Where Should I Head To?

Greetings Mr Ali.

 I have very recently gone through your book ”Understanding Muhammad”. Though I am still a Muslim but your explanation of various verses from Quran and as well as of Hadiths in context of psychological patterns of Prophet Muhammad definitely raises some questions. But at the same time there are numerous other Hadiths as well segments from Quran that are excellent source of morals and ethics. Quran mentions some scientific facts that weren’t possible for anyone to reach at conclusions some 1400 years before.

Mr Ali,I am witness to conversion of extreme degree Muslim criminals to very simple,humble and flawless human beings on discovering true teachings of Quran. I am witness to Muslims those who never tell lie,those who never raise their eyes to upper canopy to appreciate beauty of opposite gender,I am witness to Muslims who help others (may be Muslims or even Non-Muslims) to the extent that is impossible elsewhere,I am witness to Muslims who out of humanity lend huge amount of money to needy masses without interests.

I can’t deny the segregation that comes up in Quran and Hadiths  that divides mankind in two categories Momeens and Kafirs. I can’t deny the fact that modern amenities which Muslims today enjoy are in fact gifts from so called Kafirs,I can’t deny that Muslim Dawah is taking shape of imperialism and I can’t deny that yes Islam been imposed forcefully in past. I surely can’t marry my little daughter to an old man. I can’t kill animals on basis that sacrifices have been authenticated from past scriptures.

What I am trying to explain you is my state of dilemma. I have been surviving within Islam with hope to find satisfactory answers to questions that often propel from my own soul.

Sometimes I am at the edge to denounce Islam but again turn back. This phenomenon is going on from a long time. And I do not forget the prize that I need to pay on declaring my apostasy. I am helpless and torn.

Muhammad Kh.

Dear Muhammad

You will find good teachings in any cult.  False prophets mix good things and bad things to deceive people. If they only preach evil no one will believe in them.   Even Jim Jones and Charles Manson had good teachings.  A person who claims to come from God must not have any bad teaching nor should he commit any crime.   All it takes to disqualify a person as a messenger of God is one error, one lie or one bad conduct. Muhammad had thousands of them and he committed horrendous crimes.

Criminals are transformed through their own will power.  Religion is a pretext.  They use it as a psychological prop but the power comes from the people themselves.  People whose lives are messed up often resort to God. They are empowered and can overcome their weaknesses. But this is not evidence that God has helped them. It is their conviction that God will help them that makes them strong to fight their inner demons.   You can believe in a stone and if you have faith that the stone can help you, you will get help, not from the stone but from your conviction.

Voodoo works on people who believe in it. Bad eye, charm, prayer work on people who believe in them. This is called placebo effect.  Placebo is sugar coated starch made in the form of medication and given to patients who believe they are real medication. A large percentage of patients become better by taking the placebo. Parmaceutical companies use that now as a standard procedure to measure the efficacy of new drug. They give real drug to a number of patients and placebo to another group and measure the efficacy of the drug by discarding the percentage of the people who got better just by taking placebo from the percentage of the patients who got better by taking the real medication.

Beliefs have powerful effect. There have been people who went to the tomb of Khomeini and recovered from their ailment. Khomeini was a known mass murderer.

There is nothing scientific in the Quran. All the science attributed to the Quran is wishful thinking of Muslims. They are just the products of their active imagination. Not one of them is true.  I have refuted most of those claims in this article. http://www.faithfreedom.org/debates/NaikCampbellintro.htm

Yes there are countless good Muslims. But the goodness of Muslims has nothing to do with Islam. People do good things because they are naturally good. If they belong to a certain religion and are zealot about it they often credit that religion for their goodness.  I heard a man say I don’t do this and that because I am a Muslim, if people did not believe in religion they would commit fornication with their mother.  I asked him whether he lusted after his mother and Islam was the only thing stopping him to jump into bed with her. Do you see the absurdity of this line of reasoning? If Muslims are good it is because they are naturally good and not because of Islam. They will do good deeds even when they leave their faith.  However, if a religion has evil teachings, even good people do evil. Religion numbs the conscience of people.

You, like millions of Muslims live in a state of cognitive dissonance. Your conscience and your belief go different directions.  You are naturally attracted to goodness whereas Islam has many evil teachings, which you don’t agree with. There is no reconciliation. You have to choose one or the other. Either you should follow your conscience and leave Islam or blindly believe in what Muhammad said and sacrifice your conscience as most Muslims do. I decided to follow my conscience.  You have to make your choice.

Islam is a lie. Its miracles are lies. The good teachings you find in Islam you can find in any religion. In fact you don’t need a religion to tell you what is good and what is bad.  Look at your email. You are the one who is judging that some of the teachings of Islam are bad and some are good. If you can make that judgment why do you need to follow any religion?  You already know what is good and what is bad.  We humans naturally know what is good because we are endowed with a conscience.  Your conscience is working perfectly. You already know sacrificing an innocent animal to appease God is evil. Why would God become happy seeing that kind of cruelty?  You know raping a little girl is very evil.  You know things that Muhammad ibn Abdullah did not know. His conscience was not as evolved as yours. So why should you follow a man who was clearly inferior to you morally and in every other sense?  Except in one area! He lied better than you and could fool multitudes, whereas you can’t.

He was also inferior to you intellectually. He said so many darn stupid things that are wrong. All the miracles of science attributed to the Quran are false.  There is no point for you to call yourself a Muslim.

You are not alone. The majority of Muslims are like you. They are good people and they don’t agree with a lot of things Muhammad said and did but they don’t dare to think about them because they fear they may go to hell.   Don’t let a dead psychopath control you through fear.