AdmirerOfChrist (Former Muslim)
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Testimony of Leaving Islam
Originally from Bangladesh, I was the only daughter of parents living in Qatar. My mom used to wear a burqa and my Dad was a fairly religious Muslim. We moved to Canada when I was only four. Growing up, my parents were fairly strict. We never ate out, never went to the movies and he would even dislike it when my mom used to watch the Bollywood movies that she borrowed from someone else. I wasn't allowed to go to friends' houses that were non-Muslim. And even at the age of nine, I wasn't allowed to hang out with my best friend at that time who hung out with boys a lot after school. I myself wasn't allowed to talk to boys from a very early age.
I grew up rebellious. I had been bullied at school. I often had a lot of fights with my parents where I would be hit. I was at a point where I antagonized the world around me. However, I do remember my parents being loving as well. I never really took Islam as seriously as I was supposed to. So they bought me an English version of the Qur'an when I was around 11 or 12 years old. I started reading it. But there was one phrase which was in multiple verses that bothered me. And that was, "that your right hand possesses." The Qur'an was saying that Muslim men could have sex with their wives and whom their "right hand possesses." I googled what that meant and read an article about Islam and sex slavery. From then on, I kind of distanced myself from Islam.
However, my mom's friend, who was an elderly woman, gave me a book about the Qur'an and it's "science". I took a look inside and I was immediately convinced that the Qur'an was the words of God. The sex slavery verse, I shoved it down in my memory and forgot about it. She convinced me to memorize one more dua that I needed to pray five times a day for which I did. Then I started praying as much as I could. It would make both my parents proud. When I just turned 15, my dad passed away. From then on my mom would always talk about how he built a mosque in Bangladesh and how she wanted me to go finish it when I grew up and made my own money. I used to pray as much as I could, especially for him as it was taught to me that because I'm his blood, my blessings that I attained from following Islam (praying, reading the Qur'an, fasting and giving to charity) would directly go to him. So I did as much as I could. I was also doing well in school, with friends, and just in general, I was okay.
But there were two things that made me question Islam again. One was a YouTube comment with someone calling Muhammed a pedophile, saying how he married a nine year old girl. I checked the accuracy of what he had said. Various sites said that Aisha was much older and a few agreed with him but justified it by saying how it was much different in those times and that girls matured earlier. Now I know through the hadiths however that, Muhammed married Aisha when she was only 6 and consummated the marriage when she was nine (when she still played with dolls). So I let that slide, but then the significance of the sex slavery verses came back.
My mom told me about this Bengali Muslim missionary that she used to watch on TV who fled to Pakistan because his war crimes in the Bangladesh Liberation War were known. These crimes involved him raping and torturing many women in the Liberation War.
I had produced an interest in learning about the history of my country and the Liberation War. I read various sites about it and had come to find out that Pakistani soldiers and a group of Bengali men called the "Jamaat-e-Islam" (who wanted Bangladesh to remain with Pakistan because it was a predominantly Islamic country) raped a lot of Bengali women and took them as sex slaves. The Hindus probably had it worse. Made me think for a minute. Wait a minute, why are people that called themselves "Jamaat-e-Islam" and soldiers from a country that is Muslim raping and taking sex slaves in such a significant number? I remembered the verses I read as a child. Still as a Muslim, I put it in the back of my head because Islam was my life.
I watched a documentary about the Liberation War. You look down to the comments and you see a guy that uses the same exact verse that I once read to explain why these men did what they did. I still ignored it and used a verse on the Qur'an that said rape wasn't allowed to argue that comment.
One thing unique about me is that I am curious about everything. So if I find out about a certain historical event, I will more than likely try and find out more and delve deeper into the topic. So I wanted to learn more about the Slave trade in the United States that had taken place a few centuries back. Of course I did learn about it but then I looked up on Google "the worst cases of slavery in history." Guess what I found; The most righteous people on earth had led the worst case of slavery. It was called the Arab Slave Trade. I researched more about it. Now you have history backing up the fact that during Muhammedan times, slavery did take place. So now I gathered the courage to research in full depth about Islam's relationship with slavery. And what I found was horrendous.
