Hey I'm from Morocco and I lived here since my childhood. I was a muslim and I used to believe a lot in god, because my family was entirely muslim and our culture and traditions were based on muslim culture. In my first years of high school, I started to notice that our society wasn't able to define itself, we just consider ourselves muslims but do the opposite of what muslim directives were saying.
I began to study Coran and Islamic directives (far from what we were learning in school), and I realized that it had a lot of contracdictions within itself, and with what I learned in my scientific courses and researches at school, without speaking about the fact that the majorityof moroccans are just using Islam as a belief to explain some things or to manipulate people especially in the political field.
Anyway, I won't be talking about how I left Islam, but how I'm living as an atheist in a country where 99% of it's population is considered as "muslim".
It's impossible to declare - publicly- myself as an atheist in Morocco, because I may face a prison sentence, or even a death penalty as the Islam says (Anyone who leaves Islam need to be killed). But also my entire family would reject me because of my opinion and my toughts. It's hard for me to speak about religions when we're gathered, and I'm forced to pray or do things like that especially in Religious Occasions (Aid Al Adha/Aid Al Fitr). In Ramadan, I eat and drink alone, and when no one is around because it may create BIG trouble for me.
Few of my friends know about it, even fewer of them would accept my choice. With some other friends who are atheist or agnostic, we meet up and talk about our views and toughts, even though it's rare but we have a good time. Internet is the only way I can share my toughts and read more about science, philosphy and different toughts without fearing anything. (For now :p).
Even if I'm an atheist, I respect other people choices and beliefs. And I expect others to do so, in my case, accept my atheist views and toughts and discuss them freely without fearing death penalty, social impact and other things.
Do you have any advice thhat will help me express safely my toughts ? Or do you live in a country where it's similar ? Feel free share your toughts !
(Sorry for my english :D)
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That's tough. I've visited your beautiful country many times and It's a shame you're in this position. I think you're probably doing the right things, tbh.
Salam,
Dear you are like my brother I am here to share your concerns and help find a way that will satisfy you. But please with all due respect I would like to ask where you got off track and what are the contradictions are you talking about. Our religion is the only religion that existed when Adam Pbuh and Eve Pbuh stepped foot in this world. And Adam pbuh worshipped no one but One God Allah, So did Ibrahim pbuh and Nooh, Musa, Isa, Muhammad peace be upon them all. My dear all messengers were sent nobody other than Allah. and their religion was so simple. Just pray and worship one God. Whats confusing about that ? Allah loves us.. its we who dont love him back. Look at our Prophet Muhammad (sws) what he went through for us. He was hit by stones, cursed at and what not. But he still prayed to Allah ,, Ya ummati ya ummati.. O Allah what will become of my Ummah. We are so lucky to be born in Muslim country and family. Think about those who doesnt have this. And you know that what will become of Disbelievers. They will beg on that day that "We wish were just just sand". Im not trying to frighten you but you have the most precious thing in the whole world and that is Laa Ilaha Illal Laah Muhammad Ur Rasool Allah Sallallaho 'Alaihi Wasallam.. Read it with me brother 3 times In Sha Allah it will help you get back on the right path. Im from Pakistan and you must be knowing that culture is also very liberal now here too. Even I lost track few times. But Now Ive realized that if I die disbelieving I will have all my life wasted and will be in hellfire for eternity. I will be separated from friends and loved ones forever. How will I stand infront of Allah on the day of judgement for 50,000 and say I disbelieved. NO! Allah Loves You. Allah says :
"despair not of mercy from Allah . Indeed, no one despairs of mercy from Allah except the disbelieving people." 12:87
I am there for you brother. I will share my experiences with you. If we werent able to follow and pray like we should, Its never too Late. We still have time.. Just imagine I used to be among the sinners.. but I realized.. that sinning and not praying is not right. I repented so much and now even im writing a Book on how important it is to be loyal to Allah. I might name it" Stairway to Jannah" it will have everything we should do to make our Allah happy. Please my brother take this reply as a sign and please please I beg of you don't drag yourself from heaven to hell. Trust me Allah wants you to be a true muslim we still have time all we need is to goto mosque and repent. Allah will help you In Sha Allah. Im there for you. I will read the quran with you. I will say salah with you. My brother dont waste your life like this. Trust ALLAH. Please brother
“Say: O ‘Ibaadi (My slaves) who have transgressed against themselves (by committing evil deeds and sins)! Despair not of the Mercy of Allaah, verily, Allaah forgives all sins. Truly, He is Oft‑Forgiving, Most Merciful”
[al-Zumar 39:53].
