I am a Pakistani Atheist; an ex-Muslim in Pakistan. I was born and raised here and hail from a fairly devout Muslim family. Like all Atheists in Pakistan – I am a closet Atheist in that most people do not know that I do not hold belief in God. Pakistan – a nation with 95% of the population being Muslim – is an indescribably intolerant place to be for a non-Muslim – and especially so for an Atheist. Dangers of coming out with one’s lack of belief range from ridicule to death threats to actually getting murdered!
I’m well-educated and fairly well-read; my interests include philosophy, international relations, photography and poetry.
Hi,
I googled pakistani atheist just to see if there is anyone out there who feel the same as I do and is from a Pakistani background. I guess I would feel the same if there was no pakistani who shared my views, I can’t help the way I feel and I know it would be easier if I didn’t hold the views I do.
I just want to salute you, I am immensely awed by someone who is willing to speak out when it is easier to just hold your own counsel.
I just think it’s incredible to have been brought up in Pakistan and to not be so indoctrinated that you can’t even think freely.
Take Care
Azra
what r the circumstances that causes u to think that u cant believe Allah almighty
Lots of things, Firstly god is an imaginary being. There is not a single proof validating that such an all supreme creature ever existed. I haven’t seen, smelled, tasted, touched, or ever heard god. Since we have only 5 senses then this being definitely isn’t real. So the obvious conclusion is that God is an idea and you can basically think of any idea and start believing in it.
hi guy i m an ex-muslim in pakistan. i thought that i was the only of my knd in pakistan..i m feeling great to know that some people are free thinkers like me in pakistan.. and it is very difficult in pakistan to think free, everyone is poisned by religion.. anyway nice to meet you guys..
More power to you. I’m a fellow Pakistani atheist – I have a blogroll for other apostates and I hope you will have no objection to me adding you to it.
Best wishes.
Dear athiest
I am also pakistani and born with same situation like you ,though i dont share any of your interest and hobbies but iam sure proud to be athiest today.I fully empthies with you and your situation it is hard and difficult for aperson of your calibre to be in pakistan best luck .I love soccer and business
good bye,
Dear Bro,
I really support you. I am also an Atheist living in the Maldives where we have 100% muslims. But we are better than Pakistan in terms of tolerance. You can’t still trust what is going on here now. Unlike before we are facing the threat from radicals trained in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and I just want to get rid off this. On the other hand, we are having political problems and we are not able to fight against radical Islam.
Be in touch and let me know whether we can meet soon or not.
Thanks
Mohamed Shahid
This is an utterly pathetic blog. Get your shit together.
I am like you, well read, sufficiently aged, rather at the end of life. But all my religious, and scientific reading since the age of 15 has destroyed my faith. I believe in an intelligent power, but not in that kind of God which is portrayed by Islam, christianity and judaism.
Well to be lonely is the punishment for being different than the crowd.
you are absolutely true…want correspondence with you…
Hello! I’m an atheist as well, and, thankfully, I do not live in Pakistan, although I do have Pakistani roots. Inshallah Pakistan will be secularized
.
Thank God, I’m an Atheist!
u said u are an atheist……but u also said that INSHALLAH pak will be secularized……………u know what u people have no demarcations and u all r drowning inthe mire of atheism….jus ans my one qustion if u r an atheist then y u said the word INSHALLAH ….do u have any ans for this querry
i am also an ex-muslim from pakistan.
i left islam due to…………
my testimony can be seen from the site.plz visit
http://www.faithfreedom.org/forum
From one Pakistani atheist to another — kudos!
i send you a messsage lately in which i wrote a name ,, XXXXXX, please dont publish it. i hope you wont let me down.
thanks
i would love to make a rewardingintelectual exchanges with you to make a boon companion
Thanks
Hi,
I am an Indian living in the U.S. with plans to go back to India next year. I am very glad to have found you, and here’s why:
I am starting a multi-contributor blog/ e-zine with atheists, free-thinkers, skeptics from all over the subcontinent. I have already put together a team of writers but we are lacking a Pakistani atheist on our team.
