PART ONE: POPULATION AND THE TRUE NUMBER OF CONVERTS.
Immediately after 9/11, many journalists in the United States and Europe came out with several glib generalisations that I found, and still find, irritating, and furthermore, I am very skeptical of the claims contained in them. We were told that either 40,000 [1] or even 60,000 people had converted to Islam in the wake of the attacks on the Twin Towers in Manhattan, and that Islam was the fastest growing religion in the world. The figures 40,000 and 60,000 come up time after time. A quick Google search will give you many journalists evidently copying each other without any verification or independent evidence. For example, author Ed Rogers, writing in 2009, tells us that “…60,000 Americans who were raised in a “Christian” home are converting to Islam every year” [2].
But this turns out to have been copied without acknowledgement from a book written in 2004 by Joel Richardson, Will Islam Be Our Future? A Study of Biblical and Islamic Eschatology, Chapter 1: “But here’s the other sad aspect of these figures: Over 80% of these American converts to Islam were raised in a Christian Church. If the higher figures of conversion are accurate, that would mean that as many as 60,000 Americans, who were raised in Christian homes, are converting to Islam annually.” [3] So now the figure 60,000 is claimed for annual rates of conversion.
Another report, published in 2011 by the Religion News Service, based in Boston, tells us, “The majority of post-9/11 converts are women, according to experts, Hispanics and African-Americans, who were already converting well before 9/11, are the most common ethnic groups to convert. Though exact numbers are difficult to tally, observers estimate that as many as 20,000 Americans convert to Islam annually”. Notice, first, the new figure for the number of annual converts: 20,000, and, second, those ubiquitous “experts”, but we are not told which “experts” or how they have made their calculations. They are now joined by “observers”. [4]
Another quote that comes up over and over again is from The Times of London, January 7, 2002: “There is compelling anecdotal evidence of a surge in conversions to Islam since September 11, not just in Britain, but across Europe and America. One Dutch Islamic centre claims a tenfold increase, while the New Muslims Project, based in Leicester, [England] and run by a former Irish Roman Catholic housewife, reports a “steady stream” of new converts.”
“Anecdotal evidence” in the form of personal testimonies can be powerful, moving, and very useful, though one has to treat such evidence with caution when trying to calculate national number of converts. As for the number of Muslims in the United States, there have often been unscientific guesses, with many Muslim organizations inflating their figures for political reasons. As Dr Tom W. Smith of the University of Chicago wrote in October 2001, “None of the 20 specific estimates during the last five years is based on a scientifically-sound or explicit methodology. All can probably be characterized as guesses or assertions. Nine came from Muslim organizations such as the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim Student Association, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the American Muslim Council, and the Harvard Islamic Society, or unspecified ‘Muslim sources.’ None of these sources gave any basis for their figures.” [5]
Certainly the most sober assessment of numbers and conversions seems to come from The Economist. In an article published in 2013, The Economist cites the research of Kevin Brice, of the University of Wales, who calculated that 5200 Britons convert to Islam every year, and that the total number of converts is about 100,000; presumably over a period of twenty years, though this is not made clear. For the United States, The Economist turns to the Pew Research Center, and says: “In 2007 the Pew Research Centre (sic) estimated that there were around 2.4 million American Muslims…Pew reckons that just under a quarter are converts”. Actually, the Pew Research Center did no such thing. First, The Pew Research Center only gives percentage estimates, and second, they are for adults only, children are not included.
According to The Pew Research Center, basing themselves on the Religious Landscape Study [RLS], Muslims made up 0.4 % of the adult population in 2007. [6] How did The Economist arrive at the figure of 2.4 million Muslim Americans? According to the Pew Research Center, in 2007, there were 227 million adult Americans [7], in which case, 0.4% of them were Muslim Americans, that is, 908,000. And the adult population of the USA in 2014 was approximately 245 million, of which 0.9% were Muslims, that is, 2,205,000.
Thus there was a net increase in Muslim American adults of 1,297,000 over a period of seven years, that is, 185,285 per annum. How many of these are a result of conversion remains obscure, since the figure of 185,285 must take into account the number of Muslim immigrants per year. We have yet to factor in the rate of retention, that is, the percentage of people raised in a particular church or religion who stay with it when they are grown. For Muslims it is high, 77 %, but that still means that 23% of Muslim adults lose their religion. [8] I have no idea of the implications of this statistic, and how it would affect the numbers of Muslim Americans.
However, to complicate things further, in the second paragraph on page 28 of their 2014 Religious Landscape Study [RLS], the Pew Center explains: “Muslims (0.9%), Buddhists (0.7%) and Hindus (0.7%) each make up slightly less than 1% of respondents in the 2014 Religious Landscape Study. The Muslim and Hindu shares of the population have risen significantly since 2007. And it is possible, even despite this growth, that the Religious Landscape Study may underestimate the size of these groups. The study was conducted in English and Spanish, which means that groups with above-average numbers of people who do not speak English or Spanish (such as immigrants from Asia, Africa and other parts of the world) may be underrepresented. For instance, an analysis of the Pew Research Center’s 2012 survey of Asian Americans (conducted in English, Cantonese, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog and Vietnamese) estimated that Buddhists account for between 1.0% and 1.3% of the U.S. adult population, and that Hindus account for between 0.5% and 0.8% of the population. The Pew Research Center’s 2007 and 2011 surveys of Muslim Americans (conducted in English, Arabic, Farsi and Urdu) estimated that Muslims accounted for 0.6% of the adult population in 2007 and 0.8% in 2011.” [9] Thus based on the latter figures, 0.6% of the total adult population of 2007, which was 227 million, gives us a figure of 1,362,000 adult Muslim Americans. The total adult population in 2011, according to the U.S. Census Bureau [10], was 237,680,342, of which 0.8% were adult Muslim Americans, giving us the figure of 1,901,443 adult Muslim Americans. Thus there was an increase of 539,443 Muslim American adults between 2007 and 2011, an increase of approximately 134,860 per year.
