This a wonderful resource and community! I would say \'alhamdulillah\' but since I\'m atheist, that would be ironic. Haha 🙂

I grew up in the U.S. with Muslim parents from Pakistan. All my early memories of Islam are full of fear: the sadistic mean \'maulvi\' twisting my ears to get my pronunciation of the Quran right, even though it was total gibberish to me; cramped prayer halls full of solemn humorless people where my shoes would often be stolen; sophomoric khutbah\'s (sermons) by uneducated sanctimonious windbags; the awful segregation and second class status of women; vile homophobia lacking any compassion; contempt towards other religions; a comical and maniacal fear and loathing all things pig and pork related; the futility and unhealthy rigors of dreaded Ramadan fasts; and the sad list goes on.

I pretty much drifted away from Islam in college and grad school once I moved away from my parents and came out as a gay man. When I started reading about the origins of religion in general and Islam in particular, I knew I was a secular humanist at heart. I knew that reason and experience were the best guides to understanding the universe and ourselves. The story of mankind\'s evolution from the big bang, through the formation of galaxies and stars and planets, to the emergence of life on earth and its beautiful efflorescence into myriad forms -- this is an infinitely more wondrous and defensible narrative than the fantastical myths of tribal religions. This is the most huggable of belief system, to paraphrase Salman Rushdie.

As a humanist, I\'m committed to living life with integrity, honesty, and loving-kindness, to enjoying the journey of life\'s mysteries and discoveries without becoming attached to rigid unbending answers, to treating all people and living things with respect and reverence (becoming vegan was a part of this journey), and to speaking out against injustice and inequality.

Giving up Islam and its pathologies was the first step. I\'m so excited about the rest of the path!