Thanks Andre for the invite. Studying meditation and philosphy is the way to go. My brother studied buddhism, and went to meeting etc, and I have great respect for my bro, so I went to one of these talks also. I think it was Tibetan, and they were talking about property, that one shouldn't own too many etc. which is OK, but this was spoken to very middle class people, jangling their jewelry. I have no idea why most of these people were there. So I just started reading up about it - and from the information my brother gave me, he doesn't go to these meeting any more, 'cause he could see infighting with heirarchy, same old power struggles that seems to happen within any organisation. So much for the philosophy, expect nothing, and you won't be disappointed.  

Some people don't recognise or respect something in a particular group, so they start another. Same old, same old. Mind you, even  if there were a 'physical group' of Atheists, same thing would happen.

You will find on this site, the only thing that is agreed upon, is 'Prove there is a god, until then, I don't acknowledge any god'. Other than that, many disagreements, and that is all good, a real democracy.

G'day Andre, Welcome to TA. You only need to practice Meditation, without calling it Buddhism. Buddhism does have some strange beliefs, one of which is Hungry Ghosts - and while Buddhism uses women to prop up the hierarchy of men, it is not a good organization. They also chastise men for masturbation. When a female cannot in any shape or form, become Dali Lama, it is being misogynistic. They believe in re-incarnation, and the choosing of the Dali Lama also goes into the supernatural - they are very big on visions etc -

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/choosing-a-dalai-lama.html

Buddhism is like any other religion in it keeps dark secrets. Any religion or society that excludes women is going to have a problem, Within Buddhism, pedophilia is OK as is homosexuality, as it is also in Islam and Catholicism.

http://lamashree.org/dalailama_08_childabuse_tibetanbuddhistmonasteries.htm

Your saying of the prayer Shahada is dodgy if you are agonistic  - 

There is no god but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God.

Positive thinking and mantras are good, and that is all you need - meditation is positive thinking and just getting and controlling your own head, no need for anything else to be introduced - and the use of philosophy for the positive thinking and mantras - no prayers, no god.

Any so called religion or spirituality just needs a bit of research. The only group who don't or can't hide behind cloth, cross or robes are Atheists. We may marinate before we bar-b-que babies, but that is about it :) Atheists need men like you, along with all the other ex-Muslims to keep us up to date with what is going on in Muslim countries, from the ex-Muslim point of view. I thought xianity was bad enough, but Muslims leave xians for dead in their evilness.