The Pew Research Center gave the following figures for converts in 2007:
More than three-quarters (77%) of Muslim Americans say they have always been a Muslim, while 23% say they converted to Islam. Nine-in-10 (91%) converts to Islam were born in the United States, and almost three-fifths (59%) of converts to Islam are African American.
A 55% majority of converts identify with Sunni Islam and another quarter (24%) identify with no specific tradition. Only 6% of Muslim converts in America identify themselves as Shia.
Almost half (49%) of Muslim converts in America report that their conversion occurred when they were under 21 years of age, another third (34%) converted when they were between ages 21 and 35, and 17% when they were older than 35. The early age of most conversions to Islam resembles the typical pattern of conversion in the general public, where religious change is concentrated in adolescence and early adulthood.
Two-thirds (67%) of all converts to Islam in the U.S. came from Protestant churches,10% came from Catholicism, and just 5% from other religions. Nearly one-in-seven converts to Islam (15%) had no religion before their conversion.
Most converts to Islam (58%) cite aspects of the religion as the reason for their conversion. These include references to the truth or appeal of Islam’s teachings, the belief that Islam is superior to Christianity, or that the religion just “made sense” to them. Just 18% of converts mentioned family reasons, such as marrying a Muslim, as the reason for their conversion. [11]
Thus, as we saw earlier, if we take the adult population of Muslim Americans as 0.6% of the total adult American population of 227 million in 2007, that gives us a figure of 1,362,000 adult Muslim Americans. Now 23% of these Muslim Americans are converts; that gives us a figure of 313,260. However, the Pew Research Center’s 2011 study of Muslim Americans tells us that only 20% are converts. As we saw earlier, the total adult population in 2011, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, was 237,680,342, of which 0.8% were adult Muslims, giving us the figure of 1,901,443 adult Muslim Americans. If 20% are converts, we get a figure of 380,288 Muslim Americans converts in 2011.
That comes to an increase of 67,028 converts since 2007, that is, 16,757 new converts to Islam per year. So where do those mysterious figures of 60,000, or 40,000, or even 20,000 annual converts to Islam that we read about in the press come from?
Hispanics have also converted to Islam in recent years. There are, perhaps, between 15,000 and 50,000 Hispanic Muslims in the United States — exact figures are hard to come by, and Muslim groups, as ever, exaggerate the numbers. The majority of Hispanic converts to Islam are women. [12] But as the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs concluded, “Despite the growing presence of organizations such as Alianza Islamica, however, Latino Muslims are still a tiny fraction of the Latino population. Few Latinos, in fact, are even aware of their existence.” [13]
But here are some sobering statistics for Muslim triumphalists:
1. According to Dr. Ilyas Ba-Yunus (1932-2007), a Pakistani-born American Muslim and Emeritus Professor of Sociology, State University of New York at Cortland, 75% of new Muslim converts in the US leave Islam within a few years. [14] This perception was confirmed by Imam Abu Laith Luqman Ahmad, who wrote on January 13, 2010:
We are constantly being told that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the United States. We are also being told that the Muslim population is anywhere from 2 million, to six million and that a third of them are converts. That would put the number of converts from around 700,000 to 2,000,000. However, I’m not sure if those numbers are accurate because many converts are leaving Islam, and or never even begin to practice Islam in any appreciable way other than take their shahaadah (declaration of conversion), and you don’t see anywhere near those numbers reflected in the nation’s masaajid [mosques]. Nor do you see too much evidence that people who became Muslim say, 20 years ago have stayed in the religion, raised their children upon it and started a second generation, or even third generation. The overall estimates of the Muslim population may be accurate, but the stated percentage of converts does not seem reflected on the ground. In almost every major city in America except for maybe Philadelphia and to a certain extent, Atlanta, you don’t see too many large communities of converts to Islam. You see a lot of young people who are recent converts and that’s great but where are the thousands upon thousands of Muslims who converted ten years ago? Twenty years ago? Thirty years ago? Where are their children, their grandchildren? We need to re-evaluate the statistics that are being fed to us, because it has lolled many of us into a false sense of accomplishment to the point where we brag about how well Islam is doing amongst converts in America while in reality, it seems converts, by and large, are not faring that well and that the largest concentrations of Muslim men in America are those in our nation’s prisons. When I used to volunteer at Folsom prison, there would be hundreds of male converts in attendance, and I have never seen hundreds of male converts at any Masjid anywhere in California. [15]
2. Further evidence of converts leaving Islam comes from a London-based think tank. The British journal The New Statesman cites Usama Hasan, a part-time Imam and a senior researcher at the “counter extremism think-tank,” the Quilliam Foundation, as saying, “Many converts leave the faith. We don’t have exact statistics but some stats say 50 per cent will leave within a few years”. [16]
3. Roughly two-thirds (65%) of adult Muslims in the U.S. were born elsewhere. A relatively large proportion of Muslim immigrants are from Arab countries, but many also come from Pakistan and other South Asian countries. Among native-born Muslims, roughly half are African American (20% of U.S. Muslims overall), many of whom are converts to Islam. [17]
4. According to Ahmed Nassef, the co-founder and editor in chief of MuslimWakeUp.com, fewer than 7 percent of American Muslims attend mosque regularly, compared with 38 percent of American Christians who attend church weekly. [18]
5. Contrary to Islamic claims, the fastest growing belief groups in the United States are the non-religious. The American Religious Identification Surveys [ARIS] of 1990 and 2000 show that the percent of change for Islam was +109%. The percent of change, however, for Nonreligious/Secular was +110%; Native American Religion +119%; Buddhism +170%; Baha’i +200%; Hinduism +237%; New Age +240%; Sikhism +338%, and Deism +717% were all higher. [19]
6. The American Religious Identification Survey [ARIS] gave Non-Religious groups the largest gain in terms of absolute numbers – 14,300,000 (8.4% of the population) to 29,400,000 (14.1% of the population) for the period 1990 to 2001 in the USA.
