An Ex-Muslim Examines the Dilemma of Raising Children in Islam
The inhumane dictates of Islamic theology.
I would like to clarify at the outset that it is the evils of Islam theology, and not necessarily the individual character of Muslim parents, that make raising children in Islam such a troublesome matter.
Muslim individuals, including parents, can be either good or bad human beings. It is the extent to which a person adheres to the many inhumane dictates of Islamic theology that determine whether a person is respectable or not. I personally wish Muslims well, despite my deep antipathy towards Mohammedanism.
Speaking as a former Muslim who is repulsed by the depredations of Islamic theology, I assert that it is a great misfortune to be born into Islam and a great shame for parents to raise children in Islam. The reader may ask, What are the depredations of Islamic theology? In previous articles found HERE, I address Islam’s sanctioning of spousal abuse, its deadly homophobia, its death penalty for apostasy, etc.
There is arguably no greater parental responsibility than that of raising a child with a humane belief system. In fact, it would be far better to raise a child with no particular belief system than to insist that a child adhere to an ethically unsound set of beliefs. And Islam is without doubt a highly unethical ideology.
Furthermore, I would argue that committing one’s life to the practice and promotion of Islam is among the most foolish and self-defeating decisions that a human being can make for themselves and their family. For not only would such a person be practising an untrue, morally abhorrent religion, he or she would essentially be betraying humanity and future generations.
A particularly tragic aspect of raising children in Islam is the intense pressure placed upon Muslims to conform to Islamic rules and traditions. The pressure to obey Islamic dictates is especially concerning as it relates to Muslim girls, when one considers realities such as the permissibility of child marriage (due to the example of Muhammad marrying a six-year-old child and consummating the marriage when the child reached the age of nine (see Sahih Muslim Book 8, Number 3309), the stipulation that a Muslim woman may not marry a non-Muslim man (Quran 2:221), wearing Islamic head and body coverings, and on and on. Girls who refuse to obey such rules face threats of real violence from family members and the Islamic community. Honor killings are all too common within the Islamic community for females who attempt to break from Islamic norms. Brutal Sharia law is well known to be especially strict towards females. Sadly, the Sharia is sourced from the Quran and Muhammad’s Sunnah; therefore, Muslim families essentially enforce an informal version of the Islamic law when punishing those who stray from obedience to Mohammedanism.
Another troublesome aspect of raising children in Islam is the hatred of unbelievers and non-Islamic faith traditions that Islam inculcates in the minds of young persons. This hatred and dehumanizing of unbelievers is crystallized in Qur’anic verses such as those found below, stating that unbelievers are the worst of creatures and Muslim’s the best of peoples:
Qur’an 3:110: You are the best of people that has been raised up for mankind. You command what is right and forbid what is wrong, and you believe in Allah. And if the people of the book had believed, it would have been better for them. Some of them are believers, but most of them are rebellious.
Qur’an 98:6: Indeed, the unbelievers among the people of the book and the idolaters will remain in the fire of Gehenna. They are the most vile of created beings.
Another example of the Islam-inspired hatred that is taught to Muslim children are the Qur’anic passages below aimed at Christians and Jews. Such hateful passages fuel the persecution and bloodshed currently taking place in Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, and elsewhere, where the murder of Christians in particular is commonplace and only increasing. Hatred of unbelievers is the undercurrent of Islam and the foundational reason why young boys and men commit the innumerable jihad attacks we see occurring throughout the world in 2023.
Qur’an 3:28: Let not the believers take unbelievers for their friends in preference to believers. Whoever does that has no connection with Allah unless you are guarding yourselves against them, taking security. Allah bids you to beware of him. To Allah is the journeying.
Qur’an 5:51: O you who believe, do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends of one another. He among you who takes them for friends is of them. Indeed, Allah does not guide wrongdoing people.
Qur’an 9:29: Fight against those do not believe in Allah or the last day, and do not forbid what Allah and his messenger have forbidden, and do not follow the religion of truth, even if they are among the people of the book, until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.
The social strife and violent conflict that Islam naturally creates between Muslims and unbelievers is playing out in Europe and UK in dramatic fashion. In the short span of a few decades, hundreds of large no-go zones have developed throughout Europe, where non-Muslims dare not enter for reasons of safety. And it is in this Islamic cultural milieu that Muslim children are raised to distrust and hate the non-Islamic state and its non-Islamic citizens.
The blind obedience and cult-like sway that Islam has over its adherents is profound, due to fear, false promises of heavenly rewards, and community reprisal for leaving Islam or transgressing against Islamic tradition. It should not be underestimated just how firmly Muslim believers will continue to cling to this cruel ideology. For the reasons mentioned above, Muslim parents continue to deny the fact that it is grave injustice to raise children in Islam. The best hope for the world is that Muslim parents find ways to safely leave Islam with their children and then speak out against the harms and falsehoods of the religion.
If Muslims can be made to see the hideous falsehood of Islam, people have a chance at living in relative harmony with one another despite the various challenges that arise over time. Reflecting on my twenty-five years living as an ex-Muslim, I believe the three most harmful and ironic passages in the entire Islamic canon are these:
Qur’an 5:3: This day I have perfected your religion for you and completed my favor to you, and have chosen Islam as the religion for you.
Qur’an: 16:89: And the day when we raise in every nation a witness against them from their own people, and we bring you as a witness against these. And we reveal the book to you as an explanation of all things, and a guidance and a mercy and good news for the Muslims.
33:21: Indeed in the messenger of Allah you have an excellent example for him who looks to Allah and the last day, and remembers Allah a great deal.
Here is a recent statement from a group of Bangladeshi apostates living in the UK, explaining the reasons why they have abandoned Islam:
One who claims to be a messenger of God is expected to live a saintly life. He must not be given to lust, he must not be a sexual pervert, and he must not be a rapist, a highway robber, a war criminal, a mass murderer or an assassin. One who claims to be a messenger of God must have a superior character. He must stand above the vices of the people of his time. Yet Muhammad’s life is that of a gangster godfather. He raided merchant caravans, looted innocent people, massacred entire male populations and enslaved the women and children. He raped the women captured in war after killing their husbands and told his followers that it is okay to have sex with their captives (Qur’an 33:50). He assassinated those who criticized him and executed them when he came to power and became de facto despot of Arabia. Muhammad was bereft of human compassion. He was an obsessed man with his dreams of grandiosity and could not forgive those who stood in his way…
The statement continues:
Muhammad was a narcissist, like Hitler, Saddam or Stalin. He was astute and knew how to manipulate people, but his emotional intelligence was less evolved than that of a 6-year-old child. He simply could not feel the pain of others. He brutally massacred thousands of innocent people and pillaged their wealth. His ambitions were big and as a narcissist he honestly believed he is entitled to do as he pleased and commit all sorts of crimes and his evil deeds are justified.
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CAIR Again Conflates Blasphemy and a ‘Hate Crime’
"The smearing of the word ‘Allah’ in Dr. Awadallah’s name is apparently intentional."
CAIR, like other Brotherhood groups, is an Islamist organization masquerading as a civil rights community group. The Islamist mission is not to protect any ethnic or even religious group, but to impose Islamic law.
CAIR-MN recently got slapped down for trying this with pictures of Mohammed being shown at an art class at Hamline University.
CAIR-MN Executive Director Jaylani Hussein said most Muslims around the world oppose the public display of images of the Prophet Muhammad. To show the image of the Prophet, said Hussein, is deeply offensive. And he called that violation of the prohibition an act of Islamophobia.
A local chapter of CAIR in New Jersey is trying the same thing over in Paterstine.
New Jersey’s chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations is calling for a bias incident investigation after an unknown vandal smeared a public school sign.
The vandal used an “unknown dark substance” to block out the letters forming the word “Allah” on the sign for the Dr. Hani Awadallah school, according to CAIR-NJ. Allah is the Arabic word for God.
In a statement, CAIR-NJ Executive Director Selaedin Maksut called it part of an upward trend.
“While the circumstances surrounding the incident remain unknown, the smearing of the word ‘Allah’ in Dr. Awadallah’s name is apparently intentional, with the remainder of the sign left untouched, making an immediate hate crime investigation into this incident necessary,” Maksut said.
Blasphemy is not a hate crime. If violating religious sensibilities were a hate crime, then half the art museums in the country would be busted for violating Christian and Jewish religious sensibilities. Hate crimes, at least on paper, are characterized by an attempt to intimidate or threaten a group. Throwing a brick through a mosque window could be considered a hate crime. The recent stabbing of the imam at the local mosque might qualify if it hadn’t apparently been carried out by another Muslim. Crossing out the name of an Islamic diety is vandalism, not a hate crime. Not unless there’s a whole lot more supporting evidence that this was an attempt at intimidation.
Islamists keep trying to hijack bias and hate crimes to impose sharia law on Americans. They should not be allowed to get away with it.
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Israel Buries Two Sisters Murdered by Terrorists as Mother Clings to Life
Thousands of Israelis gathered Sunday afternoon to bury two British-born sisters, Maia Dee (20) and Rina Dee (15), who were murdered by Palestinian terrorists on Friday. Their mother Lucy, 48, is still in critical condition.
The members of the Dee family were on a holiday drive through northern Samaria to visit the city of Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee when gunmen ambushed their car, forcing it off the road and then raking it with bullets.
Their anguished father, Rabbi Leo Dee, delivered a heart-wrenching eulogy calling for national unity in a time of division, and urging those present to focus on gratitude for what they had, rather than what they had lost.
The Times of Israel reported:
Speaking of his daughters while frequently choking with emotion, he recalled their dedication to their studies, their commitment to the country, and the hopes and dreams they had for the future.
“The formula for faith is always to focus on what you do have and not what you do not have. I still have three wonderful children and a wonderful wife,” he declared.
…
“Maia and Rina, you are two flames who have not gone out. You will bring more light to the world. You have inspired and loved us; in return, we will love you forever.”
Rabbi Dee, who served a community in the United Kingdom before moving to Israel, has three remaining children. His eldest daughter delivered a tearful eulogy for her siblings, one interrupted frequently by tears.
The terror attack has had a particular impact on the town of Efrat, a suburb south of Jerusalem near where Jews lived prior to the 1948 war of independence, when the area was captured by the Jordanian army. It was resettled after the defensive war of 1967, and is the home today of thousands of middle-class families, many of them observant Jews from English-speaking countries, including Britain, South Africa, and the United States.
There was an additional death Friday, when a Palestinian rammed his car into pedestrians in Tel Aviv in an apparent terror attack, killing an Italian tourist and injuring several other people.
Israel is currently suffering threats on multiple fronts, including threats from Iranian terrorist proxies like Hamas, while also suffering internal dissent at home that is being amplified by the left-wing opposition and the military establishment.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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