Jp1r

Dear jp1r, 

Ibn Warraq passed your email to me for response, as he is extremely busy. 

As for halal meat you should know a couple of things.  Killing animals the Islamic way, i.e. slitting their throat open and letting them bleed to death is extremely cruel and inhumane. If you are really concerned about hurting the animals you should not consume halal meat. The way animals are slaughtered in the West is far less painful and shocking for them. However the best diet in my opinion is vegetarian. The reason in Islam the animal must bleed to death in order for its meet to become halal is a relic of an interpretation of Judaism that considered the blood is the soul or the soul is in the blood. Today the Jehowa witnesses have this belief and they refuse transfusion of blood for this very reason. They want to avoid the mixing of spirits. So halal meet has something to do with superstitions and not with hygiene or health.  

You call yourself a "hypocrite" for "having sexual curiosity". Let me assure you that there is nothing inherently sinful in sex or sexual curiosity. This is very natural. If you did not have sexual desires or curiosities I would have told you to see a doctor. The worst thing you can do is to blame yourself for your natural feelings. This feeling of guilt is the worst enemy of humans. Religions have antiquated moralities. They do not have any solutions or answers to human needs but they only TELL you what you SHOULD do and what you SHOULD NOT do. They induce in you the guilt and that is what is devastating and demoralizing. 

There is nothing wrong in sexual curiosity. But if this become an obsession in a way that it intervenes with your life and affect it negatively then religions cannot help you, you need to see a psychologist and get some help. Do not go to a mullah or a priest; visit a licensed psychologist. 

Also it is true that Muslim men are more obsessed with sex than the westerners and it has to do with the sexually repressive environment in which we grew up. The sexually charged atmosphere and the practice of sexual ostracism has brain damaged most of us. We are all victims of Islam and its pernicious sense of morality. Even Muhammad himself had this perverse sense of sexuality. The fact that he desired every young woman at his advanced age, that he lusted and had sex with a 9 year old child, that he refused to shake hand with women who wanted to pay allegiance to him and his cause are all tell tales of his inner trauma and his unsatisfied or suppressed sexual urges. He was being torn between guilt and lust. His sever punishments for adulterers is nothing but self reprimands. Unfortunately we have half a billion Muslim men following the example of a sick man and all of us evince the same symptoms of sexual deprivation, sexual deviations and sexual aberrations. Sex is never a healthy exercise for Muslim men. We are traumatized by it. We have our sexual urges like any other animal but we are ashamed of it. We feel guilt for it and this guilt is the most devastating blow on our self-confidence and self esteem. May be this is the reason why women are abused by chauvinistic Muslim men and why Muhammad was a misogynist. Women in Islam are not seen and independent human beings but as sex objects and a threat to men's spirituality.

You asked about the hereafter. This topic is not easy to answer. I personally do believe in the survival of soul. I have had personal evidences that the reality does not end with matter. Other rationalists do not believe in such thing. It really does not matter who is right and who isn't. As human beings we have to live ethically. In other words we have to implement the principles of fairness in all spheres of our life because this enhances our life and makes us feel good. The joy of doing good is in doing it and not in the rewards that we expect to receive from it. The only religion we need, the only guidance we require is what is defined as the Golden Rule, "Do to others what you expect them do it to you" 

You wrote that if you leave Islam your kids and wife will surely leave you. In the first place I do not think it is a good idea to announce your departure from Islam publicly. Today millions of Muslims do not believe in Islam yet no one knows about that. Many of my friends and relatives have no idea that I am an "apostate" and I don't see any need to volunteer this private information. So you can stop believing in the mumbo jumbo of Islam without letting anyone in your secret world.  Though you can announce it to the world through the Internet.  

You wrote, "How can I, a Arab born Muslim, be contemplating this horrendous act, while people in droves are converting to Islam without even learning to speak Arabic?" 

First of all let me clarify that the information that "people in droves are converting to Islam" is a total lie fabricated to deceive us. Recently the CAIR announced that since the mass murders committed on  9/11 the number of the people converted to Islam is tripled. Use a little bit of rational thinking and see how ridiculous is this claim. Would really anyone say "Oh look Muslims have killed so many people, it is clear that Islam is a religion of peace. Let me join"?  But in Islam lies are permitted especially if they are for the expansion of the religion of Allah. 

