I left Islam

[sum]

Hello ScienceRules

The aspect of fear that truly interests me is how, at what stage and by whom is this fear instilled. I have my own views but hope to get "inside info" from an ex muslim.

It would appear to be a very deep seated fear that has a strangle hold on muslims into adult life and is beyond all reason and logic.

No wonder they will not conceed anything - it is fear.

It really interests me.

sum

[ScienceRules]

[Diane]

The following is my answer to sum’s questions (and those how might be interested or wondering) about the fear in Muslim hearts about ending up in “Hell Fire”.

As you know,fear is the number one reason that creates negative behaviors, and harmful people. For example, fear of poverty/lack pushes many people to overwork until they have serious health problems, many of them steal, rob or even kill to have some sort of wealth.

The kind of Fear that is related to our subject (religion/ GOD/ Islam) is the fear of the unknown. People don’t have clear idea of what is going to happen next, in the future, and especially after death. This fear of the unknown makes people tend to follow other people who are little more ambitious. And I think, this behavior produce what is the so called “messengers of GOD”, “Sons of GOD”. The individuals, who claim that they are sent from GOD to other people, are simply taking advantage of this situation. I mean people lack of knowledge and fear. So they start making up stories that reinforce the fear in the human hearts, in order to achieve some sort of power, or to create some state, or some laws the way they see it necessary or benefit them, or simply to get some attention.

In Muslims case, one of the most important reasons (there are other reasons) that people follow Mohammed is his ability to create the most horrifying images in the mind of the folks, by describing the life after and creating an enormous hell. He composed his version of hell and punishment for those who don’t believe him or simply don’t follow every thing he tells them to do.

Generations after generation young kids are introduced to this kind of horror when they are learning about their religion, their GOD, and their Prophet at a very early age. In this period of youth and innocence, the human mind is most open to learn and accept ideas as factual. First, they are taught by their parents, their mentors, Mosques and teachers in school who are in their turn have been taught the exact same things by their parents and teachers and accepted it as true. Then at older age, they will be studying on their own, but now all the corruptions, lies, stories, and horror are impressed in their brains. So even if they are mature adults, they still think all the information they learned is true. And if you ask one of them why do they believe it is true, they would answer, because what else is true?!! Like if nothing else exists beside their mini book.

And because they can’t come up with their own explanation of what will happen after death, they take the words of the “prophet of GOD” as the only truth. It is much harder for them as grown ups to get rid of the ideas they learned, applied, practiced, and was a very important part in their life.

My own experience, and feeling about God’s Hell is not very pleasant. I was terrified; I had very scary images in my head about monsters, awful pain, roasted naked people eating their own flesh. And I thought that’s true, and tried not to upset GOD, just to keep me away from hell. I loved to go to heaven, but I didn’t mind much not to go to it, as long as I don’t get burned in the hell or see the horrible creatures, and ear-piercing screaming then it was fine with me not to heaven.

I really feared going to hell. It is not such a nice place. The Quran describes the hell, burning fire, the methods of punishments, and tools used to the torture people in great details. And Mohammed did not stop right there, but in his haddiths (sayings) he elaborated on the subject by making it seems unbearably frightening. I will describe very few things that are in the hell, according to Mohammed, just to give you an idea in case you don’t know.

The hell is so blistering beyond imagination; people can hear all the noises that comes from it because it’s boiling, heated, gasping, and mad/angry even if they are very far away from it (the distance is specified but I can’t remember it now). People who inhibit the hell won’t find food or water; they will be eating the pus and flesh that comes from their burning skin. Or when they are starving and ask GOD for food, He will feed them hot/boiling melted metals so their internal organs will melt too. They will be lashed by ugly gigantic men. And angels will be flying over and throwing stones on them. For those who don’t pray, they will be praying on a piece of melted Iron, when they bow to the ground their faces will fall, and melt. God will cut people’s fingers, toes, and body parts.

The punishment starts as soon as a person dies. When the soul leaves the body, if it is considered a sinful soul, the person will experience extremely painful death. And when the body is laid in the grave, darkness will take over, and the earth will squeeze on the body until the ribs/ bones break down. And the person will be seeing the punishment of the hell, and her/his place in it from a window/hole- like until the day of the judgment. And while waiting for that day to come, when the person is going to be put into greater torture, she/he will be visited by very horrible beings for some beatings, squeezing, hammering, lashing…..

