Iranian Ex-Muslims
OP - January 31, 2015, 02:00 PM
During my studies in Germany and my exchange semester in Denmark I met a lot of Iranian students. What I realized about them is really ALL the students I met were Atheists.
The first I realized that was when I ate with two Iranian students at McDonald's (was already some years ago):
I watched one Iranian girl eating and said "oh you know that the burger you eat is with bacon?!"
She: "so what? Are you a Muslim?"
Me: (totally shocked): "yes, of course. Are you not?"
She: "and you believe that all this"
Me: "Yes"
She: "so why are you eating at McDonald's?"
Me: "Why not? Important is to believe, everything else are just details. Wait do you also not believe (to the other Iranian guy)?"
He: "No, many intellectual students in Iran aren't believing."
That was the first time I met Ex-Muslims and that I saw that it is possible to leave your religion.
During my studies I met some more Iranian students and what they had all in common was that they were Atheist. This aroused my interest. Also the Ex-Muslim Community leaders in Germany are Iranian.
The question, which I always kept in my mind was why the Ex-Muslim community is so strong in Iran? Was it just a coincidence that all the Iranians I met were Atheist? I have never met a Afghan, Pakistani, Arab or African Ex-Muslim (expect in this forum of course). Only some Turkish, but even in Turkey is still very unusual to leave your religion.
My own idea was that in the past during the time of the Shah Iran was very open and western oriented. This changed with the Islamic revolution. But afterwards many people stayed secretly secular.