Converting from religion to another has become something of interest to talk about and discuss it. people always want to know the reasons behind the conversion of some of their friends who used to follow the same religion as theirs to a new one .in my story I'm not discussing the reasons of my religion conversion because it would not be different or more interesting than the other's stories besides revealing that you are converting to another religion in my country is not very likely. In contrast I'm going to talk about how I adopted my first religion, how I didn’t have the choice ; and why I dumped it in my 20’s.
Before my 20’s I was a Muslim because I was born in an Islamic country . the fact that I was brought up in an Islamic country made me a muslim. At first I learned few things about Allah, the prophet Muhamed, heaven, and hell. After, through primary school and high school; Islamic education program was designed to make us believe that Islam is the only peaceful religion ever existed and still. It is our salvation from all the world crisis, any type of crisis whether it is economic, social or moral. give your prayers their time to worship Allah and pave your path to the green heaven by spending the rest of your time, learning by heart the holly Coran, thinking of, and thanking god for all the boons he has given you. Hate the Jews and kill them whenever it is possible. This is the main definition and principles of Islam taught to children throughout their twelve years of pre-university education. Now this sounds very good for children of sixteen or seventeen years old. Yet some of them end up dumping Islam!
When I was in elementary school I learned to read and write Arabic language during the two first years therefore, our teacher used to read for us the Coran verses and we used to repeat them after him till we learne them by heart even if we didn’t understand a single verse. It was very easy, this way of learning based on repetition. In fact the whole Moroccan educational system is based on repetition and learning by heart even in math and science classes. I didn’t learn any other skill aside from learning by repeating and learning by heart, sometimes without knowing the meaning of what I’m learning. This is how we pass high school; with zero skills.
In my case and I think I was lucky in my choice. After high school I went to the American university in morocco; which is very expensive but its program was very effective. I first learned many skills, like searching for information in books or in the Internet, know how to check their objectivity and subjectivity. Verify if they are relevant and accurate. My level of English language started to develop and my vocabulary got enhanced. Therefore I was able to check the accuracy of many things I learned in high school, about Christians and the Jews for example. The most important thing I was able to read about my original culture and language which is TIFINAGH , the amazigh language, that was banned for many years by the government. I became able to watch debates about religions and analyze them. In other word I opened my mind on many things. Especially what was going on in the world outside the Moroccan borders. Thanks to these skills including computing skills and the Internet I developed a new personality and a new spirit; spirit of critical thinking and debating with accurate and relevant arguments.
While I was using these skills to learn about many things like fixing computers; creating websites. I was very interested in religions debates. I watch many of them, the main debaters that got my interest and start to follow their presentation were Richard dawkins, Sam harris, Salmane Ruchdie, and Christopher hitchen. I wasn't able to have their books because they are banned in all Muslim countries; in addition there is an Iranian reward offer to kill Salmane Ruchdie.  I red some parts of their books on the Internet. I made a very dangerous action when I asked an exchange student from USA who was my roomate to send me “The god delusion” by Richard dawkins, and “The Satanic verses” by Salmane ruchdie. These books changed my mind about a lot of things concerning “God”. As a result I became an atheist. I add that atheism in morocco could lead you to jail if you claim it in public.
This point of change in my life made me realize that I became an atheist by learning, reasoning, and using scientific evidences, and not because a was born in an atheist nation. I made a clear idea about religions, what they have in common, and where they contradict. Therefore I could take the decision to became atheist in a very healthy way. Also this decision is up to change; for example if a new scientific discovery come up and proves the existence of god; I would definitely consider it.
I want to convey my idea which is that people who are denied good education, don't have skills, don't have access to information’s sources; are very easy to convince with non-sense things and non-reason subjects. Therefore they may become martyrs, for example they can be convinced easily to blow them self-up in a Jew neighborhood.
To sum up I would love to find other Moroccans who may be sharing with me the same thinking and argu with them but unfortunately I could not, that’s because they are not there due to the lack of education, or because they can’t claim their atheism.
Finally in morocco we are a muslimized and Arabized nation that is denied a good education and denied the choice to adopt the religion we want. Instead raised to hate Non-muslims