Tariq (former Muslim)
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Testimony of Leaving Islam
I was born into a non-practising Protestant family in Auckland, New Zealand and converted to Islam some months before marrying my Indian Muslim wife. I was a relatively observant Muslim for roughly two years, attending the local mosque in Ponsonby, observing the fast before Ramadan and other special days.
I became uneasy about Islam on reading about the attempts of Sudan's Arab, Islamic elite to enslave then wipe out the country's black African citizens -firstly in southern Sudan, then years later, in Darfur.
I also became disturbed by the lack of human rights in virtually all Muslim countries, the oppression of non-Muslims in Muslim countries and Islam's embedded racist attitudes towards black people. Racism in Islam is rarely explored in the Western media, however it is real and in most Arab countries black people are despised, exploited and viewed as slave fodder, much like Mississippi in the 1800s, but worse.
While some of my in-laws were - and are -pleasant and accepting (liberal Muslims), others displayed a racism and contempt for me which I found difficult to understand. I gradually disengaged from Islam rather than suddenly leaving it.
I later converted to Eastern Orthodoxy and I am most happy with this choice. While I feel obliged to point out that there are indeed good Muslims out there, I believe that Islam is in essence an instrument for Arab (Saudi) colonialism, hegemony and notions of racial superiority.
I feel that in the coming years many Muslims will leave Islam, having concluded that the only reason they were Muslims is that their ancestors were forced into it.
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