This is your friendly neighborhood ex-Muslim Abdullah Sameer. This Muslim Youtuber with 80K subs who goes by the name of WAYOFLIFESQ called me out on my last video with the following comment:

“You’re such a cornball. If you’re an ex-Muslim good for you my G. Why don’t you promote your Christian or Atheists beliefs & leave Islam out of it. You’re lame & need to get a life. You don’t want no smoke my guy.”

 

This sounds like a threat. Like when a gangster says to you “You don’t want a problem.” or “You don’t want to get messed up by me”. Not sure why he had to escalate to threats. These dawah guys already have huge well-funded channels to spout out their Islamic teachings 24/7. Why so intimidated by a little ex-Muslim YouTuber?

A history of violence

In the context of Muslim violence against dissenters, this becomes more credible. Critics of Islam like Abdel-Hamad Samad, Salman Rushdie, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali have to live under the fear of threat because of the things they have said about Islam. When a Muslim says this to a non-Muslim critic, you have to take it seriously.

Time and time again responses like this break my heart. Where is the Muslim community’s intellectual response? Where are their arguments? Their strong critique of arguments. Why does it always get to threatening comments, mocking, and childish taunts? Where is the William Lane Craig of the ummah?

“Why don’t you promote your Christian or Atheist beliefs & leave Islam out of it.  You’re lame & need to get a life.”

The Irony

THE IRONY here. Do you know what the irony is? The video he’s responding to is a video where I speak about why Muhammad Hijab involved my wife and others in his online attacks. Cheryl, who has never said a single word against Islam online, was the focus of his cyberbullying. And so I made a video sharing the history of how it got there. In this video, of all the videos he chose, he is telling me to leave Islam out of it.

Do you see that Islam doesn’t actually leave us alone? You are a perfect example of that. Big men scared of little words. Your religion, with your perfect prophet, doesn’t need thugs to protect it. If it does, I’m not so sure it’s the right religion. Or really from God. Christianity is doing just fine without all this thuggery. 1 billion of them and counting.

Atheist beliefs

As for your comment “Why don’t you promote your Christian or Atheist beliefs” I guess I’m not Muslim so I must be either Christian or atheist. If you aren’t sure, maybe you should do some homework before leaving such silly comments. I’m obviously an atheist. What are atheist beliefs and what exactly do you want me to speak about?

Let me make a video.

Atheism. No god.

<crickets>

Okay. That was boring. But that’s what atheism is. It’s just the lack of belief in gods, goddesses, spirits, monsters, demons, angels. No supernatural. Just the material world.

Now that we got that out of the way, we can talk about things that matter. Harmful belief systems.

There’s a ton of atheist channels out there. Many of them focus on atheism from an ex-Christian perspective. Matt Dillahunty, Aron Ra, Genetically Modified Skeptic, Holy Koolaid, among others. But what about people from a Muslim background who are having doubt? The issues in Islam are different from Christianity. Christianity for example doesn’t have a problem with radical terrorism. It doesn’t have as much of a problem with women’s rights. There are problems, but they are different. Some problems exist in both religions, like the problem of suffering and evil. This spans all the Abrahamic religions. So where does that leave us? With a need. A need for someone to speak about the issues particular to Islam. Problems like the ones I highlighted above. Dawkins, Bart Ehrman, Sam Harris speak from a very Christian-heavy background. We need atheist Muslim voices. The Muslim world is craving enlightenment. Urdu channels like Harris Sultan are growing in leaps and bounds because of the strong desire for such content.

No, I will not stop

And no, I’m not going to stop talking about Islam. Or for that matter other religions. But mainly Islam. Because I am a person who stands up for what he believes in. The world will not be a better place if we fold to religious bigotry and violence. Whatever the consequences, we need to speak up and fight hateful ideas, no matter where they come from.

If Muslims don’t like it, why not focus on reform, rather than silencing others? Fix your problems rather than shutting down those who point them out.

Stay in your lane

And here’s another question for you. Do your Muslim scholars and daees stay in their lane and only talk about Islam?
No. Of course not. Just look at any Islamic channel on YouTube

Why I’m not an atheist by Shabir Ally
How to disprove the bible with one argument by Mohamed Hijab
Zakir Naik uses Bible to prove Trinity is a lie
Ahmed Deedat 100% proof Jesus was not crucified. Also by Khalid Yasin
How to conquer atheism in 8 minutes by Mohamed Hijab
A playlist called “For atheists” on Islamic Mimbar.
A playlist called “For Christians” on Islamic Mimbar.

Why not tell all these people to quit talking about other religions and only talk about Islam?

And how about telling animal rights activists not to talk about animals? Environmentalists to stop whining about oil companies who spill thousands of liters of oil into our oceans. Battered women to stop talking about violence against women and children? How about telling human rights activists to stop complaining about the Chinese Uighur Muslims? They aren’t Muslim, right?

Wrong. All of us should talk about things that bother us, things that are harmful, things that need to change in the world. That’s how we make the world a better place. Instead of trying to silence me with your vague threats, why not just respond with better? Show the world what Islam is all about, in a positive manner, not by being a wannabe gangster.

Unless of course that is what Islam is about, and you are doing exactly what Muhammad did when he sent assassins to kill the poets who criticized him. You guys really need to work on your PR. Work on defeating bad ideas with better ones. Not with bullying

So stop trying to silence us. instead of worrying about what WE talk about on our channels, focus on your own. Your efforts will inevitably be futile.

We will not stand now. We will not be silenced. And that’s final.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me recently against all the abuse I got. All the supportive messages and those of you who continue financially supporting me.  This is your friendly neighborhood ex-Muslim Abdullah Sameer signing out.