Why Are So Many Women Converting To Islam?

Mohammad Asghar rebuts Diana August

By: Mohammad Asghar

Ms. Diana August (DA), the writer of the treatise, published in Vinnomot under the above caption, has traveled a long way for establishing what she wanted to establish: It being that the religion of Islam has come from heaven. 

http://www.islamamerica.org/articles.cfm/article_id/20/

In order to rebut her claim, I will attempt to answer the questions in the sequence she has raised them in her treatise. 

Ms. Diana August (DA) wrote: “According to "The Almanac Book of Facts", the population increased 137% within the past decade; Christianity increased 46% while Islam increased 235 %.” 

Mohammad Asghar (MA): It is true that Muslim population worldwide has gone up over the past decade. This can be explained in a logical and realistic manner. I hope DA would agree with what I am going to state below. 

Muslims have a large number of illiterate people in their ranks. Many among them are not familiar with various problems that affect their own lives. Moreover, they are easily misled by their government policies as well as by the sermons of their religious leaders. Economic compulsions also force them to do what affluent people regularly avoid doing in their lives. 

Consequently, many poor Muslims do not use contraceptives to control the size of their families. Often, the decision not to use contraceptives originates from their economic considerations. To them to have one additional child is to have two additional hands, which bring them additional income. One can draw this conclusion from the number of Muslim children already employed in businesses like begging, construction and ready-made garment factories of the least developed countries of the world. 

Another factor is the love of Islam. Many Muslims believe that heir emancipation from the alleged Jewish and Christian hegemony lies in their numerical strength. They, therefore, believe it to be their religious duty to have as many children as they can produce. This is deducible from the fact that many Muslim families in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have a multiple of children, despite the fact that their economic conditions do not support such a reckless practice on their part. 

I need to give an example of how at least one non-Muslim country has tried and succeeded in eliminating the problems that over-population has been creating for many Muslim countries of the world. I have the example of Singapore in mind. 

After Singapore came out of the Malaysian Federation, Lee Kwan Yu realized that if he were to bring about economic prosperity to his nation, he would need to control the size of its population. To do it, he imposed restrictions on the number of children a couple could have. For those couples, which had a single child, he offered tax and educational benefits. For those couples, which preferred to have more than one child, he prescribed heavy taxation together with denial of education for them in public schools. His policy had its intended impact; Singapore's population growth rate eventually hit the zero mark, a fact pointed out by a recent report published in the International Press. 

After achieving its national goal, Singapore realized that it now needs young people to manage its future affairs. It has since reversed its old policy and now it encourages couples to have as many children as they can produce. The government has been doing its own part to induce them to successive procreations; it is providing them with much sought-after seclusion, which people ordinarily do not get to enjoy in their tiny island. 

The fall in Singapore's population growth depended on the perception and policy of its government. It had nothing to do with the people's religion. Similarly, the rise in the number of the Muslims had nothing to do with the "goodness' of Islam; it is the result of their own belief and economic conditions. Unlike Singapore, Muslims chose quantity over quality. Its baneful impact is there for everyone to see and mourn.

DA: In a recent poll in the (US), 100,000 people per year in America alone, are converting to Islam. For every I male convert to Islam, 4 females convert to Islam. Why? 

MA: The answer to the question lies in the demographic compositions of the people who converted to Islam. An impartial and unfettered survey would show that most of the converts to Islam are black; many among them came to the fold of Islam either for their personal reasons or while serving terms in jails. 

Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali to avoid taking part in the Vietnam War. Mike Tyson became a Muslim while serving his jail term. There were other black men like him who adopted Islam on being told that God wipes out the sins of those who converted to his "approved" religion (3:19). 