"O son of Adam, as long as you call upon Me and put your hope in Me, I have forgiven you for what you have done and I do not mind. O son of Adam, if your sins were to reach the clouds of the sky and then you would seek My forgiveness, I would forgive you. O son of Adam, if you were to come to Me with sins that are close to filling the earth and then you would meet Me without ascribing any partners with Me, I would certainly bring to you forgiveness close to filling it."
Brother Im here for you , talk to me wherever you want to. But please for once don't turn away like this. I beg
May Allah swt guide us all. Ameen
Jamal, you are obsessed with your so called only thru religion, forced into your brain from birth.
I am so very sad that you ar missing out on so many things, all because you believe the biggest lie there ever was.
Your reply does not help.
By the way, a god that has slaves is by no means a loving god but a slave-driver
"Where you got off track?"
I think right when Adam and Eve set foot on earth because EVOLUTION!!!!
moroccanatheist I feel for you. I believe that the truth shall set you free and try to live it out, except for this one thing. For me in South Africa - free from prosecution - only a few people knows my feeling - everyone just assume i'm Christian without even asking. It is difficult knowing that the people you love and care for would most probably not understand it. Best wishes on this journey. Just imagine how alone people would have felt pre internet - only 20 years ago.
Ive researched many religions. I forgot what I was taught in childhood. Im a researcher by profession as well. I did research debated with many atheists and christians. The more I debated and researched the more I was convinced that Islam is the true Religion and the only religion closest to one God. It gives all authority to One God.
Love must be translated in action, attitude and behavior, otherwise it is just a word without meaning. Similarly Allah's love is translated in His attributes of forgiving, compassion and mercy. Look around and you will find that Allah's mercy is spread all around. "Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Raheem" means "In the name of Allah the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate." The words are AR-RaHMan and AR-RaHeeM. AR represents the article AL, meaning "the". The root word is RHM, which may be read as RaHiMa or RaHaMa, means mercy. Allah does not use two identical words next to each other unless there is a difference in their meaning.
Allah is Ar-Raheem for all humankind irrespective of their belief in Allah and their character whether they believe in Allah or not; whether they are good-doers or evil-doers; they all obtain their sustenance from Allah. Many evil people are very rich because Allah decided to give them all the wealth and good things of this life; this is because Allah is Ar-Raheem. Allah is also Ar-Rahman for the believers in Him; they are good-doers. They receive special blessings from Allah, that is, happiness and contentment in this life and reward in the hereafter.
As for the life hereafter, or the next life, the matter is different. The Christian concept of God is a merciless God. He punishes the sinless, Jesus, for the wrong done by others. The Christian concept of God is powerless to forgive sins and accept repentance. He makes the entire mankind sinners for the sin of one couple, Adam and Eve. The Christian concept of God is incapable of forgiving the sin of one couple but makes their entire progeny sinners. For forgiving their sins he has to concoct a charade of bringing "his son" who is sinless and kills him for no fault of his own.
The Bible says "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16 NKJV). The converse of this statement is that the rest of humanity will perish, that is, will go to hell without any other way of receiving His forgiveness for the sin they did not commit. What happens to the people who were born and died before God decide to concoct this charade only 2000 years ago? It seems that the Christian God is a poor planner and a late thinker because it took him thousands if not millions of years to find a way of forgiving "the sins" of mankind. What happens to those who never received the message of Jesus until it was thoroughly corrupted by the "Christians" and it became illogical and unacceptable?
In the Qur'an Allah says that He does not love those who reject Him (3:32), does not love those who are transgressors (2:57, 140, 5:87, 7:55), does not love those who are evil-livers (5:64), does not love evil talk (4:148) and others. In all these cases love is connected to the deeds of a person. At the same time Allah does not deprive them of anything in this life. You will not find that all good people are rich and all sinners are living in poverty and a wretched life. Allah gives a person life-long opportunity to turn away from the life of sin and disobedience and receive His forgiveness. Conversely, Allah says, "Say, if you love Allah, obey me (Muhammad), Allah will love you and forgive you your sins, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful" (3:31). If you love Allah show it in your conduct and obey Allah and His Messenger, for obedience of His Messenger is the obedience of Allah (4:80). It means our expression of love is in obedience.