Please email me if you are interested and I will send you more information.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Best,
Ajita
Congratulations! To be a free-thinker in a country like that is no easy task. While I’m sure there are other free-thinkers in Pakistan, just about all of them are closeted too. Hopefully, Pakistan will soon become a place where murderous religious hate is no longer tolerated. As a fellow atheist, I’m with you.
i am also ex muslim now atheist from pakistan
check my testimony in faithfreedom.org in leaving islam segment
nice to see you’hope that you may contact me via mail
with best wishes
A.K
hi i wants to congratulate you for what an awesome website you have here & i really liked your work. just like you i was a closet atheist too until this summer so far only people i could dare tell is my wife & some of my siblings but due to fear of getting behead i would rather keep my believe to my self but i will always admire man & woman like you who actually dare to share their thoughts to other. good work
I admire your free thinking attitude. I realize that the USA is quite different than Pakistan, but to be openly atheist here is considered suspect. I live in a relatively conservative city where churches are everywhere and growing. I think atheists are distrusted everywhere, with some places obviously being less tolerant than others.
Well………..
I am Atheist too, but I am not pakistani [:(]
I shout out loud here that I am atheist. I guess atleast 30% of Indians are atheist, or they are skeptically athesit. I mean they bow their heads in frony of every temple, mosque, gurudwara and church, they say people go there, so respect those people. yet they dont believe in any god, and obviously not in any system of theocracy, may be that is the reason the Hindu fundamentalists never got hold of power in India.
Not that there is no religious fundamentalism, it is, but not to those heights. I can shout I am atheist, I can debate, I know many who are atheist, I can many a times make my parents agree that atheism is better.
And people trust me, they listen me too.
Anyways, I read and then reported something about pakistan here.
An interesting story from pakistan
Hello from a fellow Pakistani atheist. Don’t lose heart my friend. There’s quite a few of us and hopefully in time we will convince others that religion is over. I would definitely like to get that blogroll thing going.
a standing ovation to you on your initiative.
i mean, i’ve been thinking of googling “pakistani atheist” for like ages, but always thought what’s the point?!
glad to have found this site.
So many Pakistani atheists, silent, unwilling to speak up because of the ignorance of our society. Kudos for speaking out.
I am an ex-Sikh atheist. Very happy to see my Pakistani brothers and sisters for speaking out.
Mandeep Ji, Equally happy to see a sikh because I know quite a few really committed to their religion and baggage that comes with it. I am a ex_Muslim atheist from the great land of Puajab.
I very much respect that you decided to think for yourself and had the courage to believe in what you think is right in such a restrictive society.
Wow! I am humbled by the number of fellow closet Pakistani Atheist out there. I am lucky enough to be living outside Pakistan where the environment around me is not suffocating. I am married to a highly educated practicising female Muslim who is deeply suspicious of my faith in Islam or lack therof. My kids are being raised as Muslims for now as it ensures peace in my home and less friction between me and my wife. My reasoning is that if I could break the shackles after becoming and adult, they will easily do the same. Cheers to all the free thinking souls out there especailly to the ones from my dear motherland of Pakistan.
WOW! Mr. Atheist! I live in Philadelphia, PA, the birthplace of the founding, and governing documents, of the United States of America. We are gladly, not a theocracy. I feel free enough here to wear a “Militant Atheist: There Is NO god damn, god damn it!” to work. I feel no danger of being killed, or physically harmed, for expressing my disbelief in any religiously, and intellectually, subjugating dogma. Please be strong my friend! And let me know if you are able to visit the United States! Freedom, progress, and great joy, depend on intelligent opposition to subjugating theism!
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan, this is Pakistan’s official name since declaring its independence in 1956, has lead a religious fight to oppress legitimate criticism of religion. I am glad that no “binding” resolution has yet to pass. The resolution that passed on Thursday, in the United Nations is “non-binding. ” This still triggers feelings of concern, in me, for all of the people who are under the control of theocratic governments.
Any feeling of freedom, and joy, that i feel in this country, is diminished by the thought of so many other individuals, being under the tyrannical control of religious states.
I want to see more said, and done, to show the needed disrespect for organized religious control. Thursday’s U.N. resolution, on the flipped-out side, is clearly for continued unchallenged religious defamation of the individual, individual rights, and individuality. Freedom does depend on freethinkers! Thoughts? Response?
Best wishes and efforts, Scotty
I love this site and your blog. Keep it up and don’t give in. I’m a Pakistani-Canadian writer – you can check out some of my stuff by clicking on my name.
The only way to counter the threat to rationalists is by strength in numbers and peaceful, rational discourse. What you’re doing here is courageous.
28 year old entrepreneur ex muslim. Doing my part in ‘speaking out’. However that helps
. However I do realize that if you REALLY publicly speak out we all would be lined up and murdered by true muslims- since that is what religion is all about. Other religions and specially Atheism cannot be permitted by any religion since it loosens the control on the people (slaves).
I do have to admin that living in a religious state as an Atheist is tough business. I see the evil of religion corrupting every single man’s brain and line of thought. I have started to blame the way they think, they act ALL on religion. Dont know if others share this view but thats the hard line I have developed over the years.
