About Me

For the majority of my life, I was raised as a Muslim child. During most of that time, I questioned very little about religion, as Islam intertwined heavily with my Pakistani based community and culture. Around the age of 15, I made the realization that I was not a Muslim but a child of Muslim parents. Within months, I immersed myself within the religion of Islam and also the religious text (the Quran) to build knowledge of “my” religion. The goal was never to become an Atheist or Agnostic, but rather to strengthen my belief in Islam. For about two years or so, I fully accepted the validity of Islam and Allah. However, at the end of my research, I became an Agnostic for sure and in a few months, an Atheist.

As someone who rarely is satisfied, my next step was to research the entire godless world view. I came upon the philosophers of the 18th century Enlightenment first (Voltaire, Jefferson, Franklin, etc), and moved onto philosophers of the 19th century (Marx, Nietzsche, Feuerbach, etc). Eventually I read more modern intellectuals, (Chomsky, Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris, etc) and made the full realization that theism was not only illogical, but wicked. Thus I became not only an Atheist but also an Anti-Theist.

My goal with this blog is to introduce Muslims to the godless worldview. The notion of Atheism never crossed my mind as a Muslim because the choice was not whether not god existed, but instead whether or not you accepted god. Framing the conversation like that allows the religious to the argument by default. It is troubling that due to the modern notion of “political correctness” Muslims are protected to the point of forced censorship in the media. On the other hand, Christianity and Judaism have been criticized for centuries and thus were forced to redefine what it means to be a Christian or a Jew. Let us begin that process with Islam. Let us criticize Islam openly and force Muslims to defend their beliefs in the intellectual battlefield and potentially modify their beliefs such that they are compatible with modernity and secularism.

One thing that I would like to make clear is that I do not consider myself a victim nor do I have any anger towards religion or Islam. I would go as far as saying that if I am anything, it is certainly not a victim. I never underwent harsh religious instruction and rather I enjoyed my childhood religious instruction. I do not write against Islam because of some feeling hatred. I write because of my love for humanity and beauty and more over, a general feeling of pity towards those who never get to fully realize the majesty of the natural world.

To read more about my process of becoming an Atheist, check out my 3 part series, “My “Spiritual” Journey”

Part One / Part Two / Part Three

-mk