@Loofydralb
I would like to clarify at the outset that it is the evils of Islam theology, and not necessarily the individual character of Muslim parents, that make raising children in Islam such a troublesome matter.
Muslim individuals, including parents, can be either good or bad human beings. It is the extent to which a person adheres to the many inhumane dictates of Islamic theology that determine whether a person is respectable or not. I personally wish Muslims well, despite my deep antipathy towards Mohammedanism.
Speaking as a former Muslim who is repulsed by the depredations of Islamic theology, I assert that it is a great misfortune to be born into Islam and a great shame for parents to raise children in Islam. The reader may ask, What are the depredations of Islamic theology? I address Islam’s sanctioning of spousal abuse, its deadly homophobia, its death penalty for apostasy, etc.
There is arguably no greater parental responsibility than that of raising a child with a humane belief system. In fact, it would be far better to raise a child with no particular belief system than to insist that a child adhere to an ethically unsound set of beliefs. And Islam is without doubt a highly unethical ideology.
Furthermore, I would argue that committing one’s life to the practice and promotion of Islam is among the most foolish and self-defeating decisions that a human being can make for themselves and their family. For not only would such a person be practising an untrue, morally abhorrent religion, he or she would essentially be betraying humanity and future generations.
A particularly tragic aspect of raising children in Islam is the intense pressure placed upon Muslims to conform to Islamic rules and traditions. The pressure to obey Islamic dictates is especially concerning as it relates to Muslim girls, when one considers realities such as the permissibility of child marriage (due to the example of Muhammad marrying a six-year-old child and consummating the marriage when the child reached the age of nine (see Sahih Muslim Book 8, Number 3309), the stipulation that a Muslim woman may not marry a non-Muslim man (Quran 2:221), wearing Islamic head and body coverings, and on and on. Girls who refuse to obey such rules face threats of real violence from family members and the Islamic community Honor Killing are all too common within the Islamic community for females who attempt to break from Islamic norms. Brutal Sharia law is well known to be especially strict towards females. Sadly, the Sharia is sourced from the Quran and Muhammad’s Sunnah; therefore, Muslim families essentially enforce an informal version of the Islamic law when punishing those who stray from obedience to Mohammedanism.
Another troublesome aspect of raising children in Islam is the hatred of unbelievers and non-Islamic faith traditions that Islam inculcates in the minds of young persons. This hatred and dehumanizing of unbelievers is crystallized in Qur’anic verses such as those found below, stating that unbelievers are the worst of creatures and Muslim’s the best of peoples:
Qur’an 3:110: You are the best of people that has been raised up for mankind. You command what is right and forbid what is wrong, and you believe in Allah. And if the people of the book had believed, it would have been better for them. Some of them are believers, but most of them are rebellious.
Qur’an 98:6: Indeed, the unbelievers among the people of the book and the idolaters will remain in the fire of Gehenna. They are the most vile of created beings.
Another example of the Islam-inspired hatred that is taught to Muslim children are the Qur’anic passages below aimed at Christians and Jews. Such hateful passages fuel the persecution and bloodshed currently taking place in Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, and elsewhere, where the murder of Christians in particular is commonplace and only increasing. Hatred of unbelievers is the undercurrent of Islam and the foundational reason why young boys and men commit the innumerable jihad attacks we see occurring throughout the world in 2023.
Qur’an 3:28: Let not the believers take unbelievers for their friends in preference to believers. Whoever does that has no connection with Allah unless you are guarding yourselves against them, taking security. Allah bids you to beware of him. To Allah is the journeying.
Qur’an 5:51: O you who believe, do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends of one another. He among you who takes them for friends is of them. Indeed, Allah does not guide wrongdoing people.
Qur’an 9:29: Fight against those do not believe in Allah or the last day, and do not forbid what Allah and his messenger have forbidden, and do not follow the religion of truth, even if they are among the people of the book, until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.
The social strife and violent conflict that Islam naturally creates between Muslims and unbelievers is playing out in Europe and UK in dramatic fashion. In the short span of a few decades, hundreds of large no-go zones have developed throughout Europe, where non-Muslims dare not enter for reasons of safety. And it is in this Islamic cultural milieu that Muslim children are raised to distrust and hate the non-Islamic state and its non-Islamic citizens.
