CyberOrient
Online Journal of the Virtual Middle East
CyberOrient is a peer-reviewed online journal of the virtual Middle East.
editorial board
Editor-in-Chief:
Daniel Martin Varisco
Managing Editor:
Vit Sisler
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Submissions are welcome from scholars in any discipline.Deadline for Vol. 10, Iss. 2 is August 30, 2016.
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Telling the Truth about Islam? Apostasy Narratives and Representations of Islam on WikiIslam.net
Daniel Enstedt and G?ran Larsson
CyberOrient,
Vol. 7, Iss. 1, 2013
AbstractThis article analyses six apostasy narratives published on WikiIslam.net and examines how Islam is represented and understood in them. The narratives contain self-referential and autobiographical components, and the truth-claims made in them are often based on the narrator’s own experiences as a former Muslim. From the six testimonies it is clear that Islam is presented in a negative and biased way, as summed up in the following three points: (1) Islam is an irrational, illo the beliefs that Islam holds
(2) Islam is not about peace, high standards and G Islam is an evil, self-centered and morally corrupt religion, and Mu (3) Islam is an oppressive, misogynist and violent religion, and is negative for its followers, especially women. These views on Islam, expressed in the apostasy narratives, articulate several themes found in islamophobic discourses and the so called New Atheist movement. Keywords:, , , , , Apostasy narratives play an important function in
contemporary polemical attacks on Islam and Muslims. In the article six
narratives from the WikiIslam portal are analyzed that can serve as
illustrations of anti-Islamic polemics by means of 'personal' testimony.
WikiIslam: a brief
WikiIslam was created to become the one-stop source of
information critical of Islam and because it was impossible to publish what it
represents as the truth about Islam on, for example, the Wikipedia online
community-edited encyclopaedia. It is important to stress that "truth" is only
associated with negative and critical stances against Muslims. Quotes are taken
from Islamic sources and sayings from Muslim spokespersons and therefore
presented as authentic, but selection and presentation of the material remains
very one-dimensional, and alternative interpretations are seldom represented.
For highlighting negative and biased perceptions about Islam and Muslims, the
site is often perceived as being anti-Muslim, if not Islamophobic (Larsson
Besides providing critical information about Islam and
Muslims, the aim of the site is also to build online [a] defensive position
against Islam and Muslims as a global threat. Under the heading the Internet
Toolbox for Islam-Critics, we read:
Islam is a global challenge. It
should be met with a global response. The best instrument for doing this is the
Internet, the most international medium of all. As many news outlets may still
be reluctant to openly criticize Islam, the Internet opens the possibility of a
freer discourse on such subjects than more traditional media do. The intention
behind this Toolbox is to encourage more people to use the Internet as a way of
getting critical discussion of Islamic issues out to the general public. Any
person who wants to is very welcome to copy this list or any parts of it that
they may find interesting to their own websites. The Toolbox is a work in
progress, and everybody is encouraged to add more "tools" of their own.
(Quotation taken from Larsson 2007:58).
WikiIslam provides Internet users with new ways of combating
and criticising Islam and Muslims in both cyberspace and offline, by
circulating critical information about Islam and Muslims. In order to get the
message out to a larger audience, the information on WikiIslam must also be
translated into as many languages as possible: today the site therefore offers
translations into a large number of Western and non-Western languages. Those
who support the aims of WikiIslam are therefore encouraged to send in new
materials, thus contributing to the content of the portal and developing an
online defensive position against Islam and Muslims. As we will see in the next
section of our article, the narratives of ex-Muslims (here called apostasy
narratives) are of great importance for WikiIslam and its adherents. These
stories are testimonies that illustrate, support and legitimize the critiques
of Islam and Muslims posted on the portal.
Most of the apostasy narratives found on the WikiIslam
portal are published elsewhere and are reproduced on WikiIslam with the
permission of the original sites. For example, one of the most frequently
quoted sites is faithfreedom.org (see Faithfreedom.org 2001), where Ali Sina is
one of the contributors, a topic that we will return to in the final analysis. It is clear that WikiIslam is attempting to show that Islam
is wrong and nonsensical, and that Muslims should be taken seriously because
they pose a dangerous threat to the open society.
With these aspects in mind, the questions posed in this article are about
the use of apostasy testimonies on WikiIslam. What is the role and function of
the apostasy narratives posted on WikiIslam when it comes to the sites ambition
to "tell the truth" about Islam? How are the "personal" experiences put to use
when narrating about Islam and the process of leaving Islam?
Apostasy and Islam
The prohibition against apostasy, or abandoning one's
religion, is nothing new in Islam, and it is not only interpretations of Islam
that expresses a negative stance on apostasy. However, it is Islam that is
usually portrayed as the most extreme religion when it comes to defections. In
Islam, apostasy (irtidād) has
frequently been linked to other negatively charged terms, for example, unbelief
(kufr), blasphemy (sabb al-rasul), heresy (zandaqa) and hypocrisy (nifaq). Abdullah Saeed and Hassan
Saeed's Freedom of Religion, Apostasy and
Islam (2003) is one of few studies of apostasy and Islam. The authors
examine the contradiction between freedom of religion and interpretations of
Islam that imply that apostasy should be punished with death. They point out
that this decree is contrary to other fundamental texts and beliefs in Islam
and emphasize the often contradictory statements about apostasy that have been
made throughout history. Saeed and Saeed mainly examine apostasy in Malaysia
and the problems that have arisen there. Paul Marshall and Nina Shea's Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes
are Choking Freedom Worldwide (2011) should also be mentioned in this
context. Marshall and Shea survey how restrictions on apostasy and blasphemy
are applied in Muslim-majority countries, as well as the contemporary debates
on apostasy and blasphemy in non-Muslim-majority countries. Even if Marshall
and Shea's main focus in on freedom of religion, international law and politics
- not on apostasy - they, at least indirectly, demonstrate how the process of
leaving Islam and legal responses to apostasy differs between Muslim-majority
countries and non-Muslim-majority countries.
