Salam. I want to ask of you, my brother, how to recover from trauma of being around religious Muslims? I was a part of an Islamist group in the past and when I joined them I got to see the bad side of Muslims. I know that they are only humans, but I cannot get over how they behave like they own the truth but hurt people with their tongue. I am not generalizing all of them like that, but the scar is still there. I cannot accept that I am also a part of those kinds of Muslims. I need your advice.
Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,
Sorry about what you’ve been through. I think the solution is to learn more about Islam on your own so much that you start to feel like it’s your own personal religion, like you own your own brand of Islam. I was forced to do that myself after seeing many ridiculous ideas associated with Islam, I had to make my own understanding that made it perfectly clear how my religion was not what those extremists and narrow-minded people thought it was. I recommend that you read my essays where I describe Islam as I understand it. You could also try reading some of the books on my Islamic studies reading list.