Happy New Year! I might not be on time but at least I'm sincere... ;-)

I am a religion leaver, I guess you would say. I am not sure I was ever a believer, agnostic at best. I went along with the dogma because that was what was expected of me and I thought I had to follow some religion to get along in the community. Most of my family are devout Christian, two of my sons included. The other two are atheist as I am. Living in the Bible Belt, when most people realize that I am a non believer, they want to pray for me. My answer is always "Do what makes you happy, but do it for you, it does me no good at all". I realized at a young age that the "religious mafia" try to control humanity in their favor.

I'm a religion leaver.My mother is a Christian and her side of the family are very religious.I became an agnostic around nine and an Atheist around ten.So I've been an Atheist for almost four years because today I turned fourteen.I haven't came out as an Atheist because of my mother is a fundie Christian.

Pleasure to meet you Muhab, I grew up with roman catholics, realised as a teenager that there was no real evidence of virgin births, talking snakes and raising from the dead.
Fortunately there is no longer a death penalty for apostacy in christianity.
I felt religion was slowly dying back then, but it seems to be having this huge resurgence today .
As i read, you have had first hand experience with the mindset of islam.

you'll be ok, there are many programs available to gay and lesbian middle eastern people, so i'm sure there must be something similiar to this where you are.. I hope.

You could try that Muhab but you need to have a convention reason for seeking refuge. For example, you must be able to demonstrate that you have a genuine fear of and a real risk of being persecuted on the basis of political opinion, religion or membership of a particular social group. It can be very difficult to prove that but if you have evidence of persecution and there is a history of persecution of people lijke you in Yemen thyen it may be possible.

There is a great shortage of qualified teachers in Australia. Why not come here?

Dear Muhab

You can take comfort in the knowledge that many agree with you and many of us would love to help you in your individual situation if there were a way to do so.

Can you not get away from that country? What sort of work can you do? What skills do you have? Is it possible for you to go to a country where you could get asylum under the UN Refugee Convention? Most Western democracies are signatories to the convention and are therefore under an obligation to offer asylum to someone who is being persecuted for a convention reason. Religion is one such reason.

I am an attorney who specialises in this area of law and would be happy to advise you further aboutt he possibilities of protection under the conventionm or immigration on some other basis such as skilled migration.

You write well and truthfully.
We all sympathise.
How did this come about--this philosophical disaster?
Homo sapiens is evolution's greatest achievement--and yet "how did this reversal of evolutionary fortune come to pass?".
What is to be the future?