Greetings to you all,
Apostasy--especially within Muslim communities-- is currently one of the most understudied phenomena in all of the social sciences. To the best of my knowledge, only one other (qualitative) study--specifically, the book 'The Apostates: When Muslims Leave Islam' by sociologist Simon Cottee--has probed this topic. As for this sub-reddit, there have previously been several demographic surveys over the years but none of them targeted specific biographical and phenomenological information, such as the catalysts and experiences of one's journey out of Islam.
As an avid student of the 'psychology of religion' literature--and as a follower of this sub for over a year now--I've taken it upon myself to fill this knowledge gap. While I plan on pursuing this topic at the academic level—I’ll be starting a PhD political science program in the fall—I conduct something preliminary. Specifically, and at the risk of overstatement, I’ve spent much of my spare time over the past few days devising what I believe is likely the most comprehensive (albeit non-academic) quantitative survey of ex-Muslim sentiment to date. Given that many (or at least some) of you have yet to share your personal testimonies, the survey will not only make for an interesting read, but can also serve to quantitatively consolidate all of your biographies and anecdotes. If feasible—I have to look into it--I plan on conducting correlational analyses of the data to help illuminate prevailing and associated themes. Further, as one section canvasses your sentiment towards this sub-reddit, it will also afford you the opportunity to underscore your grievances (and/or praise) to the moderators, thereby helping them figure out what--if anything--needs to be addressed.
Being that a considerable proportion of followers/posters here are never-moose, I thought it necessary to produce a separate survey directed towards this cohort. As such, two distinct surveys are included below: one that should ONLY be answered by doubting and ex-Muslims, and another that should ONLY be answered by ‘never-mooses’. Elaborate as it is, the former (the ex-muslim version) should take roughly 10-15 minutes to complete (though perhaps even less); while the latter (the never-moose version), which is considerably shorter, should take around 5 minutes. If you don’t feel like filling it out in one sitting, you can always come back to it. What’s important—and I can’t stress this enough—is that you all answer as truthfully as possible (anything else would obviously subvert the purpose of this project).
Lest there be any confusion, each survey features three different question formats: 1. Multiple choice; 2. Check-boxes (where you select all answers that apply to you); and 5 point scales (e.g., 1= strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree). Please note that several of the questions (which I’ve explicitly marked) are to be answered exclusively by either males or females. In other words, if you’re a male and you come across a question regarding the wearing of the hijab, SKIP to the next question.
If the wording of any of the questions is unclear and need to be explained or translated, please don’t hesitate to contact either me or any of the moderators. Personally, I’m almost always by my computer (clearly a victim of the 21st century) so I should be able to provide prompt clarifications when needed.
Also, although I tried to make these surveys as encompassing as possible, there’s a chance I failed to include items that you were hoping would be covered. If so, I’m open to any feedback/suggestions that can help make future iterations even better.
All told, I kindly request and hope you all find the time to participate in this project. I’ve been corresponding with several of the moderators who agreed to ‘sticky’ this post and, if possible, maintain it for a period of up to a month. If all goes well, I plan on writing up—and hopefully publishing—a summary of the results. The data you contribute will thus go a long way in getting your voices heard as well as help rectify the sheer dearth of literature on this subject. Thanks in advance for your time!
LINKS
Please note, a Google account is required to access the documents below. If you don't have one, it takes about a minute to make one. Apologies for the inconvenience.
Ex-Muslim Survey
Never-Moose Survey
Edit: Were you guys able to access the results once you submitted your entries?
Edit #2: If you answer 'other', please specify (only if you're willing to, of course)
Edit #3: If any of you think it's a good idea, I've produced a version of the original r/ex-muslim survey that can be distributed to 'non-subreddit' ex-muslims (it's the same survey just without the section on r/ex-muslim). Thus, if you're apart of any other ex-muslim forums (FB groups, etc.) feel free to post it there (though I reckon the language barrier could be an issue). The results will obviously be tabulated separately, but--when all is said and done--it might be nice to coalesce all the biographical input, thereby creating an even broader (and thus more generalizable) picture. Let me know what you guys think about this.
Here's the link to the separate, 'general version':
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1X42iyfIYTsI5vCZ6mN6p-3CwxHR1hugyxMcQ7RF5FIgEdit #4: Shout out to my Egyptian ex-moose friend Ebrahim who offered to translate the survey into Arabic : D
Edit #5: Shit.. just realized it would have been nice to probe the proportion of people who've attended an r/ex-muslim meetup. Oh well, next time around.
Edit #6: Decided to add a few new interesting questions for the latecomers (e.g. 'when I was religious I'd watch Zakir Naik videos';...wish I had thought of them sooner). In any event, they'll be featured in the arabic version that my friend is currently working on. We plan to share it with hundreds of other non-reddit exmuslims (mostly FB groups). I'll have the results translated back into English and posted here
Edit #7: I'm sensing that some of you may have gotten confused by the scaled question on blind faith. For example, some people rated the preceding evidential/justificatory factors very highly while still ranking blind faith as strongly important. Obviously, blind faith is important for most if not everyone's religiosity--albeit to varying degrees. Nevertheless, the point of the 'blind faith question' was to gauge whether one would have believed just as strongly even without ANY supporting evidence/reasoning. I've thus slightly reformulated the question to make this clearer.
Edit #8: Arabic version is finally ready! Now I just need help distributing it. Arabs of r/ex-muslim, I kindly request you share it with your Arab-Atheist facebook groups as well as any Arab ex-muslim friends that don't follow this sub. Needless to say, reaching this demographic will allow us to diversify what has thus far been a predominantly Western respondent sample. Thanks in advance for all your help!!
Edit #9: I'm puzzled as to why some people rate the importance of scientific exposure/learning as a '5' and yet two questions later contradict themselves in selecting 'none; science had little if anything to do with my apostasy'........?
Topic: Ex-Muslim Survey