Episode 26 - Life in Saudi w/Ali Rizvi "The Atheist Muslim"

Join me and my good friend Ali Rizvi for a conversation about Life in Saudi Arabia. Ali and I share a very similar geographical background. We both grew up as Pakistani expats in Saudi in fairly liberal Muslim families. It’s always fun to compare notes…

We discuss his early years in school, how snowflakes are secret code for The Star of David :P , we talk about the differences between the Shia experience and the Sunni one & reminisce about Betamax, Ramadan TV shows like Full House, Small Wonder, Punky Brewster.

The ex-muslim community has grown, and with that comes some differences in approach….the disadvantages of ’the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ type of tactics.

Overall, Ali put me in a really hopeful and optimistic mood about how attitudes around apostasy are changing, how irreligiosity in even countries like Saudi Arabia is growing.

Here is a link to the gallup poll he referenced http://www.wingia.com/web/files/news/14/file/14.pdf

We touched briefly upon the subject of creationism in public schools in the US, but I found that there are some instances where people to get away with teaching it: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/01/creationism_in_public_schools_mapped_where_tax_money_supports_alternatives.html

Check out Ali's book here: https://www.amazon.com/Atheist-Muslim-Journey-Religion-Reason/dp/1250094445

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