Hang in there F Khan and keep it water-tight inside you. Most of our fellow Pakistani are brainwashed to the max and can not tolerate any deviation from their way of life. I fear for the safety of all Paksitani atheist in the Islamic Republic. I see many different murderous manisfestations of evil masquerading as righteousness around myself. These people are bent on hastening the inevitable destruction of the world by a mad God. Maintain a low profile, live, thrive, and prosper but dont say a word against religion. Cheers.
It is definitely much easier to be atheist and Indian. The only thing I don’t like about being atheist, is that I don’t get any attention from my fellow Indians. For them it is not a big deal. “Atheist, ok, who cares, big deal.” However for Sikhs it could be a big deal and no doubt there is Hindu fundamentalism in India.
“If, as you believe, there is an almighty, omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent God-who created the earth or world, please let me know why did he create it ? This world of woes and miseries, a veritable, eternal combination of numberless tragedies: Not a single soul being perfectly satisfied” – Bhagat Singh
I am a Pakistani atheist living in Canada. I am glad that I found this site and would love to know if any other Pakistani atheists around Toronto, Canada.
I’m an Indian (NRI) Atheist (used to be Muslim). I’m still in school, living with my parents and in the closet.
I don’t live in a Muslim country, and yet sometimes I go crazy from listening to my mother’s obsession with Islam. On a daily basis, I have to listen to her rant and rave about how Islam and excessive prayer will make our lives perfect. It is so frustrating having to constantly bite my tongue and stop myself from outing myself by pointing out the stupidity of her statements. (I just had to deal with one of these episodes a while ago, googled and found this blog.)
So anyway, kudos to you for having to deal with this madness everywhere you turn in a country like Pakistan. (Why not move?)
Also, I’m really glad that folks like you starting blogs like this. Before I left Islam about 2 years ago, I did not know that leaving Islam was an option. I just did not know of any apostates, and so could not examine their reasons for leaving. Hopefully, someone somewhere will question their beliefs because of your blog
in pakistan thr s large circle of atheists but due to religious state they do nt xpose them,..even there is huge scale of researching literature which reflects strong atheistic progressive thoughts….in history of muslims there are many famous scholars who were unbeliever in their last age and died as an atheist….
Glad to have found fellow atheists who more or less come from my corner of the world.
We may not have the numbers but the potential is there. I feel you all and being closet atheist myself, I couldn’t have found a better and safer platform than the internet.
Keep it up
Good effort, really liked it. Keep it up. Speak Truth, help others to speak truth freely.
Best Wishes
G.Rabbani
I think specially in background of pakistan it is very important to maintain a website in urdu. bcos lot of pakistani atheists like me can’t express their expressions in english. so i wish if the same modirator or someone else start a website in roman or urdu font base website.
I hope my request will work.
you are pathetic!!!! loser. i bet you can’t sleep anxciety, depression, lonely …
One who can see will only appreciate the light. Pakistani society has gone under regress under Zia and is still to recover. When I met a free soul, I knew there are many in Pakistani society. It was like finding the courage to speak freely about your own truths. I have found athiest, always well read, analytical, truthful, friendly, humanly, passionate and open minded. What else is required from a human being? Thank you all for being there.
Very mature and knowledgable person can become an athiest.
I am not an advocate of religion but believe me none of you guys are wise enough to proclaim atheism to be a right idea. I see same words arranged differently, all the same. Irrational imbeciles.
Great to see atheists in Pakistan finally comming out. I am a former Christian, now atheist from India. thankfully unlike in Pakistan I don’t need to fear my life for professing my belief or rather unbelief in these supersitious man made systems.
However there is still a certain level of social stigma attached to being a Atheist even in India. Thankfully the majority population in India is Hindu who don’t either ways give a fuck about whether you believe in god or not and so I don’t really get pestered by people.
Ofcourse coming from an Evangelical background I do have to suffer regular flank from my family and especially my brother who is a pastor. I feel that people of Abhrahmic faiths are a bit too concerned about your belief in God and the need to see others getting saved.
Congratulations! I am an ex-muslim from India. Fortunately I openly profess my lack of faith in god without worrying too much. I admire your courage and I wish you good luck in whatever you do and pursue.
Cheers!
I am a Muslim by choice, and it doesn’t behove a free thinking. human being to deny the existence of Almighty God. and the message of the Last Prophet. Truly apalling,
With worry & concern for your akhirah.
