Why I don’t become muslim?

Muslims use to call others to convert to Islam, as did Kadhafi in Italy. They sometimes use “polite” means that I respect a lot. They sometimes do it through hateful coercive direct or indirect ways, which I condemn. I indicate in this article the reasons why I don’t become Muslim.

Muslims believe they help others by converting them to Islam for they are convinced their religion is the best one and that converting to Islam will on one hand provide the new Muslim eternal salvation, and on the other, provide some heavenly merit to the converter. I don’t want to raise any doubt about their good intention on that purpose. By the way, Christians, or at least some of them, think the same way, and would like to convert others to Christianity as well.

I got many invitations to become a Muslim, done by illiterate people, intellectuals, university professors or even politicians. I always politely thanked for the invitation, adding sometimes that I would think about it. When my interlocutors insisted on knowing the reason why I wouldn’t convert to Islam despite of the fact that I know Islam and Koran, since I translated it, I used to answer that Islam wasn’t convenient for me and that I clearly prefer Jesus to Muhammad. This answer raised my interlocutors’ curiosity: “why? Muhammad is an Arab like you, the Koran was written in Arabic, and more than one billion Muslims follow Islam”

I then explained that Muhammad was a soldier with blood on his hands, a true dictator who wouldn’t hesitate to chop his opponents’ heads and to sleep with their wives. I don’t like choosing such a morally doubtful character as a model. Jesus, my compatriot, who lived a few miles away from my village, is a totally different man to me; calling to love even one’s enemies and to pray for them. He didn’t hesitate to die for his ideas, refusing to use violence in front of his adversaries. About the figure of more than one billion people following Muhammad, it means nothing to me. If you tie a camel or one billion camels to a donkey, it won’t change the donkey’s nature. A donkey remains a donkey.

I added that I wish to stay free and allowed to choose a new religion anytime, without risk. But if I join Islam, I won’t be able to leave it, and if I do, they’ll chop my head off for the crime of apostasy. Only due to this stupid rule, I can never convert to Islam. Converting to Islam is like going to jail: easy to get in, impossible to get out. A free man like me couldn’t in any way accept to limit his freedom with such a stupid rule.

At last, I used to explain that I cannot subscribe to the idea that the Koran could be the word of God. While Muslims believe that the Koran was dictated by God, thus being a perfect writing, I consider that it was written by a rabbi and that it is a poorly built rough draft, probably the messiest book on earth. My interlocutors then were surprised by my judgment about the Koran and continued stating that the Koran is perfect. I used to answer to them that their statement was the evidence of their blindness and of the fact that they have been brainwashed.

This is just a pencil sharpener