I have encountered many ex-Muslims, tried to have conversations with few. Their accounts for leaving Islam always seemed very shallow. However, I always had interest to know the primary factors that forced them to leave Islam.
๐ง๐ต๐ฒ๐ ๐น๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐๐๐น๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฑ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ผ ๐๐๐ผ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ผ๐ป๐
1) Doubts
2) Emotions (not necessarily Desires always)
I think, emotion is the primary reason. The Author suggests the same, not directly though, will explicate that in the end.
๐ง๐ต๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ ๐๐๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ผ๐๐ฏ๐๐:
1) Epistemological
2) Moral
3) Instrumental
These are the few common doubts that the participants cited.
๐๐ฝ๐ถ๐๐๐ฒ๐บ๐ผ๐น๐ผ๐ด๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ผ๐๐ฏ๐๐
Does God exists? Why evil then? Where is the evidence for the existence of God? (Influence of Scientism!?). Doubts on authenticity of Qur'an again using Creation vs Evolution (Again Influence of Scientism!?). Free will vs Predestination and Why should we attend the test of life? etc.
๐ ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ผ๐๐ฏ๐๐
Why non-Muslims go to hell? They simply born that way, not their fault. Why women need to cover? Why not women have four husbands? Banu Quraidha incident. Prophet's (SAW) marriage. Islam is false because Islamic values contradict the liberal values (Influence of liberalism)
๐๐ป๐๐๐ฟ๐๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ผ๐๐ฏ๐๐
Why not play chess? or why not draw images? Why not just being a good person is enough? Islam is not true because it is irrelevant and futile in this day and age.
๐ฃ๐ฎ๐๐ต๐๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ผ๐๐ฏ๐๐
Sudden Exposure (like a sucker punch) to various ideas, is the primary factor that leads to these doubts, then the incapability to properly seek answers to the questions/doubts pushes them away even more, but there are other indirect factors too, and everything is interconnected.
๐ญ) ๐ฃ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ฎ๐น ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ๐
Stress, emotional suffering, trauma, ego, Cognitive dissonance.
Example: Illicit Sexual relationship or being gay, causes guilt, emotional suffering, cognitive dissonance, which forces them to eventually leave Islam. (Two individuals mentioned these as reasons too)
๐ฎ) ๐๐ ๐ฝ๐ผ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฒ
Sudden huge exposure to anti-Islamic concepts, worldviews etc or seemingly contradicting ideas like evolution. Sudden huge exposure to new environments, not able to answer questions from others and from themselves that arise as a result of interaction with, and activities of, the new environment. Exposure to anti-islamic sources, or to not very well known islamic sources/historical incidents like Banu Quraidha incident etc.
๐ฏ) ๐ฆ๐ฝ๐ถ๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐๐ฎ๐น ๐๐น๐ถ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป
Feeling abandoned, feeling disconnected from God, which is again not a primary cause but a consequence of above two experiences which in-turn becomes an individual cause.
๐ฐ) ๐ฃ๐ผ๐น๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐๐
like 09/11 (Yeah i think the author mentioned it as political event, need to check again), which creates unpleasant experiences and other above mentioned problems.
๐ฑ) ๐ฃ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฏ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ผ๐๐ฏ๐๐
Searching answers for doubts in Internet in-turn causes more doubts, then, dissatisfaction over received answers from local imams, parents, etc. exacerbates and solidifies the doubts.
(Even reading Qur'an by themselves has caused few to question the morality of Islam and Qur'an, which is again telling that how much they have got indoctrinated to the dominant moral framework. Some usually say if you read Qur'an you will be fine. However, its not necessarily the case.
"...๐๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ, ๐๐ญ๐ญ๐ข๐ฉ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐บ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐จ๐ถ๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ด..." ๐๐ถ๐ณ'๐ข๐ฏ 35:08)
At-last, they resort to anti-Islamic websites, anti-Theistic books etc which in some cases was the primary source of doubts, but now, to confirm it and to intellectually convince themselves to leave Islam.
