Leaving Islam, by Ibn Warraq

I have read every book written by the Persian and former Muslim, Ibn Warraq. Any of his writings are good sources of what the cult of Islam truly represents. A poli-cracy, bent on power, control and obsessed with submission to the unknowable and unreachable thing El-lah or Al-ilah, is not a religion. It is a cult. One attribute of a cult is that it kills anyone who dares to defy the rituals, dogma, theological or universality of the cult's leadership. This includes murdering Muslims who leave Islam. Warraq left Persia as young man and went to Italy and the West for study and work. He left the cult and is now in hiding, having received numerous death threats for offending the 'tolerant' 'religion' of love and compassion.

This book is a selection of why men and women left Islam, written in their own words. For obvious reasons Warraq can't print their names, addresses and emails, since the cult of Mohammed will kill them. How tolerant. It is therefore impossible to know if the stories are true, and I am sure that the cultural Marxists and their Muslim friends will accuse Warraq of inventing these tales and personal experiences. But I have read so many stories about Muslims leaving Islam that it is impossible and quite crude to suggest that Warraq's compilation is anything but true.

The idea of apostasy is not a Muslim invention of course. Warraq is correct when he states, “Apostasy is some form or other seems to have occupied Judaism, Christianity, and even Greek and Roman religions....” Whilst true, the era of apostasy in any of the Western pagan cults, or monotheisms was limited, and eventually discarded. No European Christian was killed after the 8^th century for leaving Christianity. There might be secular penalization during the medieval periods, but only sorcerers, witches, and those in league with demonic powers were actually executed. In total this period of Christian intolerance butchered some 40.000 souls over 450 years, including the 3.500 over 300 years taken by the Inquisition. To put that number in context, in 2010 over 10.000 people around the world were slaughtered by Muslims for either being infidels, or impious observers of the Muslim dialectic. Thus within a typical decade we have Muslims responsible for 2.5 times the numbers of those murdered by intolerant forms of Christian policratic power, over a long era of 4 centuries.

In any event apostates in Christianity and Judaism are not killed today. But they are within Islam. This denotes a cult. According to Warraq, “It is clear quite clear that under Islamic law an apostate must be put to death.” Of course it is.

“Lo! Those who disbelieve after their (profession of) belief, and afterward grow violent in disbelief: their repentance will not be accepted.....Theirs will be a painful doom and they will have no helpers.” [Sura 3, 90-91]

As Warraq points out, the death penalty for apostasy is stated many times in the Koran. Sura 16:106 says the same as the verse above, as does 2:217. Muslim writers and theologians are in agreement with the celebrated Islamic scholar Ibn Kathir who in quoting the 8^th century jurist Al-Suddi says, 'that since the unbelievers have manifested their unbelief they should be killed.' Sura 9:11-12 states;

“But if they repent and establish worship......We detail our revelation for a people who have knowledge. And if they break their pledges after their treaty...and assail your religion, then fight the heads of disbelief...”

Warraq quotes the Pakistani Muslim interpreter Maududi, a man whose Sunni theology is as potent and widespread as that of Qutb and even perhaps Al-Ghazali [10^th century], as stating that the above verse is further justification for killing apostates and justified under Islamic 'Law':

“Here 'covenant breaking' in no way can be construed to mean 'breaking of political covenants'. Rather, the context clearly determines its meaning to be 'confessing' Islam and then renouncing it.' Thereafter the meaning of 'fight the heads of disbelief' can only mean that war should be waged against the leaders instigating apostasy.”

Nice. Don't leave the cult or we will kill you. As Warraq details, while he goes through Islamic law, history and precedence, there is a period of repentance. If you are brave enough to try to leave the cult, the Muslims might grant you a 3 day grace period to rethink your decision. I am certain such a period would be full of pressures and persuasions, to remain true to the cult. If you still decide that you want to leave and you are caught after the 3 day period, then 'Under Muslim law, the male apostate must be put to death, as long as he is an adult and in full possession of his faculties'. And for the female? “Her property remains in her ownership and is not transferred to her lawful heirs, unless she dies. (A female apostate is not executed on charges of apostasy). She is separated from her husband and without any need to remain unmarried for a certain period..” In effect she is imprisoned.

Apostasy is an expression of a cult. Why is this? Cults need to remain strong, united and separate from non-believers. Anyone leaving the cult will weaken it. It can't be allowed. Cults will force you to join and remain, using every means possible including brain-washing, propaganda, rewards and threats of violence and of course the promise of death if you dare oppose or leave the group.

In Muslim history, Islam was spread by war, death and force. Mohammed's totalitarian cult replaced and completely displaced all previous pagan forms of worship. It is highly unlikely that most early Arab tribes who were forced into joining the moon cult on pain of death and war, were very enthusiastic about following Mohammed's family moon idol as the only deity or divine power. Revolts and outbreaks of dissension were common. Warraq writes that, “We have the evidence of al-Jahiz that the Arabs mocked and derided the Koran. We might here quote a Muslim leader of the early days who is reputed to have said; 'If there were a God, I would swear by his name that I did not believe in him.'”

Muslim apostates would certainly agree with this ancient Arab leader. The most interesting part of this book in my opinion lies on pages 145-147, in an account written by an ex-Muslim named 'Sina'. His reasons for leaving the cult are intelligent, premised on a deep understanding of Islamic theology, the Koran, Islamic imperialist history and the mental vacuity of the Islamic program. 'Sina' says the following about his former cult:

“I was shocked to learn that the Koran tells Muslims to kill the disbelievers wherever they find them (II.191), to murder them and treat them harshly (IX. 123), slay them (IX.5), fight with them (VIII.65), to humiliate them and impose on them a penalty tax even if they are Christians and Jews (IX.29). I was shocked when I learned that the Koran takes away the freedom of belief from all humanity, and says clearly that no other religion except Islam is accepted (III.85). I was shocked to learn that Allah would relegate those who disbelieve in the Koran to hell (V.10).......”

In fact this 'I was shocked' paragraph runs for 2 pages and includes references to Islamic misogyny, racism, violence, autarchy and intolerance. It is a good summary of why Islam is a cult and not a religion. Religions free the human. Religions free your mind, your body, your spirit, your rationality and your potential. Cults enslave, limit, hate, war, prosecute, denigrate and are racist and supremacist. Islam is a cult. Leaving this cult results in your death. How can anyone, even a well-meaning modern Leftist-Marxist steeped in cultural relativity fail to understand this simple fact ?