Out of the three big monotheistic religions that exist today, two of them, Judaism and to a slightly lesser extent Christianity, require that you know a considerable amount about the faith before you join. To convert to Judaism requires,amongst other things, at least two years study and an examination by a board of Rabbis. To convert to Christianity a potential convert is required to know something of the life and mission of Jesus, the concept of the Trinity and the basic parameters and ethics of Christianity. However to join Islam all it takes is a repetition in front of witnesses of the Islamic declaration of faith. You can get into Islam without any knowledge of Islam or Islamic theology whatsoever.
Sometimes when people convert to Islam without knowing what they are getting into, they don’t want to admit that they’ve made a mistake with something as massive as the choice of a new spiritual path. Therefore they cleave stronger than ever to Islam and attempt to defend it, even though deep down they may know or feel that what they are defending is indefensible.
With others who have converted to Islam they realise the mistake they’ve made and leave. Some become very bitter about the error of judgment they’ve committed by joining a faith whilst knowing bugger all about it. A person can jump lemming like, possibly with others of their peer group into Islam and not be aware that this faith may well promote views that they find disturbing or revolting or immoral. It’s because Islam is so easy to get into that there is a lot of ‘churn’ when it comes to converts. People join, find out about Islam and its moral code, get disillusioned and then leave. Although Islamic evangelists claim that a lot of people convert to Islam, they don’t tend to be that forthcoming about those who, after studying a bit more deeply into Islamic texts, have decided it’s not for them.
Wouldn’t it be far better if those considering conversion to Islam were more informed about Islam before they got into it? The ex-Muslim commentator Apostate Prophet seems to think so and has put together a brilliant video on the subject.
In his video, which is embedded below, Apostate Prophet outlines the 20 things that a potential convert to Islam should know before joining. He covers things like the requirement to treat Mohammed as the ‘perfect man’, the belief in the supernatural world of the Jinn spirits, the slavery baked into Islam and the anti-science claims made by the Koran. Maybe if more people thinking of choosing Islam as a faith path were aware of the sorts of things that Apostate Prophet talks about, less people would mindlessly join with this ideology?
Great video!
I had no idea some Islamic beliefs were so primitive and laced with such non-scientific nonsense. Perhaps C7 conditions were so brutal, with day-to-day survival needing restrictions on liberty which we find appalling today, that it’s unfair to compare those times to now. But the other two Abrahamic death cults have modified their fire & brimstone utterances, accepting them as historical excesses unfit for C21, leaving Islam alone in its barbarity.
You don’t really have to know much about Christianity in order to identify as a Christian. There was much mockery of Richard Dawkins for commissioning a survey of those who put Christian on their census form for cultural reasons rather than because they actually were Christians. He was making a valid point though, most knew almost nothing about Christianity even though the questions were laughably easy.
There’s a difference between identifying as a Christian and actually converting. A lot of people in Britain were de facto C of E even if their only church attendance was hatch, match and despatch. Agree it was a box that was ticked for cultural reasons. I was referring to an actual conversion process. However some churches will be more formal than others about conversion. I understand from Christian friends that the Evangelicals are quite lax whilst the Roman Catholics and the Orthodox Churches require some study.