The truth is that people are not converting to Islam in droves but the Muslim intellectuals are leaving Islam in huge numbers. I urge you to read the book of Quran and see for yourself how much nonsense is written there. How can anyone remain a Muslim after reading the Quran? I was a believer prior to reading the Quran. After I read it I had no choice but to leave Islam. 

Another myth that Muslims are made to believe is that during the Middle ages "ISLAM" was the cause of much scientific advance in the East. Nothing is further from the truth. The glory of the Islamic countries during the Middle Ages was despite and not because of Islam. In those days there was the separation of mosque from the state and the rulers were moderate secularists. That is why science flourished. Most of those great "Islamic" luminaries were not believers at all. Please see this article.   

You mentioned about your state of mind and how confused you are. I suggest you read this article.   Here I have described my own passage from belief to enlightenment. You may find yourself in the way.  

Dear Jp1r. 

The reaction of your wife as you said is typical of most devout Muslims. The more you argue with her the more she will close up and the result could be estrangement and alienation. This is not desirable. Your wife needs to discover the truth on her own. You may tactfully ask her to read few of the articles for example those related to Muhammad’s wives in my site and answer them. I promise to publish her response. But many people won’t be able to find any satisfactory answers and instead start to think which is the beginning of their enlightenment.  

As for your 7 year old daughter, you must understand that her mother has as much right to bring her up with her own values as you have. But since your values are now different it is much advisable that you let her have her way for now and support her in they way she wishes to educate your daughter. Peace and harmony in the family is worth more than swimming for your daughter.  Your daughter is growing up in the West and she is exposed to western values anyway. Eventually she will choose her own life and that must be respected too. Of course there is nothing you can do about it. In the West children do not belong to their parents and do as they wish as soon as they reach the age of adolescence. 

As for hijab, I believe you should respect your wife’s decision. It is good that you have told her that you don’t mind if she decides to take off the hijab. Now it is up to her and whatever she decides you should support her. Unity of family is of utmost importance. Beliefs change and your wife may also change in future but your relationship with her is for life. Your beliefs or your wife’s may not be sacred but your marriage is. You can make your wife listen to you ONLY if you support her and do not criticize her for her choices and beliefs. 

Now I’ll try to answer your questions. 

1- The claim that Muhammad was amin (honest) is made by himself. To be certain of the truth of this claim we should read what his opponents said. But as we know Muhammad massacred all his opponents and banished them. The rest were conquered and forced into submission. No one dared to say a word against him or he would have been killed. Thousands of people after the death of Muhammad tried to get rid of Islam but they were all massacred (Al Khawarej) so we do not have any independent source to the claim that Muhammad was indeed honest. What we know and that too from Quran is that people called him lunatic (Al Majnoon). We know that he was derided and ridiculed by the people of Mekka and even Medina until he became powerful and silenced his critics by assassination and terror. So any time you read Muhammad was amin, take that with a grain of salt. He may not have been a thief. (that is before he became a professional highway robber) but that does not mean that he was honest in his words. Also you should know that schizophrenic people actually see ghosts and other shadowing creatures that to them are real. So when Muhammad claimed that he saw Jinns or angle Gabriel he probably was not lying, or at lease some of those times he actually saw these creatures that haunted his sick mind. 

You wrote “who am I to think otherwise? Are 1/3 billion Muslim wrong, and I'm right?” 

First to all the truth cannot be determined by the number of its adherents. Only a few centuries ago all the humanity believed that the Earth is flat. Did this universal consensus made any difference in the shape of the Earth? If 1 billion people are told a lie and all of them believe in that lie it does not become truth. Today people think, read and investigate and do not base their faith on the convictions of others. When you study the Quran and compare it with science you find that book is full of errors. When you read the history of Muhammad you find this man was anything but holy. You and I live in the age of information. There is no need for us to perpetuate a lie and believe in someone who was a liar just because others do and because our fathers were forced to believe. My ancestors did not choose to become Muslims. They were forced under the sword. Your ancestors did not fare better. None of our forefathers had the chance to question the tenets of Islam. But now you and I have this chance for the first time in 1400 years. I am not satisfied to follow blindly one billion people. I want to make sure the religion that I believe is true. I read the Quran and found it to be a hoax. I do not expect you to believe me or accept my conclusions. I ask you to read the Quran on your own. Then you will see what I saw and you too will come to the same conclusion that I came. 

2- Rashad Khalifa was a self-centered ambitious man. He forged what a friend of mine called “a not lie deception” and when his fame augmented he decided to claim himself a messenger of God. What he said about the Quran and the miracles that he attributed to that book is a trick. Please read this refutation of him by Hikmat a young Indian ex-Muslim woman. 

3- No I do not think Islam can be reformed, modernized or humanized. There are many interpretations of Quran but all of them are wrong. Quran is a straightforward book. It is a book that Taliban have understood best and apply it. It is up to you to renounce it or not but I find nothing of value in that book. Once it becomes clear that Quran is not a book of revelation but emanation of a sick mind I see no reason to dig into it to find something good in it. One can find something good in any book even in the words of Hitler and Khomeini. 

“Love thy neighbor” is not from Quran. It is from the words of Jesus. “A true Muslim cannot sleep with full stomach when his neighbor is hungry” is not in Quran. These are the good things that good Muslims have told each other. Muhammad never cared about the poor. He destroyed the lives of many innocent people. Looted their cities and after massacring many of them he banished the sick and old from town empty handed. Many of them died in the way. Muhammad was an evil man. There is nothing good about him. Let us read the history of Muhammad and learn the truth. 

I have not seen that hadith that say a Jewish person used to dump garbage at Muhammad though I heard this story from childhood. But it cannot be true. Muhammad was never living in the Jewish neighborhoods. Jews in Medina had their quarters. Muhammad was such a vengeful man that he ordered the assassination   of Abu Afak, a 120 year old man who was a Jew and whose crime was to compose a lyric ridiculing Muhammad and his claim. Muhammad asked one of his followers to get him rid of this man. Asma bint Marwan who was a poetess became so angry that wrote a poetry cursing the men of Medina for letting a Meccan kill an old man and do nothing. Muhammad asked one of his followers who volunteered to kill her. He entered in Asma’s home and pierced her chest with his sword while she was asleep with her five children beside her, the smallest was a nursing baby. How can such a man who could not bear someone criticizing him in poetry forgive someone throwing garbage at him? These stories of grandeur of Muhammad along with those attributing miracles to him are all forgeries concocted by over zealot believers. Even today the followers of diverse cults make stories such as these and attribute them to their gurus. (Read the story of the new prophet John the Ruiter here)  

As for testimonies I post them as I receive them here. I hope in future more people start sending theirs as for many, testimonies are very important. (I personally never care about testimonies. I rather see the facts on my own than follow someone else) 

As for the claim of Rabbi Marc Gellman & Msgr. Thomas Hartman that “Islam is not a good religion but a great religion” I would like to ask you why they do not convert to Islam if Islam is such a great religion as they say? Doesn’t it seem odd to you that a Rabbi and a Christian priest speak from a common tribune? To understand where these people come from you have to understand the mindset of today’s Westerners. The westerners want to see good in everything. They "not see evil, not say evil and not hear evil" is vogue. They dislike criticizing other people’s beliefs. They are humanists (not religious). They want to be tolerant and accepting of others. This is of course good but you cannot be tolerant and accepting of something that is inherently evil. Islam and Nazism are evil in nature. They should not be tolerated. These people do not understand Islam. When they praise the “Golden Age of Islam” and attribute it to Islam it is clear that they have no clue about Islam. The truth is that the Golden Age happened because Islam was not an issue for the statesmen of those days and men such as Zakaria Razi, Bu Ali Sina, Ibn Rushd and Khayyam could openly criticize Islam and not fear death. (Please read the article on freethinkers of Islam).  

These two modern-day religious leaders are so ignorant about Islam that they think Islam is 1600 years old. I bet they have not read a page from Quran. They said in Islam there is no inquisition. What a joke! Muslims practice religious persecution even in this day of religious freedom. Apostates are condemned to death without any chance to appeal.  Hindus are massacred in Bangladesh, Qadianis in Pakistan, Bahai's in Iran, Christians in Nigeria, Philippines and East Timor.  Why don’t you write to them and ask them to come and show me the truth that they found about Islam?   Why people who know nothing even speak? They answer questions about Islam but have zero knowledge of the subject.  

It is amazing that Muslims do not bother to read the Quran on their own and instead rely on the opinions of misinformed people such as these two guys, Cat Stevens the singer, Muhammad Ali the boxer and George Bush, Tony Blair or Gandhi who are/were politicians. Politicians HAVE to say good things about other people’s beliefs.  It would be a political suicide if they spoke the truth and said other things.  

Thank you for your questions and take care 

Ali Sina

P.S. In continuation I request please post your next message in our new forum so others can answer it.  I am very busy and would like to dedicate more time to other projects.