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Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out
In the West abandoning one's religion (apostasy) can be a difficult, emotional decision, which sometimes has social repercussions. However, in culturally diverse societies where there is a mixture of ethnic groups and various philosophies of life, most people look upon such shifts in intellectual allegiance as a matter of personal choice and individual right. By contrast, in Islam apostasy is still viewed as an almost unthinkable act, and in orthodox circles it is considered a crime punishable by death. Renowned scholar of Islamic Studies Bernard Lewis described the seriousness of leaving the Islamic faith in the following dire "Apostasy was a crime as well as a sin, and the apostate was damned both in this world and the next. His crime was treason – desertion and betrayal of the community to which he belonged, and to which he owed loyalty; his life and property were forfeit. He was a dead limb to be excised."Defying the death penalty applicable to all apostates in Islam, the ex-Muslims who are here represented feel it is their duty to speak up against their former faith, to tell the truth about the fastest growing religion in the world. These former Muslims, from all parts of the Islamic world, recount how they slowly came to realize that the religion into which they were born was in many respects unbelievable and sometimes even dangerous.These memoirs of personal journeys to enlightenment and intellectual freedom make for moving reading and are a courageous signal to other ex-Muslims to come out of the closet.
474 pages, Hardcover
First published April 30, 2003
15 people are currently reading
340 people want to read
About the author
Ibn Warraq
22 books113 followersIbn Warraq is the pen name of an anonymous author critical of Islam. He is the founder of the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society and used to be a senior research fellow at the Center for Inquiry, focusing on Quranic criticism. Warraq is the vice-president of the World Encounter Institute.
Warraq has written historiographies of the early centuries of the Islamic timeline and has published works which question mainstream conceptions of the period. The pen name Ibn Warraq (Arabic: ابن وراق, most literally "son of a papermaker") is used due to his concerns for his personal safety; Warraq stated, "I was afraid of becoming the second Salman Rushdie." It is a name that has been adopted by dissident authors throughout the history of Islam. The name refers to the 9th-century skeptical scholar Abu Isa al-Warraq. Warraq adopted the pseudonym in 1995 when he completed his first book, entitled Why I Am Not a Muslim.
He is the editor of several books, also including The Origins of the Koran (1998), The Quest for the Historical Muhammad (2000), What the Koran Really Says (2002) and the writer/editor Leaving Islam (2003). He is a controverisal figure among his contemporaries as many academic specialists in Islamic history consider him to be polemical, overly revisionist and lacking in expertise.
Warraq has written historiographies of the early centuries of the Islamic timeline and has published works which question mainstream conceptions of the period. The pen name Ibn Warraq (Arabic: ابن وراق, most literally "son of a papermaker") is used due to his concerns for his personal safety; Warraq stated, "I was afraid of becoming the second Salman Rushdie." It is a name that has been adopted by dissident authors throughout the history of Islam. The name refers to the 9th-century skeptical scholar Abu Isa al-Warraq. Warraq adopted the pseudonym in 1995 when he completed his first book, entitled Why I Am Not a Muslim.
He is the editor of several books, also including The Origins of the Koran (1998), The Quest for the Historical Muhammad (2000), What the Koran Really Says (2002) and the writer/editor Leaving Islam (2003). He is a controverisal figure among his contemporaries as many academic specialists in Islamic history consider him to be polemical, overly revisionist and lacking in expertise.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 17, 2017
What is heart breaking about these stories is the fear that can be heard in almost every voice. Fear of losing partners; fear of losing family; fear of losing community; fear of losing their life. What sort of religion can be so insecure that it threatens people who sensibly question its tenants with death? What was also revealing was the number of stories where people "learnt to read the Koran" but in fact had no idea of its contents because they read it in Arabic and so could say the words, but not understand their meaning. It's reminiscent of the Catholic Church and the role of Latin but even Catholics have moved on from such illiteracy.
December 19, 2008
This book sucks. I dont know how more plainly I can put it. I dont know why I wasted money on it. It is pretty much a polemic by an unknown author who claims to be an ex-Muslim, nothing wrong with that, but it is so biased and tendentious that it is revolting. Also the pseudo-scholarship and shoddy selective use of sources was quite revealing as to the mind set of this "ibn warraq" (not his real name) character. He calls this a clarion call to the free world about the dangers of Islam from an "insider." Needless to say this drivel was popular under Bushy and his propaganda War on Terror days, promoted by his Neo-Con masters, but that ship has sailed now idiots.