Ibrahim Hooper and Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Steven) are two different species; they are white men. I am not sure about the motives that they had for converting to Islam. It is, however, clear that Ibrahim's conversion helped him create a niche for himself among the American Muslims. Yusuf has become an icon for the European neo-Muslims; they use his conversion to highlight the goodness of their newly acquired faith. This strategy helps them not only in justifying their conversion to Islam, it also helps in elevating Yusuf's esteem and reputation in a vast community of over 1.3 billion Muslims. This is, perhaps, what Cat Steven wanted to achieve by embracing Islam. 

The scenario in respect to females converting to Islam is different. The number of black females is quite large. Most of them marry Muslim men after being divorced by their Christian husbands. Because most Muslim men do not like to remain married to non-Muslim women, they abandon their former religions and convert to Islam, principally, to please their new husbands. 

Many white females are also known to have converted to Islam after marrying Muslim men. Men of Middle Eastern origin appear to have played a major role in this game of conversion. They get married to white women first and then insist on their conversion to their religion. Though the Quran does not require the Jewish and Christian women to convert to Islam before or after their marriage with Muslim men (see 5:6), yet their husbands insist on their conversion to their faith, primarily for two reasons: first, it helps them to obtain recognition of their marriage from their parents as well as from those who matter in their lives and, secondly, to ensure that their children were going to be raised, in accordance with the Islamic traditions, by their Muslim mothers. 

Since Christians do not punish those among them who abandon their faith, the rate of conversions among the Christians is one of the highest. This has proved to be a boon for Islam and its adherents. 

Conversely, incidences of Muslims’ public declaration of conversion to other faiths are almost non-existence. This is because of the fact that Islam is not only extremely intolerant of apostasy; it also imposes draconian punishment on the renegades. The Quran requires that all renegades be put to death (4:89).

Dwelling on the subject, Dr. Muhammad Hamidullah wrote in Muslim Conduct of State: 

“The apostate has to choose between Islam and the sword; he cannot be given quarter, nor will he be allowed to become a Dhimmi, i.e. a resident non-Muslim subject of the Muslim State, on payment of the yearly protection-tax” (paragraph 334). 

Is not the above a compelling reason for Muslims not to convert to other faiths? 

DA: Christian Scientists are declaring the Quraan is from God. Visit Here for Christian and atheist Scientists who convert to Islam and why:

http://wings.buffalo.edu/sa/muslim/library/jesus-say/ch13.html

MA: I have visited the website DA has provided. In it, there is nothing new that most of the people who have been investigating Quran and Islam did not already know. Almost all the personalities mentioned in the website either want to draw attention to themselves or are greedy 

H. A. R. Gibb was a scholar; he wrote many books on Islam. No one should expect an impartial scholar, like him, to be negative all the time on a subject he or she writes on. The passage that DA quoted presents Islam in a positive light, but to know what the scholar thought about all aspects of Islam, one needs to read his other works. Here are some of his thoughts on Muhammad and Islam: 

1.The resistance of the Meccans appears to have been due not so much to their conservatism or even to religious disbelief (though they ridiculed Muhammad's doctrine of resurrection) as to political and economic causes. 

2.At Medina he sat astride Mecca's vital trade route to the north. All his expeditions against Bedouin tribes seem to be part of a master plan, elaborated with great skill and insight, to take advantage of this position and to blockade Mecca into surrender. 

3.For us it goes without saying that the hold which Muhammad gained over the wills and affections of his Companions were due to the influence of his personality. Without that they would have paid little heed to the claims of the Prophet. 

4.In the earliest period of his preaching Muhammad's utterances were delivered in a sinewy oracular style cast into short rhymed phrases, often obscure and sometimes preceded by one or more formal oaths. This style is admittedly that of the ancient kahins or Arabian oracle-mongers, and it is not surprising that Muhammad's opponents should have charged him with being just another such kahin (Mohammadenism, pp. 18, 20, 23, 24 & 25). 

Gibb's above statements draw a different picture of Muhammad and his religion; read with care, these are sufficient to prove that he was a scheming man, and not a God-sent prophet. 

Arthur J. Arberry though interpreted the Quran, but he is not known to have converted to Islam. 