Most studies of apostasy have been conducted in a Christian
context or in relation to new religious movements. We cannot mention all of
these studies here, but will just point out two positions in previous research
that are related to our analysis. In the anthology The Politics of Religious Apostasy (1998), edited by David G.
Bromley, apostates are defined as religious people who leave their religious
groups under the specific circumstances of conflict and instead become part of
the resistance against the religion of the left. This definition separates
apostates from other types of defectors from religion. It is also this type of
apostate who gives voice to apostasy in Ibn Warraq's pamphlet Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out
(2003). The autobiographical testimonies presented in Warraq's anthology
articulate severe critique against Islam and the apostasy narratives on
WikiIslam both replicates and refers to these testimonies, as the following
analysis will show. Sociologist Phil Zuckerman's study of apostasy in Faith no More (2011) supports a somewhat
wider definition of apostasy. Zuckerman examines the reasons why people abandon
their religion through a series of interviews with actual apostates. Apostasy
is, according to Zuckerman, often a lengthy, diverse and individual process,
rather than the conflict-charged event that Bromley and Warraq assume it to be.
An even more nuanced and elaborated model of the apostasy
process is found in Heinz Streib's (et al.) Deconversion:
Qualitative and Quantitative Results from Cross-Cultural Research in Germany
and the United States of America (2009). As the title illustrates, the
authors prefer the term deconversion instead of apostasy even if the latter is
more frequent used in research. They single out five characteristics when
defining deconversion: "(1) Loss of specific r (2)
intellectual doubt, denial or disagreement w (3) moral
(4) (5) disaffiliation from the community."
(Streib et al. 2009:22). Besides these aspects they also lists a range of
possible "deconversion avenues," or possible outcome of the deconversion
process, for example leaving religion, finding a new religion or leaving the
religious group while keeping some aspects of the religious faith (Streib et
al. ). "Deconversion," Streib
writes, "is biographical change" (2009:23). We can therefore talk about
apostasy in terms of religious change, similar to Lewis Rambo's description of
the conversion process (Rambo ). In their Amazing Conversions, Bob Altemeyer and
Bruce Hunsberger describe de-conversion
as a gradual religious change (Altemeyer and Hunsberger ). However, the
apostasy stories analyzed below are mainly of the first kind, where a clear
break occurs after a cataclysmic conflict.
Current Worldview
Testimonies from
former Muslims
On the March 1, 2013 there were 303 apostasy testimonies on WikiIslam.net,
212 formulated by men and 91 by women. 248 apostates had been born into Islam,
and 55 were converts. (See Table 1)
Tab. 1. (Source: People Who Left Islam 2012)
After reading all of these testimonial narratives, several
themes and narrative figures seems to recur. We examine some of these
narratives in detail here. As far as possible we have chosen narratives from
different positions: male-female, born into Islam-converts, different current
world views, and different country of origin and residence. The age variable
was more difficult to calculate since most apostates were in their twenties or
early thirties. Several studies suggest that apostasy more frequently occurs
when people are in their late teens or early twenties. These findings do not
depend on any specific religious tradition. Apart from these 303 testimonies, there were also a large
number of "comments from former Muslims" linked from the web page, which, the
web page makes clear, were "primarily taken from testimonies which were too
short for their own page." Of the total of 177 comments, 133 were formulated by
men and 44 by women. Since these comments often only rearticulate what the
apostasy narratives elaborate in greater detail, we will not deal with these
comments further here.
After going through these narratives, we have chosen to
analyze six testimonies that represent different positions and experiences. The
chosen narratives will illustrate that apostates can give different reasons for
leaving Islam and that they use different arguments when explaining their new
position on Islam and Muslims. In analyzing these narratives, we use some of
the methods provided by discourse analysis - "Islam" is, form such perspective,
seen as an unstable and even "empty" concept interpellated or inscribed with
meaning by the apostates - and rhetorical analysis, using the classical
Aristotelian concepts logos, pathos, and ethos. We are here interested in both the position-specific
narratives and experiences, and the group's shared narrative, that is the
group-specific narrative, these being the criteria for choosing the six
different apostasy narratives. Our point is that these narratives about being
an ex-Muslim "gather people around them," to quote sociologist Ken Plummer
(). To be a member of the virtual apostasy community the apostates have
to use the contemporary hegemonic narratives when expressing their experiences
as former Muslims. Focus is therefore on how hegemonic narratives are at work
in the formation of personal apostasy narratives and, at the same time,
excludes non-hegemonic narratives. However, before scrutinizing these
testimonies in detail, we will quote the so-called "Testimony Disclaimer"
posted on WikiIslam:
Testimonies of leaving Islam are candid, honest
submissions by former Muslims who have varying experiences and beliefs. After
leaving Islam they may turn to agnosticism, atheism, Buddhism, Christianity,
Hinduism, [theism] and so on.
Because these submissions are personal experiences
and thoughts, they may not necessarily comply with our guidelines which apply
to most of the other content on the site.
