British Pakistani born to Sunni Muslim parents in the UK. Raised in a conservative, but not fundamentalist, Sunni Muslim household, and became significantly less pious from the advent of secondary school (Sept 2011) through to the present day. Since then I considered myself a moderate/lax Muslim only culturally identifying as such, but not in any way practising. Educated to Master's level with a science degree where critical thought, questioning, and generating objective corroborative evidence to support hypotheses are fundamental to scientific research. Began to have doubts about Islam during the age of 16, when on Holiday in Turkey, a tour guide who was Muslim, mentioned the Prophet's marriage to Ayesha who very casually revealed that she was 9 years of age. Can't exactly remember how this was brought up, I think there was a discussion about Muhammad prophesising of the Conquest of Constantinople, but I digress. I just knew intuitively that this was paedophilia, however I initially thought this was a malicious rumour conjured up by the far-right to malign the Prophet and discredit Islam. But to hear it from a Muslim himself was unsettling. Despite, being a moderate non-practising Muslim, I wanted to hold on to the idea that the Prophet was still somehow perfect and foolishly believed that it was normal for man to marry a child in 7th century Arabia as was also the case in Ancient Rome and Greece for example, or that children developed differently back then. Given Islam's claims of being timeless, eternal and perfect, we know it would not be acceptable by today's moral and legal standards for a man to marry a child, much less consummate it. Another issue I had was when I stumbled across an article in the Daily Mail back in 2018 in which hate preacher Mohamad Hoblos mentioned that not praying is worse than being a murderer, a child rapist and a terrorist which threw me completely. Couldn't grasp what could be worse than that and it made me think that there were something deeply sinister within the Islamic doctrine that I had not been told. Discussed this with my mum which turned a little heated and I distinctly remember her saying I will defend my religion till I die. I knew from that very moment that discussing any potential doubts I had about Islam with immediate family members was not an option and that I would have to compartmentalise these thoughts going forward. So from my late teen years until now (age 25), I suppressed my doubts about Islam and didn't study it (which I regret, and forgive me but deep down I think I was scared of knowing the real truth) for the sake of getting by and trying to hold on to what I now realise is a completely false identity. Having read some of the Sahih hadiths for the first time there were a few that struck me: such as the majority of Hell's dwellers being women (I distinctly, remember being told this by my dad when I was little but not believing it), angels cursing women who deny their husbands sexually (sanctioning marital rape), capture of women to use as sex slaves, death for those who change their religion, I knew I was out. As I have become more introspective, it has never made sense for a supreme entity, who I was told as a child, is supposed to be all-knowing, omnipotent and infallible, would send is final message for mankind using an illiterate man who couldn't read or write, who's alleged Divine revelations were never witnessed by anyone and who died before the receiving the full message of Allah, leaving it up to his successors to interpret the message which is hugely problematic and completely defeats that notion that the Quran is completely preserved and uncorrupted. Furthermore, as a child/early teen I feel like I have grown up in two parallel worlds, a Western world in which had grown up surrounding by people from many different cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds, and open to a myriad of different ideas and beliefs, and then an Islamic world in which I was told to never really befriend the 'kaffirs'. So I have always struggled with my identity and where I fit in the world. Ultimately, my parents and Quranic teachers from the Madrasas I attended as a child, would tell me that my sole purpose in life is to please Allah and to convert as many 'kaffirs' as possible to prevent them from going to Hell. I don't like the idea of a God condemning someone to eternal damnation in Hell by virtue of not being Muslim. That means the most sincere, kind-hearted and sinless person could still go to Hell because in Allah's eyes because he had the misfortune of simply not being a Muslim but a Muslim, whether by birth or conversion, who lived a life of sin, could still enter Jannah even after his sins have been expunged. Allah also knows the actions of every human past, present and future, which means your fate is already predestined and he could very well decide to send you to Hell. To summarise, Allah is some sort of fetishist/sadomasochist. I also was told growing up it was permissible to lie in Islam but only to protect one's life in battle/war. I didn't realise how deep the concept of lying actually goes. Taqqiyah as a concept, was initially developed by the Shias as a means to to protect themselves from Sunnis who were persecuting them. Sunnis took on this concept and realised that they could lie to further the cause of Islam and bend and distort the truth, including blending in to "Kaffir" societies and appear seemingly moderate on the outside whereby you can engage in activities such as drinking wine, eating pork, pre-marital sex, pretending to be ex-Muslim or of a completely different faith altogether , whilst hiding your truly beliefs and intentions. This to me is deception of the highest order and lying to this extent is deeply sinister and something only the devil could muster, if such an entity exists. I have very quickly realised that "Islam is a religion of peace" is taqqiyah, a misnomer, a propagandist statement in itself used to save face every time a terrorist attack is committed and to quench any potential outrage/rioting from non-Muslims. Pure psychological warfare. Apostasy Laws, Blasphemy Laws, and false and fictious labels generated by the Left including "Islamophobia" are the only thing keeping this 7th Arab-centric cult alive, the standards derived from this so called "Holy Book", which is akin to Mein Kampf, do not belong in a 21st century Western World, they were only meant for 7th Century Arab tribes. To summarise, Islam is a deeply misogynistic, hate-filled, sex-crazed male-centric death cult, which is extremely political and aims to subvert the rule of Law by the global installation of Sharia, achieved through Jihad. It is extremely militaristic and expansionist and it's sole objective is to unite all races of the world under one homogenous identity (Dar-Al-Islam).