I am a Canadian ex-Muslim male; I converted to Islam and stayed in the religion for approximately four years, before leaving it due to disbelief and moral disgust. Now I live every day with Islam’s formal and informal death penalty for apostasy, hoping that my former Muslim friends don’t recognize me on the street.

The majority of the Muslims believe Islam to be a perfect religion of truth. Whereas myself speaking as a former Muslim, I believe Islam to be more of a brutal death cult and a totalitarian political ideology. And while the majority of Muslims believe that Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, was a righteous man worthy of praise and emulation, I believe him to be an amoral madman who most likely never existed.

Criticism of Islam is traditionally forbidden for Muslims. The supposedly perfect Qur’an goes so far as to instruct Muslims to not ask certain questions about the religion of Islam, or risk being distressed and becoming hated and doomed unbelievers:

Qur’an 5:101: “O you who have believed, do not ask about things which, if they are shown to you, will distress you. But if you ask about them while the Qur’an is being revealed, they will be shown to you. Allah has pardoned that which is past; and Allah is Forgiving and Forbearing.”

Qur’an 5:102: “A people asked such [questions] before you; then they became thereby disbelievers.”

Speaking as a former Muslim who left the fold of Islam approximately 20 years ago, I stand with my original conviction that it would be a great betrayal of person integrity not to question the truth claims and moral legitimacy of the Islamic theological teachings – and in turn reject and condemn them.

Many of the texts and teachings of Islamic theology are undoubtedly morally abhorrent. Islam fully implemented on Earth would create a living hell for both Muslims and non-Muslims alike. And yet the shameless and unscrupulous imams continue to preach to the Mohammedan faithful that this is to be the desired goal of the Muslim Ummah.

Perhaps it would be a desirable lifestyle for maniacally strict, highly misogynistic Muslim males to live this way, but for the Muslim women and non-Muslim folk, life would indeed be a claustrophobic nightmare full of physical pain and mental anguish.

Due to Islam’s formal and informal death penalty for apostasy and other doctrinal depravities, Islamic theology and law must not be above reproach and we must continue to ask standard questions and perform a critical examination of its many inhumane edicts. Many of the behaviours made permissible (Halal) by Islamic theology are serious crimes in much of the non-Islamic world.

Part 1 of this series of articles will be addressing the realities of Islamic apostasy.

Islamic Apostasy:

Islam’s canonical texts record that the prophet of Islam instructed his followers to kill those Muslims attempting to leave the fold of Islam.

Therefore each and every one of Muhammad’s followers are required to murder any friend or family member that attempts to leave the religion of Islam.

Some Islamic apologists claim that Islam does not call for the death of Muslim apostates, while other Muslims acknowledge that the Islamic scriptures do indeed call for the death of ex-Muslims.

As always, for the answer to whether or not Islamic theology prescribes death to the apostates of Islam we must turn to Islam’s foundational texts, the Qur’an, the Hadith and Sira.

Regardless of whether or not Islam prescribes death for Muslim apostates, it is no doubt a very dangerous proposition to leave the religion. The sad fact is that Islamic theology and law both prescribe death to Muslim apostates. The death penalty for apostasy is partially based on the following Qur’anic injunction that states:

4:89: ‘They wish you would disbelieve as they disbelieved so you would be alike. So do not take from among them allies until they emigrate for the cause of Allah. But if they turn away, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them and take not from among them any ally or helper.”

The sayings and doings of Muhammad, considered to be authentic by the majority of Muslims, are found in the Bukhari hadith collections among others.

Sahih Bukhari, Vol. 9, Book 84, No. 57:

Narrated Ikrima

Some Zanadiqa (atheists) were brought to Ali and he burnt them. The news of this event, reached Ibn Abbas who said, “If I had been in his place, I would not have burnt them, as Allah’s Apostle forbade it, saying, ‘Do not punish anybody with Allah’s punishment (fire)’. I would have killed them according to the statement of Allah’s Apostle, ‘Whoever changes his Islamic religion, then kill him.’”

Muhammad personally ordered the death of hundreds of innocent people. But then again, the word innocent means something entirely different in “IslamSpeak.” And keep in mind that Muslims are taught to believe that Muhammad is the perfect man who is to be emulated in every instance.

33:21: “There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day and [who] remembers Allah often.”

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.”