September 23, 2016
repetitive reasons for leaving islam, also many hadiths are forgeries, I am not here to criticize the context of the book, anyway, its boring and well I thought I'd leave islam after reading this book, but I didnt, I mean Ive seen all the arguments represented and most of them were answered by muslim scholars, but I also have to admit that the muslim society is fucked up which probably drove these people to leave islam, but Islam is actually cool, I mean its a philosophy more than it is laws and punishments.
May 29, 2010
Sober sombre tales from those who broke their Islamic chains.
June 6, 2024
A STUDY, PLUS NUMEROUS TESTIMONIES, OF MUSLIMS WHO LEAVE THE FAITH
Editor/translator Ibn Warraq (a pen name) wrote in the Preface to this 2003 book, “All the testimonies here are witnesses to the authors’ courage, for a free discussion of Islam remains rare and dangerous, certainly in the Islamic world and even in our politically correct times in the West. A surprising number of the apostates decided to write under their real names, a triumphant gesture of defiance and freedom. Many, on the other hand, have chosen to write pseudonymously, and since this is a fact that seems to irritate many in the secular West, I shall briefly indicate the reasons why. Apostasy is still punishable by long prison sentences and even death in many Islamic countries… and as many of our authors have relatives in [such] countries, whom they regularly visit, it is common sense and simple prudence not to use their real names. Others still do not wish to unnecessarily upset … relatives who, for the most part, remain ignorant of their act of apostasy.”
Warraq notes, “There is a certain amount of anecdotal evidence that many Muslims in India are reverting to the religion of their ancestors, Hinduism… Hinduism has been reclaiming parts of the Indonesia archipelago it once dominated for a millennium… Though the number of conversions … are hard to quantity… there have been tens of thousands over the last twenty years, more in some years than others. There is also a return to Hinduism in Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Sumatra. Up to now there has been no systematic persecution of the Hindus, but unfortunately the signs are that the situation is changing for the worse.” (Pg. 101)
Warraq admits, “Given that I am rather skeptical of the very possibility of a scientific survey of apostates, it is difficult for me to make any psychological, sociological, or anthropological generalizations based on fewer than fifty personal testimonies that would be valid outside this particular group. No quick portrait of the typical apostate is likely to appear---some are young (students in their teens), some are middle-aged with children; some are scientists, while others are economists, businesspeople, or journalists… Our witnesses, nonetheless, do have certain moral and intellectual qualities in common: for instance, they are al comparatively well-educated, computer literate with access to the Internet, and rational, with the ability to think for themselves. However, what is most striking their fearlessness, their moral courage, and their moral commitment to telling the truth. They all face social ostracism, the loss of friends and family, a deep inner spiritual anguish and loneliness---and occasionally the death penalty if discovered. Their decisions are not frivolously taken, but the ineluctable result of rational thinking.” (Pg. 135)
Ali Sina (from Iran) states in his testimony, “Although I knew of jihad and never questioned it before, I found it hard to accept that God would have recourse to such violent measures to impose himself on people. What was more shocking was the cruelty of Allah in dealing with the unbelievers… It seemed that Allah was not satisfied with just killing the unbelievers. H enjoyed torturing them before killing them. Smiting people’s heads from above their necks and chopping their fingertips were very cruel acts. Would God really give such orders?” (Pg. 144)
Muhammad Bin Abdulla (of Bangladesh) explains, “Throughout my life I looked for any single moral code that was brought by Islam anew. There is simply none. All those Islamic social, familial, and other morals and sweet advice had always existed in the human mind long before Islam. Also, it is extremely unfair and dishonest to propagate the myth that before Islam the whole world was in ‘darkness.’ This is a shameless denial of so many thinkers’ and philosophers’ great contribution to human progress before Islam. We have ample proof that some societies before Islam had in fact more balanced, clear, and humane laws than the cruel imbalanced Shari’a laws of Islam.” (Pg. 298)
Denis Giron (of the United States) observes, “so many disillusioned Christians have embraced Islam because they assumed it answered their questions that Christianity could not. Islam is very attractive to Christians who are troubled by the difficult, if not incomprehensible, concept of the Trinity. Many such people have been raised in what is portrayed as a monotheist religion (and Jewish monotheism still runs strong in the Old Testament), and are often unimpressed with their pastor or priest’s attempts to explain the more mystical (if not polytheistic) concepts in trinitarian Christianity.” (Pg. 340)
