9 Myths About Ex-Muslims

1. We are the Anti-Christ or we are a sign of the end of times.

How can we be the anti-christ without even knowing it ourselves? It’s like performing a mission without even knowing that we are carrying it out ourselves. What are we supposed to do as the Anti-Christ anyway? The end of times has been predicted to have been near even at the times of Prophet Muhammad. Furthermore, there have always been apostates since the beginning of Islam.

2. We have no knowledge of Islam.

On the contrary, we are actually relatively well versed in Islam. A lot of us grew up attending madrasahs and have an interest in the history of Islam and the world’s different religions. Some of us have even read extensively into Islam and the different controversies it has seen throughout the ages.

In fact, for many of us, it has precisely been this further research and reading into Islam that has resulted in our leaving Islam. Perhaps a Muslim may argue that we did not get our knowledge from the right sources. However, how does one tell which sources are right? Wouldn’t only listening to your Ustaz be akin to only listening to one side of the story?

3. We want to see the end of Islam.

No. We do not. While we may disagree with a lot of things in Islam, we do not intentionally wish for Islam to end. After all, a lot of our friends and family members in Singapore have lived their lives full of dignity and peace as Muslims harmoniously with people of other religions.

Instead, we wish to work towards a Singapore where everybody has the freedom to choose his or her religion without the unnecessary consequences that Muslims who wish to leave their religion today face.

4. We are possessed by Jinn or devils.

No, we are not. As much as your relatives and friends would like to think, we have not been possessed by the Jinn or the devil. Most of us do not even believe in Jinn or devils or both.

We have each undergone a set of experiences and had epiphanies or realizations about Islam somewhere in our lives that have made us question Islam. It has nothing to do with being possessed by Jinn or climbing up walls. We have found Islam’s teachings to be irreconcilable with our own thoughts and personal beliefs.

5. We are corrupted by logic and reason.

It seems that at times, logic and reason are diametrically opposite to faith. We are not fans of blind faith nor do we endorse the idea of becoming a Muslim by birth. Some of us feel that if Allah were true, then he would have wanted us to be members and followers of his faith because we truly know it to be true, not just because we happen to have been born to Muslim parents and then learned only about Islam all our lives. Instead, we would have spent our entire lives looking through other religions and somehow have come to the conclusion that Islam was the true religion. Islam would have had answers to all our questions.

As mentioned in the ayat above, you are required by Allah to use your faculties of perception and conception; you must verify it for yourself. You will be held accountable for your hearing, sight, and the faculty of reasoning [17/36].

6. We are without morals.

Wrong. Just because we do not adhere to your set of moral beliefs does not mean we are devoid of any morality. We do not live by the standards of what Muslims would consider being right or wrong, which are hugely based on the doctrines of Islam. Instead, we develop our own set of morals that are independent of what Allah has decided.

For example, if carrying and treating an injured or dying dog is immoral by your religion’s standards, so be it. We would rather be called immoral than deny an injured dog assistance.

One has to understand that religion does not imply morality. There have been so many immoral religious people in the history of mankind. The same argument applies likewise for non-Muslims or ex-Muslims. There are immoral ones and there are moral ones. It helps not to judge each other by our own individual standards of what is moral or immoral.

7. We do not love our family.

Many of us love our family members to bits. Yet, some are disowned and others face the wrath of parents or worse still, get kicked out.

Nobody should be guilt-tripped into being who they are not, or believing something they clearly do not believe in, just “for the sake of mom and dad” or so as not to “shame the family name”.

Faith is something really personal and society or family, in this case, should not be in the business of determining or pressuring anyone into believing. In fact, we love our families so much most of us keep our state of apostasy a secret from them for fear of alienation.

8. We do not love ourselves and that is why we leave Islam.

What would you say to someone who has left Christianity to join Islam? How do you think that a person’s Christian family would react to his embracing Islam? Is that person devoid of self-love? It is the same thing for a Muslim who leaves Islam. It has nothing to do with self-love. Rather, it is a matter of conviction or the lack of.

As ex-Muslims, we have come to a point where we cannot bring ourselves to believe in Islam nor do we wish to be “fake” believers by putting up a facade. We have the honesty and courage to follow our hearts and minds to wherever it may lead us and that is more important to us than trying to convince ourselves at all costs, against all reasons that Islam is the one true religion.

9. We want to try and convert you.

No. Apostasy does not happen to everyone and probably isn’t suitable for everyone. Like religion, it is not something that can be forced. Those of us who have decided to leave Islam do so because we have no other choice but to do so, in order to live our lives being true to ourselves.

In fact, if religion works for an individual, why not, especially if that means that he or she leads a peaceful and loving life. Rather, what is more, important to us is for everybody, religious or not, to be able to live with each other harmoniously.