See what Allah also says in the Qur'an, "Say: O My slaves (mankind) who have been prodigal to their own hurt! Despair not of the mercy of Allah, Who forgives all sins. Lo! He is the Forgiving, the Merciful..." (39:53-58). Here the message is that those who commit evil are doing wrong and hurting themselves in this life and the next, however, Allah's forgiveness has no limits and the only condition is asking for forgiveness and repentance (not committing wrongs again knowingly).
That's why many of his followers use bombs in his name?
Killing those who have a different faith?
Penalty for dropping out , for beeing gay or lesbian is dead?
Very bizar god who needes an army of humans , behaving as criminals for those who think different.
This is the ultimate proof the whole story is false and just be kept alive by force.
Despite a list of verses to 'prove' otherwise.
The content itself is still worth reading
Many? how do you define many? Out of 1.6 Billion how many?? 0.1 % ? what about 99.9? and Who bombs who? Look at the society. You know who does what very well.. look at family systems. Who follows the religion n who doesnt.
Who killed who? Dont be partial and biased please. I never harmed any christian or hindu or jew. nobody in my country has. Dont just pass judgement based on 0.1 %.
Im not justifying killing on either sides. It shouldnt happen. But please tell me what about 99.9 % Muslms who live in Peace with The West. Comon tell me?
First, where did you get those numbers? Did you research it yourself?
Second, what are those 'peaceful' mulims doing about the ones killing in their religion's name? What are you doing about it?
I do everything I can to promote peace. I call people to do good and forbid from evil. That's my Aim in life. And also to guide people through Almighty to the right path. Not by force but by Love and Peace. Trust me I know thousands of Muslim brothers who promote peace and who do good. Please lets just stay positive im not promoting any thing other than peace. please lets just promote peace.
Allah says:
You are the best nation produced [as an example] for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah . If only the People of the Scripture had believed, it would have been better for them. Among them are believers, but most of them are defiantly disobedient. 3:110
This is the core belief of a believer. Lets not talk about exceptions but talk about the things that are in general.
Sorry to hear about the difficulties there morroccanathiest,
In Ireland I grew up in a socially constrained environment in terms of religious belief and in terms of government endorsement and subservience to a Christian church. It too was very damaging for the population and distorted our lawmaking and human rights, with those doing so believing they were doing the right thing. As a schoolboy I would have been beaten but not mutilated as you find there. We faced social ostracism, with similar rejection by family and communities until relatively recently. Those choosing or promoting a secular state were viewed as troublemakers and had all sorts of slanders associated with them. It took the courage of those who were prepared to work over a lifetime for things to change and their example gave the rest the courage to come to stand up for their position. Hopefully from your small cohort of courageous explorers of logic and science you will have the kernel of a similar flowering of freedom of expression and belief.
It is shocking to see how a religion can resort to physical punishment for those refusing to pretend to believe in it. This reveals the insecurity and the awareness of their lack of a fully coherent position in the leadership of these religions. They would prefer to have the dishonesty of people feigning belief rather than the admission that there could be a more logical viewpoint or alternative world view. They need the tidy appearance of total belief across the population in order to keep the fearful subdued. It has long been that way, and was the same across the world until the beginning of the development of states with separation of state and church.
I get the feeling that your country is in a similar position to Ireland in the mid 20th century and hope people like you and your friends can help to advance things for the hidden millions there who only act out their cultural roles under duress and threat. Thinking about how you say you can only speak out online it may be a good idea to establish an online outlet for discussion in your country. Maybe this is something you could start using the forum here? Perhaps posting a new thread reaching out to others in Morroccan Arabic maybe in Berber too could bring others to express themselves and share their situation? You would obviously need to be cautious as to how much information was shared which could be misused by those who would seek mischief and harm against you. But even just translating and sharing resources from here under the thread could do much good for many of your fellow Moroccan people.