pakkaatheist (Former Muslim)
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WikiIslam Archive,
Archives of the first iteration of WikiIslam, prior to acquisition and revamp by Ex-Muslims of North America
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- Note: This is a new submission that has not been reviewed yet.
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Testimony of Leaving Islam
Parental influence plays a large role in a child's intellectual development. Although both my parents were born in conservative Muslim households, thankfully their outlook in life was pretty liberal. Great credit goes to my maternal grandfather, a forward looking man, who made sure that all her daughters ( four of them) received modern Western education, which was considered an anathema at that time in the tradition-bound Muslim environment of Northern India. This was also time of great intellectual ferment and a whole generation of young people were greatly influenced by the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Marxist ideology which brought that about. Simultaneously, there was emergence of Progressive Writers' Movement in India in the decade of 30's which produced some literary giants, poets, thinkers and writers who challenged religious dogma and authority prevalent at that time This was like a breath of fresh air and my father was drawn to these movements as a young student in Aligarh Muslim University. He became a life-long admirer of communism although later in life he was influenced by the modernist scholar of Islam, Ghulam Ahmad Parvez. My father also had a working knowledge of Quranic Arabic.
My mother, being educated and well versed in English language, was one of only a handful of women who worked outside their home. So she was considered "modern" for her age. Modernity meant distance from religion. None of my parents were avowedly atheists although their attachment to religion was minimal, at least in their younger years. We three brother growing up in this kind of environment did not receive any religious education at home or in school. My mother made sure that we went to a convent school where the medium of instruction was English. Travel and living abroad was another factor in my life. Nothing broadens your horizons more than experiences in a different culture. My father was posted in Turkey for many years, a country which was more cosmopolitan, Westernized and secularized. I do remember keeping my first fast in the month of Ramadan there and going to the mosque for Eid prayers. But that was the extent of our Islamic practice. It was more for social reasons than anything else.
All this was in the formative years of my life. As I moved along in my professional life,
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