Muslim Imam converts to Christianity

[Ella]

Of course it’s not unthinkable. But that’s not what makes the story suspect. As you’ll notice, I haven’t even made nearly that claim.

I’m not sure why you’re focusing on the bare fact of a conversion when that’s not what I pointed to as suspect.

What’s not possible is that a “senior cleric” in Iran has a salary of less than the Iranian minimum wage.

What’s also not possible is that he calls himself an “Imam”, since Iranian clerics do not use the title.

So I’ll ask you again: Why don’t those basic errors lead you to any doubt?

I don’t have doubt but I don’t have certainty either. I just think it’s a happy thing if an Imam has converted and now has love for Christ as his Savior. If it’s not true, oh well. If it’s true, cool!
As for using the title of Imam in Iran, hmmm… let me google that… seems like I get alot of hits for ‘Iran Imam’. How do you figure that Imam is not a title used in Iran?

Whatever. God bless this Christian Convert.

 

[pro_universal]

I don’t have doubt but I don’t have certainty either. I just think it’s a happy thing if an Imam has converted and now has love for Christ as his Savior. If it’s not true, oh well. If it’s true, cool!
As for using the title of Imam in Iran, hmmm… let me google that… seems like I get alot of hits for ‘Iran Imam’. How do you figure that Imam is not a title used in Iran?

It’s not used for random clerics. It’s an extremely high position to have, eg, the 12 Imams…

Then there’s also his “salary.”

Whatever. God bless this Christian Convert.

Yeah, who cares about the truth. God bless!

To be honest, I think at this point you’re just arguing to get a rise out of me, as most of your posts haven’t touched on the concerns I listed with the article.

 

[Ella]

It’s not used for random clerics. It’s an extremely high position to have, eg, the 12 Imams…

Then there’s also his “salary.”

Yeah, who cares about the truth. God bless!

To be honest, I think at this point you’re just arguing to get a rise out of me, as most of your posts haven’t touched on the concerns I listed with the article.

Why do you say that?

 

[rtconstant]

To be honest, I think at this point you’re just arguing to get a rise out of me, as most of your posts haven’t touched on the concerns I listed with the article.

Correction you’re arguing to get a rise here like you typically do. There was really no reason for you to have got hostile about this to begin with. Either way you’ve stated you don’t think it’s true good for you, is there anything else?

 

[JimR-OCDS]

My understanding of Islam is that there have only
been 11 Imams in history and the Shia are waiting for the 12th to come. Imams are descendent’s of Muhammad.

So I think the title of this thread might be a little disingenuous.

Jim

 

[cestusdei]

No, I didn’t. The absence of a name isn’t my problem with the story; it’s the facts that don’t ring true.

How do you know someone else didn’t lie to TBN?

What I did is something you should do with all news stories. I read the factual claims, and evaluated how much sense they made.

A “senior cleric/Imam” in Iran makes only 77 dollars a month? Yeah right…it’s a poor country, but not that poor. So we know at a minimum that someone is wrong on the pay.

No, Memri does not. They select the most radical programs they can find, and then they translate them doing things like substituting “Israel” for “Jews” and “Zionism” for “Jews.” It is not an information site; it is a partisan website dedicated to advancing the cause of one side only in the Israeli-Arab conflict.

It doesn’t say 77 “dollars” a month. Do you know what an Iranian Imam makes? Tell us. Once again we see the Islamic apologist at work. You try to distract us from the main issue here. Which is an Imam has converted to Christianity. That’s gotta hurt.

 

[pro_universal]

It doesn’t say 77 “dollars” a month. Do you know what an Iranian Imam makes? Tell us. Once again we see the Islamic apologist at work. You try to distract us from the main issue here. Which is an Imam has converted to Christianity. That’s gotta hurt.

It says “700,000 units of their currency per month.” That is about 77 USD a month, also less than the Iranian minimum wage.

The story isn’t terribly credible.

 

[cestusdei]

Iran is a poor country. But the issue remains. One of your Imams has renounced Islam and become a Christian. You might also consider Hamid Pourmand another Iranian convert who is in prison there now. There are thousands of muslims who convert and risk death. Now one of their Imams has seen the light. Let’s hope more follow him out of the darkness of Islam and into the light of Christ.

 

[dolphinlove]

Praise to the Lord Jesus for this miracle. For another has seen the truth.
Lets hope this is the start of the domino effect for Islam.
Lets see more and more people convert to christianity

 

[Catholic_Action]

For what its worth I doubt that a story that calls a Shia cleric an Imam has any sound grasp of detail. Sunni clerics might be called Imams but not Shia ones.

While Iranians converting to Christianity, or anyone converting to Christianity, is good news (pun intended) other faiths have a right to be expressed and Iranian persecution of Bahia’s seems particularly outrageous. See icmc.net/e/programmes_operations/present_programmes/turkey2.htm

The most significant increase in refugee populations recently have been from Iran, making up about 90% of the cases. Most of these refugees are Bahai, fleeing religious persecution

 

[Montalban]

I responded because I don’t like half-truths and organized campaigns against anyone’s religion.

How do you know it’s a half-truth?

Why do you only defend Islam?

Ironically, your post seems to be less than half a truth

 

[Montalban]

My understanding of Islam is that there have only
been 11 Imams in history and the Shia are waiting for the 12th to come. Imams are descendent’s of Muhammad.

So I think the title of this thread might be a little disingenuous.

