anyone know stories of people who convert to Islam and why?
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Former Christian Priests and Missionaries who have Embraced Islam  \nhttp://thetruereligion.org/modules/xfsection/index.php?category=1\n\nFemale converts to Islam outnumber their male counterparts by a ratio of 4:1 \nhttp://thetruereligion.org/modules/xfsection/index.php?category=2\n\nMen who have Embraced Islam\nhttp://thetruereligion.org/modules/xfsection/index.php?category=3\n\nMedia coverage of converts' stories from around the world\nhttp://thetruereligion.org/modules/xfsection/index.php?category=4\n\n(Vedio) intersting ducomentary on people turning into muslims in Taxes. you will also see a woman prouncing the Shahada for the first time. \n\nhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9184353144432289069
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I was born and raised Christian. After studying the Bahai Faith while in high  school, I became a Bahai.  Because Baha' u'llah often quotes from the Quran, I studied Islam. My fascination with religion led me to take two college courses on world religions, so I have studied some forms of paganism, Hinduism, Sikhism,  Judaism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism and Taoism.   My participation in forums such as this one -- and the violent attacks on Islam - have  led to more study of the Quran. And when the Jehovah's Witnesses dropped by, I studied  with them for awhile until they give up on me and stopped dropping by.  Since I have lived in Ohio, I became interested in the Amish religion and studied that for awhile. Online discussions and the behavior of some of its followers drove me to read up on Scientology. Basically, I find the variety of beliefs fascinating and love reading about them. I find that understanding religion makes it easier to understand people. More understanding, IMHO, would lead to fewer wars.
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Don't worry they all are converting to ISLAM soon.Can't you see how curious they are.
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Reading the all these "Yes" posted in response to the question as if it was "still" a granted freedom to change or leave Islam is evidence that people often don't understand that religions are not all the same...\n\nLeaving Islam is Apostasy. It is not "considered" IT IS A CRIME as quoted in all aspect of Islamic scriptures and legislatures in or outside of Islamic countries.\n\nIf a member of you family turns his back to Islam it brings shame to reletatives.\nHonor crimes are endorsed in the Koran, which explains the killings or at least the mistreatment of people who leave Islam even today.\n\nThe Koran is very very very clear and explicit, you do not need to be a scholar to figure out that leaving Islam puts you in a position where you become less than a slave. A muslim may not focus on those passages yet a more fondamentalist will use the same scriptural autority to apply this inhuman blackmail.\n\nHere are the quotes from Islamic scriptures:\nAnd do get a Koran yourself, read in your living room on your own. \n\nI am not quoting everything about Apostasy (Leaving islam) but they should make you understand why a peaceful Muslim may feel tremendous termoil when faced to choose between his heart and the situation of someone leaving the religion...\n\nQuotes:\n\n----------------\n\n"Those who blasphemed and back away from the ways of Allah and die as blasphemers, Allah shall not forgive them." Suratan Nisa', Ayah 48\n\n"Kill whoever changes his religion," Hadith\n\n"Kill those who believe in many gods" (Sura al-Tawba 9:5)\n\n\nHere this is not even the Pakistani constitution:\n\n"If a Muslim is found guilty of the crime of apostasy, either through words or through actions, he will be asked to repent during a three day period. If he has not repented within this time limit, he will be sentenced to death as an apostate and his property will be seized by the Revenue office. Every Muslim who refuses to pray will be asked to comply with the obligation to pray within the prescribed time limit. If he persists in his refusal, he will be punished by death." \n           - Article 306 of the Mauritanian Constitution\n\n---------------------------\n\n\nYES you can be killed for leaving Islam...\n\nEven here in America, many who leave the religion must often move to another location in order to protect the wellbeing of their family and the future of their children. Many leave without mentioning it to anyone so that there is no repercussions about it.\n\nIt is so amazing to take our civil right for granted and express such a naive YES to this question. \n\nThink about the reactions to the cartoons, will you trust someone practicing Islam to tell you it is a religion of tolerance or will you trust how they act and walk their talk ...\n\nGo ! read the Koran, wake up and see what this religion is all about.
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actually its the other way around\n\nchristian women are changing to islam.\n\nmy mother was a christian and now she's muslim.and most of the muslim women i know are christian turned muslim.
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I left Christianity (i.e. Roman Catholicism - RC) because my RC grandparents were murdered in 2002 by their own RC sons and daughters.  Those animals were never arrested because they held influence with the RC church and the town officials where I lived in.\n\nI embraced Islam in 2004 and never regretted my decision.  I'm definitely happier now as a Muslim.\n\nPeace.
