Hello everybody,
I am new to this forum. Some of you I have met in person at the ex-Muslim conference in Conway Hall on the 11th of Dec or the seminar organised by One Law for All on the 26th of Jan. But most of you will have no idea who I am, so let me introduce myself
I am not an ex-Muslim. If anything, I am an ex-Christian. My parents have never been very religious. They call themselves 'spiritual' and have their own ideas on what may be out there. But I did go to a Christian elementary school. I think my parents wanted me to know what the predominant values of Western society are so that I could chose for myself whether I wanted to believe in Christianity or not. I did at first. Quite naturally, I think, as a child I believed most things I was told, so I believed in God and Jesus Christ. As time went by, however, I slowly stopped believing. It wasn't a very painfull process. I just stopped thinking about it for a while and found myself non-religious one day. I was lucky in that sense, because I didn't grow up having to fight the opinion of others, as some of you have (had) to do. That brings me to my reason for writing this in the first place.
My reason for entering this forum is two-fold. For one, I am a student at the University of Cambridge and for my dissertation I am looking into the process of leaving Islam. I became interested not only because of my own experience of leaving a religion, which was sort of fleeting and ungraspable, but also because ex-Muslims often seem to have an especially hard time leaving their religion. This makes it 'interesting' from an academic point of view, but I think, more importantly, necessary for the outside world to know what it is happening. I hope to introduce the topic to the academic world, with your help. Secondly, I genuinely believe in the spirit of the ex-Muslim Council. I think nobody should ever be forced to believe anything.. It is horrendous that it does seem to be happening.
I wanted to be very open about my intention to research, but at the same time, I want to make it very clear that I will never report anything that is said to me without your consent. Also, I will always, without exception, treat everything I learn from you and every contact I gain with full anonymity in my research. I realise how important that is. Not even the forum names will be mentioned.
I hope you are willing to share your experiences with me and allow me to enter in your discussions. As a researcher, and as a person.
Suzanne
Topic: newcomer