G. Margoliouth did not have any problem with what the German author Adam Mez said in The Renaissance of Islam. Margoliouth translated this book into English for the benefit of the English-speaking people. Two statements in this book read: 

1.The Quran was enacted for a seventh-century people. 2. It must be remembered that slaves, like any other property, were transferable. A Muhammadan has the right to sell his concubine, at least as long as he has no child by her. And even if he has a child by her, he can always deny the paternity (although this does not often happen) (p. 168). 

Keith Moore is a Canadian professor. He made a lot of claims on the scientific aspects of the Quran while visiting Saudi Arabia. He had to make his hosts and benefactors happy hence his utterances. 

Does he teach the same theories to the students of the Canadian University what he tells the rest of the world? Are his teachings based on the Quran and its scientific miracles? If not, why?

DA: The Christian Bishops and Priests are admitting the Bible has tensions.

http://wings.buffalo.edu/sa/muslim/library/jesus-say/ch2.1.html

MA: True, like the Quran, the Bible has been creating tensions not only among the Christians, but also among those people who do not believe in this book. I, however, praise the Christian Bishops and Priests for being honest on their religious scripture. On the other hand, I deride the Muslim Maulanas, Maulvis and Preachers for not being candid on what their religious book teaches its followers. This is an important factor that separates Christians from Muslims. The formers' ability to admit the facts has made them better humans; the latter's inability to confront truth has turned them into a sea of suffering masses.

DA: Jesus is a Muslim.

http://wings.buffalo.edu/sa/muslim/library/jesus-say/ch6.10.html  

MA: This is a claim that has its root in the Quran. By claiming that the Christians were Muslims (5:114), Muhammad had sought to shield the Meccan Christians, who were related to him through his marriage with Khadija, from the treatment they would have received from his disciples after he had conquered Mecca. This was a shrewd move on his part, but does it make him a prophet is a question that Ms. Diana August has to ask herself.

DA:  The Bible Convicts Women as the original Sinners, (i.e. Eve picking from the forbidden tree){Genesis 2:4-3:24}. The Quraan Clarifies it was Adam Not Eve {Quraan 7:19-25} 

MA: I think DA has unwittingly made a mistake in understanding the passages of the Quran. Verse 7:20 implies that both Adam and his wife had eaten the forbidden fruit. It says:

The began Satan to whisper          

Suggestions to them, bringing

Openly before their minds

All their shame

That was hidden from them

(Before): he said: "Your Lord

Only forbade you this tree,

Lest ye should become angels

Or such beings as live for ever.

"Whispering suggestions to them" and "bringing openly before their minds all their shame" clearly indicate that both Adam and his wife had eaten the forbidden fruit. To claim otherwise would tantamount to re-writing the interpretation of the Quran.

DA: The Bible says, "The Birth of a Daughter is a loss" {Ecclesiasticus 22:3}. The Quraan says both are an Equal Blessing {Quraan 42:49} 

MA: The above Quranic verse does not say that a daughter is a blessing for her parents. It reads:

To Allah belongs the dominion

Of the heavens and the earth,

He creates what He wills

(And plans). He bestows

(Children) male or female

According to His Will (and Plan).

The word "bestow" means to "to present as a gift." God says that it is within his dominion to bestow male and female children on their parents. It is up to her parents to treat her either as a blessing or a curse; in the sight of God, they are a sub-human species.  

In fact Muhammad did not think much of daughters and thought that is degrading for Allah to have daughters.  

“And they assign daughters for Allah! –

 Glory be to Him! - and for themselves

 (sons,- the issue) they desire!” (Quran 16:57) 

DA: The Bible Forbids Women from Speaking in church {I Corinthians 14:34-35}. The Quraan says Women can argue with the Prophet {58:1} 

MA: Here again, DA has made a mistake in understanding the contents of the verse. It says:

God has indeed

Heard (and accepted) the statement

Of the woman who pleads

With thee concerning her husband

And carries her complaint

(In prayer) to God:

And God (always) hears

The arguments between both

Sides among you: For God

Hears and sees (all things).