He recounts, “Western Muslims have, in the past, become drunk on Ahmed Deedat, though his popularity is starting to really disappear these days. His debates with Christians, along with his numerous booklets, have made up the heart of British-America dawaganda literature for the last two decades. Unfortunately, the Islamic literature cannot stand up to the standards that brother Deedat demanded the Bible be judged by. Deedat’s idea of the ‘Bible Combat Kit,’ where Muslims are encouraged to keep an inventory of contradictions, vulgar verses, and other embarrassing excerpts of the Bible, was one of the more popular aspects of Islam’s missionary onslaught on the West. However, this caused some Muslims to ponder the idea of a ‘HADITH Combat Kit.’ As should have been expected, Muslims were beginning to doubt the use of the ahadith collections as a source of guidance considering the many contradictions, absurd stories, and vulgar tales found therein.” (Pg. 343)
Warraq points out, “It is quite common … to hear two arguments from Muslims and apologists of Islam: the language argument, and that old standby of crooked, lying politicians, ‘you have quoted out of context.’ Let us look at the language argument first. You are asked aggressively, ‘Do you know Arabic?’ Then you are told triumphantly, ‘You have to read it in the original Arabic to understand it fully.’ Western freethinkers and atheists are usually reduced to sullen silence with these Muslim tactics; they indeed become rather coy and self-defensive when it comes to criticism of Islam, feebly complaining, ‘Who am I to criticize Islam? I do not know any Arabic.’ And yet these same freethinkers are quite happy to criticize Christianity. How many Western freethinkers and atheists know Hebrew? How many even know what the language of Ezra 4:6-8 is? Or in what language the New Testament is written? Of course, Muslims are also free in their criticism of the Bible and Christianity without knowing a word of Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek.” (Pg. 400)
This book will be of great interest to those studying such religious conversions.
Editor/translator Ibn Warraq (a pen name) wrote in the Preface to this 2003 book, “All the testimonies here are witnesses to the authors’ courage, for a free discussion of Islam remains rare and dangerous, certainly in the Islamic world and even in our politically correct times in the West. A surprising number of the apostates decided to write under their real names, a triumphant gesture of defiance and freedom. Many, on the other hand, have chosen to write pseudonymously, and since this is a fact that seems to irritate many in the secular West, I shall briefly indicate the reasons why. Apostasy is still punishable by long prison sentences and even death in many Islamic countries… and as many of our authors have relatives in [such] countries, whom they regularly visit, it is common sense and simple prudence not to use their real names. Others still do not wish to unnecessarily upset … relatives who, for the most part, remain ignorant of their act of apostasy.”
Warraq notes, “There is a certain amount of anecdotal evidence that many Muslims in India are reverting to the religion of their ancestors, Hinduism… Hinduism has been reclaiming parts of the Indonesia archipelago it once dominated for a millennium… Though the number of conversions … are hard to quantity… there have been tens of thousands over the last twenty years, more in some years than others. There is also a return to Hinduism in Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Sumatra. Up to now there has been no systematic persecution of the Hindus, but unfortunately the signs are that the situation is changing for the worse.” (Pg. 101)
Warraq admits, “Given that I am rather skeptical of the very possibility of a scientific survey of apostates, it is difficult for me to make any psychological, sociological, or anthropological generalizations based on fewer than fifty personal testimonies that would be valid outside this particular group. No quick portrait of the typical apostate is likely to appear---some are young (students in their teens), some are middle-aged with children; some are scientists, while others are economists, businesspeople, or journalists… Our witnesses, nonetheless, do have certain moral and intellectual qualities in common: for instance, they are al comparatively well-educated, computer literate with access to the Internet, and rational, with the ability to think for themselves. However, what is most striking their fearlessness, their moral courage, and their moral commitment to telling the truth. They all face social ostracism, the loss of friends and family, a deep inner spiritual anguish and loneliness---and occasionally the death penalty if discovered. Their decisions are not frivolously taken, but the ineluctable result of rational thinking.” (Pg. 135)
Ali Sina (from Iran) states in his testimony, “Although I knew of jihad and never questioned it before, I found it hard to accept that God would have recourse to such violent measures to impose himself on people. What was more shocking was the cruelty of Allah in dealing with the unbelievers… It seemed that Allah was not satisfied with just killing the unbelievers. H enjoyed torturing them before killing them. Smiting people’s heads from above their necks and chopping their fingertips were very cruel acts. Would God really give such orders?” (Pg. 144)
Muhammad Bin Abdulla (of Bangladesh) explains, “Throughout my life I looked for any single moral code that was brought by Islam anew. There is simply none. All those Islamic social, familial, and other morals and sweet advice had always existed in the human mind long before Islam. Also, it is extremely unfair and dishonest to propagate the myth that before Islam the whole world was in ‘darkness.’ This is a shameless denial of so many thinkers’ and philosophers’ great contribution to human progress before Islam. We have ample proof that some societies before Islam had in fact more balanced, clear, and humane laws than the cruel imbalanced Shari’a laws of Islam.” (Pg. 298)