The validity and accuracy of the views contained
have not been verified and do not have any connection with the rest of the
content on the site. (WikiIslam: Testiomony
Disclaimer 2013).
In the following analysis, it is important to stress that we
are not trying to determine whether the testimonies are true or not. It is only
the text and the internal textual rationale (i.e. the argumentation and
rhetoric used and the examples employed to demonstrate the apostates' case)
that are of interest to us. The testimonies contain language that is very
critical of Islam and Muslims, and it is obvious that many believing Muslims
will have problems with how their religion is being presented. However, from an
academic point of view the testimonies can be seen as vital parts in the
ongoing struggle over how to define a specific religion, and they illustrate
clearly the power struggle that is going on over how to define Islam and
narratives
Fool I Was
The alias Fool I Was is presented as a Swedish woman with a
Christian background who converted to Islam. After being a Muslim for nine
years, she left Islam for Christianity. Her interest in Islam was first raised
when she met a man, an "Arab with hazel eyes and a big heart, or so I thought.."
To gain his mother's acceptance she started to study Islam, the Quran and
hadiths. Love and marriage are not unusual reasons for converting to Islam in
contemporary Sweden (Sultán Sj?qvist 2006; Roald 2004; M?nsson 2002), even
though the conversion process is usually seen as resulting from a crisis (See
Rambo ). Her mother-in-law, who, according to the narrator, first saw
her as "the 'Swedish whore who took her little boy'," changed her mind after
she had converted to Islam. While her own family was upset by her conversation,
her husband's family was pleased. The conversion also satisfied her desire for
a sense of belonging. "When you first fall in love with the religion,
everything is wonderful."
Besides her own reading of the Quran and the hadiths, she
took lessons from a local imam. She became, as she puts it, "the perfect Muslim.."
The "Arab Muslims" she met during her time as a Muslim she describes as
basically ignorant about religion: "[m]any converts know much more about Islam
than born Muslims." During the years as
a Muslim, she "helped many girls convert to Islam," girls who were going to
marry Muslim men. She summarizes her experience of women converts to Islam in a
sentence: "Love is what gets women into to I their
brains are what get them out."
It is important to note that this narrative is told from the
apostate's perspective. The narrating "I" is converting to Islam while marrying
a Muslim man, and leaving Islam after divorcing the same man. Her love for the
Muslim man and conversion to Islam coincide, as do the dissolutions of her
marriage and of her Muslim faith. In a book that has now become a classic, Becoming an ex (1988), sociologist Helen
Ebaugh points out the gradual shift between different positions, roles and
identities as significant for modern societies where changes of partners, work,
sex, residence and religion are increasingly frequent. And it is from the
position of the "ex," in two ways, that the story is articulated.
The conversion part of the story of Fool I Was does not
follow the usual pattern of conversion narratives. In Reading Autobiography (2010), Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson
describe the conversion narrative as follows: "The typical pattern involves a
fall into a troubled and sensorily confused 'dark night of the soul,' followed
by a 'call for help,' a process of transformation, and a journey to a 'new
Jerusalem' or place of membership in an enlightened community of like
believers." (Smith and Watson ). Interestingly, this "dark night of the
soul," a reference to the title of the poem written by the 16th century Spanish
poet San Juan de la Cruz, occurs when Fool I Was converts to Islam, not before.
In other words, the apostasy narrative follows a similar pattern but changes
the place of religion that the narrator has left. But leaving religion does not necessarily mean losing religion. A change of religion can also imply yet another
another religion is found and replaces the former one. This is also
pointed out by Smith and Watson in referring to Malcolm X's Autobiography: "Conversion may be
neither definitive nor final, as suggested in Malcolm X's chronicling of his
multiple conversions." (Smith and Watson ).
How, then, does the woman Fool I Was depict Islam in her
apostasy narrative? Her first contact with Islam is described as a period of
love and fascination for the religion's clear answers to a variety of difficult
issues in life. But already from the beginning there was also a sense of
alienation, since the religion in general and the Quran in particular did not
grab hold of her: "I got the Koran and read it. I had read about converts who
got enlightened and started crying while reading it. I didn' I was
more confused." The feeling of confusion grows even stronger over the years. On
the one hand she is performing the role of a convert, even helping other women
to convert, while on the other hand, behind the image of the "perfect Muslim"
that she is performing, there were also feelings of unease, dissatisfaction and
estrangement. The Quran, according to her understanding, "consisted of rules of
what to do and what not to do, different judgments for this and that. It's just
a lot of hate and punishment." Still, she converted to Islam, or was
"brainwashed," as she phrases it. By using the word "brainwashed," she is
associating her conversion to Islam with the process in which people join
so-called "cults."
The discourse about "cults" and their strategies of
recruiting potential members is usually stereotypical and prejudicial and is
frequently reproduced in popular media and media. In this discourse the
"member" is described as a victim, kidnapped or in some way manipulated to join
the group - terms like "mind control" and "brainwashed" are frequently used in
this discourse - while the leader of the religious group is depicted as a
pathological individual whose motifs are money, glory or sex (Wessinger
2000:6). Such ways of understanding sect or cult members as victims have met
with massive criticism, not least from scientific perspectives (Richardson and Introvigne
). Even though there is no manipulating sect leader in her story, the
narrator Fool I Was is using this theme in describing her time as a Muslim.
Islam is therefore depicted using familiar stereotypes about "cults."
