at least culturally.....etc
Then we watched Inter destroy Barca until I got so drunk that he had to drive me home in my car while his son followed in his car
All in all, it was a great dinner. And I just felt like sharing the story with you guys !!