M
mamlukman
Guest
I’m relatively new to this site, so if this has been brought up before, forgive me–but I did a search and didn’t find anything, and I’ve been through the first 10 pages of subjects on this forum without seeing anything.
A few months ago I stumbled upon a youtube video of a young woman converting to Islam. She was previously Catholic. As you know, on youtube similar videos are suggested when you watch one, so others popped up, and I watched some of them too…the more I watched, the more horrified and fascinated I became.
At this point I should point out that I am not some yahoo who has never known any Muslims and doesn’t know anything about Islam. I have studied Islam since 1965; I taught English at universities in Egypt and Saudi Arabia for seven years. I studied Arabic for nine years at three different universities. I have a near-PhD in Islamic Studies (no dissertation). One of my best friends in grad school is a prominent Shi’i Imam. So.
As I went further down the rabbit hole of these videos, I began striking out in different directions–certain Muslim evangelists began popping up on a lot of videos, so I learned about them and bought some of their books. I bought the few academic books that have been written on Westerners converting to Islam (usually in Europe). I bought first-hand accounts of converts. I’ve gone to various pro- and anti- Muslim web sites to analyze the arguments each side uses. I could go on, but you get the idea.
A quick summary of what I’ve learned so far: In the UK, about 30,000 native English have converted to Islam. In general, 75% of converts are women, usually between 15-24. Some of the more prominent converts have been Catholics (a priest, several nuns, a lot of pious Catholics who said the rosary every day, etc.). Muslim evangelization is highly organized and well funded–this was a big surprise for me. It ranges from open houses at the local mosque to street preachers to large rallies at sports stadiums. Converts are used as the face of Islam in TV debates and youtube videos. A new generation of Muslim evangelists who are born in the West and speak perfect English, and often have studied the Bible, are taking this effort to a whole new level.
Evangelicals have taken the lead in fighting back. They have several excellent web sites and a lot of videos. The Catholic presence in this youtube world is precisely 0. The best Catholic web site I’ve found is catholicapologetics.info/apologetics/islam/ which is OK, but superficial in many respects and not nearly as good as the Evangelical sites. So seemingly Catholics have abandoned the field to Muslim evangelists–I can only assume Catholics are pre-occupied with visions of ecumenicism.
So after watching these conversion videos, one of my main questions is how well do RCIA classes or religion classes in Catholic high schools, or catechism classes for high school students prepare their students to defend their faith? The most obvious tactics of Muslim evangelists are to question the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus. According to the videos I have seen and the books I have read, Catholics have no clue why they believe these things, and are totally incapable of defending their belief to an outsider.
Watching the Q&A sessions that follow the Muslim rallies is embarrassing–for the Muslims, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. The questioners have no idea about their own faith, and they are easily thrown into confusion and made to look ignorant–which they are.
Any thoughts out there?
A few months ago I stumbled upon a youtube video of a young woman converting to Islam. She was previously Catholic. As you know, on youtube similar videos are suggested when you watch one, so others popped up, and I watched some of them too…the more I watched, the more horrified and fascinated I became.
At this point I should point out that I am not some yahoo who has never known any Muslims and doesn’t know anything about Islam. I have studied Islam since 1965; I taught English at universities in Egypt and Saudi Arabia for seven years. I studied Arabic for nine years at three different universities. I have a near-PhD in Islamic Studies (no dissertation). One of my best friends in grad school is a prominent Shi’i Imam. So.
As I went further down the rabbit hole of these videos, I began striking out in different directions–certain Muslim evangelists began popping up on a lot of videos, so I learned about them and bought some of their books. I bought the few academic books that have been written on Westerners converting to Islam (usually in Europe). I bought first-hand accounts of converts. I’ve gone to various pro- and anti- Muslim web sites to analyze the arguments each side uses. I could go on, but you get the idea.
A quick summary of what I’ve learned so far: In the UK, about 30,000 native English have converted to Islam. In general, 75% of converts are women, usually between 15-24. Some of the more prominent converts have been Catholics (a priest, several nuns, a lot of pious Catholics who said the rosary every day, etc.). Muslim evangelization is highly organized and well funded–this was a big surprise for me. It ranges from open houses at the local mosque to street preachers to large rallies at sports stadiums. Converts are used as the face of Islam in TV debates and youtube videos. A new generation of Muslim evangelists who are born in the West and speak perfect English, and often have studied the Bible, are taking this effort to a whole new level.
Evangelicals have taken the lead in fighting back. They have several excellent web sites and a lot of videos. The Catholic presence in this youtube world is precisely 0. The best Catholic web site I’ve found is catholicapologetics.info/apologetics/islam/ which is OK, but superficial in many respects and not nearly as good as the Evangelical sites. So seemingly Catholics have abandoned the field to Muslim evangelists–I can only assume Catholics are pre-occupied with visions of ecumenicism.
So after watching these conversion videos, one of my main questions is how well do RCIA classes or religion classes in Catholic high schools, or catechism classes for high school students prepare their students to defend their faith? The most obvious tactics of Muslim evangelists are to question the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus. According to the videos I have seen and the books I have read, Catholics have no clue why they believe these things, and are totally incapable of defending their belief to an outsider.
Watching the Q&A sessions that follow the Muslim rallies is embarrassing–for the Muslims, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. The questioners have no idea about their own faith, and they are easily thrown into confusion and made to look ignorant–which they are.
Any thoughts out there?
Save that for the post-baptismal mystagogy. 