The blind obedience and cult-like sway that Islam has over its adherents is profound, due to fear, false promises of heavenly rewards, and community reprisal for leaving Islam or transgressing against Islamic tradition. It should not be underestimated just how firmly Muslim believers will continue to cling to this cruel ideology. For the reasons mentioned above, Muslim parents continue to deny the fact that it is grave injustice to raise children in Islam. The best hope for the world is that Muslim parents find ways to safely leave Islam with their children and then speak out against the harms and falsehoods of the religion.
If Muslims can be made to see the hideous falsehood of Islam, people have a chance at living in relative harmony with one another despite the various challenges that arise over time. Reflecting on my twenty-five years living as an ex-Muslim, I believe the three most harmful and ironic passages in the entire Islamic canon are these:
Qur’an 5:3: This day I have perfected your religion for you and completed my favor to you, and have chosen Islam as the religion for you.
Qur’an: 16:89: And the day when we raise in every nation a witness against them from their own people, and we bring you as a witness against these. And we reveal the book to you as an explanation of all things, and a guidance and a mercy and good news for the Muslims.
33:21: Indeed in the messenger of Allah you have an excellent example for him who looks to Allah and the last day, and remembers Allah a great deal.
Here is a recent statement from a group of Bangladeshi apostates living in the UK, explaining the reasons why they have abandoned Islam:
One who claims to be a messenger of God is expected to live a saintly life. He must not be given to lust, he must not be a sexual pervert, and he must not be a rapist, a highway robber, a war criminal, a mass murderer or an assassin. One who claims to be a messenger of God must have a superior character. He must stand above the vices of the people of his time. Yet Muhammad’s life is that of a gangster godfather. He raided merchant caravans, looted innocent people, massacred entire male populations and enslaved the women and children. He raped the women captured in war after killing their husbands and told his followers that it is okay to have sex with their captives (Qur’an 33:50). He assassinated those who criticized him and executed them when he came to power and became de facto despot of Arabia. Muhammad was bereft of human compassion. He was an obsessed man with his dreams of grandiosity and could not forgive those who stood in his way…
The statement continues:
Muhammad was a narcissist, like Hitler, Saddam or Stalin. He was astute and knew how to manipulate people, but his emotional intelligence was less evolved than that of a 6-year-old child. He simply could not feel the pain of others. He brutally massacred thousands of innocent people and pillaged their wealth. His ambitions were big and as a narcissist he honestly believed he is entitled to do as he pleased and commit all sorts of crimes and his evil deeds are justified.
I would like to clarify at the outset that it is the evils of Islam theology, and not necessarily the individual character of Muslim parents, that make raising children in Islam such a troublesome matter.
Muslim individuals, including parents, can be either good or bad human beings. It is the extent to which a person adheres to the many inhumane dictates of Islamic theology that determine whether a person is respectable or not. I personally wish Muslims well, despite my deep antipathy towards Mohammedanism.
Speaking as a former Muslim who is repulsed by the depredations of Islamic theology, I assert that it is a great misfortune to be born into Islam and a great shame for parents to raise children in Islam. The reader may ask, What are the depredations of Islamic theology? I address Islam’s sanctioning of spousal abuse, its deadly homophobia, its death penalty for apostasy, etc.
There is arguably no greater parental responsibility than that of raising a child with a humane belief system. In fact, it would be far better to raise a child with no particular belief system than to insist that a child adhere to an ethically unsound set of beliefs. And Islam is without doubt a highly unethical ideology.
Furthermore, I would argue that committing one’s life to the practice and promotion of Islam is among the most foolish and self-defeating decisions that a human being can make for themselves and their family. For not only would such a person be practising an untrue, morally abhorrent religion, he or she would essentially be betraying humanity and future generations.
A particularly tragic aspect of raising children in Islam is the intense pressure placed upon Muslims to conform to Islamic rules and traditions. The pressure to obey Islamic dictates is especially concerning as it relates to Muslim girls, when one considers realities such as the permissibility of child marriage (due to the example of Muhammad marrying a six-year-old child and consummating the marriage when the child reached the age of nine (see Sahih Muslim Book 8, Number 3309), the stipulation that a Muslim woman may not marry a non-Muslim man (Quran 2:221), wearing Islamic head and body coverings, and on and on. Girls who refuse to obey such rules face threats of real violence from family members and the Islamic community Honor Killing are all too common within the Islamic community for females who attempt to break from Islamic norms. Brutal Sharia law is well known to be especially strict towards females. Sadly, the Sharia is sourced from the Quran and Muhammad’s Sunnah; therefore, Muslim families essentially enforce an informal version of the Islamic law when punishing those who stray from obedience to Mohammedanism.
