Mohamed Cisse
Mohamed Cisse serves on our Board of Directors and, as treasurer he is a vital member of TCP’s Executive Committee. As one of our former Muslim religious leaders, he lends a unique perspective to our community of merry apostates. Mohamed, please do tell us more:
My Story
Like all other faith-slaves (sorry, that’s how I call it), I grew up with more fear of the hell than dream for the paradise. Even the 72 virgins did not scare me like the hell. Here is a frightening story for the group:
The best friend of my grandfather was a black-smith. He and his workers mainly family would buy junk aluminums, melt them in a high density furnace and use that liquid to produce different equipment and sell them. My grandfather and other Muslim leaders always use the image of that furnace and the extremely-hot-liquid to illustrate the hell. I have to say, it always scared the ‘hell’ out of me. Along with many other metaphors, I just wanted to avoid the hell and that’s it.
While regular people may see this without fear, I could not. Why? I was born and raised in the Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire) to be the successor to my late father who was Imam and a very respectful community leader. I grew up with my maternal grandparents, also Imam, where I was being initiated to be the reflection of my name ‘MUHAMMAD’ like the prophet of Islam. I was trained very early to be a muezzin and a preacher. My young age and my innocence made people see in me the perfect miracle of god sending his message through such a “blessed child”. People loved me and cared so much for me. I got the front seat right next to my grandfather during community events. I was served the best food and people ‘literally’ waited until I start eating before they do. I received live chicken, goat and sheep/ram as people offer to god for various reasons. In return, I made some very special secret prayers for them. Sometimes with the spiritual help of my grandfather or father, depending on the nature or the size of the problems. During the month of Ramadan, wealthy Muslim families would initiate night prayer at their houses and request that I am sent there to lead them. My voice was compared to two celebrities in Saudi Arabia: Imam Abdullah Al-Matrood and the late Abdul-Basit (Please google them). I was trained in reading the Quran with a very emotional voice. I had memorized almost the entire book and was called ‘Haafiz’ (a person who knows the Quran by heart). Every Friday and Monday night, we (TALIBEs) go begging from household to household in the name of Allah. People give us sacrifices (offers to God consisting of left-over food and money) for various reasons.
While growing up with all these phenomenon, witnessing my mother consistently struggling in the daily bases to save and feed her children is the one reason that pushed me to question some of the religious believes and practices. I got in lots of trouble for questioning the need to pray to a god that never answers anything. I was told that god has decided that we suffer here (in this miserable world) to have the eternal life in the heaven. Just to name a few that many of you are certainly aware; Domestic violence was merely a sign of a good education; Male dominance was very faithful and women abuse was acceptable. Women have very little to zero rights and they are conditioned to accept it. My mother, for instance, was married at the age 13. She immediately became pregnant but the baby did not survive. She was right after pregnant and that was me. I was born when my mom was 14 years old and she was thrown out (divorced) when I was two years old with ZERO rights. In my community/religion, Slavery was/is fine except that our human governments courageously would not allow it. I want to stop here and hope to have more opportunity to share a lot more.