The time as a "perfect" Quran-studying Muslim was also a
time of hypocrisy, double standards, and confusion. Islam is depicted as an
oppressive, anti-intellectual and un-logical religion: "Islam is all about not
using your own mind, thoughts or desires." Leaving Islam, conversely, is
narrated as an act for freedom - "I'm free!" - and an awakening from "the dark
night of the soul.." "I woke up," she writes, not when converting to Islam but
when leaving it. This quote gives one example of how Fool I Was struggled
with Islam during her time as a Muslim:
I tried to believe. I really did. I cried many times
for not "getting it." I did not feel at one with Allah while praying. I was
irritated when Ramadan came, rather than being happy. I hated the Hijab and the
double standard in Islam. I also felt like an outsider. Mostly I feel sick for
defending Islam. I was brainwashed and repeated phrases like: "The Hijab
protects women." "Having many wive it was to help the
widows in the time of the prophet." "Islam is peace." "When we fast we cleanse
our bodies and minds." I was confused. (Fool
I Was [Former Muslim] 2013).
This way of describing Islam has been frequent in Western
culture. Islam is described as a more or less fundamentalist religion, far from
the peace-loving, democratic and multifaceted image of Muslim advocates such as
Tariq Ramadan (2007) and John Esposito (2011). In studies about Islamophobia in
the West, the shift from 19th century Islam as mystical, exotic and even erotic
religion - in stark contrast to contemporary Christianity - to the
post-revolutionary religion, with its connotations of military action,
guerrilla wars and manhood, is a common theme (see Said 1981). This suggests
that the rhetoric of the present-day apostasy narratives would be hard to find
in, for example, 19th century Europe. It is clear that public speech about
Islam and increased anti-Muslim - and Islamophobic - rhetoric in society has
important implications for the debate about people who leave Islam. Fool I Was'
autobiographical narrative confirms these later, contemporary prejudices about
Islam by referring to her own experiences as a Muslim, thus giving her image of
Islam an air of authenticity.
In contrast to Fool I Was, Malayan Tatsuhiro was born into
Islam, but left it for Buddhism. In contrast to predominantly Christian Sweden,
the majority of Malaysia's population practices Islam (61.3 percent), even
though a significant minority are Buddhists (19.8 percent). But even though
Tatsuhiro's situation differs from that of Fool I Was in Sweden, there are some
common figures of thought that seem to transcend the personal aspects as well
as the culturally specific ones. These themes are connected to the way the two
apostates understand and describe Islam. But let us first scrutinize
Tatsuhiro's narrative.
Tatsuhiro first discusses how Islam has come to influence
Malaysian law in negative ways, especially at the present day. Islamic law
limits freedom of religion, he writes, and he describes Islam as a foreign
element in Malaysian culture, since "pre-Islam ethnic Malays were adherents of
Hindu or Buddhist faiths.." The Buddhist Tatsuhiro argues that, "to force an
ex-Muslim [like himself] to keep his faith unto Islam and to discriminate
[against] apostates is verily against humanity's freedom of religion.." This
discourse, in which Islam is an oppressive force in society, is due to the
religion's place in Malaysia, which differs from the Swedish discourse on Islam
we have already dealt with. The obvious connection, however, is that in both
cases Islam plays a negative role in society and in people's lives. When we
consider the motives for Tatsuhiro leaving Islam, we find that the Swedish and
Malaysian discourses coincide here too:
I left Islam due to the fact that the Quran contradicts
humanity and science itself, plus historical accounts of Islam conquests on
other nations were horrible, and the historical accounts according to the
Al-Hadith are terrifying towards women.
In this quote, Islam is once again given agency, as if the
religion is monolithically acting on its own. The rationality argument is also
mentioned when discussing the Quran, which is represented as irrational in
relation to science, which here symbolizes rationality and "fact" in opposition
to fiction and myths. But Islam is not just understood as an irrational
delusion: its conquests are cited as an example of the religion's brutal and
inhuman history. That is fact, not
Although Tatsuhiro gives these reasons for leaving Islam,
atheism does not seem to be an option for him. Instead, after considering
Judaism, Christianity and Hinduism, he chooses to become a Buddhist. To
Tatsuhiro Buddhism is a "'free form' religion" and "the most 'neutral' religion
in terms of interfaith dialogues." Hence, he compares and contrasts Islam and
Buddhism with each other. While Islam is portrayed as irrational, oppressive
and inhumane, Buddhism is simply seen as its opposite.
Tatsuhiro keeps his Buddhist meditations a secret from his
father and other Malaysian Muslims. Living in Malaysia as a former Muslim and
now as a Buddhist, he is surrounded with several problems that have to do with
how "the Malaysian government imposes Islamic Sharia law" on him. But even though
he frames Islam in a basically negative light, Tatsuhiro points out that
"Modern Islam has its good side," using the analogy of how theories can be
revised within science. A modern
version of Islam can therefore be a positive expression of the religion. But it
is clear, according to Tatsuhiro, that there is no such modern version of Islam
in Malaysia.
The story of the American woman called Paz was first
and, like most such stories, has been
republished on WikiIslam. Paz was a convert to Islam, and her narrative starts
with the conversion process and ends with the de-conversion or apostasy
narrative. The narrative thus uses the well-established form and metaphor of
Western literature, that of a journey (Bernhardsson 2010:33). In Paz's case,
the journey into Islam coincides with her marrying a Muslim man. But unlike the
narrative of Fool I Was, Paz's journey starts before meeting the man, a
fascination that developed after encountering a woman who had converted to Islam:
"I was captivated by I it was so mysterious and new to me." After reading
about Islam on the Internet and studying the Quran at home, she came to the
conclusion that Islam was the religion for her: "I wanted a change in my life
and this was it."
