Why We Left Islam (18 page)

The answer never came. I finished the Qur’an and could not identify the same God. Could he be different? If Islam is right, then Christianity cannot be right.
Someone is telling a lie here!
I would pray to God every night to show me the truth. I was suspicious of Islam now, with all of the hate, judgment, wrath, lies, ungodly life of the Prophet,
etc.
I could not believe the Christian message that I needed a savior, and that was Jesus Christ, God himself! What a strange message.
God, please show me which one is the truth!

Eighteen months had passed since my husband had asked me to consider Christ. I was more confused and more defensive now than ever before. He had returned home for good and he found himself well challenged by me. I truly made his life miserable. There was a spiritual war in our home. I went to church with him, but did not participate in any prayers or hymn singing with the congregation. I did not believe what they were saying, so I would not take part in those activities.

I could not be convinced of the fact that Jesus was God himself. That was blasphemy! Not only did it not make sense, but it made the hair on my back stand straight. How could these people believe all of this?

After we had attended this church for four to five months, I went to a service by myself because my husband was out of town. Since I knew the pastor and many other young couples—they were our friends now—I felt comfortable enough to go by myself. That
day during the altar call, I caught myself singing “Amazing Grace.” I could not believe it. I stopped in the middle and would not sing anymore. The pastor asked the congregation, “If you feel that the Holy Spirit is calling you to come forward, don’t hesitate.”

No way was I going forward. I was emotional at that point, my husband wasn’t even there, and I still did
NOT
believe that Jesus was God himself. The pastor waited and no one went forth. That evening when Alex came home, I did not say anything to him. The next morning, October 2, 1983, I woke up my husband and told him that I believed Jesus to be God himself, and that I needed him to forgive me for my sins, and become my savior. Alex was so shocked that he cried like a baby. He could not believe that God had changed my hardened heart toward himself. He had done the work, with the witnesses that my friends and husband had brought to me. What a joy, I was now
BORN AGAIN
.

C
HAPTER
F
IFTEEN
BASSAM’S TESTIMONY

“My father delivered me to the Security Forces and they arrested me and put me in prison for converting out of Islam. I had a very bad time there, as they tortured me to force me to return to Islam”

F
OR FUNDAMENTALIST followers of Islam, receiving an order to kill in God’s name poses a strong challenge. Bassam chose to reject the challenge and rise up against it. Sadly, he was not only standing up to a method of government, but to his own father who handed him over to the Security Forces. His crime: He did not want to follow Islam.

Bassam shows us the real meaning of courage. He urges all of us to take a stand like he did when he took a stand against Muslim extremists—including his own family. And he also warns us:
Look at what Islam did to me. . . . It could do the same to you.

Bassam’s Testimony

I live in the Middle East. I was born as a Muslim, and at the age of eighteen I became a member of one of the Islamic groups, as I had a relative who was one of the leaders of this group. I thought I was doing everything I could for God as I knew him at this point.

After a short time I started to get some training in using guns and making explosives. I wasn’t very comfortable with what I was doing—hurting people for God’s sake. I thought that either I or the group had misunderstood the teachings of God. I started to study the Qur’an and the
Hadith
all over again (with the help of one of the leaders of the group, without telling him my real reasons for studying), to see what I had missed. After a couple of years I was astonished at what I found. I found that Islam is not the peaceful path to God, as I used to believe; on the contrary, it’s so violent.
If I
have to establish God’s will by any means possible, even by killing people
, I said,
it can’t be the way to God
.

I never considered myself leaving Islam for anything else, yet at this point I was sure that it wasn’t leading me to God. I had a kind of breakdown for some time when I found that everything I had believed in wasn’t right; I started doing drugs, and not talking about God at all.

Then I met a Christian who didn’t know much of the Christian theology but who was full of love to others, whatever and whoever they were. One of his friends (who was a member of the same group that I had been involved in) said about him that he must be killed because he was Christian and didn’t pay
Jiziah
(tax levied on Christians and Jews in an Islamic state, according to the Qur’an), yet this didn’t stop him loving this man or dealing with him professionally. Initially, I didn’t know he was Christian, and when I found out I was surprised; everything I had learned all my life about Christians from my reading of Islamic writings and Mohammad’s opinion about them put them down very much. I asked this friend if I could have a copy of the Bible.

After starting to read the Bible, I found a very big difference between what is actually written in the Bible and what I had heard people (Muslims and even nominal Christians) say about it.

I was really struck by one thing in the Bible, namely the teaching that no one is righteous but Jesus; even those who were called God’s people—like David, Jacob, and Abraham, the twelve apostles—everyone has done something wrong. The Bible is full of the sins and wrongdoing of all people, except Jesus. He himself said to his enemies, “Which of you convicts me of sin?” (John 8:46a), and no one responded. Even Judas Iscariot, who delivered him up to the authorities to be killed, said, “I have sinned in betraying innocent blood.” (Matthew 27:4) My father delivered me to the Security Forces and they arrested me and put me in prison for converting out of Islam. I had a very bad time there, as they tortured me to force me to return to Islam. They used electric shocks and beatings, and hung me from my wrists all night. After a few weeks of this I was put in solitary confinement for almost a year. But I couldn’t
deny the one that gave me life. Now I am out of jail and I have left my home country as I am still wanted there for apostasy from Islam.

C
HAPTER
S
IXTEEN
A LETTER TO WESTERN INTELLIGENCE

“The motive of the Islamists is Islam—not terrorism, not Iraq, not Afghanistan. Terrorism is just a tool employed, but the Qur’an is the motivator, and Islam is the final goal. There can be no clearer message than this. The civilized world is at war—a war with Islam.”

