I was born and raised as an atheist.
In my parents' house, we had no bible, no religious symbolism.
Religion has never really been a part of my life.
and in the UK, where I'm from, a lack of religion is a normality.
At the last count, only 700,000 people attend church regularly in the United Kingdom
In Morocco, where I live, religion - specifically Islam - is a major part of everyday life.
There are a lot of laws, here, that are governed by religion and it affects everyday social interaction
so what is it like living in an Islamic country as an atheist
I don't hide my atheism. I don't feel that I have to, but I don't shout out about it, either.
Moroccans tend to equate people who come from the west as being Christian;
so moroccans who don't know me very well assume that I believe in a god and I believe in Jesus;
and that's because it's easier for Moroccans to understand somebody believing in a god - even the
"wrong" god than it is for them to understand people being atheist: lacking a belief in any god.
When my atheism becomes clear, confusion and surprise are the usual initial responses.
After that, the responses fall in one of two sets.
Sometimes people try to challenge my belief in no god.
I try to explain that atheism is not a belief in no god, but a lack of a belief in a god
and sometimes this is confused as being the same thing - but it's not.
Sometimes, Moroccans will try to convert me; although this is never done with heavy preaching.
It's more likely to be done with rhetorical questions like
"How do you think we got here then? or "What you think is the purpose of life?"
Sometimes, Moroccans present me with what they believe is irrefutable, clear evidence of the existence of god,
but it's evidence that never satisfies me.
I remember on one occasion, one girl just opened her arm as if to present the entire world to me as if I have never seen it before;
saying to me things like "Look at the sunset. Look at the trees."
How do you think that they got here? Who made these things if not god?
To her, the trees and the sunset were enough; for me, they are not.
Sometimes. I'm prayed for in the hope that god will eventually reveal himself to me.
There's genuine worry and concern that I will burn in hell for eternity
and I find this response really very sweet. It's caring and it's loving and it shows people are concerned for my soul.
and I know that such a response comes from the heart.
There's no doubt that that is a nice reaction to have and I certainly don't find that insulting
or in any way negative in fact.
The second set of responses is equally quizzical,
but they are much more exploratory of my side of the debate rather than presenting their religious point of view.
"Why don't you believe?" "What do you think happens to you when you die?"
Where do your morals come from?"
and this is a really stark contrast to the first set of responses
which, when it comes to moral questions, tend to be the lines of:
"If there is no god, how can you have any morals?"
I encounter the second group much more often than I encounter the first group
and that may be because I live in a big city, so religion isn't
as obvious in the big cities as they are in the small towns and villages. It could also
be because the tourists tend to come to the big cities, so Moroccans are much more
likely to engage with different forms of belief, including no belief at all.
Religion is dying out in the west and tourism is on the rise in Morocco, so an increasing
number of Moroccans are going to come across this non-religious lifestyle and these views,
and honestly I don't think that's going to be a problem for Moroccans or tourists.
I want to make it clear that I have never had a negative experience because of my atheism. I've
never been confronted or made to feel unwelcome, and that's true in Morocco, but it's also true
in the three other islamic countries that i've lived in: Turkey, Syria and Lebanon.
I am not forced to follow any religious instruction. I don't even have to observe
Ramadan. I can eat and drink in public areas as if Ramadan didn't exist.
Although I, like many other ex-pats, do observe Ramadan and choose not to
eat and drink in public but we do so out of respect not because we are forced to.
So often western media present Islamic countries in a misleading way. It's not all
Allah akbar and riding to work on camels - far from it. Morocco is a normal country,
as were Syria and Lebanon before the war. The response that I get to my atheism is quizzical;
it's not critical. I don't have to deny or in any way compromise my atheism.
People all over the world - whether they are religious or atheist - just want to get
on with their lives in a peaceful environment and ensure better lives for the generations of
people to come. The overwhelming, vast majority of muslims are open-minded and welcoming and
they are very interested in other religious and non-religious points of view
Thank you for watching and may your god - if there is one - go with you.