"...probably the first book of its kind...testimonies from former Muslims about their estrangement from the Islamic faith." -- New York Review of Books, April 29, 2004
"Leaving Islam's stories make eye-opening reading." -- Boston Globe
Product Description
Given that I am rather skeptical of the very possibility of a scientific survey of apostates, it is rather difficult for me to make any psychological, sociological, or anthropological generalizations based on fewer than fifty personal testimonies that would be valid outside this particular group. No quick portrait of the typical apostate is likely to appear--some are young (students in their teens), some are middle-aged with children; some are scientists, while others are economists, businesspeople, or journalists; some are from Bangladesh, others are from Pakistan, India, Morocco, Egypt, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, or Iran. Our witnesses, nonetheless, do have certain moral and intellectual qualities in common: for instance, they are all comparatively well educated, computer literate with access to the Internet, and rational, with the ability to think for themselves. However, what is most striking is their fearlessness, their moral courage, and their moral commitment to telling the truth. They all face social ostracism, the loss of friends and family, a deep inner spiritual anguish and loneliness--and occasionally the death penalty if discovered. Their decisions are not frivolously taken, but the ineluctable result of rational thinking.
There are very useful analogies to be drawn between communism and Islam. . . .As Arthur Koestler said, "You hate our Cassandra cries and resent us as allies, but when all is said, we ex-Communists are the only people on your side who know what it's all about."
Communism has been defeated, at least for the moment; Islamism has not, and unless a reformed, tolerant, liberal kind of Islam emerges soon, perhaps the final battle will be between Islam and Western democracy. And these former Muslims, to echo Koestler's words, on the side of Western democracy are the only ones who know what it's all about, and we would do well to listen to their Cassandra cries. -- Ibn Warraq, from the Introduction
147 of 152 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 starsPowerful and tearful, a book that should be read, June 13, 2006
A Kid's Review
I am from a British Pakistani upbringing and I currently live in the United States. These stories of brave, beautiful and noble apostates are very much the story of my mother, my sister and me. We were living in London's East End when my father began a very disturbing turn to Islamic fundamentalism. His humour and lovable nature disappeared. He became a completely different person, devoted to Wahhabism. He hated the West in every way shape or form. When we were in France, he said he wanted to beat a girl who was sunbathing topless on a nearby beach. He began striking my mother regularly. One day he was going off on one of his anti-Western diatribes when he had to answer his cell phone. When he hung up, I said that if he hates the West so much, he should stop using a cell phone as it was developed with Western technology and science. Then he hit me.
My family left him quickly and quietly one afternoon, and we have never returned since.
I will be blunt. Islam does not value life. It does not value love. It does not value progression or enlightenment. The only thing Islam values is the worship of a god. And not just any god, but a brutal war god who commands his children to kill one another. You often hear lukewarm and moderate Muslims saying that fundamentalists, Wahhabists and Islamists do not represent true Islam. They are lying. It is they who are not following true Islam.
As afraid of Islam as the West is, the truth is Islam is much more afraid of the West and the changing 21st century world. It is out of fear that the radical cleric orders a fatwa against apostates and critics of the faith. It was out of fear that millions of imbeciles protested and spewed hatred at the Danish people, a non-Muslim people who were simply exercising their right to free speech in their own country. It was fear that made a pathetic young thug butcher Theo Van Gogh for exercising his free speech rights in his own non-Muslim country. Any critique or truth seeking sojourn into what makes Islam tick is ferociously set upon by the Muslim world's mobs, because they are deathly afraid and insecure about the religion that they value more than the lives of their children.
I urge everyone to read this book
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Muslims are so determined to call their religion the fastest growing in the world that they refuse to acknowledge the fact that many of us who covert to it rapidly leave it. I am one of these. I converted because my Muslim husband insisted that he was committing a great sin to be married to me when I wasn't a Muslim. He'd been trying his best to teach it to me while at the same time pointedly separating me from non-Muslim friends and family. Then he gave me the whole spiel about Islam being so scientific, so fair and kind to women,that hijab was a choice, not an obligation, and Islam was SOOOO peaceful. I loved, respected, and trusted him so much, I actually believed him and converted to Islam.
Afterwards, we went to visit the Islamic country of his origin (Iran) and I got to see real Islam in action. I was dismayed, even horrified, to say the least. As a woman, I had neither civil rights nor respect. Quite suddenly, I become a trophy bride and captive sans all the basic freedoms that I, as an American, had always taken for granted. When I went to the Koran and other Islamic scriptures to find support for my missing rights, I found, quite to the contrary, that my trusted husband had LIED to me about the whole thing.
Islam is NOT scientific, NOT fair or kind to women,DOES require hijab under threat of violence to those who would refuse it, and - as current Islamist terrorist activities have proven - it is NOT one bit peaceful.
Yes, we apostates DO exist. In Islamic countries, those who are discovered are killed by Muslims for their honesting in disavowing Islam. Elsewhere, Muslims just try to shut us up and say we don't exist. Well, they're wrong. Those of us who are consciencious, intelligent, and confident, honest, and have found out the truth, can not help but leave Islam.
Ibn Warraq is telling a plain truth that is simply unpalatable to Muslims. Well too bad: the truth is simply the truth and it's about time more people knew it.
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Ibn Warraq, who has several Fatwas issued against him by Islamist clerics has bravely sallied forth to explicate the tenuous status of former Muslims who for a variety of reasons have abandoned the faith. These apostates are under the threat of death given the clerical rulings in Islam. Some of the testifiers have been brave enough to use their real names!
Most prominent among these testimonials is the clear evidence of the lack of basic human rights as allegedly guaranteed under the UN Declaration of Human Rights circa 1948. Muslim countries have signed the UN declaration but consider the act as religiously correct dissimultude-taqqiya in Arabic.
Among the more stunning revelations among the testimonials is the genocide wreaked on the Bengalis by the Islamic Paki overlords in the early 70's of the last century. An estimated 3.5 million Bengalis were slaughtered in this religious Jihad. Some of you may be old enough to remember the plaintive Beatles tune: Bengladesh. This genocide cries out the certification before the World Court and prosecution of some of the organizers of this heinous event.
Testimonials of former Muslim women, brave enough to reveal their actual identity, clearly indicate the second class status in violation of the UN declaration of human rights.
Former converts to Islam who are included in these testimonials have given witness to the lack of basic human rights and the atavistic male domination prevalent in Muslim cricles and countries.
Overall, Ibn Warraq-his nom de guerre, has given us a powerful insight into the fundamental failings of the islamic faith to build reform from within and protect basic human rights. It is no wonder several Fatwas demanding his death have been issued. He's very religiously incorrect, but courageous.
His works deserve a wide readership in a western world ignorant of the fundamentals of the islamic faith.
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