Contributing Authors

An Ex-Muslim’s Open Letter to Muslims of the World

Dear Muslim Brothers and Sisters

Greetings in the name of Allah, the beneficent and the Merciful!

Today we are fortunate to watch what is happening in the world on TV from our living rooms – whether it is tsunami, floods, earthquakes, plane crashes, refugee camps, the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan etc. In this panorama of world events, we also watch our Muslim brothers continually involve in unending fights in Palestine, Kashmir, Southern Thailand, Mindanao (Philippines), Nigeria, Chechnya, Burma, Xinxiang province in China etc. We also watch Muslims killing Muslims, or Sunnies fighting against Shiites Ahamadias, Bahais, often attacking their Mosques using suicide bombers.

The world is watching us with renewed interest, especially after the Al Qaeda attacks on America, London, Spain, Bali and Mumbai. People have started calling our Holy Quran A WAR MANUAL OR A TERROR MANUAL. Is it not a sad thing?

Please pay careful attention to this letter, which is being translated into 300 to 400 languages and sent to about 500 million Muslims and non-Muslims around the world.

After seeing so much of terrorist attacks by our self-proclaimed Jihadist brothers, non-Muslims have started reading our Holy Koran, Hadith and Sira, and are raising so many questions. Only ten questions are given here with explanations. Please be ready to answer them.

1. Why Allah changed his own statements in the Holy Quran?

The following are examples of the good and kind verses, Allah revealed to our Holy Prophet in Mecca when he had only one wife, Kadhija.

“Be patient with what they say, and part from them courteously” (Q.73:10)

“To you be your religion, and to me my religion.” (Q.109:6)

“Therefore be patient with what they say, and celebrate (constantly) the praises of your Lord” (Q.20:103)

“...and you will find the nearest in love to the believers (Muslims) those who say: ‘We are Christians”; because amongst these are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world, and they are not arrogant.” (Q.5:82

“We well know what the infidels say: but you are not to compel them”. (Q.50:45)

“Hold to forgiveness; command what is right; but turn away from the ignorant” (Q7:119)

“Pardon thou, with a gracious pardoning.” (Q.15:85)

“Tell those who believe, to forgive, to forgive those who do not look forward to the days of Allah.” (Q.45.14)

“Those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians – any who believe in Allah and the last day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.” (Q.2:62)

“And do not dispute with the followers of the Book, except what is best.” (Q.29:46

After the death of Kadhija, our holy Prophet married Sawda, and then under-aged 9-year-old Aisha at the age of 53 and by this time he became very powerful in Medina. However, the Jews and Christians had rejected his claim of prophethood and his call to embrace Islam. Now the attitude of the Prophet and tone of Allah’s subsequent verses dramatically changed. Let us now take a look at the new Koranic verses, and also reflect a little on why Allah could not honour his own earlier words.

“Oh you who believe! Murder those of the disbelievers and let them find harshness in you” (Q.9:123)

“I will instil terror into the hearts of the unbelievers: smite above their necks and smite all their finger tips off.” (Q.8:12)

“Whoso desires another religion than Islam, it shall not be accepted of him.” (Q.3:85)

“Slay the idolaters wherever you find them.” (Q.9.5)

“slay them wherever ye catch them.” (Q.2:191)

“Humiliate them and impose on them a penalty tax if they are Christians or Jews,” (Q.9:29)

“Allah deceived and Allah is the best of deceivers” (Q 3:54)

“Muslims do not take Jews and Christians as your friends” (Q 5:51)

“Fight those who do not believe in Allah and the last day, and fight people of the book.” (Q.9:29)

“O people of the Book (Jews and Christians), do you find fault with us, except that we believe in Allah? Shall I inform you of him who is worse than this in retribution from Allah? Worse is he whom Allah has cursed and brought His wrath upon, and of whom He made apes and swine and he who served idols. Such are in worse plight and far more astray from the straight path” (Q.5:59-60)

If Jews and Christians are the breed of monkeys and pigs in the eyes of Allah, then how it is possible that out of 820 or so Nobel Prize winners, 800 belonged to the People of the Book (Christians 620, Jews 180)?

Have you noticed that all inventions and discoveries that we use today, from safety-pin to aspirin, were made by people who never read our Holy Quran?

How we, the Muslims, can demand respect from others without any contribution to humanity?

2. Accusation of our Holy Prophet of being a paedophile?

According to Sahih Al-Bukhari (Volume 5, Book 58, Number 236), our Holy Prophet married ‘Aisha when she was a girl of six years of age, and he consummated that marriage when she was nine years old.