Zaid
I am a skeptic, living in quetta pakistan, i dont know what to say other then Now i know that i am not alone.
is their any atheist community of pakistan ?
dear fellows,
oscar wilde is very right to say that ideaes are dangerous thing. in the ugly industry of extremism, free thinking is not free now. when any body declare him or her as athiest. then i things problem of life still remanis unsolved. fear of death and fear of unknown also keep running as any other one. then what is change to be athiest. if any athiest can claim that when he adopt athiest life style , then he also become master of his fate. no, never, nothing change occured in his real life.
people thing without god concept they are free. but are they really free????
So many atheist Pakistanis?
The same style in english by all of them! Wow!
I know most of them are not so good in english at all.
I suspect the blogger of duplicating himself. kidding? no sir.
The blogger has good english in all the comments.
Average Pakistanis are very poor in English.
atheists from Pakistan? are you kidding.
@saim if u r a an atheist then why u said INSHALLAH pak will b secularized….u people have no demarcations……..u dun believe in Allah but u said inshAllah….do u have ans for that
HI another ex-muslim athiest here from Hyderabad.. I’m also well read, have good standing in scientific knowledge in 20s. But i’m very much vocal and debate alot, since I believe I have right to express myself. I wish someday blasphemy law could be scrapped off.
Hello,
I am a Pakistani atheist now living abroad. My brother is much better atheist than me
Pakistan was not meant to be the “thing” and the state that it has become now. She is just a volcano. Her founder wanted it to be a much better state in terms of behavior, tolerance and religious values.
And now see what religion has done to my country….
what is wrong with soo many people, i live in dubai and hav a lot of knowledge about Islam, i am a Muslim because i fear and love god, and just can NOT bear the thought of just.. dying and not existing anymore. u people dont have any right to exist. how can deny the one who created u, do u believe humans evolved from monkeys? u must be mad
I am an ex-muslim staying in Lahore.
I am not a atheist but I am certainly not a muslim any longer. Thanks to http://www.faithfreedom.org and wafa sultana.
Oh my god, I just googled “Pakistani atheists” and found this website. I salute you website-creator. I’m also a ‘closet’ atheist living in Pakistan. It’s so good to see so many fellow Pakistani atheists! I was able to refute Islam at the age of 16. As soon as I can get out of Pakistan, I’ll declare my disbelief, and devote my life in spreading rationality.
By my estimate some 30% of the people in pakistan are also closet athiests in some form. Well not entirely athiests, but atleast they are deists. Since there is a law for killing apostates, hence most of them remain closet athiests.
I remember my university days, when almost all my friends were athiests.
Most muslims in Pakistan, also do not believe in Islam in its entirety. The unpopularity of sharia and religious parties is an example. Most pakistanis are against islamic punishments.
Scotty, some corrections: Pakistan got independence in 1947 and the name “Islamic Republic of Pakistan” was given in the 1973 constitution. Before that it was plain Pakistan.
Another Pakistani Atheist here,
I started waking upto the blatant flaws of Islam at 16, I’m now 18 and somewhat a militant atheist (cant help myself), In all honesty I cant understand why someone would believe in some “higher-being”anyway,is a poor theory for creation, It doesn’t really answer the question, but pushes it back.
“There must be a thing that created the universe, so we call it God”.
But what created God?
The idea of God is a cop out. It’s finding an illogical reason to satisfy your desire for an answer without having to put real thought into it.
By imagining a being that is creation itself, a being that creates everything but that has never needed to be created, you’re just running away from the question – you’re just personifying ‘creation’. You’ve not answered the question at all, you’ve just avoided it.
You’ve invented a concept (which reality does not necessitate) in order to answer questions like these….We are perfectly right to look for logical answers… Yet the argument for God is that He is too majestic for our logic to grasp. Yet this itself is attempting to be a logical argument.
You’ll notice that, when it comes to human thought and argument, there is only logic. And God is a logical fallacy…
——————————————-
As to the question of how we came into existence, that is more than speculation. Just look to evolutionary biology. It’s all there, and it’s all logical. Everything can be demonstrated to be true, everything can be shown. There are no imagined ideas or personifications that allow us to avoid the real question.
I hate when someone tells me “God did it”, with that mentality we wouldn’t have progressed past the primitive era, I know at-least 7 open Pakistani Atheists and I know as a 100% fact there’s many more closet Atheists as I look back at Pakistan in the 60′s and 70′s etc I see an open-minded Pakistan, people weren’t afraid to support the Communist Party for example, It was edging towards modernization, I don’t understand what happens,
Anyway that’s all I wish to say, just wanted to drop by and say hello.