Losing their religion: Meet the ex-Muslims of India

Birthdays, weddings, funerals…there is a long list of family functions that Kerala-based Noorjahan KM misses every year. “I still regard them as my family but once I left Islam, they began to see me as blasphemous, branding me a ‘follower of evil spirits’,” she says.

The 48-year-old former school staffer, who now works as a political party worker in Kottayam, is among a growing number of Muslims who have renounced Islam in recent years. While some convert, others like Noorjahan are abandoning religion in its entirety.

Despite the social isolation, Noorjahan doesn’t regret leaving the faith. Wearing hijab, discrimination against women and prevalent orthodoxies gradually nudged her towards atheism. “Over the years, I realised it blatantly discriminates against women and treats them as secondary citizens.” She is also raising her daughters outside of any religion.

A 2017 Pew Research Center survey reported that of about 3.5 million Muslims in the US, 100,000 abandon Islam each year, while roughly the same number convert to it. Similar trends prevail in Western Europe, where conversions in and out of Islam appear roughly to balance out.

While there is no data for India, author of ‘Who Killed Liberal Islam’ Hasan Suroor says he knows a lot of Muslims who have turned atheists. “There’s sufficient anecdotal evidence that young Indian Muslims are turning away from Islam — put off by its rigidity (resistance to change citing ‘immutability’ of sharia) and the strain of homophobia, misogyny and intolerance towards not only non-Muslims, but even believers who don’t follow the hardline and austere Salafi Islam propagated by the Saudis,” he says. He adds that some of his own close family members have ceased to be practising Muslims — generally giving up on the idea of god. “However, they continue to call themselves Muslims and tend to get worked up when Muslims or Islam are attacked.”

ONLINE SUPPORT GROUPS
Siddharth Chaturvedi (earlier Sadaqat Quraishi) says he was perturbed by the intolerance to dissent. The 32-year-old says he studied the Quran and other texts deeply but his questions remained unanswered creating a wedge between him and his religion. “When I asked questions or encouraged clerics to argue with me, I was met with threats of ex-communication from the community,” he says. Chaturvedi runs a YouTube channel @ExMuslimSameer where he encourages questions about Islam and its practices. It also acts as a support group for those who would like to convert and fear a backlash from their families and community. He converted to Hinduism last year.

Similarly, ‘Ex Muslims of Kerala’, which started in 2020, has become a forum to air thoughts, questions and seek help from threatening calls and social media abuse. “More than lack of belief, it is social commitment, democratic values, and rising scientific temperament which encourage many to walk out,” says Liyakkathali C M, president of Ex-Muslims of Kerala, who had to approach police when he received threatening calls after leaving his religion some years ago.

DOUBLE WHAMMY
Liyakkathali says that when people renounce Islam, they are caught in a double bind. They face ostracisation from their former community and continue to be targets for Islamophobia.
Suroor says homophobia too is driving some young Muslims to renounce Islam. Assamese queer Muslim Nasreen (uses one name and they/them pronouns) remained closeted till they were 17 years old. Though brought up in a liberal Muslim home where rules on hijab and reading the namaz were relaxed, they felt a backlash from relatives when they came out. “I tried to reconcile my sexuality and my faith but found it too restrictive. It was a struggle not to hate myself if I stayed a religious person,” they say.

Former journalist Shamla Cheenlikkal, who is also a member of Ex-Muslims of Kerala, recalls a visit by clerics to her home that left her angry. “As my mother was speaking to them, I came out with my head uncovered. I was immediately reprimanded. I asked what was wrong in showing my hair. Neither my mother nor the clerics had an answer. Annoyed, my mother asked me to leave the house as she wanted to protect the family honour. I did. Later, the issue was resolved, and I returned home. But the news of the incident spread like wildfire, and everyone blamed me,” Cheenlikkal recalls. Safiya P M, general secretary of Ex-Muslims of Kerala, too was bothered by the status of women. “When I studied the Quran, I found that it treats women as inferior, which I could not accept,” she says.

In Kerala where the rationalist movement has a long history, there are some who took the decision decades ago. Fausiya Mallissery, a 62-year-old retired school headmistress from Malappuram who stopped practising Islam in the 1980s, says she had a ‘progressive’ father while her husband E A Jabbar had walked out of the religion decades ago. “I found Islam was highly discriminatory towards girls in those days. I used to follow religious practices only to pacify my family members. Once I got a job and became independent, I dropped the pretence,” she says.

Noted writer M N Karassery, who calls himself agnostic, says that people abandon Islam due to various factors. Among the younger generation of Muslims especially women, he feels one big reason is the constraints imposed on them. “By making them cover their face, you are denying the social life of a woman,” he says.