As soon as he stepped off the plane on a family holiday to Kenya, Mahad Olad knew something was wrong. His mother, a \u201cvery devout, very conservative, very Wahhabi\u201d woman, was acting strangely\u2014furtively taking phone calls when she thought he was out of earshot. His suspicions would soon be proved correct. Mr Olad\u2019s family, Somali immigrants to America and devout Muslims, had discovered that he had not only renounced Islam but was also gay. The holiday was a ruse, an intervention to save his soul.<\/p>\n
Mr Olad was told he would leave college and be turned over the next day to the care of Muslim clerics who would restore his faith. \u201cI was aware of the horrors of these camps,\u201d Mr Olad says. \u201cThey operate them in the middle of nowhere, where you cannot escape. They subject you to beatings, starvation and trampling.\u201d He tried to contact the American embassy, but it could not send help because of recent terrorist attacks nearby. Luckily, he also managed to reach a Kenyan atheist group. In the dead of night he sneaked into his mother\u2019s room, stole his passport and was whisked away by taxi to the embassy, which eventually returned him safely to America. He has not spoken to his family since.<\/p>\n
Though few have such harrowing stories, hundreds of thousands of American Muslims might recognise something like their own experience in Mr Olad\u2019s tale. As the number of American Muslims has increased by almost 50% in the past decade, so too has the number of ex-Muslims. According to the Pew Research Centre, 23% of Americans raised as Muslims no longer identify with the faith. Most of them are young second-generation immigrants who have come to reject the religion of their parents. Some, however, are older when their crisis of faith arrives, already married to devout Muslim spouses and driving children to the mosque to study the Koran at weekends.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some 23% of Americans raised as Muslims no longer identify with the faith, according to @pewresearch<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/GpmN6ODBPq<\/a><\/p>\n — The Economist (@TheEconomist) March 17, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n