7. In the period from 2001 to 2008, Americans with no religion were the fastest-growing segment. [20] There were sharp increases in the number of non-denominational Christians and those claiming no religious affiliation (Nones). To quote the report from ARIS’ webpage:
In addition, shifts in religious identification since 1990 have resulted in the ranks of the Nones swelling by 67 percent (2.2 million persons) and those in the conservative, non-denominational Generic Christian tradition growing by 51 percent (1.8 million). Put another way, the percentage of self-proclaimed Nones increased from 11 percent to 16 percent of this cohort between 1990 and 2008. This increase is surprising since Americans have historically increased their religious identification between early adulthood and their mid-40s, as they marry, have children, and become settled in their communities.
8. The true rate of Muslim apostasy in the United States is difficult to assess for the obvious reason that though there are no laws prohibiting it, social ostracism, feelings of shame, and simple physical fear of reprisals even in the West all conspire to make the apostate keep his own counsel.
9. Here is the ever-sober Pew Research Center’s assessment on 27 January, 2011:
Statistical data on conversion to and from Islam are scarce. What little information is available suggests that there is no substantial net gain or loss in the number of Muslims through conversion globally; the number of people who become Muslims through conversion seems to be roughly equal to the number of Muslims who leave the faith. As a result, this report does not include any estimated future rate of conversions as a direct factor in the projections of Muslim population growth. [22]
10. What are the difficulties in estimating conversions to and from Islam?
There are a number of reasons why reliable data on conversions are hard to come by. Some national censuses ask people about their religion, but they do not directly ask whether people have converted to their present faith. A few cross-national surveys do contain questions about religious switching, but even in those surveys, it is difficult to assess whether more people leave Islam than enter the faith. In some countries, legal and social consequences make conversion difficult, and survey respondents may be reluctant to speak honestly about the topic. Additionally, for many Muslims, Islam is not just a religion but an ethnic or cultural identity that does not depend on whether a person actively practices the faith. This means that even nonpracticing or secular Muslims may still consider themselves, and be viewed by their neighbors, as Muslims. [23]
11. However, some more recent research suggests the Pew Research Centers assessments are incorrect, and that there are greater conversions from Islam to Christianity, or other religions, and even atheism, than have been reported. Admittedly, much of this research has been conducted by Christian organizations but, as I shall show, at least some of these Christian organizations have developed and used a sophisticated methodology that promises some more objective facts and figures than mere crude propaganda. To take an example of what can go wrong, let us look at one Christian reference work. Referring to its own massive charts and statistics, the three-volume The World Christian Encyclopaedia, published by Oxford University Press, estimates that between 1990 and 2000, Islam received around 865,558 converts each year. This compares with an approximate 2,883,011 converts each year for Christianity during the same period. [24] But to show my skepticism of even Christian sources, I refer readers to the criticisms levelled at the three volumes, comprising more than 1730 pages, by Glenn Masuchika of Chaminade University Library, Honolulu. He thinks that volume two is the most useful, but adds that it
suffers from the shadow of doubt cast by the first volume concerning the reliability of the encyclopedia’s facts. Volume 3 can be best described as an explosion of numbers, categories, cross-listings of what the editors define as ‘miniprofiles’ of at least 10,000 distinct religions, 12,600 peoples, 13,500 languages, 7000 cities, and 3030 major civil divisions in 238 countries. What results is hundred of pages of utterly confusing statistics, some highly suspect, culturally biased, and anthropologically useless (such as categorizing people by using moribund race-defining terms as Australoid, Negroid, and Mongoloid and further subdividing those into “stylized colors” such as black, grey, brown, red, tan, white, and yellow). There is a need for a comparative survey of world Christian churches and other religions. This is not it. Not recommended. [25]
PART TWO: CONVERSIONS TO CHRISTIANITY.
In the last fifteen years, there has been a spate of books, published in the West, by Muslims who have converted to Christianity, and many anthologies of testimonies of former Muslims. The internet, of course, is full of Christian sites with the testimonies of former Muslims. [26] These personal journeys, some moving and some very sentimental, are of considerable interest, but do not help us to establish the number of true conversions to Christianity in the Islamic world. Large claims are made by various Christian evangelical groups giving suspect statistics.
I remember being startled when I came across an article in the French journal Courrier International of January 4-10, 2001, page 29. The latter journal, in turn, was translating an article that first appeared in the Algerian daily newpaper Al-Yawm in late December 2000. I translated it for The Middle East Quarterly. [27] The article begins:
In Kabylie, people of all ages are converting to Christianity. In certain towns and villages of Greater Kabylie, there is at least one church, as for example at Ouadhias, Draa Benkhedda, Ain el-Hammam, and Boghni. In the latter village, for instance, two churches have opened their doors during the last two years. Although the original builders of these two churches had worked in absolute secrecy, the number of citizens who have embraced Christianity has grown rapidly. The [Protestant] church of Ouadhias has played an important role in the proliferation of the number of conversions in Kabylie, and it is considered the Mother Church, never having ceased its activities, even after [Algeria’s] independence [1962] and the departure of the French and humanitarian missionaries.