She met her future husband, Khalid, on a chat room on the
Internet. After two months of correspondence they met at her home in New Mexico
and got married in a local mosque. But things didn't turn out as expected.
Khalid "was revealing himself to be more and be stricter and stricter .." While she stayed at home all day, he
controlled her from work and when at home questioned her about her activities,
especially religious ones. She should, according to Khalid, live her life
according to Sunnah, though the same rules did not seem to apply to him. Paz
continues:
I was required to sit down and drink my glass of
water in two or three gulps exactly, according to Sunnah. He was trying to make
me become right-handed and stop using eating utensils also according to Sunnah.
[...]. He was on my back about my every move while he was clean-shaven, used
mouthwash that contained alcohol (while at the same time insisting that I not
use vanilla extract in any cooking because of the alcohol it contained),
smoked, and did whatever he pleased. (Paz [Former Muslim] 2013).
The ideal image of the Muslim man she had married fell apart
piece by piece up to the point when she could not take it anymore. She
describes this period as "oppressive and suffocating" and as "the most
exhausting, draining period" of her life. Thus far in Paz's narrative, the
representation of Islam has changed from being fascinating, mysterious and the
ideal way of life to being more and more aligned with her husband's views,
which marginalized and oppressed Paz. Thus, Islam became at the same time more
"masculine" in character, the "feminine" aspects being left aside (See, for
example, Hoffmann 2012). The masculine image of Islam, in the narrative
represented by Khalid, was also a religion full of hypocrisy, as the quote
above makes clear. When Paz decides to leave Khalid, it is not only he she is
leaving but also Islam. The image of Khalid and the image of Islam had become
merged together for her. Paz also mentions a number of "key beliefs [...] that
were contradictory to Islam," among them equality between men and women, free
agency, joy, love, compassion, fellowship and kindness, to mention but a few.
These "traits [were] lacking in Islam," and she could therefore no longer be a
After escaping from Khalid during the daytime while he was
working, she returned to her mother in New Mexico, to "sweet freedom and
relief.." Though she did not de-convert immediately, she describes her
new-found freedom as follows: "I could eat in a restaurant again! I could watch
TV, go to the store, eat with a fork, I was free!" After Paz had left Khalid, she discovered she was pregnant
and became afraid to tell him because she thought that he would take the baby
and raise it according to Islam. Her apprehension was confirmed as Khalid,
finding out she was pregnant, told her that he had "been advised by a cleric to
take our child to Saudi Arabia, away from me.." But that never happened because
Paz had a miscarriage.
Paz's narrative is prese she is looking
back at a period of her life, and it is from her present position that she is
examining what happened. The last part of her story sums up her view of Islam.
She seemed at first to be able to separate her marriage from Islam and
considered Islam a "religion of peace.." She even describes herself as a
"non-Muslim apologist for Islam:"
I blamed my failed marriage on my husband's abuse,
not realizing that his abuse was acceptable in Islam. Though Islam was not
true, I thought Muhammad might have been inspired with some truth to give to
his followers. I even thought he might have been a prophet, but not the best or
the last. I assumed the religion had been corrupted and changed to what it is
now. I even knew about the horrors of the Taliban of Afghanistan, and thought
they were severely misguided. (Paz [Former Muslim] 2013).
Her position as an apologist eventually changed. When
September 11 happened she questioned her previous understanding of Islam, after
"reading more about the terrorists, the Taliban, and Islam, [...] starting to
change my mind, starting to think Islam is evil.." Paz's narrative ends, not
about her own experience or situation, but with a conclusion about Islam: "The
truth was undeniable. Islam is not and never was a religion of peace." This is
Paz's conclusion, one she draws from have been a Muslim for a long time. This
way of integrating personal experience with opinions and harsh statements about
Islam, as if Islam were an autonomous entity different from other religions
that had several different interpretations and expressions, serves to make the
narrative reliable and authentic. This way of using the "personal" when
narrating about Islam the religion is rhetorically effective. These personal
narratives all have significant elements of pathos
that aim to affect the reader's emotions and create sympathy for the narrator.
Once that has been achieved, the reader might also be convinced about the
narrators' perspective on Islam. If the rhetoric succeeds, the reader gains the
same insights about the true nature of Islam that the narrating "I" has
acquired, namely that "Islam is evil," not a religion of peace. This way of
criticizing Islam differs from other types of critique that predominantly use logos.
The self-referring and self-experienced narrative is similar
to what John Beverley defines as testimonio:
A testimonio
is a novel or a novella-length narrative, produced in the form of a printed
text, told in the first person by a narrator, who is also the real protagonist
or witness of the events she or he recounts (Beverley ).
Even though there may be some parallels between the
life-story and the testimonio, the
latter is distinguished by its aim of making a new audience aware of the
situation he or she has experienced or is experiencing at the present moment.
The position that the testimonio
narrative expresses is intertwined with the narrator's own identity, and the
act of testimonio consists of
oppression, suffering and marginalization "that is implicated in the act of
narration itself" (Beverley ). Although the apostasy narratives testify
to oppression, deprivation and marginalization, they usually have a triumphal
character and have usually left the oppressive situation they are talking
about. But, just like the testimonio
narrative, the apostasy narratives give the reader access to a perspective and
an experience that would not be available otherwise. And the narrative's truth
is deeply dependent on authenticity. Beverley again:
This presence of the voice, which the reader is
meant to experience as the voice of a real
rather than fictional person, is the mark of a desire not to be silenced or
defeated, to impose oneself on an institution of power and privilege from the
position of the excluded, the marginal, the subaltern (Beverley ).