Not only were there Qur'anic verses stating that you can have sex slaves, there were various hadiths of Muhammed's followers asking him if they could have sex with these women who were captured and just had their family slaughtered under certain circumstances. I read about Muhammed's concubines and his many wives on this site actually. I basically had spent a lot of time watching various apologetics trying to justify this act of sexual slavery but it didn't do any good in restoring my faith. I had turned away. I read about his various wives. Two Jewish ones had their families killed by Muhammed but had no choice but to marry him. Both were beautiful so Muhammed had no problem marrying them. Does this sound to you like a prophet of God or a lustful man who took advantage of his power?
I emailed imams. None of them answered back except one who had told me to call on a certain date. By that time I was an atheist. I also started believing in evolution. I was so lost. I watched a video by David Wood in his show "Jesus or Muhammed" about 10 reasons why Muhammed isn't a prophet. The points that got to me were how he got these revelations and the way he died. When he first got his revelations, he thought he was possessed and he wanted to commit suicide. He also during his lifetime got revelations stating that Allah had three daughters. The Arab Pagans at this time were happy with Muhammed and later he changed his mind and he stated that he got these revelations from Satan. How did Muhammed die? A Jewish woman poisoned him.
Those were, as a whole, very controversial for me. He didn't seem like a prophet to me and of course the Qur'an had many rules that I hated as a female, like how wives are supposed to be obedient to their husbands, that two witnesses that were female were worth one male witness. I hated these rules. I also discovered that in fact you are allowed to beat your wife. Muslims say that it is lightly but hadiths say otherwise as Muhammed did once strike Aisha in the chest and it caused her pain.
Look at things from a woman's perspective. There is the wife, the daughter, and the sex slave. Let's start with the wife. You're sharing your husband with three other women and in the case of Muhammed's wives, a lot of other women as well as a lot more sex slaves. Jealousy, especially when you're in love with a particular person, is in all of us. So everyday you have to work extra hard to be pretty and charming so you'll have the attentions of your husband. Truly nothing else really matters. And if you're old and your husband has younger, prettier brides, there is honestly nothing you can do about it. As for the women with a conscience and who are empathetic in nature, you would think that your husband having sex slaves is wrong but there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. He can beat you if he wants to and you have to be devoutly obedient. That's the way it is. What's the point of living if your life is going to be that depressing? Then you have the after life when you'll have to share your husband with 72 virgins as well as his earthly wives.
Now as for the sex slave; your whole family is killed by a group/tribe/country and you are forced to have sex with a man from that group. I don't know about you, but I'd rather kill myself before a man who killed my family could even touch me.
Now let's observe the daughters. You have way too many siblings. You get motherly love but your father is always busy with his other wives and kids. You grow up seeing your mother somewhat unhappy or absolutely distressed. You see your father with wives, and sex slaves, some of whom may be younger than you. You get absolutely no-to-little attention growing up from your father. You start to think that your only worth is your outer beauty and nothing else; not your character but your looks. Why? Because your father has chosen prettier and younger looking women over your own mother and you've seen her depressed over it. Your father has also chosen to spend his valuable time with not you, his own flesh and blood, but his wives/sex slaves who he could have sex with.
Other things I discovered was that Muhammed slaughtered many Jews and some of the rules he wanted Muslims to follow, he didn't follow himself. Each revelation gave him a privilege over the average Muslim. I'm not going to get into those but you get the point.
His example is bad. Because of him there are so many child marriages in Islamic countries. I'm sure these verses allowing men to take captured women as sex slaves was what influenced Pakistani soldiers and the Bengali Jamaat-e-Islam to capture and rape women. And I'm more than sure that despite what modern Muslims say in the west, Muslims do use Qur'anic verses, and Muhammed's example to justify their acts of terrorism. In the beginning days of Islam, when Muhammed was in fact peaceful, he made verses in which he said that in order to convert non-Muslims into Islam, you have to do it in a peaceful manner. However there are other verses that tell Muslims to fight for Islam and to subjugate the Jews and Christians and make them pay taxes. There's so much more I can talk about but I'm going to end my complaints here.