Is it normal for a 50-year-old Holy Prophet to fall in love with a 9-year-old girl and for a 53-year-old Holy Prophet to consummate a 9-year-old girl?

Was he the best of Allah’s creation, as we claim?

Are we to follow this example and marry six-year-old girls?

3. Accusation that our Holy Prophet a looter of caravans, a rapist and a slave trader?

Sahih Bukhari Volume 5, Book 59, Number 459:

“We went out with Allah’s Apostle for the Ghazwa of Banu Al-Mustaliq and we received captives and we desired women and we loved to do coitus interruptus.( molesting the women and withdrawing before ejaculation, because pregnant women are difficult to sell in the slave trade) So we asked Allah’s Apostle, he said, ‘It is better for you not to do so, for if any soul is predestined to exist, it will exist.”

This hadith proves that our Prophet looted caravans, raped captured women and was involved in slave trade.

Accordingly, non-Muslims are accusing our Holy Prophet of being a looter, rapist and slave trader. How do we counter these accusations?

4. Accusation that our Holy Prophet was a mass murderer?

According to Sahih Bukhari (Volume 4, Book 52, Number 280), after 25 days of holding Banu Qurayza besieged, the Jews eventually surrendered unconditionally as was demanded by our Holy Prophet. By the order of our Holy Prophet, between 600 and 900 of the Jewish men were beheaded.

Even if these Jews were found ‘treacherous’, was he not a "mercy of God to mankind" as Allah has said in the Quran? How could he then commit this horrendous massacre?

Yet, our Prophet boasted of such cruelties: “I have been made victorious through terror”. (Bukhari 4:52:220)

Soon after our Holy prophet set foot in Medina, he started his campaign of terror. His followers have been doing the same ever since until this day.

5. Accusation of polygamy against our Holy Prophet

After Kadhija’s death when our Prophet was 50 years old, he had more than 20 wives and concubines. They were: Sawda, Aisha, Hafsa, Zaynab biny khuzayma, Umm Salama Rayhana, Zaynab bint Jahsh, Juwariya, Safiya, Barra, and Maria etc. Many of them were beautiful young widows from war-booty between the ages of 15 to 20.

6. Did Our Holy Prophet marry his own daughter-in-law Zainab?

Our Holy Prophet peeped through the window of his adopted son Zaid’s house and found Zaid’s wife Zainab in her night dress, which aroused his sexual desires for her. When Zaid heard about it, he become heart-broken, and divorced Zainab so that our Holy Prophet, his father, could marry her. And to clear the way for him to marry his daughter-in-law, which was not approved in Arab societies, our Prophet produced the following Quranic verse:

“You did hide in yourself that which Allâh will make manifest, you did fear the people whereas Allâh had a better right that you should fear Him. So when Zaid had accomplished his desire from her (i.e. divorced her), We gave her to you in marriage, so that (in future) there may be no difficulty to the believers in respect of (the marriage of) the wives of their adopted sons when the latter have no desire to keep them. And Allâh’s Command must be fulfilled” (Q.33:37).

Was this verse, which gives Muslims licence to marry the wife of their adopted sons, needed for guiding humanity to the right path?

7. Why Our Holy Prophet had broken the promise given to his 12 wives?

Mariah was a very beautiful Coptic Christian slave-girl of Hafsa, a wife of our Prophet. Though our prophet had promised to his wives that he would not have sex with Mariah, he cleverly planned and sent Hafsa out to her father Omar’s house on the pretext of an urgent matter, and had sex with Mariah when Hafsa was gone. When Hafsa found out that father didn’t call for her and returned home quickly, she found our Holy Prophet having sex with Maria in her bed.

In this awful situation, how did Our Holy prophet react? He pulled out another Quranic verse, allegedly coming from Allah, to give him divine license to commit such sexual act:

“O Prophet! Why do you ban (for yourself) that which Allâh has made lawful to you, seeking to please your wives? And Allâh is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. Allâh has already ordained for you (O men), the dissolution of your oaths. And Allâh is your Maula (Protector.) and He is the All-Knower, the All-Wise”. (Q.66:1-5)

Is this verse needed to be there in the Quran for guiding humankind to the right path? Or was devised just to cover his sexual pleasures?

Intelligent Aisha, being the favourite wife, knew our prophet well and rightly said: "Allah really sends his verses at and for your convenience, Rasool Allah!"

8. Is Allah the pagan moon God?

Was not our Prophet’s father named Abdullah, meaning “slave of Allah”? If so, how this Allah came into existence before our Prophet was born? Was this the pagan moon god Allah which the people of Quraish in Arabia, revered and worshiped? How this idol moon god of the Arabs became the heavenly one God for Muslims?

