http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Pr ... 08AF77F703

By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | 1/7/2008
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Abul Kasem, an ex-Muslim who is the author of hundreds of articles and several books on Islam including, Women in Islam. He was a contributor to the book Leaving Islam – Apostates Speak Out as well as to Beyond Jihad: Critical Views From Inside Islam.

[Due to obvious security issues, a
photo of Mr. Kasem is not available]

FP: Abul Kasem, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Kasem: Thank you. I am pleased to be interviewed by Frontpage magazine.

FP: Tell us a bit about your spiritual and intellectual journey.

Kasem: Born in Bangladesh, I attended the secular schools as well as underwent strict religious discipline, and digested religious preaching. Taught by my father, during my childhood, I learned the basic Qur’an without understanding a single word, because like almost all Muslims of Bangladesh, my father did not know the meaning of Arabic words. He only knew how to read the Qur’an in Arabic, and recite it. When I was nine, a typical Mulla taught me the Islamic rituals (like prayer, ablution, fasting), and how to recite the Qur’an correctly. He also taught us that Muslims are the only inheritors of the earth, that we must never mix with the non-Muslims, we must hate them, humiliate them verbally, and if possible, physically.

In high school, I discovered a world beyond Islam. I met a few Hindus and two Christians. I found them extremely polite, peace-loving, sincere, and affable. Unfortunately, communal riots broke out in India and Bangladesh (then known as East Pakistan ). One of my Hindu friends was brutally murdered by Islamist fanatics. This was a life-changing experience, as I witnessed the mutilated dead bodies of my friend, his parents, and siblings. When I discussed this with a few Muslim gentlemen (moderate Muslims) they told me that the Hindus deserved to be killed; there should not be any Hindus in our Muslim land. Further, I learned from them that in Islam, there is a great reward for killing the non-Muslims.

In a few years our struggle for autonomy took the shape of a Liberation Movement, seeking freedom from economic and political domination of West Pakistan , which was a strict Islamic country. In 1971 the Islamic Army of Pakistan let loose a genocide, killing around 3 million Bengalis, and raping around 250,000 Bengali women. Local Islamists helped their barbarity in every way. They justified their actions by Qur’an, ahadith, and Sharia laws. After independence, I talked about it with a local Imam. He took out a Qur’an, read a few verses, and told me the genocide and mass-rape was a hundred percent Islamic-sanctioned. He said the Bengali Muslims have deviated widely from the real Islam, and as such, they deserve Allah’s punishment, and the Pakistani army did just that to purify us. Shocked, I decided to read the theological sources of Islam.

What I discovered horrified me. It was beyond my comprehension that a religion, touted to be the religion of peace could contain such blood-curdling, terrifying, barbaric verses, cultures, and laws to entice the entire Islamic community to slaughter the infidels and the not-so-good Muslims. Access to authentic books and Internet gave me more freedom to learn and express. I was greatly impressed by the writings of many honest critics of Islam.

FP: So share with us a bit of what you discovered in Islam.

Kasem: Ok, here is a bit of my education:

* Prophet said- we will go to attack them (i.e. the infidels) and they will not come to attack us.–Sahih Bukhari, 5.59.435.
* Prophet allowed rape of war-captives.–Sahih Bukhari, 3.46.718.
* Muslim soldiers had sex with the captive women in the presence of their husbands and “some were reluctant to do soâ€