Trying to prevent his brother’s conversion to Islam that has already occurred

Back in October, James M. told us a heart-rending story about how his brother was about to be lost to Islam by marrying a Muslim woman and converting to Islam himself. At that time, several readers offered James advice about the things he could say to his brother to stop him from making this terrible mistake in his life.

James has now sent the following update:

About a month ago I found out that before I’d attempted to contact him about the situation, my brother had already converted to Islam and that the wedding is scheduled for next summer. I’ve been intermittently blotting this out since then but there it is.

Over Christmas break I was able to get him alone in a moving car (this was how the most crucial talking-tos were always carried out in my family) and used up about an hour voicing my concerns as we wound around in the country. I didn’t think of everything but I said what I could think of from memory and pulled from an outline I wrote before writing a letter to Charles, here are the points that I managed to touch upon:

• Your fiancee’s reaction to the Florida pastor
  Your fiancee and other “moderates” don’t control the political/ideological nature of Islam
  Undeniable pattern of behavior by Muslims as seen in Europe.
  Your fiancee and other “moderates” must become more rigid as Islam gains power.
  You will be required to become more Muslim-like as time passes
  Fraudulent nature of conversion
  Disobeying our parents’ wishes while obeying his fiancee’s parents’ wishes
  Conquest nature of your conversion (from other Muslims POV).
  How will you react to radicals at the mosque?
  Islamic influence on your children
  How would you react to my children being forced to live as dhimmis?
  How would you react to me being forced to live as a dhimmi?
  Death for apostasy
  The objectionable content of Koran
  The character of Mohammed
  Our culture’s lack of regard for Christianity opens door for Islam
  - Betraying your heritage

Charles took all of this very well, without getting angry with me. He made half-hearted arguments against only a few of my talking points but mostly just listened. The upshot is that he feels he did what he had to do, but he is not at all happy about it, and in fact is extremely conflicted, perhaps anguished even.

After all of the above, I told him a little about my path towards belief in Christianity (I had not revealed my belief to him before) and tried to illustrate the anti-Christian nature of the environment we grew up in and its effect on us. He said that he’d reflected upon this before. I told him I wasn’t trying to convert him at that moment, but that I wanted him to consider that he may be wrong about “everything.” He replied that he is open to that possibility.

So that’s where we’re at.

- end of initial entry -

James M. writes:

I may have mistyped.

“What about your children forced to live as dhimmis?” and “What about you being forced to live as a dhimmi?” should have read “How would you react to my children being forced to live as dhimmis?” and “How would you react to me being forced to live as a dhimmi?”

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 30, 2010 08:34 AM | Send