My story through Islam

          I promote Islam, discuss it, defend it, "live and breathe" it, at least in my public social media profile. I profit to (to a small extent) from doing so; my large number of fans and followers results in a decent stream of donations.

       Though I have made a successful and socially impressive career track of being a one-trick Islam pony, I must admit to apostacy: I am an ex-Muslim, though it's difficult to translate that sentiment into change in my daily life.

Why leave Islam? The below reasons outline what strikes me personally. There may be other arguments against Islam. There may be other arguments in its favor. I don't know everything about the subject, but at some point even incomplete knowledge must translate into action -- nobody knows it all, yet many make good decisions. Without claiming a comprehensive A-to-Z understanding of Islam and reasons for its acceptance or rejection, the following keeps rattling in my mind and shaking Islam loose. Judge this how you will.

        1. In Islam, fairness is encouraged but never defined. Granted, this is a complex question touching on philosophy, spirituality, and perhaps evolved instinct. However, a "guide" or "Straight Path" would at least try to define instead of simplistically decree fairness. Claiming something is fair will either be obvious or difficult to justify -- precisely where divine guidance would succeed where human efforts fail. Of course we can point to legal rulings and alleged revelations that say "this is fair, that is not." But without such rulings and revelations, would we come to the same conclusions?

          If so, why isn't humanity Muslim by default, as we are bipeds by nature? If not, what does that say about Islam's claim to moral superiority? If Islam's guidance is unquestionable and inevitable, then it becomes redundant because "inevitable" would happen/has happened without depending on a specific guidance that depends on a specific compliance from a specific population. There is no decree or guidance that the sun is hot, or that water is wet. No revelation is needed, and if any religion made such claims, they would be true and obvious of course, but true to the point of redundancy.

          Now consider the other side of the argument -- that what Islam and the Quran decrees is, to some extent, fair and to some extent is not. First off, such imperfectino is excusable in people but not in a "perfect book." And this is just what we find not only in Islam but in any culture. None can claim perfection but none are perfectly wrong. Persians, Byzantines, Jews, Desis, Asians and everyone else differ on the details of justice and law, but all uphold yet violate their respective religions and ideologies here and there. We find the same behavior in Muslims. ("Look to Islam, not Muslims," they scream).

          How unlikely then, that Muslims have a special "right guidance" when their behavior is, to be extremely generous, no better than the rest? (And this is being generous. I don't have to explain too much the correlation of Muslim piety and delusional st**idity that, far from "advancing Islam", hurts it and its populations much more than the scary Kuffar.)

          Anyways, if the Quran's guidance is too obscure or too demanding, then it is useless. Useless instruction or unachievable instruction is indistinguishable from no instruction at all. The "teachings" of Islam are good but so are other teachings.

          Now consider the downside of Islam, its misery inflicted on Muslims most of all. "How me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman..."

          The teachings of Islam are bad, but so are other teachings. Making endless circular excuses about how Islam is somehow truer or fundamentally better than other ideologies and religions isn't just intellectually dishonest. These excuses get boring and tedious. I am tired of being bored trying to defend flaws of Islam and rationalize what many have shown to be wrong in Islamic theology and Muslim behavior.

            2. Another mental note: justice depends on evidence since not many guilty criminals freely and accurately confess. Judging by "what is apparent and leaving the rest to Allah" as we are prone to do, is just plain st**id. How would such a mindset of judging from what is apparent differ from relying on first impressions, biases, and stereotypes? Technique for determining and discovering forensic science, if only for the sake of justice, is nowhere among the direct guidance of the Quran nor the volumes of Hadith. Islam has no answer here besides "judge by what is apparent." A child or a peasant thinks this way.

          I will grant that Muslims have made progress in such fields as justice, law, and determining guilt or innocence, but so have non-Muslims. I am tempted to think Muslims would have made whatever progress they did (and more) if they were not, in fact, Muslim.

            3. People come before religion and are not born Muslim (or anything else). That is why despite claims that "Islam is the natural religion", Muslims go to great effort to teach Islam. Why? Would you teach a child to cry or laugh or be hungry? All those behaviors are natural, inevitable. Yes, such behaviors have to be controlled and disciplined through education, but what is to be controlled is apparent to everyone.

          Not so with religions, including Islam. Without the right educational and cultural environment, Islam isn't taught, isn't passed down; it goes extinct. Hardly a "natural" phenomenon when it relies on "un-natural" methods of cultural propagation, education, persuasion, and so on.

          4. I have studied Islamic history and to make a long story short, the Ummah sounds like any other empire. Its prides and shames, victories and defeats, are fundamentally not much better or worse. They were determined by skill, leadership, economics, geography, wealth, courage... Important variables in any culture and I don't see a surplus of those virtues or resources in past or present Islamic domains compared to the rest of the world.

