Studies in World Religions and Introduction to Abrahamic Traditions (P/B)

The first question usually posed to a new Muslim convert — especially a woman — is: Why? Why would you leave the religion of your family to embrace Islam? I Became a Muslim was written to answer this question. Beginning with her early childhood memories in England, Aysha Parry, explains how she became confused and then disillusioned by her Christian religion. After travelling around the world in a spiritual quest, during which she discovered different cultures and witnessed unusual religious practices, the powerful ‘call to prayer’ captured her heart, inviting her to embrace Islam. Her final and brave decision was to put Allah, love and family at the heart of her new religious lifestyle in the place she now calls home: Egypt. Her distinctive story explains exactly what she found in Islam and what she left behind. The candid discussions of the challenges she faced before and after Islam may occasionally include statements that are not entirely in accordance with Islamic creed, but they reflect her unique experiences and ongoing process of learning. I Became a Muslim will inspire those who are considering converting to Islam as well as those who simply want to better understand this religion.

In his book Islam and the west Norman Daniel wrote: People seem to take it for granted that alien society is dangerous, if not hostile, and the spasmodic outbreaks of warfare between Islam and Christendom throughout history has been one manifestation of this. Apparently, under the pressure of their own sense of danger, Whether real or not, beliefs take shape in men’s minds. By misapprehension and misrepresentation, a notion of ideas and beliefs of one society can pass into the accepted myth of another society in a form so distorted that its relation to the original facts is sometimes barely discernible. Doctrines that are the expression of the spiritual outlook of an enemy are interpreted ungenerously and with prejudice and even the facts are modified to suit the interpretation.

This process began among the Greeks whom the Arab armies conquered when they occupied Syria… St John of Dainascus, born fifty years after the Hijrah (precedented) The severe attitude of condemning whatever Muslims believe in. In this Byzantine polemic, the Anatrope, Niceta of Byzantium does not even try to understand the Qur’an before refuting it. It follows that the God of Muhammad is really a devil.

Enemies of Islam, whatever their motives, will always exploit much the same facts, as recently did Salman Rushdies Satanic Verses.

As they (Christians) resented the doctrines of Islam and saw them in the light of their own misconceptions, they inevitably deformed them. Anti-Islamic polemic inhibited any possible empathy with Muslims. The main attack on Islam was already determined in the thirteenth century.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziah, a contemporary to the outcome of these polemics against Islam, the Age of Decline, did not restrict himself from delivering  tit-for-tat replies, and sometimes he went overboard in some of his descriptions equally demeaning the Christians and the Jews.