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Making Sense with Sam Harris

#81 — Leaving Islam

Making Sense with Sam Harris

Waking Up with Sam Harris

Samharris, Currentevents, Politics, Ethics, Religion, Neuroscience, Science, Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.629.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2017

⏱️ 50 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sam Harris speaks with Sarah Haider about her organization Ex-Muslims of North America, how the political Left is confused about Islam, "rape culture" under Islam, honesty without bigotry, stealth theocracy, immigration, the prospects of reforming Islam, and other topics.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to the Making Sense Podcast. This is Sam Harris. Just a note to say that if you're

0:12.1

hearing this, you are not currently on our subscriber feed and will only be hearing

0:16.2

the first part of this conversation. In order to access full episodes of the Making Sense

0:20.7

Podcast, you'll need to subscribe at samharis.org. There you'll find our private RSS feed

0:26.1

to add to your favorite pod catcher, along with other subscriber-only content. We don't run ads

0:31.2

on the podcast, and therefore it's made possible entirely through the support of our subscribers.

0:35.8

So if you enjoy what we're doing here, please consider becoming one.

0:46.6

Today in the podcast, I'm bringing you a conversation with Sarah Hader,

0:50.4

who is the co-founder of the ex-Muslims of North America. Many of you know Sarah from Twitter.

0:58.7

There have been many requests to get her on the podcast. Very happy to finally have her on,

1:03.5

but we spoke after the Manchester bombing, but as it turns out just before the London atrocity.

1:13.1

And I suppose nothing really changes with each new event, but it is a very strange feeling to

1:21.5

more or less expect some new eruption of jihadist insanity sometime soon. So it's just to say it's

1:31.1

impossible to keep up with what's happening. But unfortunately I fear this conversation will seem

1:36.7

timely for the rest of our lives. Sarah and I talk about what it means to leave Islam,

1:45.1

about the unique issues that surround being an ex-Muslim, as opposed to being an ex-Christian or an

1:50.5

ex-Mormon, or even an ex-scientologist. And Sarah shares this experience that very few people

1:57.8

spend a lot of time thinking about, which is the experience of being in a post-ate, living in

2:03.3

what would otherwise be the safest places on earth in the safest period human beings have ever

2:11.0

enjoyed, but nevertheless being imperiled by the sectarian hatreds of one community.

2:19.9

There's a lot of talk about Islamophobia in the news. There's very little talk about the danger

2:27.4

and difficulty of being an ex-Muslim in the West. That's why Sarah's organization and her voice

...

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