Why Does Allah Hate Homosexuals?
Not a week goes by without seeing a news story about a gay person being killed in a Muslim-majority country, whether it’s teenage boys being hung from a crane in Iran1 or men being stoned in Iraq2. Brunei has even put into effect a new law which allows death by stoning for …
Letter to God
A letter I wrote just before I stopped believing in Islam for good: Dear God, Do you even exist? Or am I wasting my time just like I did with all the praying and fasting. What kind of a god burns a Buddhist in hell for eternity? Especially since faith …
Intellectual Judo: Framing the Debate Between Skeptics and Believers
The following post, while it does not deal with parenting per se, is an example of the intellectual training we should be giving to our kids to prepare them for all of the hucksters trying to push their own brand of religious snake oil on them. Just as we ought …
Arrested for hugging in Saudi Arabia
So apparently in Saudi Arabia, hugging people can get you arrested by the ‘religious police’, as this story in The Independent reports. Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice arrested the two men in Riyadh for violating local laws and engaging in “exotic …
Are religions similar to capitalist businesses?
A certain Orientalist thought process among some Muslims and some Non-Muslims seems to be rooted in the assumption that Islam essentially represents some kind of resistance to capitalism and colonialism. The narrative that Islam is an alternative to ‘Western’ ideas of capitalism, globalization, and neoliberal economics, is at times touted …
Al-Maʿarri – Arab skeptic and rationalist
In the history of Muslim cultures, there are a number of skeptics, rationalists, agnostics, atheists, and free-thinkers, whose works continue to be with us, even though many people, Muslim and Non-Muslim, may not have heard of them yet. One such historical figure is Al-Maʿarri (full name Abū al-ʿAlāʾ Aḥmad ibn …
Welcome to Mehfil-e-Skeptics (part 2)
As promised, this is part 2 of my introductory post. You can read part 1 here. It didn’t take long to notice that few people actually took their faith, beliefs, and religious ideas seriously. An uncomfortably large number of people were essentially living double lives, displaying a certain piety for …
Welcome to Mehfil-e-Skeptics (part 1)
My name is Kiran, and I will be your hostess. 🙂 I have been working in the ExMuslim movement and on the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB) forum since 2008. I’ve administered and served on the boards of various Muslim and Ex-Muslim organizations, and I am a co-organizer of …