Denis Giron (of the United States) observes, “so many disillusioned Christians have embraced Islam because they assumed it answered their questions that Christianity could not. Islam is very attractive to Christians who are troubled by the difficult, if not incomprehensible, concept of the Trinity. Many such people have been raised in what is portrayed as a monotheist religion (and Jewish monotheism still runs strong in the Old Testament), and are often unimpressed with their pastor or priest’s attempts to explain the more mystical (if not polytheistic) concepts in trinitarian Christianity.” (Pg. 340)
He recounts, “Western Muslims have, in the past, become drunk on Ahmed Deedat, though his popularity is starting to really disappear these days. His debates with Christians, along with his numerous booklets, have made up the heart of British-America dawaganda literature for the last two decades. Unfortunately, the Islamic literature cannot stand up to the standards that brother Deedat demanded the Bible be judged by. Deedat’s idea of the ‘Bible Combat Kit,’ where Muslims are encouraged to keep an inventory of contradictions, vulgar verses, and other embarrassing excerpts of the Bible, was one of the more popular aspects of Islam’s missionary onslaught on the West. However, this caused some Muslims to ponder the idea of a ‘HADITH Combat Kit.’ As should have been expected, Muslims were beginning to doubt the use of the ahadith collections as a source of guidance considering the many contradictions, absurd stories, and vulgar tales found therein.” (Pg. 343)
Warraq points out, “It is quite common … to hear two arguments from Muslims and apologists of Islam: the language argument, and that old standby of crooked, lying politicians, ‘you have quoted out of context.’ Let us look at the language argument first. You are asked aggressively, ‘Do you know Arabic?’ Then you are told triumphantly, ‘You have to read it in the original Arabic to understand it fully.’ Western freethinkers and atheists are usually reduced to sullen silence with these Muslim tactics; they indeed become rather coy and self-defensive when it comes to criticism of Islam, feebly complaining, ‘Who am I to criticize Islam? I do not know any Arabic.’ And yet these same freethinkers are quite happy to criticize Christianity. How many Western freethinkers and atheists know Hebrew? How many even know what the language of Ezra 4:6-8 is? Or in what language the New Testament is written? Of course, Muslims are also free in their criticism of the Bible and Christianity without knowing a word of Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek.” (Pg. 400)
This book will be of great interest to those studying such religious conversions.
November 20, 2021
This book was interesting for me. Nothing was new in it, and I have heard numerous Muslim deconversion stories. But it is interesting for me to see it in writing. As I read this book, I kept thinking, “Man, a lot of ‘deconverted’ Christians could write a similar book.” But any group or religion has its apostates. However, a few things worth noting from this book and my (I guess, subjective) experience:
-Muslims who deconvert usually do so from reading the Koran. They had no idea what it said; now they do. They give a warrant from the Koran for their deconversion. They had a fairy tale version of Mohammad.
-my ‘many’ Christian friends who deconverted usually have a political or negative experience with Church that leads to deconversion. I rarely hear deconverted Christians make a good, or even, biblical case for their apostasy. It even seems that they use the Bible to argue why the political/negative experience they had was wrong and the hypocrisy of the church.
I think this is because the Bible has been criticized, defended, and debated, and there is no physical or deep social threat for questioning it. There has been no real textual criticism of the Koran in the Muslim world. Anyone who does so may face real danger.
-Muslims who deconvert usually do so from reading the Koran. They had no idea what it said; now they do. They give a warrant from the Koran for their deconversion. They had a fairy tale version of Mohammad.
-my ‘many’ Christian friends who deconverted usually have a political or negative experience with Church that leads to deconversion. I rarely hear deconverted Christians make a good, or even, biblical case for their apostasy. It even seems that they use the Bible to argue why the political/negative experience they had was wrong and the hypocrisy of the church.
I think this is because the Bible has been criticized, defended, and debated, and there is no physical or deep social threat for questioning it. There has been no real textual criticism of the Koran in the Muslim world. Anyone who does so may face real danger.
August 2, 2011
Disturbing, but revealing. There are a significant number of typos, and a few references to the Qur'an and the ahadith which need to be referenced. But on the whole, the volume is helpful and shockingly sincere in tone.
September 1, 2015
Lots of stories from people who left Islam. Some good, some not so good.
All Muslim's should read this book for no other reason than: It'll make them think.
Its good to think!