Another mark that signifies a testimonio is the erasure of the author's function and textual
presence. The narrator has written down his or her narrative in the first
person. It is the narrator's own experience, thoughts and emotions that the
reader can partake of. This is how the apostasy narratives become authentic,
real and "true.."
The Apostate
A very different story is formulated by the Apostate, a 24-years-
old woman who was raised as a Muslim in Saudi Arabia, but is now living in
America. Significantly, the Apostate's statement ends with the conclusion that
she cannot believe in "a religion that is as nonsensical and ludicrous as Islam
plainly is." While her narrative is given authority by her Muslim background,
she uses logos arguments throughout.
When she read a short book about the history of the world's religions, she "had
an epiphany about Islam: it was crystal to me that it was just another man-made
religion, destined to take its place with other religions that had come and
gone, whose gods had been worshiped for centuries and then been abandoned into
obscurity." Islam was no longer "God's truth" as she had been raised to
The Apostate left Islam because of the religion's
irrationality, history of violence and inequality, and she uses several
arguments well-known from the New Atheist movement, in which Richard Dawkins is
one of the most prominent figures. One example is when she is talking about the
"modern Muslim" who is "reinterpreting scripture in the light of our modern
values.." The question that arises is "why not just adopt the modern values and
drop the unnecessary muddling factor of revelation?" What is notable is how she
is rhetorically creating different positions. In contrast to other Muslims, the
"modern Muslim" tries to reshape Islam into some relation with what she calls
"our modern values." But in so doing the "modern Muslim" might just as well
drop the religion altogether and hence become just "modern" (in her sense). The
main reason is that "modern" and "Muslim" are incompatible and not able to
combine. "Muslim" is per se
anti-modern, and "modern" is anti-Muslim. This way of arguing about religion
can also be found in Richard Dawkins' writings (Dawkins ). We give a few more examples of this way of
I see Islamic history as a sort of joy-ride of
imperialism, oppression and a chronicle of misery with "Bad Idea" written all
over it. But my main beef with Islam, the main reason I don't believe any
divine being revealed the Koran or appointed flawed Muhammad as the final
prophet, is the utter ludicrousness of the idea of Revelation. [...]. The purpose
of this whole revelation business was to provide mankind with guidance [...].
[w]e can't really take any of the "guidance" at face value because then we'd be
slaying kafirs, taking slaves and oppressing women at every turn. [...]. The
Koran and the Hadith are also very flawed as sources of law, or even as
guidance, for the simplest human society, much less our complex modern societal
structures. They fall apart with the least scrutiny - the edifice is built on
ignorance, superstition, bad history and worse science. (The Apostate [Former Muslim] 2013).
The Apostate came to these conclusions by using her own
mind, and states that she did not "set out to stop believing." Seeing Islam in
this new light made it impossible for her to remain a Muslim. The Apostate's
apostasy narrative is thus pursued through rational arguments, not emotions or
relational aspects, as in some of the other narratives.
Freethinker
Freethinker also had a Muslim upbringing, like the Apostate,
and also criticizes Islam for being irrational. Freethinker mentions the new
atheists Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris as influences, and for the most part
his narrative is about "telling the truth" about Islam through Quranic
exegesis. The starting point for this truth-seeking, however, as Freethinker
himself puts it, was due to an embarrassment that occurred when as a Muslim he
could not answer questions about Islam because he lacked a proper knowledge of
it. Such lack of knowledge is common among Muslims, Freethinker points out, and
he describes his own quest for truth in the following way:
Seeking the truth is not about consolation, comfort,
confirmation of a prior conception. Truth means "facing and accepting" the
reality, that can be harsh, cruel, bitter but the false notions are released.
The best thing was that I was not afraid about unbiased inquiry following factual
inform I persuaded facts that led me to truth.
(Freethinker [Former Muslim] 2013).
The remaining part of his story is dedicated to presenting
"facts" about Islam that lead him to the "truth." The facts usually consist of
quotes from the Quran. Another important statement has to do with atheism in
relation to religion: "you are born without beliefs. The mind of a child is
hijacked by their guardians as it was not preinstalled with beliefs by any god."
While man is a born atheist, religion is imposed upon the child, who is
indoctrinated. Another way of putting the logic of Freethinker is to say
that atheism is natural and religion is its opposite, that is, not natural, and,
more in line with the Apostate above, religion is said to be cultural,
man-made. This line of argument is well-known in atheist circles. At the same
time, scholars argue that religion is "natural" (see, for instance, Boyer 2003,
McCauley 2011 and Sloan Wilson 2002). Freethinker's scrutiny of Islam leads him
to the following concluding remarks:
Religion breeds group-ism, incites hatred,
discriminates people and is an irrational fanaticism. Superstition is the seed
of religious rituals. Traditional and cultural ideologies limit individual to pre-structured
thoughts in every sphere. [...]. Selective religious ideology may turn one into
mother Teresa, but an absolutist (word by word) follower of religion is bound
to sow seeds of hatred and discrimination. (Freethinker [Former Muslim] 2013).