I started looking towards Christianity as I loved Jesus and in my eyes he was a honourable person compared to Muhammed. How do you know this? No matter what, NOBODY could point a finger at Jesus and say, "look, your prophet is such and such," like everyone can do with Muhammed. However, there was one thing I was confused about which was the Old Testament vs the New Testament. Nobody has taught me the differences and I've heard that much of the rules of the Old Testament was similar to that of Islam's, so I thought what's the point?
Then one day I met this guy. He was a Christian and he had so much knowledge as a Christian that other Christians that I came upon lacked. He explained to me the pure concept of Christianity, the differences between the Old Testament and the New Testament, and we compared Christianity to Islam. He used to be a new-ager and he discovered that UFOlogists say that people that have seen/imagined/been abducted have all claimed that these beings disappear when they utter Jesus Christ's name. I watch a lot of conspiracy theorist videos, and I know this is true as well.
The coming of Jesus Christ was supposed to save people and reform the Old Testament. Let's put it this way. God made Adam in his own image, right? He sinned and him and Eve were cast away from the Garden of Eden, and for that, all his descendants were also away from the Garden of Eden to account for their sin. Then at the ends of time, he made Jesus also in his own image (that's why people call him God) and Jesus was absolutely sinless, so when he died on that cross for us, it's as if he set humanity free and died for all of us. That's why some rules were simpler than the Old Testament and the religion was reformed.
So why is Christ the son of God or God himself? Well he:
- Was born without a father and was created by God himself as was Adam
- Bore God's/his father's image
- He walked on water as it was said in the Old Testament that only Yahweh could do
- John 8:24, "unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins."
- John 8:58, "before Abraham was, I am." (could mean he has the spirit of God himself)
He is God in the flesh and he died for our sins and he was resurrected. That is the main message of the Bible. The Bible also says that there will be various prophets after Christ that will perform miracles but you shouldn't believe them. Nowhere in the Bible was Muhammed prophecized. And anyone with common sense could see the differences between Muhammed and Jesus. While Qur'anic science could be a miracle as some would argue, it isn't as scientific as Muslims claim. And even if it were, if you read the Bible, you can't follow any other prophet. And even if you see the examples of both Jesus and Muhammed, you'll automatically know that Muahmmed is not a prophet.
Jesus killed nobody. Muhammed slaughtered hundreds or even thousands. Jesus performed miracles like walking on water. Muhammed thought he was possessed by a demon, but Jesus was a teacher from the age of 12 and everyone knew what his purpose was. Jesus hung out with sinners and forgave and defended prostitutes (not sleep with them) because he believed it's the sinners that need to be saved. Muhammed had more wives than what is permissible for a Muslim man, had concubines, allowed rape, married a 6 year old, married his daughter-in-law after his adopted son divorced her, and overall you can see his lustful nature after you read about him. Jesus never married. He didn't convert people by killing, but converted people by his words and his miracles. There probably wouldn't be as many Muslims if Muslims hadn't waged as many wars as they did, and the first Muslims were more illiterate so they were easily manipulated. Notice how Muhammed didn't convert a significant amount of Christians? Muhammed and Jesus are worlds apart and you can't possibly compare the two.
The Qur'an is very contradictory as well. It tells you to go to the Bible to read Muhammed's prophecy but at the same time the Bible is declared a corrupted book? So basically the Bible is so corrupted that it got the main message which is to believe that Christ is the Son of God, died for our sins and was resurrected wrong, but is uncorrupted enough to show that Muhammed is in fact prophecized? Tell me if that makes any sense?
