Sahid (former Muslim)
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Letter to Ali Sina
Dear Ali Sina,
I am a Muslim. I read your articles and changed my mind about Islam. I was among those who tried to advocate Islam. I thought Osama bin Laden was not a Muslim and I was. Now I see I was not a Muslim and Osama Bin Laden was. Fortunately I am living in Sweden and I can become an apostate. It is a free country. I was born in Saudi Arabia and if I left Islam in that country I would be killed. I must change my whole life because I left Islam. It will be hard but I will try to do it because I don't want to be a Muslim. I no longer visit the mosque. I no longer pray. I stopped doing these things. I shaved my face.
I don't promise to become a Western man in a day but I already began changing. My family is living in Saudi Arabia . I will not tell them about my decision because they are very intolerant. I hope all Muslims will leave Islam. And it will happen. Islam is inhumane. You can't be a human and a Muslim at the same time. Most Muslims will choose to be humans. It is for sure. I was a Muslim but I didn't want to kill non-Muslims. I didn't think about such verses in the Quran. I thought it was to be practiced only in the 7th century.
I am a father. I have a one-year-old daughter. Her mother died when she was having her. My daughter will not be a Muslim woman. She will be a western woman. She will receive education and have a career. I will do everything I can to make that happen. It is really funny that I read the Quran million times but I didn't see things that you wrote in your articles. You made me stop being blind. Thanks for your site. You made me a better human being. No, you made me a human being. Before that I was a Muslim.
My sister who is also in Sweden left Islam long time ago but I didn't know. When I told her I had left Islam she was very happy. We are now friends. My family (and me before I left Islam) didn't like her because she did everything to leave Saudi Arabia and go to free countries. She hated Islam from her childhood. It is in her nature. She always wanted to pursue a career. She is doing it now. She says Islam is unbearable for women (especially in Saudi Arabia ).
I read all articles on your site. It took me some months. I made my own investigation. I talked to my Imam. He didn't answer my questions.
P.S. I hope things will improve in your mother country. Iranians are the most intelligent and educated among other Muslims.
Thank you very much! I know my English is awful but I live in Sweden and Swedish was more important to me!
Response from Ali Sina
Dear Sahid
Thank you for your wonderful story! No, you don't have to become a westerner. You are an Arab just as I am a Persian. We should be proud of our own heritage and culture. By leaving Islam we are not leaving our identity. On the contrary we are going to recover our lost identity.
Prior to Islam, Arabs were tolerant people. Religious animosity was unheard of. People fought over honor or other silly things, much like everywhere else but never over religion. In fact they had specific months of the year that they regarded as sacred and never fought in those months. Even the thieves and highway rubbers respected the lives of people in those sacred months. Despite their differences all the Arabs gathered together and worshipped their gods. No one disparaged another person's deity. They allowed anyone to preach his faith. They intermarried with Jews and Christians and never thought people are najis (filthy, impure, untouchable) for what they believe. Women were respected. They could travel alone. They could own and run their own businesses as in the case of Khadijah, they could even lead an army as in the case of Aisha. But gradually, as the teachings of Muhammad started to sink, the newer generations thought these practices belonged to the jahiliyah (the age of ignorance) and abandoned them. Arabs were cultured and their society was a much more humanistic one than what it became after Muhammad.
You do not have to change identity. All you have to do is to reclaim your ancestral secular and tolerant values. You can raise your little daughter to be a proud Arab and like her enlightened aunt be independent and successful.
My greetings to you and your sister! Please join us in our cause and be part of this movement. We have to reach the Arabs very soon. Many of them are wonderful pure souls like you. We have to reach them before Osama Bin Laden, Aljazeera or hatemongering Arab media fills them with hate and persuade them to blow themselves up as suicide bombers. Send your story in Arabic and if you have time write and translate a few of the Articles in this site into Arabic.
May you and your little daughter be blessed and may she never know the meaning of discrimination, violence and abuse.
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