This statement is about religion, not Islam, even though the
rest of the text is about Islam. Freethinker also distinguishes between
religion and spirituality, although only implicitly when discussing his
admiration of the Buddha's teaching, while rejecting Buddhism as a corrupted
version and "contradictory to original teaching of Buddha.." This does not mean
that Freethinker is a Buddhist. The distinction between the teaching of the
Buddha and the religion of Buddhism relies on a common public understanding of religion
as something aligned with institutions, power and men, while spirituality is
religion's opposite (Heelas and Woodhead ; Lynch ). This type
of argument could be applied to Islam as well, but Freethinker prefers to
discuss Islam as a prototypical religion, separate from spirituality.
Former Muslim Naeema is a 20-years-old woman who was born
into Islam but has converted to Christianity. Her mother converted to Islam
from Christianity when she married Naeema's father. Naeema describes her father
as "extremely religious," even though he was an "open-minded man." Her
upbringing was religious, and as a child she had a positive view of Islam. But
as she got older Isla she couldn't dress the way her
friends did, and because she was afraid of Allah's punishment she did not
develop her drawing skills. As she puts it, she "missed a lot of fun," but even
worse she "feared the fire of hell" and did everything to please Muhammad and
Allah. This period, when she was socially isolated, she describes as a period
of phobic fear of Allah and Muhammad.
After studying Islamic views on women, she understood Islam
as "every bit like apartheid in South Africa.." She mentions misogynic hadiths
"about the household of Prophet Muhammad, about his wives, about his battle.
Hadiths about rape and female war captives.." This version of Islam clearly
differed from the Islam she grew up with. And her negative understanding of
Islam only increased: "I looked at Islam's rule of polygamy for men, yet women
are not given any alternative. I saw nothing but injustice." After reading the
Quran and the hadiths, she dismisses Muhammad as a "man of 54 sleeping with a
nine-year-old child" and as a "mentally and emotionally abusive husband.." And
Islam is just as bad as Muhammad: "Islam turned women's bodies into sex
factories for men.." And when she examined Islamic history, she "saw no love,
no peace, no kindness, no humanity, but only a river of blood and anarchy
flowing with the lives of so many innocent [The original is partly written with
capital letters.].." All these findings led Naeema to leave Islam: "I denounced
the Islamic Prophet. He was a false prophet! [...] I'd rather spend eternity in
hell with victims of war, than with warmongers and rapists in Allah's paradise."
But leaving Islam did not make her want to leave religion
altogether: "I was longing, sorry thirsting for a God to praise.." And the
interest in Jesus and Christianity arose together with this longing for God.
She started to read the Bible and began comparing Jesus with Muhammad, the
Christian God with Allah. Jesus
was way too pure and wise to be human. Especially in
comparison to the Islamic Prophet's 7th century, illogical and superstitious
mentality. Jesus Christ was born 600 years before him, but seems to speak with
eloquence, intelligence, authority and righteousness. [...] Why does he speak of
a commandment of "Loving the Father with all your heart"? I never Loved Allah.
I always feared him. He never gave me a chance to love him. By now I was in
tears! All the frustration, the loss and the failures of all the years came
gushing out. Suddenly the G-d of the Gospels and the G-d of the Quran split.
One seemed like a G-d of Fire and War and the other a G-d of Love and Mercy.
The one was promising hell fire, while the other was promising salvation. [...] I
denounce Allah, Muhammad's imaginary god. (Freethinker [Former Muslim] 2013).
Just as Freethinker contrasts Buddhism and Islam, Naeema
makes a similar comparison between Christianity and Islam. In the quote it is
clear that Islam is understood as a false and oppressive religion, its Prophet
as superstitious and illogical. Allah is not God, but "only" Muhammad's
"imaginary God." Islam, she writes, consists of "unjust, mentally exhausting,
superstitious, oppressive, disruptive, intellectually stifling, hypocritical
doctrine and chains." It is Naeema's background and experience as a Muslim that
makes her anti-Muslim rhetoric seem reliable. She is a former insider who has
turned outsider. Her story's autobiographical character produces a "truth"
about the "real" Islam. At the same time, her self-referring narrative is a
story about stages of development in which Naeema's life-crises make her change
position on the question of Islam. And since Naeema left Islam, and even though
she had a religious upbringing, she is what Bob Altemeyer and Bruce Hunsberger
describe as an "amazing apostate" in their Amazing
Conversions (1997).
Conclusions
The apostasy narratives published on WikiIslam differ in
context, contents and character, but follow similar patterns when it comes to
genre, rhetoric and representing Islam.
A central aspect of the apostasy narrative's type of text
and its relation to truth-telling about Islam is the rhetoric aspects of
genre or what genre does, rather than
is. The apostasy narratives put
several different genres to use, but we will limit our discussion to the genre
of autobiography. As autobiography the apostasy narratives can be associated
with non-fiction, documentaries and representations of the reflexiv truth of a
person's life. The narrative contract between the narrator and the reader
implies that the narrator represents the position he or she is talking from.
There is a correspondence between the narrative's "I," its protagonist, and the
narrative's author. If the reader did not believe in this connection, the
narrative's authenticity, its truth claims, would fail. This self-referring
text is aligned with the referentiality of literature as well as its realism.
The autobiographical pact, associated with French theorist
Philippe Lejeune appears when the reader identifies the narrative's author with
its protagonist. The autobiographical text supposes, Lejeune writes, "that
there is identity of name between the
author (such as he figures, by his name, on the cover), the narrator of the
story, and the character who is being talked about". (Lejeune 1989:12, as
quoted in Smith and Watson ). Through the autobiographical pact, fiction is suspended from the story, and the text is represented to be true. In this
way, the autobiographical pact denotes a kind of truth claim - it is fact, not
fiction. According to Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson, it is when the text's
narrator and the protagonist coincide that the text's veracity becomes
difficult to determine, since then it cannot be categorized as either fact or
fiction (Smith and Watson ).
