Has anyone engaged in Apologetical work with a Muslem?

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DavidFilmer

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I would be interested to hear the experiences of anyone who has engaged a Muslem in Christian apologetics.
 
this is probably not what you are looking for, but I engaged a young man in conversation outside a Catholic bookstore in Ohio last year for nearly an hour. He was African-American, recently converted to Islam, “classical” not the Black Muslim sects popular in that part of the country. It came out that he was a “seeker” had been hither an yon in his search for a religion not that made him comfortable but that demanded a whole-hearted commitment of every aspect of his life.

He was raised AME Baptist, had experiment with eastern religions, was Bahai for a while, then pentecostal, went through RCIA and became Catholic, and a Benedictine Oblate, and discerned a monastic vocation for a while. His criteria for an “authentic” faith seemed to be not doctrine but practice and he shunned a lot of what he saw because they made no specific demands as far as prayer life, good works etc. What turned him off from the Catholic faith was that it was taught in his RCIA as if everthing was optional, no doctrine was infallible or unchanging, and the only demands were minimal.

We talked for a long time about the Eucharist, but he had already concluded that Catholics, in his experience, have no special reverence or belief in the Eucharist as anything more than a community meal and a symbolic action. During all of this time he displayed no special knowledge of or love for the person of Jesus Christ. My point is, that neither did I. I should have, instead of just accommodating and accepting all of his claims and statements, have spoken clearly and unequivocally the gospel message of salvation (like a good evangelical) and I missed the boat.
 
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puzzleannie:
My point is, that neither did I. I should have, instead of just accommodating and accepting all of his claims and statements, have spoken clearly and unequivocally the gospel message of salvation (like a good evangelical) and I missed the boat.
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What would you have said, if given second chance?
 
My first apologetics experience with a Muslim was on the Trinity. I learned that Muslims might have a tendency of misunderstanding the Trinity as “three persons in one person” or “three natures in one nature”, instead of “three persons in one nature,” which is the doctrine accurately stated.
 
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Vincent:
My first apologetics experience with a Muslim was on the Trinity. I learned that Muslims might have a tendency of misunderstanding the Trinity as “three persons in one person” or “three natures in one nature”, instead of “three persons in one nature,” which is the doctrine accurately stated.
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But the “absolute unity of God” (as oposed to ‘trinity’) is one of the Five Pillars of the Muslem faith. I doubt that ‘misunderstanding’ applies here.
 
I didn’t mean that Muslims believe the Trinity, but that they attack a strawman of it. Hence, they misunderstand what Christians mean by it.
 
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puzzleannie:
this is probably not what you are looking for, but I engaged a young man in conversation outside a Catholic bookstore in Ohio last year for nearly an hour. He was African-American, recently converted to Islam, “classical” not the Black Muslim sects popular in that part of the country. It came out that he was a “seeker” had been hither an yon in his search for a religion not that made him comfortable but that demanded a whole-hearted commitment of every aspect of his life.

He was raised AME Baptist, had experiment with eastern religions, was Bahai for a while, then pentecostal, went through RCIA and became Catholic, and a Benedictine Oblate, and discerned a monastic vocation for a while. His criteria for an “authentic” faith seemed to be not doctrine but practice and he shunned a lot of what he saw because they made no specific demands as far as prayer life, good works etc. What turned him off from the Catholic faith was that it was taught in his RCIA as if everthing was optional, no doctrine was infallible or unchanging, and the only demands were minimal.

We talked for a long time about the Eucharist, but he had already concluded that Catholics, in his experience, have no special reverence or belief in the Eucharist as anything more than a community meal and a symbolic action. During all of this time he displayed no special knowledge of or love for the person of Jesus Christ. My point is, that neither did I. I should have, instead of just accommodating and accepting all of his claims and statements, have spoken clearly and unequivocally the gospel message of salvation (like a good evangelical) and I missed the boat.
Click to expand...
Don’t beat yourself up it sounds like his problems was with the hypocrites in the church. You can’t argue much with that there are load of hypocrites in the church. I think he will sadly realize there are hypocrites in the Muslim religion as well. How do you explain the fact Islamic jihadist going to a strip bar and downing cocktails and cigarettes before crashing themselves and killing thousands of innocent people. Poor guy is a byproduct of bad cathechizing in the RCIA. I went through one I swear I could teach the class better and I wasn’t catholic yet. The lesser progams seem to be accomodating prospective marriage converts who simply convert because their spouse is catholic. So they teach a faith that the marriage convert can live with and won’t require much change in their lives. Never heard the word Natural family planning or the teaching of no artificial contraception. Gee it sounds like a sacrifice. There are good RCIA programs out there but you have to look. Too many RCIA programs are desinged for catholic lite marriage partners and not seekers of true religion.
 
I’ve only had one online experience on a different site.
The muslim posted a “hit and run” essay on “proof” that Mohammed is the greatest prophet, and that his writings are the “truth”.

Other catholics did an excellent job at refuting his “proof” point by point.
The guy never responded back…

It is my impression they aren’t used to being challenged.
 
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