The above verse needs to be read in conjunction with verse 33:4. Both the verses refer to the pagan custom of divorce, which they called Zihar. 

Unlike the Muslim custom of divorce, which, upon uttering the words "I divorce thee" three times by a husband, removes the wife physically away from him, the pagan divorce allowed her to stay with her former husband, who not only avoided having physical contacts with her, he also prevented her from contracting another marriage. This is a claim made by the Muslims; we do not have anything from the pagans' side to prove its veracity. 

The incident mentioned in verse 58:1 relates to a Muslim woman whom her Muslim husband had divorced under the pagan custom. Because her former husband was a Muslim, Muhammad, it seems, was reluctant to force him to let his divorced-wife go her way. To force Muhammad to implement his own law, the woman pleaded and argued with him. Eventually, God heard her pleadings with Muhammad and allowed her to leave her former husband's house. 

The woman's situation was a desperate one; any woman in her situation would have done the same thing. Though in our modern time, plaintiffs and defendants are not allowed to argue with a judge, even then any woman faced with the judge's partiality would do what the Muslim woman did in front of Muhammad, the determiner of her well being and fate. Does the event mentioned above have the merit it has been given to by DA? Or, is it an aspersion on the character and the judicial bungling of Muhammad?

DA: In the Bible, divorced Women are Labeled as an Adulteress, while men are not {Matthew 5:31-32}. The Quraan does not have Biblical double standards {Quraan 30:21} 

MA: It appears to me that DA is not fully conversant with all the stipulations of the Quran. Let me draw her attention to its following verses: 

4:15: If any of your women

Are guilty of lewdness,

Take the evidence of four

(Reliable) witnesses from among you

Against them; and if they testify

Confine them to houses until

Death do claim them,

Or God ordain for them

Some (other way). 

It must be noted that God made men responsible for carrying out all of his orders and ordinances. To make his decision effective, he directed all his communications to men only. Lacking confidence in women's ability, he refrained from telling them even what is supposed to be their intimate matter; it were men through whom he told them that their courses are a hurt and pollution (2:222). 

Through the above verse, God prescribed death sentence for women who are found guilty of lewdness. Of course, the divine law requires that before convicting a lewd woman, four men must testify to her crime. 

4:16: If two men among you

Are guilty of lewdness,

Punish them both.

If they repent and amend,

Leave them alone; for God

Is Oft-returning, Most Merciful. 

God prescribed unspecified punishment for men, accused of committing lewdness. But if both of them repent and promise to amend their ways, God granted them his mercy and forgiveness. 

Can we say that God has treated both the men and women equally? Is it not evident from the above citations that God is biased against women and that he wishes to punish them even at a slightest provocation? 

DA:  In The Bible, Widows and Sisters do Not Inherit Any Property or Wealth, Only men do {Numbers 27:1-11} The Quraan Abolished this male greediness {Quraan 4:22} and God Protects All. 

MA: DA is right on the above assertion, but she needs to understand that the biblical stipulation came 700 hundred years before the Quran. Therefore, there had to be some modification in the biblical laws; otherwise, how Muhammad could have claimed that his religion was different from Christianity and Judaism? Furthermore Muhammad simply followed the culture of the pagan Arabs where women did inherit from their fathers even though that inheritance was not equal to their male siblings.  

DA:  The Bible Allows Multiple Wives {I Kings 11:3} In The Quraan, God limits the number to 4 only under certain situations (with the Wife's permission) and Prefers you Marry Only One Wife {Quraan 4:3} The Quraan gives the Woman the Right to Choose who to Marry. 

