[ Adobe Stock | Maxim Chuev ] Muhammad  The following piece, written by “Muhammad,” details growing up under the Taliban rule in Afghanistan and his journey to atheism. I am Muhammad; but not that one, who was God’s representative. Rather, I am the Muhammad who left the prison of God’s faith and now tries to live as a free man with his new identity as an atheist. I was born in the southeast of Afghanistan in a region of the Ghalji tribe of Pashtuns, who keep the traditions of their ancestors from before Islam. It was during the first era of the Taliban regime.  I joined the Khost City branch school. The principal of the school was a Talib, and he told me that my name is non-Islamic and should be changed; then he took out a pen and first wrote Muhammad and then my given name. “Now your name has become Islamic.” From that day until the present, “Muhammad” has been my name. I also introduced myself here as Muhammad to hide my identity; …