I dislike the ideologies in Islam; if one properly reads and analyses it, one quickly realises it is an outdated, often contradictory, factually incorrect, superstitious and sexist religion. But this is expected, as it was written in a scientifically incorrect, superstitious and sexist time 1400 years ago, whose moral compass is quite different from that of the modern age. This does not necessarily mean I hate Muslims. As a lot of Muslims I have met, especially a lot I have met in Britain, are nice and often have completely different ideals from what the religion actually teaches.

The problem arises with people who take the outdated ideologies literally and to heart and to apply them to the modern world, and then spread such ideologies onto others. Like the subjection of women, men being allowed to take four wives or marry nine year old girls, or the belief that Islam should try to convert as much people as possible. And for people like me, the toxic belief that anyone who tries to leave Islam should be killed (contradicting the basis of morality which is reciprocity, as anyone can easily convert into Islam but cannot leave it without facing the threat of death) . And unfortunately I know a lot of people like this as well, especially those who teach within the mosque.

Further to this Islam has become a part of the culture among many people, so deeply woven into the identity of themselves and everyone around them that they cannot imagine anything without it; even when they have not properly read into their own religion. As a result any challenge to the religion is seen as a challenge to themselves, their identity and what they and everyone around them stands for. This is made even worse when the religion actively discourages any criticism, while still claiming itself and the Qur\'an to be infallible (which is probably why it discourages criticism). This is not a healthy outset, as the heart of working out what is correct and right (both scientifically and morally) is to continuously and rigorously challenge ideologies to find flaws rather than accepting what is true based on faith and dismiss criticism. And you should separate who you are from what you believe and always be willing to change what you believe when faced with accurate and repeatable evidence.

My parents are both of a Pakistani descent but I was born in Britain. Ever since a young age I have looked at things from a scientific point of view and challenged beliefs and ideas. At a young age I went against my entire family and decided to become vegetarian despite both my parents and the rest of my family being against it.

My analysis and critical thinking probably started because my mother wanted me to become a doctor, and thus paid for a lot of tuition on maths and science from a young age. I thought Islam and science were compatible because I thought of science and the universe to be a creation of God, and this belief was supported when I was told of so-called \"scientific miracles\" in the Qur\'an; such as embryology etc. It was only when I learned about the theory (which in science means something which corroborates all of the available evidence) of evolution and when asked about it was told it was wrong with conspiracy-like explanations. Before then I had always dismissed such explanations for other scientific ideals, so I found this very strange but accepted it. And I even tried to come up with my own ideas on why it should be wrong. But the more I studied it, the more it made sense and when I saw the vast amount of evidence for it, I realised I must accept it to be true.

But this did not make me leave Islam, I tried to reconcile the two beliefs I held by saying they are somewhat compatible. But this opened the door and made me realise other things I had always brushed over but found weird. They were many such things; black magic existing (which made no sense what so ever, and seemed completely unscientific and unobservable), the evil eye, Jinns (no evidence for their existence either, which we surely should have by now) and the so-called \"scientific miracles of the Qur\'an\" (which when I looked into I realised were not really miracles, and there were so many other things which were not compatible with science at all) but most importantly women\'s rights.

I have always been a proponent of women\'s rights, as a result of both having met some really wonderful women right activists and having read so many fiction books with female leads. I had always dismissed the disgusting women rights abuses as culture rather than religion but when I looked into it, it was clear it existed within and was a major theme of the religion and was not just outside of it.

It took me a while, but I realised on both scientific and moral grounds I did not want to associate with the religion anymore. And for a couple of months I was confused, faced with my own feeble mortality I become a monotheist for a couple of months (but believing in no particular God). But then I realised this did not stand up to reason or criticism either and that I was just believing in it because I wanted to and feared death. And eventually became and came to terms with being an atheist; It was by no means easy and am sure everyone\'s journey is different but equally difficult.

Now I am in medical school and trying to live the best life I can by helping the most amount of people I can, but I still fear for my life. A lot of people in my family will not accept what I am, and some of them have very extreme views which is why I am not mentioning my proper name here. My dad is one such person.

He has always had an incredibly short temper, disagreed when my mom put me into tuition at a young age and has always told me that I will not succeed. And is unpredictable and often snaps quickly, so I am really not sure how he will react at all which is why I have not told him. I have told my mom and siblings though.

My siblings have accepted it, but my mom is in a state of denial and says stuff like \"it is a phase\" or that I am \"really still a Muslim\". This is because she is a victim of culture and not educated enough to even understand what an atheist is (only thinking others believe in different Gods, not understanding how someone can believe in no God), and the closest thing I can say which she understands is that I believe solely in science (even though it is not really an ideology and simply a process to find the truth). She is often a bit mean-spirited to me now and gives me much less support, but is nothing I cannot handle.

I could be in a far worse situation but I am not taking any risks; I am using a pen name here, and to take extra precautions I have uploaded this using a proxy, because that is how much I worry that an immoral person will find out; as mentioned earlier, I fear death.

No one should fear for their life based simply on what they believe, but in Islam they do and it is wrong. Which is why I have an infinite amount of respect for those who do put their names and faces forward despite there being terrible people out there who would hurt them based solely on their beliefs.

For anyone reading, the decision should solely be yours. I would encourage, as always, to separate your identity from who you are and continuously challenge your beliefs and ideals but will not force the decision on anyone. And if the decision is made, not to take any risks you do not want to or take unnecessary risks and to be safe. Thank you for your time.