This was credible since it appeared in an Algerian newspaper, and startling since Algeria at the time was undergoing a civil war of unbelievable savagery that resulted in the deaths of perhaps as many as 200,000 Algerians. [28] Women had their throats cut for wearing lipstick, and yet here were Muslims converting to Christianity, and risking a similar fate.
Many of the converts were Berbers or Amazigh who are an ethnic group indigenous to North Africa; most now live in Algeria (in the Kabylie region) and Morocco but are also to be found in Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania, Mali and Niger. They speak their own language, and have in recent years tried to reclaim their pre-Islamic Berber culture and identity, and resent being called “Arab”. The main opposition political parties in Algeria are secular and mainly Berber.
Twelve years later, we find the following report (13 November 2012) in the Arabic online journal Ilaf [Elaph] [29] on the continuation of Algerians, including many Berbers, converting to Christianity, with the words: “That Algerians are leaving Islam is a phenomenon not denied by the government or civil organizations; however it suffers from being a subject not openly discussed. Added to that, is a paucity of documented information necessary for a proper pursuit of our investigation.”
The report then tells us:
The subject of Christianization remains a much discussed matter in Algeria, even though no official census exists that would reveal the actual number of people who have embraced Christianity. Neither the Ministry of Religious Affairs & Awqaf nor the Algerian Episcopal authorities are willing to divulge their number. While governmental authorities tend to minimize the size of this phenomenon, discussion of it is occurring among both politicians and religious leaders regarding its spread among Algerians, especially among the young people.
According to the field research of three Algerian experts, Jalal Mousa, Salaf Rahmouni, and Naseema Raqiq, there is a noticeable rise in the number of Algerians leaving Islam, reaching 10,000 people, and averaging six individuals per day, most of whom are young people. According to researcher Jalal Mousa, “the number of people who have embraced Christianity is estimated at 10,000.”
In his research, Mousa emphasized that “those becoming Christian move freely without any governmental surveillance, and in turn, concentrate their efforts on working among the young people, with the goal of establishing a religious minority who are willing and active in defending their rights. Their activities are accomplished through philanthropic organizations that seek to prevent young people from indulging in the use of alcoholic beverages and narcotics, and calling them to adopt good morals.”
According to some experts, the Grand Kabyle region has become a fertile field for evangelization by Western Christians who often visit the area. Nineteen Christian philanthropic organizations are also active, making a claim of an average of 6 converts per day.
The U. S. Bureau of Democracy & Human Rights of the Department of State estimates that the number of non-Muslims in Algeria has reached 500,000. They attend 300 churches, most of which are in the Kabyle region. [30]
Again, this is a report from an Algerian online news service, and cannot be easily dismissed as Christian propaganda.
Amazigh (Berber) self-assertion has increased in recent years, and is a positive sign. As Berber specialist Bruce Maddy-Weitzman put it:
There is even a body called the World Amazigh [Berber] Congress, established in 1997 and headquartered in Paris, that brings together constituent associations in periodic gatherings. And even as they decry the perfidious, leveling impact of globalization processes on indigenous cultures, Amazigh activists have enjoyed the benefits thereof, maintaining an active presence in the cyber-world …. There they come into partial alliance with other “civil society” forces such as the women’s and human rights groups and the liberal political voices and bloggers of North Africa’s overwhelmingly youthful population.
A further indication of this outward-looking, modern perspective is the fact that the movement’s overarching discourse is profoundly sympathetic to Western liberal-humanist values and strongly condemns the predominant North African political and cultural order, which prioritizes Islam and Arab identity in an uneasy and erratic coexistence with French linguistic and cultural influences. As such, the Amazigh movement leaves little or no room for other, more Islamic-centered aspects of Berber societal norms. This may well prove to be a serious shortcoming in Amazigh mobilization efforts, but to the extent that those efforts succeed, Amazighité represents a bulwark against the spread of Islamist influence. [31]
As Mira Z. Amiras also explains, “Amazigh militants reject both Islam and Arabism, claimimg that Islam is nothing more than a mask for Arabism rather than the reverse”. [32] I shall discuss the assassinated Amazigh or Berber Kabyle singer and human rights activist, Lounès Matoub, who was an atheist, later, under the section Muslim atheists.
NOTES
[1] See, for example: https://yesuscross.wordpress.com/category/tv-report-40000-catholic-hispanics-in-america-converted-to-islam-after-911/
[2] http://www.edrodgers.net/blog/16-islam-in-america-after-9-11/
[3] http://www.answering-islam.org/Authors/JR/Future/ch01_why_this_book.htm
[4] Omar Sacirbey in Religion News Service Boston, 08/24/2011, found at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/24/post-911-islam-converts_n_935572.html
[5] http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nl/content3.asp?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=843637&ct=1044159
[6] http://www.pewforum.org/files/2015/05/RLS-05-08-full-report.pdf, page 4
[7] http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/
[8] http://www.pewforum.org/files/2015/05/RLS-05-08-full-report.pdf, page 40.
[9] http://www.pewforum.org/files/2015/05/RLS-05-08-full-report.pdf, pp.28-29
[10] http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/99-total-population-by-child-and-adult#detailed/1/any/false/36,868,867,133,38/39,40,41/416,417
[11] Full Report: http://www.pewresearch.org/files/old-assets/pdf/muslim-americans.pdf, page 28
[12] National Public Radio Report by Rachel Martin, “Latinas Choosing Islam over Catholicism”: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6133579 ”
See also a report in Washington Report on Middle East Affairs at: http://www.wrmea.org/2003-june/latino-muslims-a-growing-presence-in-america.html.