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I am a muslim woman.  I have two children.  I teach them both to treat others as they would like to be treated, to apologize if they accidentally harm someone or insult somebody, and to have manners.  I don't know a single muslim with these insane plans in mind.  In other countries, probably, but I know of none here.
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no I (Chrsitian) wouldn't.  I'd pray they came back to my faith though.  I think muslims are a lot more hardnosed about that though.
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I am afraid you will not find good data on this. In many countries you are forced to be islamic. If you don't convert you will be killed. Hear of Dar fur? This is not across the board but it is huge. Many people are disowned by their families if they leave. Here is a link to one guy I know left Isam.
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There are people who convert from Islam to Christanity and other religions. They also have to GO INTO HIDING as they WILL BE KILLED FOR IT. Do you read the international news? A man within like the last year was PUT ON TRIAL FOR CONVERTING FROM ISLAM TO CHRISTANITY. Sick isn't it? That is what those people believe though. If the World hadn't stepped in the man would have been KILLED for it. To that one who said it is the best religion I feel bad for you, but I suggest you keep believing that, or at least make sure people THINK you believe that. At least Christians don't tell you to KILL the converts. The worst they did was that some branches would refuse to recognize you in their Church basically. I don't know of Jews teaching to KILL converts either. Sorry don't know the views of most religions so maybe, just maybe, Islam isn't the only one that says kill Converts but the fact is that in 2006 they are still putting people on trial for converting.
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I have learned a lot from my new friend about Islam. I am especially thankful for her tolerance of me as a Christian.\nI have a whole lot to learn and our relationship will grow through our teaching each other.
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I converted for many reasons: \nThere is no class in Islam, everyone is equal \nThere is only one book, never transformed, nor changed\nThere is only one God, no associates, u do not need a priest or the pastor to ask for forgiveness, its done directly to God. \nAs I read the Quran everything made sense, its so clear and teaches a person how to live peacefully. \nWomen have tremendous amount of rights. God dedicated a whole chapter in the Quran to women. \nIm also a science major and ever since i read the quran and the science discussed in it i automactially converted. The Science in the Quran proves it is the truth!
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some beautiful inspiring muslims...\n\n\nROB WICKS\n\n[In the following article, "NOI" refers to the Nation of Islam, which in spite of its name, is a group far removed from Islam. -Ed.] \n\nI grew up Baptist, in a family of ministers, in rural Mississippi. I went to college at Morehouse College in Atlanta, so I was exposed to the NOI, but I had the good fortune to become friends with an orthodox Muslim who explained to me the difference between NOI and Islam, and the lack of knowledge most NOI have of true Islam. Later, after I left school and began working, I got an internet account, and started to study some of the religions of the world. I had never really been a particularly religious person, due to my somewhat scientific nature. I always insist on proof. I started to delve deeper into Christianity, and studied it intently on the Web. I was somewhat disdained however by some inconsistencies in the Bible. I principally was troubled by the Trinity, though. I just did not see it. The one passage I saw as being most supportive (1 John 5:7) was partially forged. When I read Mathew 19:16-17, and Jesus (pbuh) says "Why callest thou me good?, it was clear to me that he was saying that he was not good, and only God was. But most of the Christians seemed to think Jesus was being tongue-in-cheek at this point. I found that I would have to be dishonest to accept this. \n\nThen fortune? smiled upon me. I hit a deer in my car. It was out of service for almost a month. During that time, I was unemployed, but had saved money, so I could live (I also have two roommates). I still had my internet account, and I decided to study more. After I had studied the Biblical contradictions, in addition to the inherent idolatry and unscriptural nature of the Trinity, along with other things, I rejected Christianity as a religion. Even Jesus did not seem to teach it, he taught belief in God. I went a time without any religion, thinking maybe it was all a sham. I have a friend who is in the 5% NOI, and I saw how much he hated religion, and I decided that I did not want to be like that. I believe that God kept my mind open and my heart from hardening against Him, and I studied Islam. Everything just seemed to fit: a reasoned faith which was very prayerful to keep us on the straight path, yet did not disdain acquisition of knowledge (the preachers back home loved to rail against education, as if ignorance is preferred by God). Islam seemed to be made for me. A good Muslim was the exact sort of person I aspired to be. After another month of study and prayer, I decided that if Muhammad (pbuh) was not a prophet, then there had never been prophets in the first place. The moment of decision came one night when I was reading the Qur'an and I read 21:30, and I read of God expanding his creation. Now, I almost became an astronomer at one point, and I still am interested, and these verses hit me like a sledgehammer. I became fearful of God, and wanted to worship him better.\n\n-----------------------------------------------------------\nCeline \n\nSalam Alekhum. \n\nI became Muslim almost three years ago, right after Ramadan in between the two Eids. \n\nMy spiritual search lasted over thirty years. I was born a Catholic and found many things I did not agree with: I believe in Jesus, but did not believe that he was the son of God, nor that he was God. I concluded on my own that he was a rabbi, since he was a learned Jew and a teacher. Because of this I went and studied under rabbis and learnt the Tanakh, the Torah and some of the laws of Judaism. I learnt the Kosher laws and the proper way of cooking, and the rules of being a woman. It became natural that men and women prayed separated as the women were together. Though Judaism was not the answer for me, I gained an understanding of its religious and spiritual ways. \n\nI then looked into women spirituality but found that it was lacking something, it was not always monotheistic in practice becau
