What Good Atheism Has Done for This Ex-Muslim?
Do yourself a favour and read the entire piece, you won't be sorry.
April 17, 2015 by Kaveh Mousavi
That’s a question someone like me should ask himself once in a while. What good atheism has been to me, anyway? I’m an ex-Muslim. To me the question of atheism is never divorced from my Muslim background and my Muslim majority country.
It’s easy to take a step back and think that atheism is more a curse than a blessing. After all, atheism has brought me years and years of abuse and being the target of bigotry. I became an atheist when I was 14. As soon as I was an atheist, I was harassed at school for refusing to pray. Legally speaking I have no rights and I don’t even exist. I had to endure being the victim of people’s stereotypes about atheism, and I have always felt like an outcast. Because I’m outspokenly critical of Islam, I have been accused of Islamophobia (that is hating my own community, hating my own family, etc) by white liberal westerners, and I have been a target of Islamophobia myself.
...
Because of atheism I can support democracy, oppose theocracy, support the equal rights for women and LGBT+ people without having to hold scared a book which embodies the opposite of all these values and I do not have to resolve the mental dissonance of such an intellectual contradiction.
Because of atheism I can easily accept science and not be forced to choose between my dogma and the facts on issues such as evolution or circumcision or masturbation or abortion.
Because of atheism I can laugh at Mohammad and all else that is sacred, and save my outrage for the real injustices in the world, instead of getting angry at harmless satire targeting warlords of the past.
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Atheism is freedom. Atheism does not equal critical thinking, or tolerance, or a truly liberated mind. But atheism is an opportunity, an option, a potential blank slate. To me atheism means that on this Saganian spec of dust we inhabit I find my own destination and I walk my own road and all my accomplishments and all my failures are ultimately my own, no idol is my god and no lord is my shepherd.
And this is something I relish, something that makes all those traumas and abuses worth it.
Kaveh Mousavi is the pseudonym of an atheist ex-Muslim living in Iran, subject to one of the world’s remaining theocracies. He is a student of English Literature, an aspiring novelist, and part-time English teacher. He is passionate about politics, video games, heavy metal music, and cinema. He was born at the tenth anniversary of the Islamic Revolution of Iran. He has ditched the Islamic part, but has kept some of the revolutionary spirit.
No words.
= new reply since forum marked as read
There are a lot of controls in most societies, but you cannot control a liberated mind.
The more the merrier!
I think there are more than people realize, it's just that many of us can't publicly come out of the closet (I'm brave on DU but irl I can't afford to be vocal).
Here's to ending anti-atheism stigma in America! 
Welcome to DU and our Evil AA Lair!
Nope, there's no lair, no bat signal, no eac.
If there were secret handshakes, decoder rings and rubber chickens, someone would contact you within the week.
And we absolutely do not eat babies.
It's the ritual more than who's being served, you know?
ixnay on teh atbay ignalsay.
We don't have a mascot either. If we did it would look like this:
You can find out more details here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/123028246
I love that!
Thank you!
but I do what I can...