Now I am going to answer your following questions directly and emphasis on what I wrote about the fear in Islam.

Q: Is it from the family when you are a young child?

A: The parents/ Family teach their kids what they know. And they know all about the horror of the Hell

Q: Is it from the mosque where this fear is instilled?

A: In the Mosque, the Islamic scripture (Quran and haddiths) are taught. The Quran and the haddiths tell in details about the hell, the torture, and punishment after death for those who are unbelievers or rebellious or don’t follow exactly what is required from them according to Islam.

Q: Do all muslims have this great fear?

A:I never met a Muslim who is not horrified and scared of the Hell. They all have a great fear. Many of them cry when the topic of torture and punishment is being discussed or talked about. They shiver at the sounds and images of the horrible penalty.

Q:Is it a genuine reason why muslims are frightened to question Islam?

A:Certainly, Because Islam is to submit totally to the will, words, and commends of GOD. If people chose not to, then he would say to them on the judgment day in meaning “Now taste the painful tortures”. He doesn’t hesitate to inflict the most horrible punishment on people who doubt Him.

Hope I answered your questions,

regards,

[ScienceRules]

Diane,

You seem like a very intelligent woman and I hope you stay on the forum. I wish more Muslims would be able to question Islam the way you have done. I admire people that were raised with religious beliefs that are able to start thinking rationally and let go of their superstitions.

I always thought that that thing about people being punished in their graves was one of the funniest things Muslims believe. Actually, I think the most funny thing is the story where Muhammad talks God into reducing the number of prayers people have to do from 50 to 5.
_________________
"It's not the destination, it's the journey."

[Ilovebetty]

My heart goes out to you Diane. You come across as a most beautiful person.

I've learned a lot from your posts. As someone who has not been brought up as a Muslim I find it almost impossible to fathom how so much fear can be put into someone in the name of religion.

How can Allah, who is after all meant to be 'All merciful', torture anyones mind to such a degree? It just doesn't make sense.
_________________
Anyone who supports Sharia Law should be arrested for conspiring against humanity
R.I.P Jim Cronin </islam>

[sum]

Hello Diane

I must apologise most sincerely for not acknowledging your post sooner. I am ashamed to say that it escaped my attention.

I am extremely grateful for the effort you made to answer my questions and open my eyes to the hideous nature of Islam. It destroys the mind. No wonder discussion with muslims is largely a waste of time - they are too frightened to question anything.

Once again, many thanks.

sum

[lily]

Diane, welcome to FFI and to the universe free of religion.
Just continue to be the beautiful person who showed out in these postings. I know how difficult the way is, which you took and I think I can understand your fears. Certainly you're in a very dificult position being an apostate among a muslim family. I was raised as a muslim too and what was most helpful for me was to be just honest with myself and the 2 persons of my muslim family who were able to accept my decision (they are no "real muslims either").

All the best for your own choosen "sirat".

[yeezevee]

[lily]

[Mullah Rock N Roll]

Hi Diane,

Welcome to the forum. I'm sure there is plenty to talk about. Good to know that you are fluent in Arabic. A lot of muslims in this forum have a tendency to play with words & engage in verbal gymnastics. My guess is that they wont be able to do that with you.

Best of luck.

Mullah
_________________
From amongest us came the prophets to teach
And from the pulpit they preached
They prayed, they slayed, and they passed away,
Yet our ills remain as pebbles on a beach - Al Maari

[dvorak]

Hi Diane,
Is great to hear your story. you remind me of myself. Although i was not a very devouted muslim we go through process. Iagree with you. I too believe in a merciful God. You are right when you say we have an in-born ability to choose between right and wrong. We certainly dont need self proclaimed prophets to tell us what is right from wrong.

You said fear is the main reason muslim remain adhere to Islam. You are right again. Once I was talking to my wife's uncle, I told him that Islamic heaven is more like a brothel than a paradise. He said what I said is logical but he will not question the Quran because he dont want to end up in hell. This is how muslims' thinking abilities are shut down.