And another thing; many historians, like Josephus, did in fact note down that Jesus died on the cross. Crucifixion was the most painful death imaginable. Barely anyone survives if they are crucified. And if in fact it was made to look like Jesus died on the cross but really didn't and wasn't really resurrected, then we have either an incompetent messiah or a deceptive god? The Bible I believe is not corrupted because there were a ton of manuscripts in different languages. But ask yourself this why would God give people a religion in which the main concept is untrue? How can a book corrupt so much that the main idea is false?
Another reason I believe in the Bible are Bible prophecies. In the Bible it is stated that the people of Israel will be scattered all over the world and will one day reform Israel. Guess what? It happened didn't it?
My last reason for Christianity to be a true religion of God are fallen angels. I remember as a child reading a teenage fiction book in which the guy of the love story was a fallen angel. I looked up fallen angels that day. They were the "sons of gods that mated with the daughters of men" in the Bible and they are much talked about in the Book of Enoch. I read a lot about them and concluded that they might have depicted themselves as the pagan gods and goddesses that you see in mythology today. That makes sense to me. Satan tried to corrupt the seed of Adam before Jesus arrived and that's why you see various gods and goddesses, some of which who were half animals of some sorts. That's why you see giants, in mythologies and fairy tales who were actually the nephilim. It's something that makes a lot of sense to me. In Islam angels don't have free will so there goes that theory.
I'd also like to note that it is prophecized that the days of before the coming of Christ would be like that of the days of the sons of Noah. In those times they all speak one language. What's happening now, globalization is taking place so more communications between countries and most of us in the world know how to speak English. Science is getting closer and closer to making transhumanism everyday, right? Well you know that the seed of Adam, our genetics will be messed with again.
My reasons for leaving Islam and going to Christianity are also emotional. Christianity is only about being a good person and believing in Jesus and God. Islam is a lot harder and a lot of rules don't make sense. The Christian god in general is a lot more humble and doesn't want us to waste our energy doing anything but being a good human being and believing in him. It's a pure and simple religion. Christianity also doesn't promise 72 virgins and unlimited sex. It only promises that in our after life we will reside with him in his Holy Kingdom. What can be greater than residing with God? I believe the good people should reach a spiritual position in which carnal desires of the flesh would disappear.
These are my reasons for leaving Islam. For Muslims wanting to leave Islam, I suggest watching "Jesus or Muhammed", watch the debates with David Wood on YouTube, watch Bible prophecies of Wallid Shoebat, and definitely check out the testimony of Nabeel Qureshi and watch his lectures in Biola University. Let me tell you something; when I first saw David Wood in "Jesus Or Muhammed," I was like, "he's another American Islamophobe who probably wants Muslims out of his country." I checked him out anyways, and a lot of what he had to say made perfect sense. Then one day he mentioned Nabeel Qureshi, his best friend who he helped convert to Christianity. I checked out Nabeel Qureshi, and his testimony is beautiful. Their friendship and their story is absolutely amazing and it touched me.
They met in college and they were the only ones that didn't go out partying with their group of friends due to religion. Nabeel at that time was a Muslim. They became friends and room-mates. David was reading the Bible before going to bed and Nabeel told him ,"Did you know that the book you're reading is corrupted?" And David said "Do care to share." They had a friendly argument over that and from then on, they decided to study Islam and Christianity together. They became best friends and they did everything together. It's just amazing how two people from completely two different religions and backgrounds can become such great friends and go on a search for the truth together and not fear offending one another when they discussed religion because each of them wanted to bring the other to the truth. Eventually David did in fact bring Nabeel to embrace Christ as his savior. But let me also include he only did so after a series of dreams from God himself.
So I'll finish up saying I hope all of you find the truth. I wish all the apostates of Islam the best because you are going to have very hard lives, I am not going to lie. But it's all worth it in the end. For the Christian converts, I applaud you and when it's hard for you to carry on living life as an apostate of Islam, just remember that your Saviour the Christ died for your sins and that too a painful death. If he can sacrifice his life for you, you can carry on living for him.
Thank you for reading anyone that took the time to read this whole thing and I wish all of you the best.
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