MA: Quran did not limit the number of wives to four. Although some Muslims interpret it as such others do not and in fact Muhammad himself had mor ethan four wives. Many Shiite Imamas and Sunnis rulers had tens and some times hundreds or thousands of wives. Muhammad himself was permitted to have as many wives and necessary for him to overcome his "difficulties" (33:50). The restriction on the number of wives a Muslim can have does not carry any sense in view of the fact that they have the permission from God to have sex with an unrestricted number of slave-girls (4:24 et al) without taking them into their wedlock. 

On the issue of four wives that a Muslim man can have, the Quran says: 

If ye that ye shall not

Be able to deal justly

With the orphans,

Marry women of your choice,

Two, or three, or four;

But if ye fear that ye shall not

Be able to deal justly (with them),

Then only one, or (a captive)

That your right hand possesses.

That will be more suitable,

To prevent you

From doing injustice.

I wish DA to answer the following questions that emanated from the contents of the above verse:

 1.Why the permissibility for a Muslim man to have two, three or four wives has been made contingent upon his dealing justly with the orphans? 

2.When God knew that men were incapable of dealing justly with more than one wife, why did he allow Muhammad to have an unlimited number of wives? 

Islam did not allow women to choose their husbands. Muslim men decide whom they should marry, for, the Quran says marriage lies in the hands of men (2:237). 

DA:  "If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives" {Deuteronomy 22:28-30} 

MA: Many Muslim societies have been following the punishment that the Bible has prescribed for the rapist of a woman. Because of the social stigma that the raped women carry, other men do not want to marry them. To solve this problem, many Muslim arbitrators require the rapists to marry their victims. Though it is not a good solution at all, yet it helps in establishing the claim that women make against their rapists. 

Can DA quote a passage from the Quran that deals with the issue of rape? What punishment does it impose on a Muslim rapist? 

DA: The Prophet Muhammad says (Bukhari Volume 9, Book 86, Number 101) Narrated by Aisha." It is essential to have the consent of a virgin (for the marriage)" 

MA: Why the attempt to justify something that is not in the Quran? Did Muhammad take Aisha's permission before he married her?  

DA: The Bible also asks Women to wear veils as in Islam {I Corinthians 11:3-10}, this lowers the chance of rape, (God Forbid), see statistic link below. 

MA: The word "also" appearing in the above statement is vital. It gives the impression that at least the law on veiling was stolen from the Bible and made part of the Quran by its creator. But has veiling proved effective in saving women from rape? What statistics say, if any thing, on this issue? 

DA: Women were given rights to Vote less than a 100 years ago in the (US), while the Quraan (42:38) gave Women Voting rights almost 1,500 years ago. 

MA: Again, DA has misunderstood the meaning of the verse 42:38. It does not talk about the women's voting right. It talks about "mutual consultation" that Muslims have been called upon to have before deciding a matter of the state. 

The above verse has induced the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to form its own Majlis-e-Shura. The Majlis is a consultative body, which consists mostly of the Muslim clerics. They advise the rulers on how they should introduce and implement Islamic laws in the countries they rule. 

DA: Islam has unconfined Women and has given them the human right to reach for the sky. There have been Muslim Women Presidents through out the centuries, but to this date, the oppressive mentality of the men in the Western U.S.A. has stopped any Women from becoming Presidents in predominately Christian countries, while the Muslim countries have voted for and elected Female Presidents.

MA: It is not Islam that has enabled Muslim women to become prime ministers and leaders of some of the Indian sub-continental countries. This has happened due to the fact that people in those countries have become relatively civil and enlightened in political matters. 

Israel had and Sri Lanka still has a woman head of state. Can we say that this had happened because of Judaism and Buddhism? 

The Western countries do not discourage women from contesting national elections. In fact, Ms. Thatcher proved to be one of the most effective and long serving leaders of the United Kingdom. Another European country also had a woman President. Therefore, to claim that Christian dominated countries stopped women from becoming leaders is a blatant lie. Unquote

Mohammad Asghar

Email: MSA40@ao;.com