Why I Am Not a Muslim

The title of this article could have been “Why I Am Not a Hindu, or “Why I Am Not a Christian”, etc.; replacing the word Muslim with the name of any other religious group. If I did not want to make the title sound negative, I could have made it something like “Why I Am an Atheist.” But since among the religions of the world, my least preference would be Islam, the religion of the Muslims, I thought the word “Muslim” would fit the title the best.

Looking at the world today from the perspective of a religion-neutral mind, Islam and Muslims champion what? 1) Justice and peace? No. 2) Science and technology? No. 3) Arts and culture? No. 5) Following religion without using brain? Yes. 6) Barbaric atrocities? Yes. 6) Terrorism? Yes. We can talk about more parameters and find that a really religion-neutral mind would have a lot of reasons to wish not to be a Muslim than to be a Muslim.

But, for the moment, let us set aside all the parameters that I have mentioned and hinted above, and see why someone is a Muslim. Actually, to not sound like I am criticizing mostly the Muslims, let us see why someone is a Christian. Of course, much of the rationale of the thought applies to all religious groups. I chose Christianity also because there is a lot of effort in the world for converting people to Christianity.

First and foremost, one is a Christian because his/her parents were Christians. It is not because he/she grew up learning about many different religions and nonreligious philosophies, and decided that Christianity was the only/best religion/philosophy that represented the truths about the source(s) of natural and supernatural forces. In spite of all the efforts for converting people to Christianity, the overwhelming majority of Christians are Christians by birth.

Now, let us talk about what makes the major religions, going alphabetically.

Buddhism: It is not about what is known as God. It is a philosophy of teaching people the right way of living. The icon of this religion is Siddhartha Gautama Buddha, who was a great philosopher/teacher, as opposed to being proclaimed as any kind of messenger/reincarnation of God.

Christianity: It is a monotheistic religion where a supreme authority, called God, is believed in. It is represented as the three expressions (Trinity) of God: the Father (God), the Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit (the divine wisdom). It is believed that Jesus came to Earth for spreading God’s messages, and for saving humans from the sins that they inevitably commit. Submission to the supreme power, God, along with believing in the Trinity, is the essence of this religion. As per this religion, based upon one’s degree of faith in God and upon the deeds done in life, God rewards and punishes people in life or afterlife.

Hinduism: There is a dispute on whether it is monotheistic or polytheistic. It involves three principal expressions of God: Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the sustainer) and Shiva (the destroyer of evil). There are also numerous expressions of God, including any living and non-living thing in the universe. This religion also includes reincarnations of God on earth for protecting good and destroying evil. Hari, Ram and Krishna are the three principal reincarnations of God so far. Here, submission to God can be done via many of the options from the expressions and reincarnations of God. In a sense, if Christianity is a kingdom with a supreme ruler, Hinduisms is a parliamentary and bureaucratic system with many authorities. As per this religion, based upon one’s degree of faith in God and upon the deeds done in life, God rewards and punishes people in life or lives after death (rebirth on Earth).

Islam: It is a monotheistic religion where a supreme authority, called Allah, is believed in. Allah is the Arabic word for God, and the followers of Islam (the Muslims) widely use this word. Islam is a succession of the concept of Judaism and Christianity, with the additional firm proclamation that its prophet, Mohammad, is the last messenger from God. Submission to God, along with following the instructions from Mohammad, is the essence of this religion. The instructions from Mohammad include the messages that he brought from God as well as his own words. As per this religion, based upon one’s degree of faith in God, upon following the instructions from Mohammad, and upon the deeds done in life, God rewards and punishes people in life or afterlife.

So, we have three major religions, and many minor ones on Earth that believe in God and his/her/its messengers/reincarnations in many different ways.

Now, let us ask ourselves some questions with absolutely no malice toward any religion. Is there a supreme being called God? Is God one and only, or has many expressions? Is God present in all or in selective people/things on Earth? Is God male, female or neuter? Can God hear prayers? Does God want people to pray to him/her/it? Does God reward people for good deeds and punish people for bad deeds? Is there life after death? Do lives on Earth get reborn after death? Are there such places called heaven and hell for life after death?

We can go on and ask more questions about God, prayer, heaven, hell, etc. But let me express my concluding thoughts and ask my concluding question on the questions that I have asked above.

If we ask these questions to a wide variety of people, depending on who are answering, or on what kind of brainwash the answerers have grown up with, there would be more than one answer to each of the above questions. However, whether the answerer knows them or not, there are some absolute truths in the universe; and each of the above questions has one absolutely correct answer. The question is, are the universal truths dependent on what kind of parents (Hindu, Muslim, Christian, etc.) one had, or on what kind of brainwash one had? My answer to both parts of the question is, “obviously not.” What is your answer?

Based upon my answer to the concluding question, I do not see any justification for people to identify themselves in terms of religions. I do not see anyone finding any universal truth by converting from one religion to another. Thus, while I do not identify myself in terms of the religion that my parents identified with, I do not see any wisdom in taking up a different religion. If I were born from Muslim parents, my parents, family and community very likely would have made it much harder, if not impossible, for me to tell the world that I did not identify myself with Islam. Fortunately, I was not born from that kind of parents; and that is the real and practical reason for me to be not a Muslim.

Let me conclude by saying that I find it tremendously frustrating to see humans distancing themselves from other humans, humans hating other humans, and humans being so heartless and brutal to other humans for no real reason at all, for things that they really do not know. Of course, the unreal and unknown that I am talking about here are the religions. Religion-based hatred is such a shame for the most intelligent life form on Earth!

======================================
Sukhamaya Bain has been a US-based scientist, professor, government official and human rights activist. This article is dedicated to Avijit Roy, a remarkable free-thinker and human rights activist, and the founder of Mukto-Mona, who was recently brutally murdered in Bangladesh by suspected Islamic hate-criminals.

Jackie

Here is an interesting article from e-Skeptic magazine that attempts to discover the relationships between religion and violence. We may not agree with everything the author wrote but it is a good springboard for discussion. http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/15-01-14/#feature
Abu Cool

@qwerty, Extremists are educated professionals in technical and scientific fields like yourself and not in fields related to humanities, religion, ethics, sociology and the likes. Scientific fields do not have monopoly on professionalism. And being professionals in scientific fields does not make you a professional in other fields mentioned above. So, please do not slander and defame the fields that you do not belong to.
qwerty

@Mazharul Huq,you are more than correct
Mazharul Huq

After the brutal killing of Avijit Roy, I have seen so many vile comments on Facebook and other media by people who show support for his killing. It is true that most of the more than a billion Muslims in the world have nothing to do with terrorism. I am disgusted by the attitude shown by Muslim elitists and leaders. They claim Islam does not support killing of people because of their lack of religious faith or because of their faith outside Islam. But they have not lifted a single finger to prevent such killings. I get the feeling that may be some or all of them silently support such killings. Unfortunately, there are too many people like Masuma, many of whom live in the Western countries and misuse their freedom of expression.
Alam

Isis: Few months back rebels were created in Syria to tackle. Rebels were funded with dollars, lethal weapons. When Russia cancelled UN meeting and declared Assad not to be touched, everyone backed off and vacuum created, on one were there to listen rebel. What did they do? They created their own land and declared Isis and with money and weapon they are capturing more lands. They are justifying their act from quranic verses. This can never negate spirituality of Islam and billion muslim practicing their faith.

Hiroshima was bombed by nuclear bomb, thousands and thousand were killed in a matter of secs. People still facing the problem. Whom do we blame, science, Einstein, atom bomb, japan aggresssion, us attitude, maybe some one will blame Islam is the root cause. How funny!

Oil spill in gulf, entire sea habitat is in danger, pirates will be created since people can’t find their to provide food to their family. Pirates name will be Akbar, Ahmad etc. someone will blame Islam . What a tragedy!
Bhopal gas tragedy in India. People still suffering to get compensated even 20 years. Some people name azad, mohshin . These Muslims are crazy always fight. What a tragedy. Blame Islam.
Bhaskar

@Masuma,
Get well soon.
Jiten Roy

@ Masuma

Masuma is not a real name; this person belongs to an organized network, I call the Damage Control Brigade of Islam. They scan the internet 24/7 and disseminate canned answers everywhere. Let’s ignore them.