[13] Washington Report on Middle East Affairs at: http://www.wrmea.org/2003-june/latino-muslims-a-growing-presence-in-america.html.
[14] Regrettably, the original YouTube video where Dr Ba-Yunus stated the figure “75%” is no longer available. Some who heard him speak talk of “50%” or “60%” of Muslim converts leaving Islam after a few years. See Islamic Research Foundation International, Inc. at: http://www.irfi.org/articles4/articles_5001_6000/why%20muslims%20in%20the%20west%20leave%20islam%20and%20what%20can%20we%20do%20about%20ithtml.htm
[15] https://imamluqman.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/seven-out-of-every-ten-converts-leave-islam-by-imam-luqman-ahmad/
[16] http://www.newstatesman.com/religion/2013/05/confessions-ex-muslim.
[17] Pew Research Center, Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream (Washington, DC, Pew Research Center: 2007)
[18] http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0421/p09s02-coop.html&date=2012-11-30
[19] http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html&date=2011-04-16
[20] http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/research_briefs/aris/key_findings.htm&date=2011-04-16
[21] Press: Generation X Becoming Less Christian, Less Republican; Catholic and Baptist Losses feed Religious Polarization, May 31, 2012, at http://commons.trincoll.edu/aris/
[23] http://www.pewforum.org/future-of-the-global-muslim-population-related-factors-conversion.aspx&date=2012-03-23
[24] http://www.bible.ca/global-religion-statistics-world-christian-encyclopedia.htm&date=2011-04-16, citing David A. Barrett, George Thomas Kurian, Todd M. Johnson, edd., World Christian Encyclopedia, 2001, Oxford University Press, p 16-18.
[25] Glenn Masuchika, Review of The World Christian Encyclopaedia in Library Journal, May 1, 2000.
[26] Here is a random list of ten:
Joel Richardson and Susan Crimp. Why We Left Islam: Former Muslims Speak Out, WND Books; 1 edition (April 29, 2008).
Steve Mashni, Out of Darkness Into Light: True life stories of Muslim’s Coming to Jesus Christ Through Visions, Dreams and Miracles, Kindle Edition, 2015
Robert Hussein, Apostate Son, Najiba Pub Co; 1st edition (December 23, 1998)
Ant Greenham, Muslim Conversions to Christ: An Investigation of Palestinian Converts Living in the Holy Land , William Carey International University Press (January 11, 2011)
Ergun Caner &, Emir Fethi Caner. Unveiling Islam: An Insider’s Look at Muslim Life and Beliefs, Kregel Publications; Updated and Expanded edition (April 14, 2009)
Bilquis Sheikh, I Dared to Call Him Father: The Miraculous Story of a Muslim Woman’s Encounter with God, Chosen Books (April 1, 2003)
Nabeel Qureshi, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity , Zondervan (February 11, 2014)
Samaa Habib &, Bodie Thoene ,Face to Face with Jesus: A Former Muslim’s Extraordinary Journey to Heaven and Encounter with the God of Love Chosen Books, June 3, 2014
Gulshan Esther, The Torn Veil , CLC Publications (November 1, 2010)
[27] “Christianity Is Life”, Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2001, pp. 94-95. Available at http://www.meforum.org/104/christianity-is-life
[28] Fouad Ajami (January 27, 2010). “The Furrows of Algeria”. New Republic.
[29] http://elaph.com/Web/news/2012/11/773637.html
[30] Jacob Thomas, The Christianization of Algeria, published 2013 at http://www.answeringislam.org/authors/thomas/christianization_algeria.html
[31] Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, “The Berber Awakening” in The American Interest, Volume 6, Number 5 : May 1, 2011.
[32] Mira Z. Amiras Amazighité, Arab/Islamic Hegemony,and the Christian Evangelical Challenge, in edd. Galina Lindquist & Don Handelman, Religion, Politics and Globalization Berghahn Books, 2011, p.226.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
While the actual number of Moslems is very important, it is only a baseline. However many Moslems there are now, what will really matter is their birth rates in respective countries. Spengler predicts a 30-year war with Islam, admitting that may be optimistically brief, but at the same time cites numbers that births per Moslima are plummeting wherever the Pill is available.
But with modern weapons, the demographic trend lines fade into irrelevance. Dirty bombs, nuclear bombs, EMP atmospheric pulse bombs, chemical weapons, bioweapons… all these exciting new technologies are becoming available to Moslem activists who seek to make good on the commands of Allah in the Holy Ko-Ran. And these guys are well funded in addition to being well organized.
Thus two other solutions will one day emerge in Infidel public discourse for consideration and possible implementation: mass deprogramming by making Islam a felony, and mass deportation. But the likelihood of Infidels setting aside their liberal principles to single out Moslems and remove the threat is remote, which is why many predict ultimate victory for them in the form of Global Sharia.
Lioness says
I totally agree with you, Alarmed Pig Farmer. I see the picture exactly the same way. Muslim birth rates are by far higher than non-Muslims, immigration and allowing “refugees” in is exploding, and the American left-wing idiology is expanding. Islam itself is becoming more and more radical, more sophisticated and dangerous, with Obama-enabled Iran supplying the goods.
There will always be conversion from one religion to another, but these are not the decisive factors. Birth rates and radicalization are. And I do believe that we are headed towards a clash like the world has never seen before.
fwyion jlock says
Agree.. There is no one to do just that: remove islam from any spectre of threat to us in any form necessesary..! So that means, that we will lose..
The only hope is what you also state: mass deportation, and then take the war from there – but that is vital!!