All Muslim's should read this book for no other reason than: It'll make them think.
Its good to think!
January 15, 2025
This book holds many different accounts of ex-Muslims all ranging from various reasons why they left. I like that it included accounts all over the world. I particularly chose to read this book for one reason. The 1971 Bengali Genocide. As a Bengali-American, I did not know much about the genocide until I was older and started to research about it on my own. One account by a person deep dives into the role of the Pakistani Islamic Army that used Islam to justify the genocide and killed millions of Bengali Hindus. My history and my culture matters and I am glad this account shed light on how Islam in a way played a role in the genocide and the atrocities committed by the Pakistani government and military enforced more Islamic influence in Bangladesh and Bengali society.
July 24, 2025
Far from being academic and unreadable, this book presents historical figures and personal stories on apostastes of Islam in a positive manner. It is the first work of its kind and thus has its flaws, but is both necessary and helpful for all those who face persecution merely for being born into the wrong culture.
July 11, 2013
Some of the reasons why apostates were expelled, stoned, lynched and venerated by their fellow Muslims.....
Al-Rawandi
All religious dogma is contrary to reason in which case it must be rejected.
Koran is inferior piece of work from the literary point of view, since it is neither clear or comprehensible nor of any practical value, therefore certainly not a revealed book.
Al-Razi
One could live in an orderly society without being terrorized by religious law or coerced by the prophets.
Through philosophy and human reason not through religion can human life be improved.
Progress can only be made through scientific and philosophical progress, not following religion.
Sufi orders
Bektashi order rejected all external ceremonies of Islam and other religions. This order is famous for theor mala-matiya dervaishes who go around naked and inviting contempt upon themselves from the genral populace.
There is no heaven or hell.
Religion is love and love alone.
A little doubt is better than total credulity. (Al Maarri)
The majority of Muslims are are trapped in denial. They are unable or unwilling to admit that the Koran is a hoax. They desperately try to explain the unexplainable, to find miracles in it, and are not ashamed to bend all the rules of logic to prove that the Koran is right. Each time they are exposed to a shocking statement in the Koran or a shameful act performed by Muhammad, they retreat in denial. This is what I was doing. Denial is a safe place. It is the comfort zone. In denial you are not going to be hurt, everything is okay; everything is fine. (Ali Sina)
The book is filled with stories of modern apostates of Islam who generally cite the treatment of women, vagueness of Koran, dubiousness of Hadith to justify their conversion. It does get pretty monotonous and tedious with the repetition of the same narrative over and over again. The book resembles a collection of blogs against Islam. I think it is an important addition to the sceptic debate within Islam. Trouble is if Muslims are in denial than the apostates are in blame. Both positions seem pretty extreme to me.......
Al-Rawandi
All religious dogma is contrary to reason in which case it must be rejected.
Koran is inferior piece of work from the literary point of view, since it is neither clear or comprehensible nor of any practical value, therefore certainly not a revealed book.
Al-Razi
One could live in an orderly society without being terrorized by religious law or coerced by the prophets.
Through philosophy and human reason not through religion can human life be improved.
Progress can only be made through scientific and philosophical progress, not following religion.
Sufi orders
Bektashi order rejected all external ceremonies of Islam and other religions. This order is famous for theor mala-matiya dervaishes who go around naked and inviting contempt upon themselves from the genral populace.
There is no heaven or hell.
Religion is love and love alone.
A little doubt is better than total credulity. (Al Maarri)
The majority of Muslims are are trapped in denial. They are unable or unwilling to admit that the Koran is a hoax. They desperately try to explain the unexplainable, to find miracles in it, and are not ashamed to bend all the rules of logic to prove that the Koran is right. Each time they are exposed to a shocking statement in the Koran or a shameful act performed by Muhammad, they retreat in denial. This is what I was doing. Denial is a safe place. It is the comfort zone. In denial you are not going to be hurt, everything is okay; everything is fine. (Ali Sina)
The book is filled with stories of modern apostates of Islam who generally cite the treatment of women, vagueness of Koran, dubiousness of Hadith to justify their conversion. It does get pretty monotonous and tedious with the repetition of the same narrative over and over again. The book resembles a collection of blogs against Islam. I think it is an important addition to the sceptic debate within Islam. Trouble is if Muslims are in denial than the apostates are in blame. Both positions seem pretty extreme to me.......
April 17, 2008
Religion
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November 1, 2012Excellent book with a great list of internet sites featuring testimonies of recovering Muslims.
July 30, 2015
Rather dense for me. I guess maybe if I had a better understanding of all the material.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews