Final Blog Post

This week, our members are concerned with goings-on happening across the world in Muslim countries where we come from. These are causes for concern for us because they have to do with our contemporaries living abroad who are not fortunate enough to be living in a secular country like us. In Pakistan, there is a man who was a university teacher there who was accused of blasphemy and was jailed before he could be mob-lynched by the students and townspeople. Many people from EXMNA know him from their correspondences online because he frequented the ex-Muslims forums they all visit. His lawyer who was defending his case was just shot and murdered yesterday, for defending a "blasphemer". In Saudi Arabia, an activist has been sentenced to 10 years in jail and 1,000 lashes for "disrespecting Islam" by creating a "liberal website". His lawyer has also been arrested.

On a lighter not, a member is flabbergasted that his sister who is in medical school and is taking many advanced biology classes does not believe in evolution. He is wondering what is going through her head when she is learning enough to understand the theory so well that she aces the tests, but still the cognitive dissonance does not allow her to accept the theory.  

EXMNA gained two new members this week. One gentleman originally from Sudan, who now lives in NY, and another who is in Oklahoma and has joined the North Texas/Oklahoma group. There are smaller sub-groups so that meetups can be more easily arranged, and North Texas (Dallas) and Oklahoma do joint meetups.

One of the members told us a rather shocking/disturbing story this week. A harmless one, but still very shocking and something that shows a certain mind-set. She had set a profile picture on Facebook of her and her sister, from when they were about 7-8 years old. The girls are wearing dresses in the picture. The member told us that her mother sent her an email with the picture with their bare legs cropped out, telling her it's better if she put that version up! The picture is of two little girls, and her mother sexualised it by wanting her to hide her legs in it.

In another post, someone has posted an "article" from a Middle-Eastern newspaper. It's basically a propaganda article, saying that the UAE has been ranked "First in World for Treating Women with Respect". The members are having a bit of a laugh at this one.