Hello everyone and Good Morning/Good Evening:
My name is Tommy (not my real name, but mine adopted Western name). I am 29 years old, from Indonesia and I'm an ex-Muslim. In the past I've been quite a religious person. In fact, my father was a Imam, and a couple of my uncles were Qadi (judge of Sharia law) and Mullahs. I come from a very religious family and raised almost to believe in religion.
Still I wanted to study electrical engineering, so that's what I did. So in 2001 I began my studies at the University of Indonesia. After I finished that, I went abroad to study and studied in the West for some time. I earned a Master's degree in 2007, in Electrical Engineering, after which I switched to studying Political science, and earned a doctorate in that field in 2012. During my time studying politics, I became exposed to further ideas not only in my field of study, but as well in philosophy, logic, culture, and religion. But after a long process, I came to my own conclusions and from then on, I had begun to realize Islam as an illusion of human creation, not as the divine.
I returned to Indonesia only a few years ago, in the middle parts of 2012. It is certainly not easy to be an atheist here. There is some limited religious "tolerance" but only if you are religious (the official policy of the government is to only recognize the "major" religions of the world that believe in "Monotheism": Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Hinduism), but Atheists are technically not protected under the law.
I hope one day I can go into politics and although it is a long shot, my dream is to be Indonesia's first Atheist President.
My name is Tommy (not my real name, but mine adopted Western name). I am 29 years old, from Indonesia and I'm an ex-Muslim. In the past I've been quite a religious person. In fact, my father was a Imam, and a couple of my uncles were Qadi (judge of Sharia law) and Mullahs. I come from a very religious family and raised almost to believe in religion.
Still I wanted to study electrical engineering, so that's what I did. So in 2001 I began my studies at the University of Indonesia. After I finished that, I went abroad to study and studied in the West for some time. I earned a Master's degree in 2007, in Electrical Engineering, after which I switched to studying Political science, and earned a doctorate in that field in 2012. During my time studying politics, I became exposed to further ideas not only in my field of study, but as well in philosophy, logic, culture, and religion. But after a long process, I came to my own conclusions and from then on, I had begun to realize Islam as an illusion of human creation, not as the divine.
I returned to Indonesia only a few years ago, in the middle parts of 2012. It is certainly not easy to be an atheist here. There is some limited religious "tolerance" but only if you are religious (the official policy of the government is to only recognize the "major" religions of the world that believe in "Monotheism": Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Hinduism), but Atheists are technically not protected under the law.
I hope one day I can go into politics and although it is a long shot, my dream is to be Indonesia's first Atheist President.