E
ACH DAY in sheer despair pundits and politicians offer up endless summaries of what is happening within the world of Islam. Following the assassination of Benazair Bhutto in Pakistan, the debate concerning al-Qaeda ensued once again. Yet few seem to have any solution to stop radical Islam. Indeed, most international security agencies seem resolved that it is not a matter of
if
another major attack will happen, but
when
. Abul Kasem believes he has a solution.

Understanding Islam means understanding Islamic texts. By reading these texts, we in the West won’t be surprised by the violence we see in the world. Islam does not deny its true meaning, so why should we deny it? Abul left Islam for this very reason and urges others to stay away from it.

Abul’s Testimony

I am writing this testimony because it is time for us all to fully comprehend the enormity of the problem that we all confront. I have no political or theological agenda. I am, however, very concerned about the future of the free world—a world we have all seen torn apart over the past few years because of Islamic extremism. It is because of this I share my experience of Islam with you.

I have always questioned the necessity of religion in our lives and the inhumane and illogical practices in many religions, including Islam. You might wonder what triggered my distaste for religion. It all started in my schooldays when I witnessed the slaughter of a dear Hindu friend of mine (along with his entire family) in Chandpur, Bangladesh. I can never erase that memory from my mind. That was a devastating experience, no doubt.

More shocking was that many Muslims were happy about that and even went further to support the idea that we (Muslims) should kill more Hindus, because the Muslims in India are being slaughtered, too. It was also declared by some Muslim clerics that killing of non-Muslims is an act of
jihad
and therefore, anyone participating in
jihad
will be rewarded with Paradise. At that tender age, I knew very little about Islam and nothing about other religions. However, the little conscience inside me told me that what was being done and what was being practiced was not right. However, I had little power to change the course of events.

The other incident involves my life itself. I nearly died when the Pakistani soldiers and their fanatic supporters attacked the university residential halls on the dark night of March 25, 1971. I still do not know how I escaped the near death when most of my dear university friends were killed. There were bullets in every place. Somehow or other, I could cross the high walls; that may be impossible for me to do now. There were many other incidents during that period and just before our liberation when I escaped near death from the fanatic followers of Islam. All those incidents spawned the seed of deep religious distrust in my mind. At that time, many of my friends also shared similar views with me. And naturally, I felt very happy that we had come to the end of religious tyranny.

But alas! As strange as it may seem now, many of those dear university friends of mine have really become fanatic followers of Islam now. Many of them I met in my overseas life. They have spent a good part of their lives in the Middle East. They openly support some of the actions by the Pakistan army and their fanatical followers. They strongly support the forced conversion of the entire world’s population to Islam and will do everything to bring this about. Only then, they say, “there will be peace.”

Even in a country like Australia, many of these Islamists dare to say, “We came to Australia to rid the people of their sinful activities and convert them to Islam.” One of their goals is to build a mosque in every suburb of Australia. Of course, these are laughing matters in a place like Australia. Whenever I meet these old pals, it really breaks my heart. When I ask them what had caused such a change in them, they readily admit that they were greatly influenced by the Arabs. Even though many of them really hate the cruel treatment (in many cases slave treatment) by the Arabs. Nevertheless, they feel very grateful to the Arabs for giving them employment and good money. Many of these Bangalis are proud to dress like Arabs. They have literally wiped out the memory of genocide in Bangladesh and some of them really justify the genocide to purify Islam. This led me to conclude that Islam is nothing but the preservation of Arab hegemony and the enslavement of the poor people of countries such as Bangladesh.

Strangely, none of these Islamists really want to migrate to any Islamic countries. None of them choose to live in an Islamic society. Why? The truth is that none of those Arab countries want them. These countries are for the Arabs only. Where is the Islamic brotherhood? The Arabs are very clever people. They have used Islam as powerful bait to continue the age-old tradition of slavery in the twenty-first century format. My guess is that this will continue escalating while the oil price keeps soaring. These fanatics use the openness and fairness of the democratic institutions in countries like Australia to propagate their poisonous doctrines.

Here are a few sentences from the Qur’an and other sources of Islam which I consider to be absolutely abhorrant, distasteful, hatemongering, and fascistic. I closely studied the Qur’an,
ahadith, Sharia
and
Sirah
(Mohammad’s biography) before I was convinced that Islam is not a religion. Islam is false, barbaric, and imperialistic. My perception of Islam has been confirmed by the events of September 11, Madrid, Bali, Bombay, Istanbul. . . and so on.

Allah made it only as glad tidings, and that your hearts be at rest therewith. And there is no victory except from Allah. Verily, Allah is All-Mighty, All-Wise.
Qur’an 8:10

Fight against them so that Allah will punish them by your hands and disgrace them and give you victory over them and heal the breasts of a believing people, and remove the anger of their (believers’) hearts. Allah accepts the repentance of whom He wills. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise.
Qur’an 9:14-15

So, when you meet (in fight
jihad
in Allah’s Cause), those who disbelieve smite at their necks till when you have killed and wounded many of them, then bind a bond firmly (on them,
i.e.
take them as captives). Thereafter (is the time) either for generosity (i.e. free them without ransom), or ransom (according to what benefits Islam), until the war lays down its burden. Thus [you are ordered by Allah to continue in carrying out
jihad
against the disbelievers till they embrace Islam (i.e. are saved from the punishment in the Hell-fire) or at least come under your protection], but if it had been Allah’s Will, He Himself could certainly have punished them (without you). But (He lets you fight), in order to test you, some with others. But those who are killed in the Way of Allah, He will never let their deeds be lost.
Qur’an 47:4