๐ฃ๐ฟ๐ถ๐บ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ผ๐ป?
Many of the participants mentioned that they leave Islam especially during the month of Ramadan. Recently I read an FB post of Colin Turner where he mentioned that Ramadan shows us our existential weakness/dependence. These ex-Muslims could not bear it, accept it, its the saturation point when they decide to quit Islam at-last.
๐๐ถ๐ธ๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ, ๐ช๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ฑ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐๐๐ต๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐น๐๐ถ๐บ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ผ๐ป ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐น๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐๐น๐ฎ๐บ?
๐ฃ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ฎ๐น ๐๐๐๐ผ๐ป๐ผ๐บ๐ ๐ถ.๐ฒ., ๐ถ๐ป๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ, ๐ถ๐ป ๐ผ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฑ๐, ๐ป๐ผ ๐๐๐ฏ๐บ๐ถ๐๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป.
๐๐๐ฌ ๐ค๐ฉ๐๐๐ง ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ค๐ง๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐จ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐๐ ๐ฃ๐ค๐ฉ๐๐.
๐ญ) They (The ex-Muslims) accepted the dominant frameworks as the correct standard and tried to compare Islam with it and when Islam did not comply with the dominant framework, they came to the conclusion that Islam is not true, but miserably failed to critically question the truthfulness of the dominant framework.
๐ฎ) They took Scientism as the correct epistemological framework and when they could not have a scientific evidence for God they concluded that there is no God.
๐ฏ) A guy explicitly mentioned that Islam was not compatible with his liberal moral values and hence he decided to leave Islam. Again, they assumed the dominant moral framework (Harm principle etc) as truth and hence concluded Islam to be false.
๐ฐ) Few have mentioned that they wanted a freer lifestyle (Personal Autonomy). Few others have mentioned that they would not believe even if they know that Islam is truth. Yet one or two wanted to believe in Islam and wanted Islam to be true, but they said they could not.
Finally, they could not go against the tide. The so-called rationality, critical thinking etc could only be applied on Islam not on the dominant secular ideologies, because, they had been fed that from their very childhood in Schools, Colleges, also via movies, music, media etc.
We as Muslims know/believe that Islam is the Truth and hence we know that the dominant framework which in many aspects contradict with Islam is false, however, this will not be a sufficient reason for those Muslims who have doubts, because they are precisely questioning the premise that "Islam is the Truth".
๐ฆ๐ผ๐น๐๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป:
We need to systematically and carefully expose Muslims, from their very childhood if possible, to various ideas, especially to the dominant framework and simultaneously to its shortcomings/failures/internal contradictions etc. Also, we should be often critiquing/refuting the dominant ideologies like Scientism, Liberalism, Feminism and so on, so that they (the Muslims) would not even have doubts in the very first place or at the very least, the possibility of acquiring such doubts would be significantly less. And even if someone gets exposed later and gets these doubts, we should equip and educate them to question the dominant metaphysical, epistemological and moral frameworks that acted as a source of their doubt instead of the individual disconnected instances and questions.
"๐๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ, ๐๐ญ๐ญ๐ข๐ฉ ๐ช๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ช๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐น๐ข๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ - ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ข ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฒ๐ถ๐ช๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ช๐ด ๐ด๐ฎ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ช๐ต. ๐๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ช๐ต ๐ช๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ณ๐ถ๐ต๐ฉ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ. ๐๐ถ๐ต ๐ข๐ด ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ด๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ด๐ข๐บ, "๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฅ ๐๐ญ๐ญ๐ข๐ฉ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐น๐ข๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ?" ๐๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ด๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ด ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฃ๐บ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐จ๐ถ๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฃ๐บ. ๐๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ด๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฆ๐น๐ค๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ง๐ช๐ข๐ฏ๐ต๐ญ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ด๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต"
๐๐ถ๐ณ'๐ข๐ฏ 02:26
๐ผ๐ก๐ก๐๐๐ช'๐ผ๐ก๐๐ข
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