Allied Apostates of Islam

Testimonies of those who leave Islam

Hello I am (*Imran) from Afghanistan, and I would like to tell you my story about leaving Islam.  I have sent my story to Allied Apostates for translation from farsi as I am not fluent (it is ok but not perfect) in the English language - I was given a copy of the testimony before admittence and I agree that this is a factual account of what i wrote in my email....

It was two years ago, that I questioned Islam for the first time, and started reading information that can be classed as "critical" about my former religion. I was always a good muslim who tried to live life peacefully but because of my upbringing I always felt an "outsider" and did not connect on a spiritual level with my muslim friends and family.

My (late) father was in the police force in Jalalabad and was also a qualified Doctor, and I have eight brothers and two sisters who are in Pakistan right now. My journey to apostasy began when i read books by authors like Ibn Warraq and Anwar Sheikh. This was like a bolt of lightening to my system and I was in denial for a long time. I spent many days and nights questioning the way I was feeling. To not consider my prophet a humble and true Nabi from Allah was very disturbing.

I was sent to madrassah at the age of five years, and had a terrible time at the hands of my Imam teachers who were ruthless in their methods of teaching little children. I was beaten black and blue regularly because I couldn't memorise the Quran quick enough like my peers. Life was hard and I now look back and think how I survived those years in their care.

My father fell ill and couldn't support us so the local Taliban Govt. would give us rations of flour,sugar and oil for my "education". My brothers were soon old enough to join, so I witnessed horrific treatment of them aswell while in the madrassah.

These Imams were supposed to be teaching us the word of Allah/God but why did they hate us? Why are small children taught to hate "kafirs" when the only kafir I knew was my friend? Why was my friend's family alienated for doing no wrong? Their only crime was to watch television programms in English. There was nothing "dirty" in watching educational news channel in English.

(* Real name removed)