Lale Gul is a young Dutch novelist who has broken with the traditions of her Turkish immigrant family and has written a fictional account of her journey to secularism. The New York Times ran a story about her today. She says, “I’m done hiding. I don’t believe in God and the religious and cultural rules that were set for me.”

To say I sympathize would be an understatement, since the same thing happened to me. To say I understand would be a gross overstatement since her family now shuns her and she has received death threats. Leaving liberal Judaism in America is a very different matter. People do it every day and often don’t even notice.

But there is something Gul does not yet understand. She will. Secularism is empty and dangerous. Plenty of young women have come to various forms of harm from wearing a bikini. I’m not speaking about rape, though that does happen. I’m talking about Gov. Cuomo and everything his behavior represents.

Eventually, secular culture will deal with its sexism and indeed is in the process of doing so right now.

The emptiness is something else entirely.

Islam is not just rules, but a way of life—a story of the universe. What is the secular way of life? What is its story of the universe?

So, Lale Gul, welcome to secularism. But I’m afraid you will find it is not all it’s cracked up to be.