Leaving Islam: How I became an atheist

[rug]

'No matter how many good things you have done before you kick the bucket, if you are not a Muslim, then bad news for you. Even back then, I had a problem accepting that part of the religious teaching'

Aditya Nandiwardhana
Published 3:40 PM, September 24, 2015
Updated 3:40 PM, September 24, 2015

“In the afterlife, only Muslims get to enter paradise.”

That was what my Quran tutor told me when I was in fourth grade. The moment she told me that, I was really, really, surprised.

I was raised as a Muslim, and like any other Muslim kid in Indonesia, I had to learn how to recite the Quran. My father hired a Quran tutor for me and I spent a couple of hours 3 days a week with her. I did not only learn how to recite the Quran from her, I also learned about Islam in general, about what Islam (well, at least her version of Islam) teaches us.

One of the things that I learned from her was that entering paradise is a Muslim privilege. No matter how many good things you have done before you kick the bucket, if you are not a Muslim, then bad news for you.

http://www.rappler.com/world/regions/asia-pacific/indonesia/bahasa/englishedition/106964-atheist-islam

[msongs]

1. christians teach the exact same thing...except its muslims who are all going to hell nt

[rug]

2. Not exactly. Christians don't have to learn the Quran.

[Fumesucker]

3. He doesn't realize that his becoming an atheist is part of the Will of Allah

Insha'Allah

[rug]

4. "Everything I do is for the pleasre of Allah."

Sometimes I feel he just went away.

[DonCoquixote]

5. my cree exactly

"I am still an atheist, an agnostic-atheist to be exact. I do not claim that I know there is no God, I am just skeptical that such God exists. However, I am a different atheist from what I was before. Rather than putting my energy into debating religious people that they are wrong about God, I am more concerned about other important issues like gender, race, class, the environment, and human rights."

[rug]

6. You picked the better things to argue about.