Back in July, right after jihadis murdered French priest Fr. Jacques Hamels in a church, Wall Street Journal editorial writer Sohrab Ahmari tweeted that he was converting to Catholicism. The ensuing coverage was largely focused on how a Muslim writer, disgusted by the crimes of jihad terrorists, had left Islam — an entirely reasonable conclusion, given the timing of Ahmari’s announcement and the fact that he had been born and raised in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
However, when Jihad Watch repeated published reports to that effect, praising Ahmari for his courage, he lashed out on Twitter (and is apparently ashamed of having done so now, as he has deleted most of the relevant tweets), calling us “unbelievably trashy” and “ideological trash” for having stated that he had been Muslim — which, again, we got from published reports.
Now, however, in a narcissistic “conversion story” in the Catholic Herald, Ahmari acknowledges the truth of what he called us “trashy” for having reported: he is “a Muslim-born Iranian.” He says he decided there was no God when he was 12, and takes us on a windy journey through his interior life, but there is no doubt that until he left Iran, he was known outwardly as a Muslim, and even says that after that, as he journeys through Marxism, he would pray half-remembered snatches of the Qur’an in times of distress.
The point here is to highlight the accuracy of what we report here, and the thoroughgoing and consistent dishonesty of our critics. The published reports we repeated were accurate: Ahmari now admits in his own piece that he was raised a Muslim, and had some relationship with Islam, however disjointed, faint, and tenuous, until he started going to Mass after, he says, bouts of heavy drinking.
Sohrab Ahmari owes us a public apology, but I have no illusions that we will ever actually get one. In any case, he stands today at the Wall Street Journal as yet another inveterately dishonest mainstream media journalist (as if we needed another one of those). As the International Business Times wrote about him back in 2012: “The more troubling issue is that the WSJ failed in its journalistic obligation to ensure factual accuracy, even on the editorial page. The WSJ’s editorial by Sohrab Ahmari was blatantly fallacious on multiple counts.” Blatantly Fallacious ought to be Sohrab Ahmari’s baptismal name.
My journey from Tehran to Rome,” by Sohrab Ahmari, Catholic Herald, September 29, 2016:
As a Muslim-born Iranian, I first doubted God, then flirted with Nietzsche and Marxism. But the whisper of conscience kept suggesting that I go to Mass
On July 26, I announced my decision to join the Catholic Church. Hours earlier, a pair of jihadists had attacked a church in France and murdered a priest, Fr Jacques Hamel, while he was celebrating Mass.
Two months before that, I had begun studying one-on-one with a priest in London, reading Catholic books and immersing myself in the catechumen’s life. But I had no intention of going public with my conversion, not until after being received into the Church.
When news of the killing first broke, I knew next to nothing about Fr Hamel. Photos online showed an octogenarian priest with wispy white hair and a look of quiet, ordinary holiness.
This priest, this man, had been forced to kneel and had his throat slit in the name of ISIS – an evil act that demanded a response. So like any good millennial, I took to my Twitter account and wrote: “#IAmJacques Hamel. In fact, this is the right moment to announce I’m converting to Roman Catholicism.” It was an impulsive thing to do, not exactly in keeping with our Lord’s teaching to be as wise as serpents.
Over the next 48 hours, thousands of people re-tweeted me, and hundreds contacted me through social media. Then my announcement made its way to Christian media. Well-meaning journalists read my Wikipedia entry, noted that I’d been born and raised in Iran, and concluded: Fr Hamel’s final act had been to convert a Muslim.
Thousands more shared these news stories on Twitter and Facebook, usually accompanied by the famous saying of Tertullian that “the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church”. I wished my road to Rome had been as easy as “Moslem Writer Moved by Priest’s Martyrdom to Convert to Catholicism” (an actual headline from a Catholic outlet). The real story was much longer and more complicated.
When I was 12, I decided that there was no God. I remember the circumstances only vaguely. The year must have been 1997. I was on holiday with my parents in northern Iran, by the Caspian Sea. Many middle-class Iranians from the capital, Tehran, own modest cottages on the Caspian shore. My parents didn’t, but they had friends who did, and the summertime “villa trip” was a tradition….
sahani says
99 % of the world muslims are local converts from hindu ,buddhist ,christian faith. reconverting to the root culture should be encouraged .World will be a better place soon.
Sog says
Barring that, I’d happily settle for a switchover to pious Scientology, and I even have no idea what their behavior would be.
If this Halloween a 10 year old boy can pass as Batman, how hard would it be for Satan to pass as Gabriel? I, like Mohammad, suspect there is an occasional switcharoo, only Mo didn’t nearly catch all the instances.
It should be obvious to even the half intelligent casual observer that Killing Apostates, Lying in wait and attacking people, Forcing women subservient, and being all around viscous to your neighbor is “left side” Surya and Hadith, which corresponds inveresly and in stark contrast to the good “right side” Surya and Hadith with *does* promote good manners and love of ones neighbor.
I guess we could ask: Are you a left side Muslim or a right side Muslim? If they say “just Muslim” then know they will tolerate abuse of non-Muslim neighbors.
red rose says
When will Muslims understand that the Lord would never make a man like Mohammad a “prophet”. Mohammad killed, enslaved, raped, stole, and lied – these qualities are of the DEVIL, not GOD.
Gea says
IDEOLOGY of Islam as taught by Koran, Hadith and sira is NOT compatible with the universal Declaration of Human rights and thus should be treated as Nazism, and Fascism…
Linde Barrera says
I tell everyone I speak with about JihadWatch.or and the truthfulness of its reporting. I was at a synogogue in NYC this past week (Rosenthal for Congress) telling the people at a meeting that I, as a Christian, learned in the spring of 2015 that Israel was not “stolen from the Palestinians” as Palestinian propaganda likes to spew, from reading about the Peel Commission 1937. This was brought forth by several commenters of JihadWatch.org who urged me to learn more about it. So I tell this to people. And I learned a new word from a writer whose name I honestly forget, but it is his terminology for journalists and broadcasters who only tell half truths or who whitewash the real truth: “presstitutes”. Great word. And everyone who subscribes to JihadWatch.org is assured there are no “presstitutes” reporting here. God bless all the writers and reporters at JihadWatch.org.
Nonie Darwish says
Dear Robert,
You get it, Islam, better that most Muslims and even most EX Muslims.
Nonie
Gea says
After reading koran, Hadith and Sira TWICE some 6 years ago, I realised that whatever my secular Muslim friend from Bangladesh told me about Islam in 25 years of our friendship was a lie, as typical of all Muslims who are raised with taqiyya and kitman/ When I told her to read Koran, hadith and Sira to understand why all the terrorists shout Allahu Akbar and never Hail Mary, Our father, rama rama, Om or shema Israel, when blowing up and murdering civilians, she disappeared from my life. she also claims that Muslims hate Israel because Israel “stole” their land, which is also a lie, as Muslims were taught to hate the Jews, because Mohamed hated and envied the Jews.
In 627 AD Mohamed had 900 Jewish men from Medina beheaded, looted their property and took their women and children into slavery, while raping the most beautiful widow of a Jeish man whom he had beheaded. Nice guy this Mohamed! Real role model for ISIS, Taliban, Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hezbollah, boko Haram, Al-Qaeda, most stemming from the Muslim Brotherhood of B. Hussein Obama.
Islam ITSELF is a totalitarian, supremacist, apartheid and imperialistic IDEOLOGY that does not belong to civilised world and should be treated as Nazism and mosques as Nazi cells where new terrorists are created by memorising hateful verses of Koran, Hadith and Sira.
Thomas says
Perfectly stated. Thank you!
Angemon says
Unless you were not openly posing as a muslim and the the murder of priest Fr. Jacques Hamels had no weight whatsoever in your decision, the headline sounds accurate.
Caliph says
Sounds like you may be suggesting that Sohrab saw an opportunity to promote his own name, toot his own horn and get his 15 minutes of fame and he went for it.
Have you know people that changed religions or found religion? Do they usually want to tell the world? Do they take an add on a local paper stating what they did?
Kay says
I agree.
Ahmari is still such an immature Christian (we all have been) that he doesn’t realize it isn’t all about exactly what he is aware of. God can indeed use his conversion for more good and coupled with Father Hamel’s horrific murder, that might in part be the conversion of others.
Would that Ahmari would actually work and pray for that.
FX MEANEY says
Robert, I think you both are on the same side and need not escalate a war.
Mirren10 says
”Robert, I think you both are on the same side and need not escalate a war.”
How is it ”escalating a war’ to point out that a so-called journalist is not only telling lies, but is also being gratuitously rude and abusive ?
”However, when Jihad Watch repeated published reports to that effect, praising Ahmari for his courage, he lashed out on Twitter (and is apparently ashamed of having done so now, as he has deleted most of the relevant tweets), calling us “unbelievably trashy” and “ideological trash” for having stated that he had been Muslim — which, again, we got from published reports.”
Why is Robert not supposed to mention this, just because this little tick has supposedly converted to Christianity ? Truth is truth, and should always be spoken, neither should *anyone* just let calumny and lies pass, just because the perpetrator is putatively on the same ‘side’.
Mazo says
It’s pretty obvious Ahmari does not agree with the agenda and ideology of jihadwatch and does not want to be associated with it.
Most atheist ex-Muslims still retain their mental faculties. There are Palestibiab ex-Muslims who are still anti-zionist, Saudi ex-Muslims who support the Saudi monarchy out of nationalism and Iranian ex-Muslims who are nationalists and anti western.
Ahmari is an ex-Muslim who opposes jihadwatch and its agenda. It might be hard for for the mentally retarded to understand.
Mirren10 says
”Ahmari is an ex-Muslim who opposes jihadwatch and its agenda.”
That is no excuse for gratuitous rudeness and lies. If he opposes ‘jihadwatch and its agenda’, then his supposed apostasy is open to doubt, since what Robert does here is to publicise the koranic texts and hadith that pious mohammedans use to justify their murders and atrocities.
A genuine apostate would have no problem with that, since presumably enlightenment on those points, and the baleful character of mohammed would be the reason he/she apostasised in the first place.
”It might be hard for for the mentally retarded to understand.”
Mazo, you espouse an evil and violent creed. I don’t consider *you* to be ‘mentally retarded’, but evil yourself, since you not only choose evil, but come here specifically to defend it. Of course you don’t understand those of us who choose goodness and decency.
Sam says
Evil Islam will be defeated by force. Unfortunately, not by love and peace and rational dialogue.
As it has always been done before. BRUTAL FORCE. That is what evil understands.
Go ahead liberals call me a warmonger, racist, islamophobe and women hater (I have always liked women fyi. They smell good)