The Steady Rise of Conversions from Islam to Christianity
By Jacob Thomas
2 November, 2016

   As we glance at the news media’s coverage of the Islamic World, we are struck by the number of conflicts that are raging on!

   During the battle to liberate Mosul from the grip of the Islamic State, some inhabitants have managed to flee the city. However, many more are still in Mosul. It’s feared that in the final stages of the battle, ISIS may use local people as “human shields.” As to Syria, we can hardly believe the ferocity of the battle in Aleppo. Another civil war has been raging in Yemen, where Sunni and Shi’ite forces are battling, with the daily number of casualties mounting.

   However, the above-mentioned conflicts are not the only events that are happening in Islam. It may surprise many that a new phenomenon has been quietly going on: “The Steady Rise of Conversions from Islam to Christianity.”

   On 25 August, 2016, Brother Rachid dealt with this phenomenon on the Satellite TV Station, “Al-Hayat.”

   Brother Rachid began: “When I converted to the Christian faith in the 1990s, the number of converts was in the tens; perhaps it may have been in the hundreds. That was before the rise of the Internet, Satellite Television, and the prevalence of the social media.

   “Now thanks to the wide use of these new media, the number of converts has been steadily increasing; especially in lands where no native Christians live. It’s taking place among the Islamic Diaspora in Europe, the United States, Canada, and Australia, as well.

   “Islamic authorities are bent on stopping the growth of this movement. They regard it as a serious threat to the national security. In Egypt, a special branch has been established within the State Security Office, to combat this perceived “threat.”

   “A main feature of this phenomenon that surfaced in 2007, is its spontaneity. It’s not organized nor initiated by Western groups. What had enabled it to gain momentum, is modern technology! “For a very long time, Muslims were imprisoned within their own countries and their religion. Now, thanks to the new means of communication, they can listen to criticism of Islam, and to expositions of Biblical Christianity.”

   In 2009, I became aware of the growing numbers of Muslims coming over to the Christian faith, through articles posted on Arabic-language websites. Recently, the well-known ex-Muslim author, Ibn Warraq, published an essay, “Conversions from Islam to Christianity,” in the February, 2016 issue of the “New English Review.”

   Here are some excerpts:
“In the last fifteen years, there has been a spate of books, published in the West, by Muslims who have converted to Christianity, and many anthologies of testimonies of former Muslims, and even former Muslim terrorists. I remember being startled when I came across an article in the French journal Courrier International of January, 2001. …the article that first appeared in the Algerian daily newspaper, Al-Yawm in late December 2000… ‘In Kabylie, people of all ages are converting to Christianity. In certain towns and villages of Greater Kabylie, there is at least one church, as for example at Ouadhias, Draa Benkhedda, Ain el-Hammam, and Boghni. In the latter village, for instance, two churches have opened their doors during the last two years. Although the original builders of these two churches had worked in absolute secrecy, the number of citizens who have embraced Christianity has grown rapidly.’”

   Ibn Warraq turned to another North African country:
“An article published in 2006, on the Moroccan website, Ya-biladi, gives the reason for this modest but nonetheless remarkable movement towards Christianity, ‘The Arab press has been quick to accuse the US evangelists for the massive conversion numbers, therefore playing into the hands of the Islamists who advocate an end to the semi-freedom of religion in Morocco. But this assumption is wrong because as many observers emphasized, some Muslims are disillusioned by the crimes committed in the name of Islam, especially in Algeria by the Islamists and al-Qaida’s terrorist acts and are looking for something else.’”

   Ibn Warraq discussed the work of Brother Rachid on Al-Hayat TV:
“Since the launch of his show on al-Hayat TV, Rachid has devoted his life to defending the rights of Muslims to convert to Christianity, or simply changing their religion as they see fit, particularly in his native Morocco. Brother Rachid is not all afraid of criticizing Islam, or pointing out the virtues of Christianity over Islam, and has interviewed controversial figures such as Robert Spencer, and Christoph Luxenberg. He believes that there have been probably somewhere between 40,000 to 60,000 converts to Christianity in Morocco alone in the last ten years. He receives nearly 13,000 emails per month since he started broadcasting in 2007. In an article in Morocco World News, we learn that Rachid “has recently posted videos on YouTube translating the Quran into Moroccan Arabic dialect. His initiative was viewed by many Moroccan Muslims as provocative.”

   A Note

   I was surprised to note that Ibn Warraq had read my article on Algeria which he referenced. I had posted it on a website in 2013: http://www.answeringislam.org/authors/thomas/christianization_algeria.html

   To read the entire essay of Ibn Warraq, please go this URL:
http://www.newenglishreview.org/Ibn_Warraq/Conversions_from_Islam_to_Christianity/

   Ibn Warraq’s latest book with New English Review Press is Sir Walter Scott’s Crusades and Other Fantasies. His webpage is here.