Hello everyone. Really good to be here. I am an Indian girl who was born and raised in Saudi Arabia in a Muslim family. I'm 20 years old now but I've been an atheist since I was 15 years old. My renunciation of Islam was partly because of reading the Qur'an and discovering how homophobic, sexist and xenophobic it was and partly because of my exposure to scientific and humanistic thinkers like Dawkins and the other New Atheists.
I am still in the closet mainly because I live in a country that insists on remaining in the Middle Ages and also because I don't want to upset my parents (I'm still financially dependent on them). They're not fundamentalists though. They're peace-loving cherry pickers but religion is very important to them nonetheless.
Right now, I study in a large university in another Muslim country (It was the only choice I had). I'd rather not reveal the name of the university here for security purposes. I believe it's very isolating to study here because everyone here is a dyed-in-the-wool, dawah-loving Muslim while I'm a radical atheist and a feminist.
However, I think that I'm in quite a unique situation because I get to meet people from so many different perspectives. For instance, just the other day, a fellow Muslim student from Rohingya whose entire family had been killed by Buddhists in Myanmar cried in my arms (of course, she had no knowledge about my true beliefs). Meeting these people has helped me to not be too myopic in my critique of religion. I sometimes like to console myself by pretending I'm an undercover agent who will bring down religion from the inside. That consolation doesn't last very long though because putting on a mask of faith every day gets tiring and alienating eventually. It is hard to find like-minded people in a place where most people have very different ideas about what truly matters in this world.
Well, that's my story. I'm looking forward to being a part of this forum and discussing interesting ideas with the members here.
Topic: Ex-Muslim from India