Conversion from Islam to Christianity, A True Story

I received a comment on my post on Happy Easter. I went through the comment, pondered what to do and eventually felt like deleting it and putting a reply for the writer. Then, I thought better of it. Why not share my reply as an individual post? Here we go.

Why did I feel like deleting the comment?

1) It was irrelevant to my post.

2) It was too long (13 pages, just to be continued with more) and above all, I found it a waste of time for readers of my blog who are interested in true stories and real observations.

3) This is my personal blog and it's not a place for evangelism. Please feel free to post your long testimonies to your own blog.

Anybody familiar with me, my beliefs and my views as reflected in my posts will easily understand my earnest respect as a practicing Muslim for true Christians. Actually, I feel like a brother in belief with them. But ...

I've found a few things in common in all testimonies by evangelists who claim conversion from Islam to Christianity.

a) Very shallow understanding of Islam as seen in their inconsistent (sometimes incoherent) accounts. And this shallow understanding manifests itself in their claims about absence of love, salvation, etc in Islamic teachings and that they've found something completely new in Christianity that they lacked altogether beforehand.

b) Life-changing experiences and personal encounters with Jesus (I’ve had many dreams with our Imams, so what?).

c) Renouncing their dark past before accepting Jesus in their heart (BTW, it's not we who accept Jesus; it's he who gives us the honor to enlighten our heart with his grace).

Although I'm not a greenhorn in evangelistic literature (I used to read such stuff long before I came here), sometimes I feel dumbfounded or may I say fed up reading (or nowadays hearing) sheer ignorance about very basics of Islam. And when I read no-brainers like the following, more than being offended religiously, I find it an insult to the IQ of the reader:

Later, I decided to focus on Muslim religious studies, and took a course in order to become a Muslim preacher. Just a few days before I was supposed to give my first Friday sermon, I had a car accident and broke my legs. It was a compound fracture. I was hospitalized for 50 days and bed-ridden for a year. However, it gave me time to reconsider what I want to do in life. In order to pass the time, I started reading comics in Arabic and English. It was expensive to devour those comic books, so I switched to reading novels. After a year in bed, I was able to read unabridged English novels. When I was able to walk on crutches, I went back to high school and kept reading novels. I stumbled over a Western novel written by Louis L' Amour who wrote around a 120 novels. I read them all. I got really better in English and passed the American University of Beirut English Entrance Exam.

Now, let me write up an analogous story:

Later, I decided to focus on Christian religious studies and took a course in order to become a Christian pastor (sic, becoming a pastor after just taking a course). Just a few days before I was supposed to give my first Sunday service sermon, I had a car accident, blah blah, I went back to high school.

So, let’s think about my story again: a high-schooler takes a course, becomes a pastor and is ready to give a sermon. As easy as that! Impressing, eh? Well, any high-schooler (or maybe junior high) with an IQ somewhat above 80 would laugh at me and my story (if he ever finds it funny). Last time I checked, my IQ was way above 80 and I don’t find your story funny. I strongly recommend you to just keep reading unabridged novels (in batches of a 120) that would be less expensive than comic books, instead of trying your chance with writing stories.

Apart from the inconsistencies in your comment, evangelism does not fit with your previous comment on my Nowruz 1386 post where you'd written: "Religion is not attractive", which makes me think twice about your true belief in Jesus Christ.

And I refer you to my previous post On Bigotry, Prejudice & Guaranteed Salvation. You have picked the wrong person. God has already given me the honor to have Jesus Christ in my heart and I already believe in his words which are already present in Quran and other Islamic teachings.

Jesus is the light of God and His very Spirit and Word sent to the world. He doesn’t need inefficient pestering advertisement by ignorant people. That has proved to turn off even people born into Christian families. The same holds true for ignorant people who preach Islam or what they think to be Islam after reading a few books (or maybe after taking a course).

Poor advertisement does more harm than good. The most it could produce is likewise ignorant people with a shallow understanding in their newly acquired religion.