          It is difficult to claim Islam benefits its followers when Muslims dream of immigrating to Infidel countries while Muslim homelands have to beg for charity or even simple tourism if they don't happen to be blessed with natural resources. At some point, "colonialism and racism" stop being an excuse. In times of alleged Islamic glory, Islamic culture and people were, at best, medieval. There was a reliance on slavery, an expansionist mindset that isn't any morally better than European colonialism, Roman or Persian empire-building, Mongol conquests, or Aztec pilfering of rival tribes for human sacrifice victims.

          Islam's prideful "Golden Age" was defeated by Mongols and Europeans with bows and arrows, swords and axes, to say nothing of firearms and electronics. Islam's empires and populations were impressive to stone age people but a joke to the Industrial Age. Funny how divine guidance looks no more divine than general historical development.

          5. Politics is not divinely set for all-time with the Sharia (the "Straight Path" claiming optimal social/political organization). Politics is an ever-present problem to be solved in light of new circumstances, new limits, new opportunities, and so on. Innovation in politics (and yes, religion) is not necessarily a bad thing. Yes, innovation risks making things worse (see: socialism), but also immesurably better. Islam doesn't just ruin good policy, it stunts even the possibility of better policy because Sharia is finalized, Allah's law is complete. Adding or removing to/from Allah's law (which is what "innovation" inevitably is), is forbidden.

          Yet, it was not by adopting Islam that other nations gained glory. Additionally, Islam is hypocritical in asking for others to "respect religion" while showing no respect to polytheists, atheism, ex-Muslims, nor freedom of expression if it steps on Islam's sensitive toes.

          On a related note, policy is determined on a grand scale by the people's sentiment even if not directly by their vote or money. This is why a culture can change without formal elections or bribery or conquest if only its population changes in demographics or beliefs. And here is the key: a correlation between st**idity and piety is strong (in all religious communities I have known) and can only lead to misery for any culture that "respects" the wishes of -- I'm sorry -- superstitious fools.

          6.  If we measure the Quran's merits because of its alleged signs and predictions, it has no more merit than other alleged holy books, secular literature, various forecasters (both sincere and fraudulent); all privy to the randomness of life. Also, of course, the Quran's erros and inconsistencies make it a joke that pales in comparison to rational investigation in matters of everything from physics to economics.

          This point needs emphasis. I notice Muslims, even those unable or unwilling to get an education, claim to know and understand why Islam is true. Consider, here are a people who, due to whatever circumstance, are not qualified or competent in virtually any subject they claim Islam answers.

          Example: Many Muslims know nothing of politics or economics yet know Islamic law is the answers? How could they judge such a claim? They know nothing of science and would fail freshman calculus, but claim Islam agrees with science? Even if Islam did have such agreement, again, how could they know? They speak of divine guidance coming down to Muhammad and the caliphates, but don't or can't see the same divine claims virtually everywhere else? The Far East, Europe, South Asia and the Americas all had empires claiming holy right to rule. Again, a curious alignment of political interests and cosmic approval.

          7. We lament over how muslims are "bewitched and impressed" by the Kuffar but that is simply because there is good reason to be impressed. Muslim people are not genetically or culturally defective, nor are they fated by Allah to a wasted life. Muslims can't be the source of inspiration and envy if they retain the religion of Islam because Islam chokes and bores any mind capable of being a fountainhead of innovation. But, Muslim people will keep on losing and shooting themselves in the foot as long as they claim "Islam is the solution." It isn't.

          Muslims have a heritage before Islam and a future beyond Islam. Nothing stops us from entering this larger, fuller, more enlightened, and even more spiritual universe outside Islam.

          8. I claim to be an "objective truth seeker." That's hard to do as a believer. You see, objective truth doesn't allow claims of revelation. Objectivity doesn't allow a pre-set conclusion to a question that forms the foundation of many subsequent answers. A claim of "this is true" or "this is false" can't be build on revelation since the obvious next question is "how do you know the revelation is true?" Faith, except admittedly, faith in reason itself, is nowhere in objectivity and for good reason.

          If asked if "Islam is true or false", there must be the possibility and acceptance of an answer in the negative after some kind of inquiry. And inquiry, as explained very well in books like Ibn Warraq's "Why I am Not a Muslim" and many other scholarly works, point to lies and failures at the core of Islam.

Thank you for reading this.

Wasim Ismail

London, Ontario Province, Canada.

          Do not suppose the statements of the prophets to be true; they are all fabrications. Men lived comfortably until they came and spoiled life. The sacred books are only such a set of idle tales as any age could have and indeed did actually produce.

                    -- Al Ma'ari