I think majority of the muslims can be saved. Few of the muslims are hopeless. These muslim are fanatic and in my opinion potential terrorist. The more dangerous muslim are not the fanatics nor the terrorist but those who preach that Islam is a peaceful religion. They are the one who poison the mind of young and gullible, whether muslim or not. A intelligent person will not follow a terrorist dogma blindly. However the same intelligent person can become indoctrinated by those who preach peaceful Islam. The terrorists need them to keep the bank of muslim soldiers and suicide bombers.

I am here not because of Islam is a man-made nonsense religion. I am here because Islam is evil. It is the religion that condone violence against non-believer, condone slavery and sex with female slave and marriage with children.I dont care if some religion preach that the earth is flat, God is a bearded man sitting on a throne and other nonsense. Everyone can believe in any weird ideology as long as it peaceful and within human ethics.

We can never made Islam disapppear but we can tell the world that is evil. Evil iodeology like nazism,white supremacy KKK still have some follower but they are insignificant minority. We have to educated the nonmuslims so that they understand the danger of Islam.The world will be safe only when muslims become insignificant minority. I have nothing against muslims. On the contrarary they are victims, just like i was.We need to save muslims in order to save the humanity.

I hope what we are doing here is the beginning of the downfall of Islam.
_________________
Faith is the enemy of reason. Islam is the enemy of humanity.

[Recovering Leftist]

Hello Diane,

Great to hear your story, albeit the tragedy of it all, I am glad you have freed yourself from dogma. Dealing with the realities of human existence can be uncomfortable and confusing at times but on balance it is better than being a slave to man-made ideolgies. Welcome to FFI. Do you feel safe in your current physical environment? - if I may ask.

Dvorak, I enjoyed your last post also. Your perspective on the state of muslims is very similiar to what I observe. A large perentage of muslims are in fact not. Another large percentage are hanging on to the cult of death out of fear (physical and/or metaphysical) or out of some misguided sense of cultural loyalty. We will never destroy islam completely just as we have not destroyed the KKK - we do not need to either. We only need to expose it for what it is, the masses of moral people will eventually leave while some will cling to a watered-down less violent version I am sure.

Regards,
RL
_________________
"i hate the feelin' when you're looking at me
that way/ cause we're north americans/ but if we act all shy, it’ll make it ok/ makes it go away." ~ James Murphy

[whatsgoingon?]

Diane - nice to read your story which was very similar to mine also.
Interesting to read your explanation of the fear factor within Muslims - and what you wrote was exellent and all correct, I can relate to most of that myself from when I was young and even now.
The fear within a muslim is something maybe the non-muslims cannot comprehend - maybe this is where the communication breaks down?
That fear is also not lost so easily either. Even now I still feel afraid of what I've done. Half of me says religion is all nonsense and the other half wonders again! But I know what I'd rather believe in now anyway. Its the consequences of my actions I always feared and the punishment of the grave and hell etc - but like someone said, its the fear factor that the supposed prophets and god paleyed on. Anyway if its all true then after i die and i face god and he punishes me I'll just tell him its his fault for creating me and putting me to the test so that i lost my faith. At the end of the day i was but a mere tiny creation of yours that depended entirely on you...thank you so much for your help...not.

[Diane]

Hi,

Thank you every one for replying and giving your views on the issue of Islam.

Recovering leftist,

My answer to your question about how comfortable is my current physical environment; I am passing in a tough situation to be honest with you. I am smart, educated person, and I believe I am strong. But sometimes I feel sadness because I can’t speak to anyone about the subject. Especially my Family, I am having hard time with them even if they don’t know that I left Islam. I just have always to fight for my rights (that are taken form me by Islam), and not many things come easily for me. As I told you, I always have to be ready to fight However, I am not hopeless. I have a good feeling that the future will be much better for me, and I working on improving my situation to see a brighter future as soon as possible, but I have to hang on for now.

Whatsgoingon?

I feel with you when you said you still having fear of punishment when you think you did something sinful. And I know in most cases if people think about it, they realize that what they did is not really bad, but it has been labeled sinful by religions, social codes, laws, and so on.

You know what I do when I have these feelings? I take few moments to say silently that I forgive myself, and forgive the other person or situation that made me do “bad deed”. And then I feel better. You can try it too 

And you know what else, even if I am not a Muslim anymore I still have some habits of Muslims, like I can’t eat pork, and I don’t drink, and some other few stuff…

So as you said, what we learned in long time can’t be erased that easily for most people.

Best wishes for you all,

[yeezevee]