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Hi,\nI'm glad to get the opportunity to help you understand this situation.\n\nWhat happened to you is indeed very strange, from the books offered, the itch, the sore and the whole rest ot it.\n\nThe question here is: What does that person has to do with Islam? what does his reaction has to do too? As well as his behaviour to you and the kids? \n\nI studied Islam as a subject and can tell you that you have been very unfortunate to fall on a person that showed you a wrong image of a great religion.\n\nYour case is just one that could also happen to a muslim while visiting a christian family, isn't it?\n\nIslam is nothing of what you saw and heard!\n\nIt's very unfortunate when a person without or with only a little Islamic academic background try to call people to conversion...\n\nWould you care to read the following:\n\nFr. Theodore Pulcini, a priest of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, is Assistant Professor of Religion at Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA 17013. His articles have appeared in Diakonia, The Journal of Ecumenical Studies, Church Divinity, Commonweal, and St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly. His essay is reprinted from New Theology Review. \n\n\nMuslims now constitute a significant minority in Western countries, most notably France, Britain, Germany, Canada, and the United States. Consequently, those in the West engaged in theological discourse and pastoral work can no longer consign Islam to the outer limits of their universe of religious concerns. Islam is no longer just "over there," an exotic feature of distant cultures; it is a well-established component of our own religious landscape and deserves attention from all who work to further the Reign of God in our culture. \nHaving taught courses in Islamic civilization as part of the religious studies curriculum at both secular and church-related institutions, I can give ample testimony to the antagonistic images of Islam obtaining in, and actively perpetuated by, many Western circles. In some cases, it is alarmism that fuels the antagonism ("Muslims are taking over the world!"); in others, the indignation of post-modern Westerners who resent the very existence of a powerful religious tradition which seems to foster "unenlightened" values ("Islam is intolerant, it oppresses women, etc."). It is a situation fraught with the real possibility of bigotry and violence.\n\nAs "people of religion," we can be particularly effective in shaping religious sentiment toward Muslims in our society. We can either stoke the fires of antagonism, feeding into the dominant societal trend of "demonizing" Islam and Muslims; or we can fight those fires, challenging people to come to a well-informed, balanced appreciation of this "other" in our midst. Most of us, I assume, would affirm the desirability of the latter option. I would like to offer a few suggestions as to how that option might be realized.\n\nFirst, expose the caricatures -- both our own and those of others. Such caricatures are usually based on the assumption that Islam is monolithic and that Muslim communities are homogeneous. Both assumptions are false. Just as there are many "Christianities," there are many "Islams" and most have very little to do with "Islamism," that militant, extremist fringe of Islam which, despite its claim to "traditionalism," actually violates such perennial Islamic values as tolerance, forbearance, hospitality, and broad-mindedness. A number of excellent resources can help you in this process -- see the attached reading list. All the recommended authors are Christians who have done much to dispel the rampant misinformation concerning Islam.\n\nSecond, reflect on what underlies our tendency to caricature Islam. Many in the Christian world have thrown themselves headlong into the process of challenging the traditional shape of our society an
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I believe many Muslims are Muslim because of where they live and what their friends and neighbors are. If they were Christians, which I believe many think seriously about at some time in their life, they would be persecuted if they changed. The Bible says this will happen to many Christians and they don't wish to be the ones it happens to. I seriously think a great number of Muslims would convert to Christianity if they could do it safely. Most know the true religion and probably secretly are believers of Jesus.
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yes, infact i converted back to hinduism but i m still missing islam becoze i have to admit that muslims have more unity than anyother nation
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I converted to Islam, so I still go to my family's house for Christmas, just to see relitives I don't normally get to see. Muslims don't celebrate Christmas, we beleive in Jesus, but not as Christians do. To Muslims, Jesus was a prophet, but not a god or son of God.\n\nHere are some good websites if you want to learn more about Islam.\nhttp://www.islamicfinder.com\nhttp://www.beautifulislam.com