You may doubt why Islam's Social Laws are the primary reason for converting to Islam. Yet, during my research in the U.S., amongst converts to Islam, most of those whom I talked to had good, solid arguments for why they felt it should be the highest motivation for converting.
A number of the individuals felt that Islamic Social laws are comprehensive, that they are a complete guide to life, and consequently, that they brought about orderly living. They pointed to the fact that people need boundaries by which to live by, especially in Western societies which emphasize catering to special interest groups, while leaving out the needs of the majority. Islam, they felt was the only religion which was giving them these boundaries to live by.

In contrast, quite a few respondents pointed out that Christianity was just not powerful enough to change the evils of modern-day life. In my research in the U.S., the majority of those who expressed this idea were African-American, all of whom lived in inner-city areas of some of the largest urban centers in America. They saw first-hand the anarchy going on all around them, and they justifiably felt that Islam was the only religion which could stand up to the deprivation and violence, as well as the rampant racism found in America today.

A number of those with whom I talked had come into contact with Islam in prison, where they had been reformed by "Muslim brothers" who came weekly for the Jumma prayers and Qur'anic classes. Now that they were "on the outside," they believed that the disciplined lifestyle, espoused by Islamic law, was the sole reason which kept them from going "back in." They were appreciative of the local masjids role in driving out drug dealers from their inner-city neighborhoods, and the ongoing campaigns to keep children off the streets and out of gangs.

Another attraction was Islam's lack of a priesthood. Islam has no medial agents. One will not find a "pope" or even a set of cardinals within Islam. As a result, the believer, they felt, is not dependent on someone else for his relationship to God, and therefore, can go directly to Allah.

A further attraction for new converts was that of Islamic education for young children, "while they were still impressionable." It was the Muslim schools, they felt, which would reform society and instil just and orderly sets of values upon the next generation.

While doing my research I personally visited four Muslim schools; two Sister Clara Muhammad Schools in Philadelphia and in Washington D.C., and two Qur'anic schools in Baltimore, at the Al Rahman Masjid and the Masjid Ul-Haqq. While the schools seemed to be small and ill-equipped, the children appeared to be well-disciplined and happy. And, not surprisingly, the schools had become the center for other Islamic activities in their local areas.

According to imam Yusuf Saleem, from Washington D.C., though the students did not excel academically, nor perform any better than they had at the public schools, the problems of discipline, crime, and sexual abuse were almost non-existent in these Muslim schools; and that was their greatest attraction.

I made a particular note, that among the respondents to my questionnaire, there were three women who felt that Islam gave them, as women, added fulfilment, for instance, permitting them to own property, while at the same time offering them the best protection from an outside hostile world. While this may surprise some of us, the perception by most Muslims with whom I talked was that, "We take care of our women better than do the Christians."

David Lamb, the Los Angeles reporter, who wrote the bestselling book The Africans, while living and travelling for four years in Africa echoes this point. He states that one of the best comparisons between a Christian and Muslim country in Africa was the safety of the streets within the larger cities. He felt that he would never let his wife walk alone at night, and sometimes even during the day in most of the larger African Christian cities. Yet, he had no fear of permitting his wife to wander freely within any of the larger African Muslim cities.

Judy and I, during our 5 years in Senegal, a country of 7 million, of which 92% of the population claimed to be Muslim, don't recall of ever having to fear for the safety of our women. Not once were they ever "cat-called," and in the entire time there, we remember hearing of only one rape in our town of 350,000 individuals. On this point alone, Islam has proved to far excel Christianity with its care and discipline towards women.

So how do we respond to these views and findings as Christians?

quote:

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Originally posted by sokarya_686@hotmail.com:
Islam is growing through oppression and fear. Its as simple as that. Its exactly the same reason that Christianity flourished and grew in the Dark Ages. These are the New Dark Ages for Islam.
Charlie the Saint.

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Charlie with wings,

For that she got 500 lashes.

500 lashes?

A fornicator is sentenced to only 100 lashes.

500 lashes?

It is unheard-of that anyone was ever sentenced to 500 lashes during the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him). No one was ever sentenced to 500 lashes for anything during the period of the rightly guided caliphs. Surely justice must be tempered with mercy. Is proportionality an alien concept to us?

A young woman is sentenced to 500 lashes. Our media is then eager to announce the news in all the newspapers including the non-Arabic ones. As if this is something for us to be proud of. This merely confirms all the negative stereotypes about us we are painstakingly trying to dispel.

I call upon the Supreme Council of Judges and the Ministry of Justice to investigate this case, for it is clear that the punishment meted out to this unfortunate young woman is far in excess of the crime.

Why do we not follow the example of our Prophet after the battle of Badr, for instance? The prophet decided after the battle to ransom the Makkah prisoners who were captured by the Muslims, despite the fact that they were people who had attacked the Muslims and tried to kill them.

It would have been just to kill them all. Instead the Prophet chose to spare their lives in the hope that some would eventually accept Islam. This tradition then became enshrined in law.

On another occasion, also after the battle of Badr, a man from Makkah arrived in Madinah to ransom his son, who was a prisoner of the Muslims. The man also intended to assassinate the Prophet on this occasion.

He had agreed to perform this task at the behest of one of the Makkah leaders called Safwan ibn Umayyah, who promised to care for his family as if they were his own and to assume all his debts. This agreement was known only to the two men.

When he approached the Prophet, Omar, one of the prophet’s companions, suspected his intention and tried to stop him, but the Prophet ordered him to leave the man be.

He then asked the man “What about your agreement with Safwan ibn Umayyah?” The man was stunned and promptly converted to Islam.

This is another example of our Prophet choosing mercy over blind justice. There are many others impossible to recount here.