Hi everyone! It’s your friendly neighborhood ex-Muslim Abdullah Sameer. Someone asked me “How do you deal with the fear of some radical Islamist or some crazy person coming and hurting you? Even though you’re living in Canada what you are doing is still dangerous and risky right?” and here is my response to these concerns.

When I decided to engage in this type of activism, I had Muslims (even my Muslim friends) tell me, “Maybe you shouldn’t do this with your face. Just use a cartoon or some logo just like The Masked Arab”.  I thought about all of the people that came before me that did it publicly. People like Hassan Radhwan and MTS Shams and all of the people who risked their own lives.  They live in the UK, which is probably a more risky place than Canada and they still did it. So I’m like if they can do it then I too can do it.

Now to be clear, I live in a country where the government would support me. The CSIS, which is the Canadian equivalent of the FBI, would support me if ever there was any sort of terrorist threat against me or my family. There is always a chance of some nut job that will follow me and do something to me and my family. I try to keep my personal details as anonymous as possible – where I live, where I work stuff like that. Also, I am more diligent when it comes to online safety. I do not share any of my details with people I meet online.

I learned the hard way that I can’t trust basically anyone with information and details about where I work for example. There was this incident and I don’t even know how someone found out where I was working before. They called up my workplace and asked the company to fire me. Thankfully, my boss, HR, and the company management all decided to keep me. They decided not to be concerned about what I do in the evenings and the type of activism that I do because it’s my own personal beliefs or lack of beliefs. The management recognized that  I shouldn’t be fired as I wasn’t engaging as a representative of the company on my blog.

It was refreshing to have my company have my back in the face of such a stupid attack. I am not sure exactly why the company decided to keep me and risk being labeled Islamaphobic. Maybe it was because I was doing a wonderful job; maybe the quality of work and how good a team member I was, I don’t know.

Everyone has their own personal opinions, but this didn’t stop Muslims from trying to get me fired; from trying to make me lose the income that I was using to support my family. At that time I didn’t have a Patreon or other sources of income. I wasn’t making any money from my YouTube. Even now to this day, the money I’m making is it is in no way enough for me to survive and to continue to provide for my family which is my wife and my five kids. So the situation is that I need a full-time job. 

The money that I get from Patreon and from the YouTube ads which again is so unreliable. I haven’t received any money for nearly 90 days now because of a community strike that I got. It wasn’t much in the beginning with anyway, but now it’s something so regardless. My online income combined doesn’t even add up to like 20% of what I make on my full-time job.

So this is one way they tried to hurt me They tried to get me fired. I think such mass reporting and complaining by Muslims was successful in some other instance. They managed to get me to lose another job. I’m not sure but I think this is what happened.

This is the worst that’s happened so far and we all know knows that this is all they can do right now. Although if they could do more they would do more as Ali Dawah said in his video, “We’re proud of that. We’re proud that we execute apostates….”  because we’re causing fitnah. Us mutards, as you know they call us, are causing fitnah in the land.

We are causing what they consider to be the worst thing – making people leave Islam. I mean we don’t make anyone do anything. The Muslims make people be Muslims and in some cases forcibly. They make people stay Muslim by threatening them – emotionally, psychologically, and physically. We’re just sharing our ideas on online social platforms and in in-person speaking events. This is enough of a threat to some people that they want to have us shut down. They’re willing to intimidate us.

I remember one individual by the name of Mazin. He actually said something to the effect of “You know you’re gonna be some homeless loser addicted to drugs dying like a worthless pathetic individual in the gutter on the sides of the street because you’re a mustard”. I was like what the hell is he saying?  He blocked me just after saying that. So those were his parting words all because I’m an enemy of Allah. If these guys had their way, we all know what they would do to me and to all the ex-Muslims.

Right now we have a unique opportunity to speak about Islam with the protection of the government. Of course, there is no 100% guarantee that my life will be safe and that something will not happen to me, but this is the choice that I’ve made. This is the risk that I’m willing to take in order to say what I believe or rather what I disbelieve.

I feel strongly about this that I’m willing to take this risk. But let’s be real, I’m no hero. I’m doing what I can from the safety of Canada. If I was in Pakistan I would not do what I’m doing. I do not recommend it for anyone in Pakistan or Saudi or anyone who lives in a country that it is illegal to criticize Islam. I do not recommend any of you to come out publicly and do what I do.

I’m doing it from the safety and comfort of a country where my rights are protected under secularism under freedom of religion. I can speak my mind and nobody can shut me down. Of course, they can try to shut me down as they have tried to shut me down by shutting down the finances by targeting my income sources but they haven’t stopped me yet. Rather my online work has been successful and the same goes for my full-time job. I enjoy what I do as a software developer and an ex-Muslim activist.

So what is the situation now? What can we say about people that want to come out? If you can come out safely and do what I do, then do it. If you can’t do it safely, don’t be a martyr. We don’t need more martyrs. What we need is more people to contribute to the cause however they can, even if not publicly.

You can get involved by contributing subtitles, editing of videos or translating our content into different languages. This improves the accessibility of this information and increases our audience. When engaging in online discussions, use anonymous profiles on different social media platforms NOT your real name and identity. Use VPN for security and do not share personal details with people you meet online. Even if they also claim to be ex-Muslim. Don’t risk your life. It’s not worth it. Seriously don’t do it. Now I might sound like a bit of a hypocrite, but let’s be real I’m in Canada not in Pakistan. If I was in Pakistan I wouldn’t do this. I truly wouldn’t. I’m not that crazy. I don’t wish death on anyone.

If you liked this article, consider supporting me.  I’ll add you to my special mailing list, you’ll get early access to my videos and my eternal gratitude. Remember, guiding someone away from Islam is better than 10 red camels. You can quote me on that hadith.