Former Muslim-Turned-Atheist: 'Why I'm Now Christian'
Former Muslim-Turned-Atheist: 'Why I'm Now Christian'
"And fortunately, there is no need to look for some new-age concoction of medication and mindfulness. Christianity has it all."
Eric Mack - NOV 12, 2023
Human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali was a Somali-born Muslim who was an avowed atheist after 9/11, but now she says is a born-again Christian because it has proved in the age of terrorism and the "erosion of our civilization" to have "it all."
"The lesson I learned from my years with the Muslim Brotherhood was the power of a unifying story, embedded in the foundational texts of Islam, to attract, engage, and mobilize the Muslim masses," Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Stanford University Hoover Institution fellow, wrote Saturday for UnHerd. "Unless we offer something as meaningful, I fear the erosion of our civilization will continue.
"And fortunately, there is no need to look for some new-age concoction of medication and mindfulness. Christianity has it all."
Radical Islamic terrorism is the march of a "religious war" that people reject, and even leads them to Christianity, she argued.
"That is why I no longer consider myself a Muslim apostate, but a lapsed atheist," she concluded. "Of course, I still have a great deal to learn about Christianity. I discover a little more at church each Sunday.
"But I have recognized, in my own long journey through a wilderness of fear and self-doubt, that there is a better way to manage the challenges of existence than either Islam or unbelief had to offer."
Breaking down her transformation, Ali lamented her early participation in Muslim ideology that radicalizes the notion the "greatest achievement possible was to die as a martyr for the sake of Allah."
She did marvel in the religion's call to action.
"The most striking quality of the Muslim Brotherhood was their ability to transform me and my fellow teenagers from passive believers into activists, almost overnight," she wrote. "We didn't just say things or pray for things; we did things."
But ultimately is was forcing hate and evil, she warned.
"We were told in no uncertain terms that we could not be loyal to Allah and Muhammad while also maintaining friendships and loyalty toward the unbelievers," she continued. "If they explicitly rejected our summons to Islam, we were to hate and curse them.
"Here, a special hatred was reserved for one subset of unbeliever: the Jew. We cursed the Jews multiple times a day and expressed horror, disgust, and anger at the litany of offenses he had allegedly committed. The Jew had betrayed our Prophet. He had occupied the Holy Mosque in Jerusalem. He continued to spread corruption of the heart, mind, and soul."
Religious indoctrination of fear then led her to atheism, but that did not solve anything insider her either.
"Western civilization is under threat from three different but related forces: the resurgence of great-power authoritarianism and expansionism in the forms of the Chinese Communist Party and Vladimir Putin's Russia; the rise of global Islamism, which threatens to mobilize a vast population against the West; and the viral spread of woke ideology, which is eating into the moral fiber of the next generation," she wrote.
"We endeavor to fend off these threats with modern, secular tools: military, economic, diplomatic, and technological efforts to defeat, bribe, persuade, appease, or surveil. And yet, with every round of conflict, we find ourselves losing ground. We are either running out of money, with our national debt in the tens of trillions of dollars, or we are losing our lead in the technological race with China.
"But we can't fight off these formidable forces unless we can answer the question: What is it that unites us? The response that 'God is dead!' seems insufficient. So, too, does the attempt to find solace in 'the rules-based liberal international order.' The only credible answer, I believe, lies in our desire to uphold the legacy of the Judeo-Christian tradition."
The mere fact the free West permits freedom of speech and religion led to her rejection of the forced compliance by Islam and atheism.
"To me, this freedom of conscience and speech is perhaps the greatest benefit of Western civilization," she added. "It does not come naturally to man. It is the product of centuries of debate within Jewish and Christian communities. It was these debates that advanced science and reason, diminished cruelty, suppressed superstitions, and built institutions to order and protect life, while guaranteeing freedom to as many people as possible.
"Unlike Islam, Christianity outgrew its dogmatic stage. It became increasingly clear that Christ's teaching implied not only a circumscribed role for religion as something separate from politics. It also implied compassion for the sinner and humility for the believer.
"Yet I would not be truthful if I attributed my embrace of Christianity solely to the realization that atheism is too weak and divisive a doctrine to fortify us against our menacing foes. I have also turned to Christianity because I ultimately found life without any spiritual solace unendurable — indeed very nearly self-destructive.
"Atheism failed to answer a simple question: What is the meaning and purpose of life?"
As a Christian, she decided she has answer for "it all."
***
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/christian-conversion-muslim/2023/11/12/id/1141993/