Religious ideologies are based on some irrational imaginary stories. So, faith is vital to support those stories. Unfortunately, the most disturbing trend is –while more and more people from other religions are getting out of the religious fantasy world, more and more Muslims seems to be getting into it. This trend can only point to the trouble ahead.
qwerty

Sir, you are the only writer I have ever come across who cares to speak the truth about Islamic fundamentalists. In India, so called secular political parties are more dangerous than these fanatics.
qwerty

@A Rahman,

Sir, you have mentioned that extremists are the ones who are uneducated, but I must point out that many Islamist terrorists are educated professionals.
Kousik Bose

Mr. Sukhamaya Bain,

I am a regular visitor to this site for quite some time. I normally do not comment as I understand this site is for people from Bangladesh. The reason I am commenting is for your approving of the post from “Masuma”.

I have seen similar posts/comments in numerous discussions worldwide. They are spamming every sane place with nonsenses like this. This place will become just like other discussion forums where you find 1 in 10 posts readable. With time people like me will get frustrated looking for valuable posts and leave. Till date this was the only site where I did not have to read nonsense religious comments.

As I am only a visitor I would not request you to do anything on my behalf. It is up to the moderators how they want to project themselves.

===========================
Note from Sukhamaya Bain: Thank you, Mr. Bose, for your comments. I apologize to you and to all readers for approving Masuma’s post. Indeed, as a general practice, Mukto-Mona could not be a place for nonsense. This particular approval should be an exception; and we will keep our standard in mind. In fact, I have trashed one earlier today. Please continue to visit Mukto-Mona, and criticize/support us with factual/rational points. BTW: While most of the Mukto-Mona visitors are probably Bangladeshis, we certainly hope that our English blogs would be read by people from all over the world.
A Rahman

It is simply a waste of time to post detailed reply to this ill-informed ill-educated illogical woman. Obviously she needs education – take for example her comment; “If anyone is harmed by a muslim, that muslim will be punished siviarly by our maker.” This sentence says it all about her level of education and intellect. This woman says she lives in New York; but she hasn’t even learnt English properly.

I am sorry to say that more a person is ill-educated, the more that person becomes extremist and fanatic. It is applicable not only to Muslims, but also to Christians, Hindus, Jews etc. Because large proportions of Muslims are uneducated or ill-educated (in comparison to other religions), we find fanaticism and irrationality in Muslims more pronounced.
Masuma

“1) Justice and peace? No. 2) Science and technology? No. 3) Arts and culture? No. 5) Following religion without using brain? Yes. 6) Barbaric atrocities? Yes. 6) Terrorism? Yes.”
Islam stablised Justice and Peace when there was none. Islam and Quran educated about science and technology. Many many doctors, Yale graduates, are teachers of islam. people like you love to generalized muslim and islam. In usa, muslims women have double degrees than whites and blacks. Muslim women earn twice as much from rest of women. YOU CANNOT Become Muslim Just Because YOU Are Born into family.
i am not saying ISIS don’t exist. They do. That does not make all muslims terrorist.
Search about “Yasir Qadhi”, “Nouman Ali Khan”, “Yousuf Estaes” and “Hamza Yousuf”.
Let’s say, bloggers became bag. Do you stop becoming good bloggers? Politians of Bangladesh are worst Of all. Do good people stop thinking about Bangladesh? No.

Muslims are muslim because they believe in oneness of God, and Muhammad (SAW) is the last messenger. We believe all messengers and prophets from Adam to Jesus. A good muslim spends his/her time to make the surrounding better. a Muslim is not supposed to harm another human being, animals, trees and society. If anyone is harmed by a muslim, that muslim will be punished siviarly by our maker.

The fellow American blogger was murdered by “so called muslim”. Islam does not allow any individual to carry out unthinkable act. This act is on the murderer alone. you cannot pin this on Muslim and Islam.

=====================================
Note from Sukhamaya Bain: As a supporter of free speech, I am approving this comment post unedited. I would let the readers comment on this first. But let me suggest that religion-based terrorists and barbarians do not grow/survive in a vacuum, they need an environment of religious irrationality, and that I do not wish to be politically correct; because I am a humanist, not a politician who sells himself for power/money.

March 2015
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Feb				Apr »
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30	31

Why I Am Not a Muslim

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!