Haram Doodles? What the jahannam (hell) are those?

Hi! I'm Sammy, the doodler behind Haram Doodles.

I'm an ExMuslim atheist, artist and activist who grew up in the U.S. as a first-generation South Asian (Pakistani-Indian) Muslim immigrant.

I left Islam over a decade ago because... I'm a woman.

In March 2022, I turned my Muslim childhood love of art into ExMuslim adult fuel to launch Haram (forbidden) Doodles. It is a collection of doodles, comics, stories and memes that I create in collaboration with courageous ExMuslims using a feminist, humanist, humorous, critical and sometimes cheeky approach. These doodles are freely available online and publicly accessible in protest of Islam and its strict rules and restrictions on freedom, gender, sexuality, critical thinking, science, nature, art and life itself, all of the reasons that made me leave Islam too.

Email me for media, partnership, interview and speaking requests at [email protected].

Haram Doodles at California Freethought Day 2025

With a coalition of ex-Muslims and activists, I organized the first ever "ExMuslim Awareness Month" in December 2022, now celebrated annually. I also volunteer with the Ex-Muslims International coalition and am part of the 2025-2027 Borgenicht Fellowship Program with the Rights and Religions Forum.

In December 2025, I, along with my ExMuslim partner and a tiny team of ExMuslims, helped create and launch exmuslim.me. This first ever global map of stories is a website for apostates of Islam to share about their identities, experiences and journey. There are now over 1,000 stories shared by ExMuslims from around the world! Learn more here.

You can find Haram Doodles on Instagram, TikTok, BlueSky and X. And on the Ex-Muslim Subreddit.

Shop the merch and earn more haram rewards points!

ExMuslim, Atheist, Humanist, Weed Mubarak, Iblees, Pride Muarak t-shirts and prints

Haram tips are welcome to support these doodles on Ko-Fi!

Please download (right-click, save) and share these doodles freely. Tag on Instagram as @haramdoodles, on X or Twitter @haramdoodles and/or mention this website, HaramDoodles.com.

Why is it haram (forbidden, sinful or impermissible) to draw living beings or people and animals in Islam?

"How dare I mimic Allah? How dare I recreate his creations?"

This is what I heard from my Muslim parents as a kid who was obsessed with art.

This sadly meant me throwing out all of my art materials, and what my parents meant was me becoming more Muslim. I was told I was growing up (aka I was about to get my period soon), couldn't waste my time anymore (aka on non-Islamic things) and had to get serious about life (aka help mom in the kitchen, pray, remember Allah and read the Quran like a good Muslim girl).

Aniconism exists in Islam, or the absence of living beings in art, because the beliefs exist in the Quran (to worship Allah only) and more importantly, in Hadith, Muhammad's sayings and doings.

This absence of people and animals in Islamic art is nothing but a divine restriction of freedom of expression, creativity and imagination, the very things that also make us human.

Mohammed was afraid of idolatry at the time he was begging, pleading, convincing, forcing, warring and coercing everyone around him to follow Islam and Allah to become Muslim. And now, in the 21st century, some Muslims have taken the "no drawings of Mo or people" rule way too far.

Narrated Said bin Abu Al-Hasan:
Said bin Abu Al-Hasan narrates a conversation between a panicked man who makes his living by making pictures with Ibn 'Abbas. Ibn 'Abbas relays the message heard from the Prophet that whoever makes a picture will be endlessly punished by Allah until he is able to put life into it - though he declared that would never be possible. The Hadith reports Ibn 'Abbas further advised the panicked man to make pictures of trees and any other inanimate objects.
— Muhammad al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari
Reference (English Book) Vol. 3, Book 34, Hadith 428
Reference (Arabic Book) Book 34, Hadith 172

One of the most unfortunate downsides to this artistic restriction in Islam is taking away a child's curiosity and imagination to dream and create, while restricting adults to never explore art to its fullest glory. Heck, it's even caused Islamists, or far-right conservative Muslims, to hate people who create anything that dissents from Islam and enact violence in the name of Allah. I'm sure Charlie Hebdo or Salman Rushdie ring an alarm bell.

As an ExMuslim, I'm reclaiming my human right to create that got taken from me as a Muslim kid, and now using it to uplift and advocate for the global ExMuslim community with Haram Doodles.

Haram Doodles? What the jahannam (hell) are those?

Shop the merch and earn more haram rewards points!

Share haram doodles to earn haram points! JK, maybe. ;)

Why is it haram (forbidden, sinful or impermissible) to draw living beings or people and animals in Islam?

Haram Doodles in interviews, events, podcasts and panels: