Why do people reject Islam?

[SplodgeWaddler]

Just curious really. A lovely colleague of mine used to be a Muslim but was quite vocal in telling us she was no longer a Muslim. It was a clear, decisive rejection of the religion and not just a lapse of faith.

Has anyone done similar, I'd love to know your reasons.

There were many Muslim girls at my school, some of whom had massively restricted prospects in life. One girl (who was a bit wild) told us she was worried that she was going to be forced into an arranged marriage. She just didn't come back one day, she was under 16.

Things do seem to have moved on since then though but there still seems to be huge variation.

Same reasons lots are rejecting evangelical Christianity in the US. It’s just religion. It’s a belief system. You don’t have to believe in it but many do and I find it weird myself. Some of the beliefs of evangelicals in the US a western country is totally crazy. Rapture, and killing peoples to take their land so a Jared Leto looking type Jesus they depict comes down from heaven and takes them all with him. Many people love that, and many people love Islam. But weird you’re picking on Islam though.

I agree with a pp it's more of an all or nothing religion.

You can more easily dip in and out of other religions without fear of repercussions.

Well generally for women I’d imagine they disagree with the more restrictive patriarchal aspects of the male-lead Abrahamic religions. Being told you’re second class tends to put people off.

Yeah

What's the rest pf the op got to do with the first paragraph and thread title?

I know quite a few half-assed Muslims, who eat pork and pork gelatine products, don’t fast for Ramadan or pray five times a day, and just make an effort around their parents.

Women?

Just say what you actually think OP instead of making a thread to get people to say it for you.
You're not curious about why people reject Islam, you think it's due to restrictions on women. It's in your post but fluffed up with false curiosity so you can play innocent if the thread doesn't go the way you want it to.

Apart from the personal, there are generally no consequences for leaving Catholicism.

To research and find answers to the OP question I would suggest reading books written by former Muslims.

Learning from the Internet discussion is usually limited and ends up with two sides accusing each other of racism, ignorance, and assorted insults designed to shut down debate on both sides.

What a generalisation 🫠 Have you met many Muslims in your life? It’s a very sheltered comment to make - something similar to something you’ve read off the news. I am a Muslim female, I absolutely am not kept at home lol and definitely not out of sight. Neither is anybody I know in the town I live in or the city I am from. Definitely exists - but it’s not an expectation of the religion at all.

My friend circles and direct community include both Muslims and people who are not Muslim. We go out, we socialise.. okay maybe many of us choose not to go on nights out but that is not the point. We brunch and lunch and go out in evenings too! What a surprise! We also work, some as health professionals and some as teachers, and some in other customer facing roles! What a surprise! One thing you need to understand is faith/religion and culture are two different things.

I grew up in an area with a large Muslim population and knew several girls who rejected Islam, which in at least two cases also meant rejecting their entire family. All of them said they continued to receive a great deal of abuse when they were seen wearing western clothes, or drinking, or even just walking with their non-Muslin friends. Though I think this is more of an explanation of why more women don't leave Islam, rather than why they did.

I'm not sure I've ever met a male who's rejected Islam, though I've met many who have dressed in western clothing, drunk alcohol, taken drugs and been friends (and more) with non-Muslims. They didn't seem to attract any criticism though.

I think it takes a lot of courage for someone to reject and turn their back on whatever powerful religious faith they were brought up in. They lose their entire family, all their friends, and are basically shunned by the entire community.

Men or women?

I think if you’re seen to be doing a half job of Islam that’s more of a sin in the extremists view than not being Muslim at all, look at their treatment of Hazidi women. But leaving the faith is also punished extremely in sharia law.

Because, like any of the abrahamic ‘one male god’ religions, it is both irrational and excludes the lives and experience of half the human race?

What would happen if you, or your daughter, decided you did want to go on nights out? If you made friends with some culturally western women - or men - and fancied putting on a short skirt and going out dancing and drinking? What if you, or your daughter, wanted to date. To go out with non-Muslim males entirely unchaperoned? To hold hands, kiss, even sleep with them, without any hint of a marriage proposal? Would your family and friends accept this, or do you think there might be some pushback? Would/will you, your family and friends all accept it without comment if this is how your own children choose to live their lives?

Why do people join Islam?

A lot of ignorance on this thread.

Between 5000 and 6000 reverts to Islam annually in the U.K. and most of these are women - and women do revert to marry their Muslims partners but this doesn’t account for all of the reverts and also likewise people may leave the religion for love and their partners.

As a feminist, its values of women being less important and subservient to men simply don't align.

People on here comparing Christianity with Islam are deluded and naive. If you are Muslim and reject Islam your life is in danger.

I don't think that the reasons for rejecting Islam are likely to be different from those for rejecting any other mainstream faith, are they?

Any British person who has grown up in a household where the parents or grandparents are originally from a country where religious observance was very much the norm is likely to experience a contrast between attitudes to faith in their household and attitudes to faith in other spheres, such as work, education, the media, etc. Some will stick with their faith; some won't.

That's true whether their heritage is from an observant Christian country (such as Poland), or a Muslim one, or Hindu, or whatever.

Both.

Yeah I know a guy whose family are Jehovahs Witnesses. When he left he was shunned by his whole family and community. It was and still is really difficult for him. He carries a lot of anger towards them all and spends a lot of time discussing the religion negativity. It's not an easy road to take leaving any very devout group.

Yep and it's true for those of us from the UK as well. My grandparents were all devout. Parents quite different. My generation either not religious at all or wavering and the only child in the family is not christened and her parents not married. Societal change.

I know a man in the exact same situation (although I also know someone whose mother is a JW and he isn't and there is no problem).

I follow an ex Mormon on YouTube. The treatment she gets from current Mormons is quite interesting.

No. Let’s talk about it without calling it goady. Islam is a significant minority religion in the U.K. now, and is culturally different from mainstream U.K. culture. It is often very different for women and girls. We should be able to talk about why such a large part of the female population is subject to very different expectations from the rest.

Do you mean converts? Or people going back to the religion?