Hicham Nostik

Hicham Nostik (Arabic: هشام نوستيك, also known as Kafer Maghribi كافر مغربي) born in 1976 in Taza, Morocco, is a Moroccan writer, podcaster and YouTuber, living in Canada, most known for his outspoken stance against Islam and religion in general, expressed through his books, podcasts and comedy videos, in Moroccan Arabic and Standard Arabic. The real name of Hicham Nostik is unknown. He was first known by his YouTube username Kafer Maghribi (Arabic for Moroccan Infidel). He stated that he purposefully used the term kafer (infidel), a pejorative term in Islamic countries, so that people would get used to it, and to the fact that infidels do live among them. The name Nostik was derived from agnostic. In an interview with writer and intellectual Hamed Abdel-Samad on his program Box of Islam, he used makeup to keep his identity anonymous. Hicham Nostik was born in Taza, grew up an orphan after losing both his parents at a young age, and was raised by his sister in Kenitra. He joined the Islamist Al Adl Wa Al Ihssane organization at a young age, then the Movement of Unicity and Reform, another Islamist organization in Morocco. In the mid 1990s, Nostik moved to Germany to study German literature. He stayed in a mosque in Heidelberg since he could not afford to pay rent, and was radicalized due to his constant interaction with Muslim extremists and Mujahideen. At the instigation of his friends at the time, he traveled twice to join the Balkan war in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a Mujahid, but did not participate in the combat. He later left the mosque, and had to move around until he found an opportunity in Frankfurt, and enrolled in a Christian University. This allowed him to study Christianity and its history, and compare this knowledge with the Islamic understanding of Christianity, which according to him contradicted the historical evidence, regarding the origin and evolution of Christianity. This led him to question other aspects of Islam, such as the morality of Sharia laws, e.g. slavery, punishment for apostasy, etc.