“It’s on this second Facebook account that I express my true opinions about Islam. For my own safety, this account has to be detached from my actual identity, bearing a fake name and no pictures of my face.” Said, a 25-year-old student from Benghazi, talking about the account he uses to access the Facebook group known as Libyiun la Diniun (Non-religious Libyans). This is one of a few secret online platforms where Libyan atheists gather to share critiques and satirical memes about religion.

Personal experiences of the chaos and contradictions that have slowly consumed post-revolution Libya have been instrumental in tainting perceptions of Islam. Sana, who is 24 and from the eastern city of Derna, also uses a fake Facebook account to access Libyiun la Diniun. She recalls lying in her bed one evening in October 2014 while Islamic State-affiliated militias paraded the streets outside vowing to subject women to sexual slavery if they refused to adhere to their strict religious practices. “At this moment I was set to go one of two ways,” Sana said. “If this had happened to me at a slightly younger age when I was more impressionable I think I would have developed radical beliefs.” 

For Said, the breakaway was more gradual. The ideological incompatibility between democracy and the type of Sharia law championed by various Salafist groups eventually forced him into an uncomfortable choice between his faith and his politics. Said records how one of his own cousins was publicly beheaded in Benghazi, in 2016, after publicly speaking out against one of these jihadist groups, Ansar al-Sharia. “Interestingly, my cousin’s death occurred during a period when I was deeply religious, praying five times a day and studying 10 new pages of the Quran each evening,” Said said.

Libyiun la Diniun is predominantly a congregation of young people acting freely behind a veil of anonymity. As summarized in the 2019 International Religious Freedom Report published by the US government, “Former Muslims have faced intense social and economic pressure to renounce their faith and return to Islam.” The report also notes that Salafist interpretations of Sharia have contributed to restrictive social environments, citing numerous examples where deviation from Islamic practices has resulted in public floggings, torture, kidnapping and murder.