Another troublesome aspect of raising children in Islam is the hatred of unbelievers and non-Islamic faith traditions that Islam inculcates in the minds of young persons. This hatred and dehumanizing of unbelievers is crystallized in Qur’anic verses such as those found below, stating that unbelievers are the worst of creatures and Muslim’s the best of peoples:
Qur’an 3:110: You are the best of people that has been raised up for mankind. You command what is right and forbid what is wrong, and you believe in Allah. And if the people of the book had believed, it would have been better for them. Some of them are believers, but most of them are rebellious.
Qur’an 98:6: Indeed, the unbelievers among the people of the book and the idolaters will remain in the fire of Gehenna. They are the most vile of created beings.
Another example of the Islam-inspired hatred that is taught to Muslim children are the Qur’anic passages below aimed at Christians and Jews. Such hateful passages fuel the persecution and bloodshed currently taking place in Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, and elsewhere, where the murder of Christians in particular is commonplace and only increasing. Hatred of unbelievers is the undercurrent of Islam and the foundational reason why young boys and men commit the innumerable jihad attacks we see occurring throughout the world in 2023.
Qur’an 3:28: Let not the believers take unbelievers for their friends in preference to believers. Whoever does that has no connection with Allah unless you are guarding yourselves against them, taking security. Allah bids you to beware of him. To Allah is the journeying.
Qur’an 5:51: O you who believe, do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends of one another. He among you who takes them for friends is of them. Indeed, Allah does not guide wrongdoing people.
Qur’an 9:29: Fight against those do not believe in Allah or the last day, and do not forbid what Allah and his messenger have forbidden, and do not follow the religion of truth, even if they are among the people of the book, until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.
The social strife and violent conflict that Islam naturally creates between Muslims and unbelievers is playing out in Europe and UK in dramatic fashion. In the short span of a few decades, hundreds of large no-go zones have developed throughout Europe, where non-Muslims dare not enter for reasons of safety. And it is in this Islamic cultural milieu that Muslim children are raised to distrust and hate the non-Islamic state and its non-Islamic citizens.
The blind obedience and cult-like sway that Islam has over its adherents is profound, due to fear, false promises of heavenly rewards, and community reprisal for leaving Islam or transgressing against Islamic tradition. It should not be underestimated just how firmly Muslim believers will continue to cling to this cruel ideology. For the reasons mentioned above, Muslim parents continue to deny the fact that it is grave injustice to raise children in Islam. The best hope for the world is that Muslim parents find ways to safely leave Islam with their children and then speak out against the harms and falsehoods of the religion.
If Muslims can be made to see the hideous falsehood of Islam, people have a chance at living in relative harmony with one another despite the various challenges that arise over time. Reflecting on my twenty-five years living as an ex-Muslim, I believe the three most harmful and ironic passages in the entire Islamic canon are these:
Qur’an 5:3: This day I have perfected your religion for you and completed my favor to you, and have chosen Islam as the religion for you.
Qur’an: 16:89: And the day when we raise in every nation a witness against them from their own people, and we bring you as a witness against these. And we reveal the book to you as an explanation of all things, and a guidance and a mercy and good news for the Muslims.
33:21: Indeed in the messenger of Allah you have an excellent example for him who looks to Allah and the last day, and remembers Allah a great deal.
Here is a recent statement from a group of Bangladeshi apostates living in the UK, explaining the reasons why they have abandoned Islam:
One who claims to be a messenger of God is expected to live a saintly life. He must not be given to lust, he must not be a sexual pervert, and he must not be a rapist, a highway robber, a war criminal, a mass murderer or an assassin. One who claims to be a messenger of God must have a superior character. He must stand above the vices of the people of his time. Yet Muhammad’s life is that of a gangster godfather. He raided merchant caravans, looted innocent people, massacred entire male populations and enslaved the women and children. He raped the women captured in war after killing their husbands and told his followers that it is okay to have sex with their captives (Qur’an 33:50). He assassinated those who criticized him and executed them when he came to power and became de facto despot of Arabia. Muhammad was bereft of human compassion. He was an obsessed man with his dreams of grandiosity and could not forgive those who stood in his way…
The statement continues:
Muhammad was a narcissist, like Hitler, Saddam or Stalin. He was astute and knew how to manipulate people, but his emotional intelligence was less evolved than that of a 6-year-old child. He simply could not feel the pain of others. He brutally massacred thousands of innocent people and pillaged their wealth. His ambitions were big and as a narcissist he honestly believed he is entitled to do as he pleased and commit all sorts of crimes and his evil deeds are justified.