The key aspect of the autobiography's truth claims is that
they are based on the narrator's own experience. In the above narratives, this
type of self-referring is most explicit in the testimonios of Fool I Was, Paz and Naeema, which claim to portray a
specific, self-perceived experience. But this does not mean that the narrative
is personal in the se rather, it uses and reproduces a
conventional narrative about what it means to leave Islam as a personal
experience.
Looking at the logos,
pathos and ethos arguments
- well-known rhetorical ways of persuading
the reader-listener - it is clear all three aspects are used at different
lengths in the narratives, often with one aspect to the fore (See, for
instance, Foss ). The typical logos
argument states that Islam is an irrational, illogical way of thought: it is
simply not reasonable to be a Muslim (for example, the narratives of Tatsuhiro,
The Apostate and Freethinker above). The logos argument points out details in
the Quran and established Islamic beliefs, and comes to the conclusion that
they are not God-given and true, but
false, man-made and nonsensical. The narrator often comes to this "insight"
after a period of serious study of Islam and Islamic thought, and at times the
result of the generally isolated study was not planned from the outset. The
"insight" therefore also surprises the narrators themselves. Aligned with this
argument is also the view, expressed by the Apostate, that "religions comes and
goes.." Emphasizing the temporality of a religion also relativizes it,
representing "truth" in Islam as just one of many "truths" that will eventually
disappear. The only truth that will survive is based on rational and logical
arguments.
The ethos argument
is about convincing the listener or reader that the narrative is reliable and
true, which is generally achieved by gaining the audience's trust. In the
apostasy narrative, this is done by the self-referring narrator telling us
about his or her own experience as a former Muslim. In the conversion narrative, there are several examples of how ethos is
used. The motives for converting to Islam are "pure" and signify a high moral
standard. This has to do with manners, restrictions on sexuality, alcohol and
more. When the narrator, like Fool I Was or Paz, has been a Muslim for a while,
she or he sees the religion for what it really is: hypocrisy. And when Islam
fails to live up to the high moral standards of the narrator, the latter has to
The pathos
argument, finally, rests on the narrator's own experience of being a Muslim. By
using biographical materials, the narrator is able to express and create
feelings about the subject matter, Islam. If the reader is a Muslim, the pathos
argument can also be about showing possibilities in the future. The "I" in the
apostasy narrative can thus work as a textual node of identification.
Islam representations
The apostasy narratives that contain self-referential and
autobiographical components make the truth-claims based on the narrator's own
experiences as a former Muslim. They make these in different ways that amount
to different claims. Logos: (1) Islam is an irrational, illogical way of
thought and the beliefs that Islam holds to be true are actually false.
Ethos: (2) Islam is not about peace,
high standards and G Islam is an evil, self-centered and morally corrupt
religion, and Muslims are hypocrites. Pathos: (3) Islam is an oppressive,
misogynist and violent religion, and it is negative for its followers,
especially women, even if they don't know it themselves. The descriptions of
the effects of apostasy mirror [descriptively] the negative image of Islam. The
recurring words characterizing apostasy are rationality,
peaceful, happ freedom, equality and autonomy. In the
apostasy narratives and the narrators' testimonios,
these adjectives are incapable of combining with the word "Islam."
The apostasy narratives that contain self-referential and
autobiographical components make the truth-claims based on the narrator's own
experiences as a former Muslim. They make these in different ways that amount
to different claims. Logos: (1) Islam is an irrational, illogical way of
thought and the beliefs that Islam holds to be true are actually false.
(2) Islam is not about peace,
high standards and G Islam is an evil, self-centered and morally corrupt
religion, and Muslims are hypocrites. Pathos: (3) Islam is an oppressive, misogynist
and violent religion, and it is negative for its followers, especially women,
even if they don't know it themselves. The descriptions of the effects of
apostasy mirror descriptively the negative image of Islam. The recurring words
characterizing apostasy are rationality, peaceful, happiness
freedom, equality and autonomy. In the apostasy narratives and
the narrators' testimonios, these
adjectives are incapable of combining with the word "Islam."
Both apologists and polemical writers who want to tell the truth about
Islam and Muslims are using the Internet and other social media. How the truth
is being construed is not just a matter of context and the aims of the writers
but also technical and rhetorical aspects. As scholars of religion, it is our
job to analyze how different opinions and voices are striving to gain the upper
hand in creating simulacra of discussion, and from this point of view the
opinions posted on the WikiIslam.net portal provide interesting empirical
material. Several academic studies have demonstrated how the Internet has
become the new platform for anti-Muslim opinions, racism and Islamophobia (See,
for example, Larsson 2007). In this forum, we have analyzed how apostasy
testimonies can be used as truth claims to demonstrate that Islam is a
dangerous, irrational and anti-modern religion, but the narratives analyzed
should not be seen as a sample to determine how Muslims discuss and argue the
question of apostasy and we also need to know if apostasy testimonies (like the
ones we have discussed in this article) are being read and whether they are
having an impact on decisions to leave Islam or not. These apostasy testimonies
can also be used by individuals who wish to question Islam and Muslims. From
this point of view these stories can easily be turned into an important weapon
in the hands of those who want to express anti-Muslim feelings and so
constitute an important element in an Islamophobic world view that presents
Islam and Muslims as diametrically opposite to all other world views.
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