Dhouha (Former Muslim)
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Testimony of Leaving Islam
I was born into a devout Muslim family. I received my Islamic education in school where I was taught that Islam is the true religion. I was told Islam is a religion of peace, and that only Muslims can go to heaven. I used to pray five times a day, and during every Ramadhan I used to faithfully fast. Like all devout Muslims, I used to think the holy books of other religions were distorted, and that the Qu'ran is the most perfect book sent to us from God. When I used to read the Qu'ran, I never questioned whether it was true or not, because of the fear that even entertaining such a thought may send me to hell.
In University I met many foreign girls. Naturally, like any good Muslim, I wanted to convert them to Islam and earn myself rewards in the afterlife. I started to research into Christianity in order to prove that it is a wrong religion and that its holy book, the Bible, is distorted. In the end, I was unable to find any definitive proof of its distortion. This led me to read the Bible myself, and in turn led to my confusion between the Bible and the Qu'ran . I then did what I was unable to do before; read Qu'ran as a normal book, just to reassure myself that it is the truth. However, I found that I was wrong. I had been following a lie for more than twenty years.
My research did not stop at the Qur'an. I continued to dig deeper into islam and other related texts. I found that Islam is an authoritarian religion that does not respect the individuals’ freedom of choice, which is easily noticeable from its barbaric verdicts such as stoning the adulterous or killing the apostates for daring to express a different viewpoint. Then there is the plight of other religions’ followers in the Muslim States. Islam urges its followers to fight the infidels until they convert or agree to pay a tax known as "Jizya" per capita in total submission. Islam also encourage blatant war and conquest of new territories to spread the religion of Muhammad, instead of using peaceful means to convey the message.
A woman in Islam has less reason and faith. She interrupts the prayer, just like donkeys and black dogs and is considered to be impure during menstruation. She is only entitled to half the inheritance of a man and her testimony in a court of law also counts for only half of that of a man. Islam puts her under the guardianship of her husband and predicated the approval of God on obeying her husband. A man also has the right to correct his wife by beating her and / or deserting the marital bed if she refuses to submit to his will. She has no choice when it comes to satisfying his sexual desire whenever he feels like it, with no regard whatsoever of her feelings and desires.
There are also a lot of other less dramatic problems that I now see. For example, why do we need to pray five specific times in a day? This is very inconvenient for people who are not clerics and need to work for a living. And why do we need to pray in Arabic? God create all humans so he should understand all the languages.
The most important thing to me was that in Islam we do not have a close relationship with God. So I prayed to the creator to lead me and show me the truth. After my prayer, I found an advertisement written in red ( who is Jesus , and why Jesus ). I read it and the Bible again from the beginning. It was clear and all of my questions were answered. Today I have a close relationship with Jesus Christ, the creator and savior. He loves us with no boundaries.
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