Several ex-Muslims were featured in a BBC News short documentary discussing the life of a former believer and the consequences that occur from the choice to walk away from their faith.
BBC reporter Benjamin Zand interviewed three ex-Muslims. Two of them have publicly renounced their beliefs in Islam: Imtiaz Shams and Aliyah Saleem. Both are activists who aim to help those who's beliefs have changed away from that of their parents or relatives.
The third remained anonymous, only being identified as 'Tausif' [sic?]. He is afraid of the affect that his coming out would have on his relationship with his family.
"It's difficult sometimes because she doesn't make it clear to me anymore that she loves me," he says of his wife. 'Tausif' believes that his wife thinks of him as an obstacle for her to get to heaven. And between those reasons, 'Tausif' does not believe that he will ever come out publicly as an ex-Muslim.
Saleem and Shams take a different stance from 'Tausif' though. Shams, who runs a group of ex-Muslims in Britain, grew up as an ardent Muslim, but soon decided to become an aethist.
He came out as an ex-Muslim on Facebook first. "I was scared of one thing -- not of being hurt -- it was the people that I care for, and even for the people that I haven't seen for years and years, just the rejection you get multiply it by all the friends in my friends list or that I know in my life."
Of the reaction from families and communities, Shams said, " You get people who are completely disowned; you get people who get kicked out; you get people who need to get away because their families are so controlling."
He compared the reaction from Muslim families to the reaction from families when a son or daughter came out as gay fourty to fifty years ago. Shams even goes as far as to equate the situation as worse as when a son or daughter commits a murder, due to the sudden nature of a conversion, or lack thereof.
Co-director of the Association of British Muslims, Paul Salahuddin Armstrong said that the most important verse of the Qur'an, in regards to conversion, does not condone execution for apostasy:
"I do not worship what you worship,
nor do you worship what I worship.
And I will not worship what you worship,
Nor will you worship what I worship.
Your way is yours, and my way is mine."
He goes on to say, "The Qur'an is the book of Allah. This is our revelation. The Hadith are not a book of revelation. The Hadith are a complications of sayings that are contained within various books... The Hadith are not all divine in their source."
Armstrong is referring to a sentence in the Hadith that says:
"If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him."
When asked if Armstrong believes that there is a problem with how Islam is viewed throughout the world, he said, "There are certainly some groups among Muslims who have some outdated views, outdated ideas on things, and some of it even Medieval in perspective. But then again, you cannot stop the fact that there are going to be some crazy people out there who are going to believe that."
People like Saleem and Shams are trying to point out the idea that Muslims are not taking a hard look at the problem of apostasy among their youth.
Saleem describes how the rituals and traditions that dominate Islamic life are taken from the same books as the apostate clause, so to dispute that is to put everything else in jeopardy. She said, "So just to say that it's the Wahhabi (official form of Islam in Saudi Arabia) or a Salafi problem is just not true. It sort of just white washes what goes on."
According to Saleem, Problems can always be brought up, but solutions need to be put to test. "Muslims need to first acknowledge that there is an issue going on; that there is a serious problem with the community where I would like see more imams, more religious spokespeople to actually work within the community to actually say, 'No, if your child is an apostate, that is not a reason to disown them.'"
Both Saleem and Shams use social media through outlets like YouTube and Twitter to try and connect Muslims who have left the faith or those who have questions about leaving the faith. Shams estimates that there are approximately 10,000 ex-Muslims who are living in London, not including the rest of Britain.
H/T Reddit