M S case says
Yes.. Islam should be a felony….It is a Cult… has to b…No other religion promotes murder and savagery as does islam so how could it be anything else but a cult and “We in America take a dim view of Cults, howbeit though it may take a while for our so-called leaders to catch on.
mortimer says
Islam is being hollowed out, according to Ibn Warraq’s report.
This is similar to what happened to Soviet communism…no true believers were left. Everyone knew the system was a huge collection of lies. The entire society was turned into liars who PRETENDED to agree.
Muslims play the game of being Muslim, but many no longer believe. The opinion surveys suggest this figure could be 35%. If that continues, the demise and collapse of Islam could take place in 30 years.
Voytek Gagalka says
Very good point. From those Muslims, how many of them are able to read their Qur’an in Arabic, thus the language of original which many Islamic apologists claim to be the only proper one? Hence, they don’t know even what that book contains, really, so how they can be consistent believers?
Sam says
“This is similar to what happened to Soviet communism…no true believers were left.” Wait a minute, what happened to Obama and Company then? How about liberals now? What do they believe in?
shrugger says
Barry an Co. Aren’t Soviet Communists. They’re Progressives (pronounced: Neo-Marxists).
Please don’t confuse regular Liberals with these people. Most Liberals are decent folks that don’t buy into that crap either.
fwyion jlock says
Concerning the comparison to communism: aren’t you forgetting that communism “only” (though it carried out up to nearly a 100 million people’s death! and still do athrocities!) existed (exists!) again “only” for about five generations, and is considered today as beated/wiped out, i.e. that in comparison to islam, that has existed for 1400 years and who is so deeply soaked in every muslims mind, life, culture, tradition for more than 70 generations, and who has the most extreme doctrines ever seen among humans! the socalled “removal/withdraw from islam by muslims” is actually considered an impossible and not very believable thing to ever happen??!
Communism existed for 5 generations.
islam has existed for 70 generations, and is still carrying out the most vile, insane acts and crimes, and is just as islamic in it’s core, as it were 1400 years ago!!
I do not believe in any moderation/withdrawal of/from islam by muslims.
The only way to deal with islam is waging war, and though we all know it is illegal to state: annihilation of islam can only be done with the annihilation of muslims..!! And since that’s not allowed for us to do, we must be facing our own annihilation..!
Unless we choose our own survival..
The day we do that is when islam has killed millions of us (nuclear bombs, chemical warfare..), and are threatening to kill even more . that day, islam will be totally wiped out, I do believe..!
But when is that?
Qur'an is Haram says
Who wants to have to wash your feet 5 times a day to pray and say a prayer every time you enter a bathroom and have to carry a compass to ensure you are not relieving yourself in a “haram” direction.
You want to know what is a living hell? Living like a devout Muslim.
I hope more continue to choose to leave Islam via the apostasy route, and not the suicide-bomb route.
Jay Boo says
Forget about their pillager pimp posing as a PROPHET, self-anointed no less.
There is no need to point out that, coincidentally Arabic speakers can’t even pronounce the letter “P”.
Who are we to remind ‘them’ that their husband-murdering example used his Allah to rationalize his many adulteries and owning child-bride sex-slaves?
We should not mock their clownish no-mustached toilet-bowl brush MO beards either.
No need to mention that …
Washing before prayers and kneeling on a prayer mat never cleans the filth inside.
Grand prayer-dance displays will never fill the relentless bitter emptiness inherent in Islam
Stephanie says
Islam is death.
Just pull ONE violent (e.g. 5:38) CARD of the house of cards “Islam”–built on quicksand–and the skyscraper COLLAPSES.
[ based on Ali Sina ]
Basic school graduate (i.e. can read) is enough for Quran/Allah critic.
Angemon says
Great article.
Don McKellar says
A very timely and well-researched and reasoned piece. Whenever I read stats thrown out with regards to Islam, I am usually left shaking my head because they rarely add up. This article lays out some good reasons why I am doubtful.
Other things that bother me are:
Usually the statement is made something like this: “Islam is growing about 2.9% per year. This is faster than the total world population which increases about 2.3% annually. It is thus attracting a progressively larger percentage of the world’s population.” But, of course, this isn’t telling us the whole story. Moslems are breeding like rats in their newfound welfare-subsidized colonies in Europe. A lot of that a result of illegal polygamy and inbreeding. And that has nothing to do with “attracting a progressively larger percentage of the world’s population” — and is certainly the major contributing factor to those stats. In fact, most of the time when we hear about a relatively rare new moslem convert, they are wildly violent and fanatical and get themselves killed or thrown in jail in short order. Their breeding opportunities are then limited.
Another thing that annoys me is this constant claim of huge growth numbers in the moslem global population. When Sept 11, 2001 happened, the figure of “almost a billion” was thrown around. Then quickly it was reported at 1.2 billion. A few years later by the mid 2000’s, moslems felt emboldened and started pronouncing a fifty percent higher number — 1.4 billion. Along with ludicrous assertions along the lines of “how could all those moslems be wrong?” or something like that. By 2010 it was being crowed about as 1.6 billion. So what is it now? Are Islamic supremacists trying to scare us with a 2 billion moslem number now? Here’s a link to a page from the “islamicweb.com” that claims that there were 1.9 billion moslems in 2000! Researching my comment, I saw that the loon who runs loonwatch was throwing around 1.8 billion moslems back in 2010. So I am sure him and the rest of the shit bag Islamic supremacists all think there’s a 2 billion number they can get away with to try and intimidate people.
It’s just all so ridiculous — and typical moslem lies and smoke and mirrors to try and deceive people and intimidate when possible. But then there’s those nightmarish Pew Poll estimates for the next 40 years…but then Pew has become suspect in recent years with a strong leftist agenda and possible corruption, so it is hard to be certain of unbiased reporting.
It’s somewhat irrelevant whether there are 1 billion or 2 billion or 3 billion moslems in the world. It is relevant how many of those are colonists in your country, sucking up tax money and resources and welfare while trying to impose sharia law. However, I curious about what the actual numbers are.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
Moslems are breeding like rats in their newfound welfare-subsidized colonies in Europe.
I like the imagery invoked here, and especially appreciate the use of the word colony, where the immigrants given homes in a new land and food is put on the table for them to feed their families are colonizing their guests in a gesture of appreciation.
A lot of that a result of illegal polygamy and inbreeding.
The detail put behind the mental imagery is robust. The breeding rats are given a financial incentive to do so in the form of felony welfare fraud cash for putting the children of wives 2 through 4 onto AFDC.
What a beautiful scam they have worked out for themselves. Best of all, there is no risk and the paperwork hassles are all handled by Infidel bureaucrats.
Shmooviyet says
It seemed muslims weren’t the only ones, post 9/11, boasting of the number of their religion world-wide; I was fairly young but seem to recall that “fastest growing faith” line was often thrown around by the media and academia: the “Why do they hate us” documentaries and magazine articles, and the “little Eichmanns”-type professors who felt America’s comeuppance had finally arrived.
They gleefully pronounced that the hordes were coming and the arrogant, xenophobic, warmongering Americans were helpless in the face of it.
I also enjoyed your descriptive wording, Don McKeller.
Geoff says
You must remember that most Muslims live in Muslim countries. It may seem prosaic to say that, but it is important to remember that, in Muslim countries freedom of religion is not a reality as it is in liberal western democracies.
It appears that Islam does not have faith in its own ability to retain a faithful following. It threatens those that want to leave, apostates in Muslim countries are intimidated with sanctions that may go as far as the death penalty; Islam is also intolerant of criticism, don’t question the Qoran or say anything critical about Mohammed, let alone draw a cartoon of him. It is only in recent times that Muslims are living in modern western democratic countries, as local Muslim communities they will eventually become more influenced by local attitudes and less by overseas attitudes. We have seen some examples of this happening, women at one mosque are demanding more say in the running of it; a gay mosques have been set up in London, Paris and other countries, there are even gay Immans, needless to say this would not be, could not be, happening in Islamic countries. So given time the leakage from Islam will increase as the ‘enforcing agents’ are not supported by the state.
The Jewish community, once it escaped the antisemitism that kept them in their ‘shtetl’s’ and experienced the freedom found in Western Democracies, we have seen that apostasy and marrying out of the faith runs at about 50% currently, there has also been a proliferation of types of Synagogues from super liberal to ultra-orthodox. This process took about three generations, it may take the same amount of time for the local Muslims to achieve the same level as the values, attitudes and freedoms permeate them.
cs says
Wow, an article by the son of the scribe. Nice one.
somehistory says
A couple of points that may mean nothing: I enjoy learning bits of different languages. Before 9/11, having a conversation with a young muslim, the subject of religion came up as he told me he was a teacher…I thought a normal teacher, but he explained in a madrassa just down the road from where we stood at that moment. We then talked a little of islam and he told me it was easy to become a muslim and said all one has to do is say ….and he said it of course.
Being as I like languages, I tried the words….not meaning to become muslim…just trying the language. But he went into his fervor for the murderer and began telling me all of the things I had to avoid…television, movies, etc. and trying to ensure that I followed his instructions, tried to destroy my electronic equipment.
So, a person can say those words and not mean them, but any muslim hearing the words said, will believe the person saying them has converted.
The second thing is: I have spoken to hundreds of people from Africa…many different countries represented and have found that every one spoke English. One time I remarked on this to a man from Ghana and he told me the reason this is so. In Africa, there are so many thousands of languages…one for every village even if it is only 30 miles from another village…so they all learn English in order to communicate with others.
So, maybe the people from Africa who said they were or were not muslim when asked in English, really did understand what the question. However that may affect the outcome of the polls.
And it is fairly impossible to get an accurate count of any religious group at any given time. There are some people who *join* a church, attend for a little while, and without officially leaving, find another church and *join* it..
somehistory says
My English is suffering this day. ” really did understand what the question”
Maybe they did understand the question, leaving out the *what* that does not belong.
That may or may not affect the points the writer was making about polls and muslim numbers.
Westman says
It’s obvious, even without this analysis of Muslim growth statistics, “The future will not belong to the slave-minded.”
Islam is not, and never has been, a viable economic competitor on the world stage.
afrostreetwise says
Hey you Euro islamophobes, count one more muslim. See am in the process of swearing an avidavit to change my name to Ali. Buy a muslim cap and who doesnt know aleikum salaam. Oh, i most certainly can do with that dole-no jizzya or whatever. Just pay.
Wellington says
If Islam is headed towards the trash heap of history, which I believe it is for many reasons, a key element in this eventual destination for Islam will be large numbers of Muslims finally seeing their religion for the giant fraud which it is and, even though often dangerous, just leaving this religion for another or none. In fact, minus this exodus it is difficult, if not impossible, to construct a scenario whereby Islam is finally a religion that only exists on the margins of sundry societies. In any overall plan for making Islam the most detested and avoided religion in history, appeals to Muslims to take a good look at the character of their founder and what Islam’s religious texts really say should definitely be part of such a plan. In short, long-term triumph over Islam, which of course will be difficult, must almost certainly include a divide and conquer feature in it.
Liam1304 says
Bilquis Sheikh’s book came out much earlier than 2003. I’m sure it was out in the ’80’s as I remember reading it. One of my lecturers on world religions was one of the missionaries who dealt with her during her experience of finding the wonderful living Christ in Pakistan.
Dear Mr Warraq – you might do better than adopt a simply scholarly detachment regarding these stories.
Baucent says
Interesting review of available data on the subject. I seem to remember a recent Pew forecast that by 2050 there will be as many muslims as Christians in the world. But the underlying data such forecasts are made from is so shaky that quite frankly “God only” knows.
Then there are continents like Africa and South America, not to mention China (where there could be 100 million Christians already) where the Christianity is growing rapidly and Islam is well out of the picture.
quotha raven says
to Baucent – “Then there are continents like Africa and South America, not to mention China (where there could be 100 million Christians already) where the Christianity is growing rapidly and Islam is well out of the picture.”
Surely not – Africa? What about Kenya? Nigeria? Libya? Ethiopia? Sudan? SOMOLIA?Egypt? etc, etc. My understanding is that Islam is at its strongest and jihad most viciously active on the continent of Africa. I don’t think you meant to say that. Cheers! Quotha
mansbestfriend says
Falling foul yet again to chicanery and the machinations of a wife intent on shopping, I found myself
standing in a large clothing retail department in a shopping mall in the city centre. While taking refuge just off the highways of vicious purchasing, I took the opportunity to observe the goodly denizens and this strange sport. I noticed there were a fair representation from “The religion of peace” marked out , and deliberately so, by the mothers and sisters sporting the hijab. These teams
were vying for the same articles as other godless shoppers, american baseball caps, jeans and t-shirts with fashionable prints etc. And I came to the conclusion that all this western consumerism might have a diluting effect on their cultural purity, ….very worrying indeed.
quotha raven says
to mansbestfriend – Hilarious post; big grins and thanks from me. Cheers! Quotha R
AtheistDude says
The leading problem with Islam is that once you’re a Muslim you stay a Muslim in most Islamic countries–otherwise they’ll KILL YOU if you try to leave! Add to the fact that they breed faster than frigging tribbles (and INbreed at that!)…
Then again they’re Very good at Killing one another, not just infidels. Look at this holy crap holiday Ramadan: They’re racked up, what…how many thousand Bodies in a month!
I just can’t see a “free” country like America allowing this nonsense to take hold, unless they outbreed us and use that filthy rich oil money to build mosques galore and Buy Off politicians. Could happen.Americans are sheeple who Will sell-out if given enough money. “I want to buy your acres up and build a mosque!” “FU!” “Here’s 2.1 million dollars…” “Excuse me, Help Yourself, friend!”
In any case, people have to be educated, have their eyes opened to this insanity, and Islam should be declared a Hate Group and all the towelheads should be exported from the country, their mosques closed for good!
Not going to happen though, is it? Religion is so frigging Protected in this country, it can literally get away with murder…
Sunshine says
Thank you Ibn Warraq. Exquisitely written piece.
I was with a Muslim for 16 years. In truth, an apostate. His younger sister also, an apostate. Both come from a family of four siblings of which Algerian parents were extremely devout (brainwashed).
The youngest sister even refused to be seated next to a Muslim. She married a tall blond guy. And in my case, hijabs were forbidden of entry in the house. Nonetheless, my guy was terrified of the mosque not far away finding out he reneged Islam.
Thus, 50% of those that immigrated late 1990s within that family left their ‘religion’. I can also say that older brother was not into religion.
This said, oldest daughter of my ex-mate’s sister became radicalized ‘hard’ in college by hijabees. It took only six months to carry out the process. No words can describe her hate towards us.
Conclusion : we’re in deep trouble. As Canadian Prime Minister Harper said… he’s not as much worried about terrorism as he is about 2nd-generation Muslim kids.
Abraham says
Certain recent developments give room for optimism. The crash of oil price will at least temporarily put the brakes on Islamic expansionism. A case in point is UAE, admittedly one of the moderate Islamic nations. They have very little budget surplus as a result of the lower oil prices. The recent decree regarding stoppage of discrimination based on religion, caste, creed etc. may very well be related to the diminished income from oil. It is very expensive to employ Muslims with all the privileges like five daily prayers, Ramadhan freebies etc. The lower the budget surplus, the less resources for propaganda, brain washing, proselytizing etc. An important reason for the robustness of current Islam is the euphoria arising from oil based prosperity and the vested interests of the totalitarian regimes keeping Islam alive. Once money becomes hard to come by there is a likelihood that Muslims, at least from oil rich nations, will get disillusioned with their all embracing faith. One question that comes to the mind is whether the USA has done enough to break the hegemony of oil..
Savvy Kafir says
It’s not the conversions to Islam that I’m worried about. Muslim immigrants are out- breeding us in the West. The Demographic Jihad is real and poses the greatest threat, in the long-run.
Colin says
I’d just like to say congrats to Ibn for that fantastic analysis.
Steve from Texas says
660 Muslims an hour are leaving Islam according the Sheikh Ahmad al Kat’ani of Iran. This was his conclusion about ten years ago, and the numbers can only be increasing. Right, an hour. That was not an error.
READ HIS STATEMENTS IN ARABIC AND ENGLISH AT MY ONLINE JOURNAL
http://www.hajiallah.com/append-19.htm
One reason fanatical Muslims are raging around the Middle East and threatening Western nations is because the leaders of Islam need to keep you from seeing that Islam is a dying religion.
Objective says
Better education, especially in the sciences, is the key. My guess is that the vast majority of self-proclaimed Muslims must have never read the Qur’an…because if they did, with better scientific understanding, they would readily see that the Qur’an was written by an extremely ignorant idiot.