Jim

Depends which context they’re using

i·mam * Pronunciation Key
–noun Islam. 1. the officiating priest of a mosque.
2. the title for a Muslim religious leader or chief.
3. one of a succession of seven or twelve religious leaders, believed to be divinely inspired, of the Shiʿites.
dictionary.reference.com/browse/Imam

Given that some gave the Ayatollah Khommeni the title of Imam (even though some say this should be reserved for the Madhi) there’s a bit more fluidity than you might have been lead to believe.

However I lean towards your interpretation because the term seems to be more used in relation to a set 12, by Shi’a. Is there any indication that the article refers to Sunnis in Iran (if there are any)*

 

[Kadaveri]

The Sunni community in Iran is very small, and doesn’t have any form of ‘high ranking clerics’ since Shi’a Islam is the only religion permitted by the government to organise itself on any kind of extended level, so this guy wasn’t a Sunni. Sunni don’t get called ‘one of the top Islamic leaders in Iran’.

And he wasn’t a Shi’a either, since regardless of however anyone might want to twist things about, the fact of the matter is that Shi’a do **not **give people the title of ‘Imam’, that’s something only the 12 Imams in their faith hold.

And just check www.xe.com or a similar site, according to that site 700,000 Rial only comes to $75.76 a month, not exactly a likely wage for the Imam to have been living on (note, the minimum wage in Iran is 1,830,000 Rial a month), nevermind a ‘high ranking’ Imam where Imams don’t exist.

I would also let you know that this entire story’s source is simply “…according to an Iranian pastor living in the U.S”, apart from one guy’s word it has no basis at all.

Let’s use our brains here, this clearly is a made up story.

 

[cestusdei]

Kadaveri,
If you have information to show it is false then present it. Otherwise we have no reason to doubt the story. I know it annoys you to imagine one of your leaders would join us, but hey it happens. This is why Christianity is the fastest growing faith in the world. Millions of muslims have become Christian. Shouldn’t you follow them into the light?

 

[Rocky]

The Sunni community in Iran is very small, and doesn’t have any form of ‘high ranking clerics’ since Shi’a Islam is the only religion permitted by the government to organise itself on any kind of extended level, so this guy wasn’t a Sunni. Sunni don’t get called ‘one of the top Islamic leaders in Iran’.

And he wasn’t a Shi’a either, since regardless of however anyone might want to twist things about, the fact of the matter is that Shi’a do **not **give people the title of ‘Imam’, that’s something only the 12 Imams in their faith hold.

And just check www.xe.com or a similar site, according to that site 700,000 Rial only comes to $75.76 a month, not exactly a likely wage for the Imam to have been living on (note, the minimum wage in Iran is 1,830,000 Rial a month), nevermind a ‘high ranking’ Imam where Imams don’t exist.

I would also let you know that this entire story’s source is simply “…according to an Iranian pastor living in the U.S”, apart from one guy’s word it has no basis at all.

Let’s use our brains here, this clearly is a made up story.

I just read on the internet that Iran is raising the minimum wage 18.3% on March 21 to 1.8 million rial a month – or $200. For those who are married with two children, they will get $240 per month. Do muslim clerics get paid by the state or through contributions from their congregation. Would people earning $200-$240 a month be able to donate much money with inflation the way it is in Iran?

As to calling the cleric “imam”, I find that this term is most often used in the English newspapers we read here in the US. Perhaps the translator of the piece felt people would best understand this term?

Anyway, all converts from Islam need our prayers, and we should pray also for any who are tempted to give up Christ as Son of God.

 

[Zooey]

True or not, I am eagerly awaiting the glorious day Our Lady of Guadalupe effects the conversion of *all *Muslims.

Praise to the Lord Jesus for this miracle. For another has seen the truth.
Lets hope this is the start of the domino effect for Islam.
Lets see more and more people convert to christianity

 

[jack_hawkins]

On what channels do Muslims screech loudly? How many “Priest became Muslim” threads have been posted by Muslims here?

They screech loudly enough about that most famous victim of Stockholm Syndrome, Yvonne Ridley. And they boast about all the converts they make in Britain, which are mostly women marrying Muslim men, convicts or wackos

They want to convert prison chapels to mosques - what a great advert for Islam eh?

 

[Kadaveri]

Clerics in Iran are given their wages by the state, Rocky.

And do you have any statistics to support your claim that converts to Islam are ‘mostly women marrying Muslim men, convicts or wackos’ Jack? Or are we just gonna play the stupid Christian anti-Islamic polemic games so typical of those insecure in their religion (funny how atheists, Jews, Mandaeans, Zoroastrians, Polytheists etc never resort to such immature tactics).

 

[Booklover]

Clerics in Iran are given their wages by the state, Rocky.

And do you have any statistics to support your claim that converts to Islam are ‘mostly women marrying Muslim men, convicts or wackos’ Jack? Or are we just gonna play the stupid Christian anti-Islamic polemic games so typical of those insecure in their religion (funny how atheists, Jews, Mandaeans, Zoroastrians, Polytheists etc never resort to such immature tactics).

You call us insecure in our faith! LOL If Muslims are so sure of theirs, why is it that they cannot accept any criticism of Islam? Why do they resort to violence even over some silly cartoons??

And you have good reason to be insecure, since your whole faith rests on the claims of one man, with no further proof! It has no foundation and is built on sand!

Vickie

 

[Kadaveri]

The above is just yet another example…