135 people convert to Islam at once!

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135 people convert to Islam at once!
OP - April 04, 2010, 09:18 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY1cIMrUE5M

Yusuf Estes converts 135 people. The big question is. Of the 135 people, how many of them do you think are Muslim today? I say 8.

"The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshiped anything but himself."
~Sir Richard Francis Burton

"I think religion is just like smoking: Both invented by people, addictive, harmful, and kills!"
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Re: 135 people convert to Islam at once!
Reply #1 - April 05, 2010, 12:21 AM

did they actually convert or were they Muslims to begin with?

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Re: 135 people convert to Islam at once!
Reply #2 - April 05, 2010, 12:33 AM

remember guys there is no such thing as "convert", its "revert"
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Re: 135 people convert to Islam at once!
Reply #3 - April 05, 2010, 12:33 AM

Quote from: Cool Canadian on April 04, 2010, 09:18 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY1cIMrUE5M

Yusuf Estes converts 135 people. The big question is. Of the 135 people, how many of them do you think are Muslim today? I say 8.

Clever trick of him to say 'stand up with me but you don't have to' to bear witness again - cementing what they say - of course some stand up and look around - the ones still sitting feel they must stand up too.
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Re: 135 people convert to Islam at once!
Reply #4 - April 05, 2010, 02:11 AM

Quote from: Infidel on April 05, 2010, 12:21 AM
did they actually convert or were they Muslims to begin with?

Yup, all of them converted

and good points Hassan. I still wonder how many of them are Muslim today. I bet you most of them left after a week or two.

"The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshiped anything but himself."
~Sir Richard Francis Burton

"I think religion is just like smoking: Both invented by people, addictive, harmful, and kills!"
~RIBS
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Re: 135 people convert to Islam at once!
Reply #5 - April 05, 2010, 03:35 AM

Quote from: Hassan on April 05, 2010, 12:33 AM
Clever trick of him to say 'stand up with me but you don't have to' to bear witness again - cementing what they say - of course some stand up and look around - the ones still sitting feel they must stand up too.

I'm on the MCC mailing list and lets just say that apart from some gullible dawahganda consuming twitts out there, the Muslims I hang around with tend to shudder when ever Yusuf Estes, Zakir Haik, Ahmad Dedat and Khalid Yasin open their mouths and state that they're the representatives of Muslims world wide. Unfortunately for every Jeffrey Lang or Tarek Fatah, there are at least 6 dick heads like Zakir Haik.

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Re: 135 people convert to Islam at once!
Reply #6 - April 05, 2010, 03:38 AM

Quote from: kaiwai on April 05, 2010, 03:35 AM
I'm on the MCC mailing list and lets just say that apart from some gullible dawahganda consuming twitts out there, the Muslims I hang around with tend to shudder when ever Yusuf Estes, Zakir Haik, Ahmad Dedat and Khalid Yasin open their mouths and state that they're the representatives of Muslims world wide. Unfortunately for every Jeffrey Lang or Tarek Fatah, there are at least 6 dick heads like Zakir Haik.

Sounds like you hang out with some pretty chill and liberal Muslims

What do they think of the whole Salafi thing?

Also, of the 135 converts in the video, how many you think are still Muslim?

"The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshiped anything but himself."
~Sir Richard Francis Burton

"I think religion is just like smoking: Both invented by people, addictive, harmful, and kills!"
~RIBS
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Re: 135 people convert to Islam at once!
Reply #7 - April 05, 2010, 03:58 AM

Quote from: Cool Canadian on April 05, 2010, 03:38 AM
Sounds like you hang out with some pretty chill and liberal Muslims

lol, I tend to avoid using words like liberal or progressive (although I end up having to use it because there isn't really a decent word to describe the movement; modernist I avoid because 'modernists' tend to equate to Sayyid Qutb and gang) because there is always a connotation of 'half baked Islam' being practiced when each of them are passionate about being a Muslim - they just so happen to approach it from a different angle.

They realise that the hadiths were collected 250-300 years after Muhammad died; that there are many stories written down of dubious reliability, many Muslims would sooner hold onto stories that are false than admit they know very little about the real character that is Muhammad. So they're Muslims with a sceptical eye with a willingness to challenge what is passed off as 'fact'.

Quote
What do they think of the whole Salafi thing?

Their displeasure is well noted in the MCC mailing list archives

Quote
Also, of the 135 converts in the video, how many you think are still Muslim?

I'll answer it in a different way; there was a BBC Documentary on converts to Islam; one woman was a hippy/alternative women who converted to Islam (through Sufism) but hung around with a Sufi group in London. Although the hard core 'Muslim's will claim there are converts every day/week/month/year - how many of them are willing to acknowledge that the vast majority don't sit in their hard line literalist camp? how many of them are Muslim and yet openly support same sex marriage and appose the death penalty for gays? there is a disconnect by those who promote the 'growth' numbers and the number of Muslims who actually subscribe to their version of Islam.

I'm not saying that those who are Sufi/non-Mainstream are any less of a Muslim but more the statement is pointed out those who try to think that they've won 135 converts to the 'winning team' in that I question how many, assuming they're all converts from atheism/another religion, are actually practising what they would called 'true Islam'? how many of them are praying five times a day? turning up to mosque? subscribing to a madhab? strictly keeping to what they deem as the 'gold standard of Islam'?

"It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up." - Muhammad Ali
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