9. Why the rights of a woman in the Muslim world are so weak?

In Islam, a woman can be beaten by her husband (Q:4:34); the Quran and Hadith give her no right to divorce her husband; her testimony in court is half the value of a man’s; her inheritance is half what her brother gets; and she cannot leave the house officially without her husband’s permission.

Under sharia law, for a violated woman to prove that she was raped, not committed adultery, she must produce four male witnesses. So, how can a woman prove that she was raped? Does rape happen in front of four men? Was there any incident in the world that four men came to the court and said they have witnessed the rape? How do we justify this law, cruel to women?

10. Why Muslim women must wear burka?

When our Holy Prophet died at the age of 63, Aisha was 18 years old and his other wives, except Sawda, were between 23 and 27 years of age. On his later years in life, probably when our Holy Prophet became sexually weak and was unable to satisfy his wives, he faced a serious problem of protecting his 12 young and beautiful wives from the lustful glance of others. Hence, he ordered his wives and also the concubines to cover them from head to toe. This burqa dress has become the symbol of ‘modesty’ for women in Islam today. Please remember that our Prophet’s first wife Kadhija never wore burqa. Today, half a billion Muslim women have to veil themselves, because our Prophet had devised this dress-code to cover for his sexual weakness (impotence).

Islam, the fastest-growing religion?

We Muslims proudly claim that Islam is the fastest-growing religion. Islam is not the fastest-growing religion in terms of conversion. Sheikh Ahmad Al Katani gave Aljazeera T.V. the following facts and figures: “In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity. Everyday, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Every year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity.” (note that even two professors and Imams of Egypt’s most prestigious Al Azhar University, Dr. Mustafa (now Mark Gabriel) and Dr. Mohammad Rahoumy (now Dr. Samuel Paul) have left Islam, because of the unacceptable teachings of the Koran.)

But Islam is certainly the fastest-breeding religion. If you can have up to four wives and take a lot of children without bothering about their future and well being, that’s what will happen. The population will increase fast, but your community will be poor with hunger, and lack of education and jobs.

Conclusion

My dear Muslim brothers and sisters, please do not treat this letter as an American or Jewish propaganda. We love you very much. Why? Because we were Muslims like you before. We want you to see the truth for your self. If you have any doubt about this letter ask, any educated Muslim, but not a Mullah, who will be angry with you. You may have heard this story. A young Muslim asked a Mullah:

“When Allah created Adam & Eve, that is one woman to one man, how is it that our Holy Prophet had more than 12 wives and allowed us to have 4 wives? Because of this, we Muslims are poor everywhere?” The Mullah slapped on his face and shouted: “Don’t ask questions: believe and obey what we say.”

The Mullahs want you to remain chained in the 7th-century Arab culture. When we, the ex-Muslims, studied Koran, Ahadith and Sira together, with a logical and analytical mind, we found that Islam was not what we were taught in childhood: Islam is the best religion and Prophet Muhammad was the finest man in history. In fact, the exact opposite is the truth. And we became heart broken; we felt depressed; shame, shock, guilt, and frustration. But eventually, we came through that difficult stage, and got enlightened and freedom from the shackles of Islam. However painful was the process, we came out strong, confident and happy. Believe us: only after we were out of the bounds of Islam, we realized that how great a feeling it is not to live a lie and to be free. Please look around the world on the TV, the Kaffir people in Northern Ireland, South Africa and Punjab have found peace and are pursuing higher education, prosperity and happiness. You all know that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (East Pakistan) got freedom on the night of 14 August 1947. The idol-worshiping Indians are progressing well and steadily toward a superpower nation, but Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, who follow “allegedly” the best religion and ‘greatest prophet and human being ever on earth’, are struggling to exist as nations. India is building 1,200 km fence to stop the hungry Muslims from crossing into India.

We the ex-Muslims will have no greater joy than seeing you – the Muslim brethren of our birth-religion – progress, prosper and excel in the race of civilization. For that to happen, leaving the false, backward, unjust and cruel religion of Islam and walking the path of truth and justice and loving humanity is essential.

May God bless you abundantly.

Yours truly,

Roman (An Ex-Muslim)

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Note: The following ex-Muslims have written some books about Islam. You can read them.

Dr. Ali Sina: Understanding Muhammad

M. A. Khan: Islamic Jihad

Wafa Sultan: A God Who Hates

Dr. Mustafa (Professor & Imam): The mind of an Islamic Terrorist

Nonie Darwish: Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Farhan Qureshi (Islamic scholar)