PoliticalChic
Diamond Member
That’s what I always read…..until now.
1.Pew Research: Why Muslims are the world's fastest-growing religious group ...
BBC: Islam: The world's fastest growing religion - BBC News
Quora: Why is Islam the fastest growing religion in the world?
2. Yet….here is Daniel Pipes with a scoop, and statistics.
“In the West, conversions involving Islam appear to be a one-way street in its favor. Famed new believers include Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Keith Ellison, and Sinéad O'Connor, as well as flamboyant flirts like Prince Charles, Michael Jackson and Lindsay Lohan. Also, there are about 700,000 African-American converts and their descendants.
3. …some numbers: In France, around 15,000 Muslims convert annually to Christianity, according to a 2007 estimate. About 100,000 American Muslims abandon Islam each year, reports a 2017 Pew Research Center survey. This amounts to 24 percent of all Muslims in the United States, with Iranians disproportionately represented. These numbers roughly counterbalance those of non-Muslims converting to Islam.
4. Reasons for leaving Islam vary: Pew finds 25 percent of American ex-Muslims have general issues with religion, 19 percent with Islam in particular, 16 percent prefer another religion, and 14 percent cite reasons of personal growth. Slightly more than half of those leaving (55 percent) abandon religion entirely and slightly less than a quarter (22 percent) convert to Christianity.
5. Indeed, born Muslims who leave Islam have a far greater impact than do converts to Islam.
First, overtly apostatizing is a radical act that can lead to execution in a Muslim-majority country like Iran. Even in the West, it meets with rejection by families, social ostracism, humiliation, curses, threats, reprisals, and violent attacks. Accordingly, conversions out of Islam tend to be cautious or hidden, as in the cases of British author Salman Rushdie and pop star Zayn Malik. Carlos Menem of Argentina minimized his apostacy; Barack Obama elaborately denied his.
6. Nonetheless, some converts make a point of leaving publicly, encouraging others by their example. Ibn Warraqwrote Why I Am Not a Muslim. Nonie Darwish and Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote books about becoming "infidels." The journalist Magdi Allam converted at the hands of Pope Benedict in a widely televised ceremony.
7. With passion and a unique authority, ex-Muslims push believers to think critically about their faith. Their efforts have substantially contributed to a general decline in religiosity now conspicuously underway among Muslims, especially among the youth. As the Economist summarizes a recent Arab Barometer survey, "Many [Arabic-speaking Muslims] appear to be giving up on Islam."
Thus do boisterously opinionated ex-Muslims challenge their birth religion, helping both to modernize it and reduce its grip. Their role has only just begun.”
Opinion | When Muslims Leave the Faith?
"....to modernize it ..."
Is this a sign of that longed for reformation, overdue at that?
1.Pew Research: Why Muslims are the world's fastest-growing religious group ...
BBC: Islam: The world's fastest growing religion - BBC News
Quora: Why is Islam the fastest growing religion in the world?
2. Yet….here is Daniel Pipes with a scoop, and statistics.
“In the West, conversions involving Islam appear to be a one-way street in its favor. Famed new believers include Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Keith Ellison, and Sinéad O'Connor, as well as flamboyant flirts like Prince Charles, Michael Jackson and Lindsay Lohan. Also, there are about 700,000 African-American converts and their descendants.
3. …some numbers: In France, around 15,000 Muslims convert annually to Christianity, according to a 2007 estimate. About 100,000 American Muslims abandon Islam each year, reports a 2017 Pew Research Center survey. This amounts to 24 percent of all Muslims in the United States, with Iranians disproportionately represented. These numbers roughly counterbalance those of non-Muslims converting to Islam.
4. Reasons for leaving Islam vary: Pew finds 25 percent of American ex-Muslims have general issues with religion, 19 percent with Islam in particular, 16 percent prefer another religion, and 14 percent cite reasons of personal growth. Slightly more than half of those leaving (55 percent) abandon religion entirely and slightly less than a quarter (22 percent) convert to Christianity.
5. Indeed, born Muslims who leave Islam have a far greater impact than do converts to Islam.
First, overtly apostatizing is a radical act that can lead to execution in a Muslim-majority country like Iran. Even in the West, it meets with rejection by families, social ostracism, humiliation, curses, threats, reprisals, and violent attacks. Accordingly, conversions out of Islam tend to be cautious or hidden, as in the cases of British author Salman Rushdie and pop star Zayn Malik. Carlos Menem of Argentina minimized his apostacy; Barack Obama elaborately denied his.
6. Nonetheless, some converts make a point of leaving publicly, encouraging others by their example. Ibn Warraqwrote Why I Am Not a Muslim. Nonie Darwish and Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote books about becoming "infidels." The journalist Magdi Allam converted at the hands of Pope Benedict in a widely televised ceremony.
7. With passion and a unique authority, ex-Muslims push believers to think critically about their faith. Their efforts have substantially contributed to a general decline in religiosity now conspicuously underway among Muslims, especially among the youth. As the Economist summarizes a recent Arab Barometer survey, "Many [Arabic-speaking Muslims] appear to be giving up on Islam."
Thus do boisterously opinionated ex-Muslims challenge their birth religion, helping both to modernize it and reduce its grip. Their role has only just begun.”
Opinion | When Muslims Leave the Faith?
"....to modernize it ..."
Is this a sign of that longed for reformation, overdue at that?