[squarefoot]

Many years ago I had a colleague who was a pretty good engineer from Morocco, also a very nice guy. He left his country and was almost disowned by his own family for being an atheist, a condition which over there I imagine is quite rare and dangerous even nowadays, although we have a good set of examples of discrimination in the west too.

[simfree]

He probably had to leave his country to live a reasonable lifestyle. Some countries like Malaysia will not let you leave Islam if your ethnic Malay, and due to your race you are presumed to be Islamic by law.

It can be very isolating and sometimes dangerous to be the outsider in an area with uniform religious and cultural beliefs.