Before I came to Islam, I made sure to talk to some people who have left the religion before I made my decision. In my talks with them, many of them born Muslims, cited the bad actions of Muslims as the reason why they no longer believed in the religion in nearly 100% of the cases.
Some of these were examples like seeing others getting drunk, fornication, gender inequality (i.e. women being punished but men going unpunished for committing major sins), being cheated out of money, reckless behavior and physical abuse.
Which indicates that it is very powerful the way the believers treat one another and how it can have a very negative effect on a person's faith and make them leave the religion all together. Back then, I was not a Muslim so I didn't fully understand what it meant when one told me that "Muslims are no better than anyone else."
He was right in that Muslims are human beings and imperfect.
Is there a punishment for someone whose incorrect Islamic etiquette causes someone not to embrace Islam or leave it all together? I see this happening all the time. Some people embrace Islam but leave it shortly after because they are treated awfully, if not worse, than non-Muslims by their own brothers and sisters in Islam.
The other day I was talking with someone who studied Islam and said that reading it on paper it seems like a beautiful idea that will work in terms of Islamic governance and fixing some of the things wrong in the world but when you try to put it into place it will not work because of the major deficiency and division of modern Muslims.
But I wonder for Muslims out there, at any point, especially in recent times, have the actions of other Muslims made you question why you're apart of Islam? Strengthened your faith or made you feel ashamed? And if so, what do you do to help yourself understand and remind yourself that Islam is different from the actions of Muslims?
Did any of you pause before embracing Islam or experience some hardship after being a more active Muslim because of your local Muslim community?
Some of these were examples like seeing others getting drunk, fornication, gender inequality (i.e. women being punished but men going unpunished for committing major sins), being cheated out of money, reckless behavior and physical abuse.
Which indicates that it is very powerful the way the believers treat one another and how it can have a very negative effect on a person's faith and make them leave the religion all together. Back then, I was not a Muslim so I didn't fully understand what it meant when one told me that "Muslims are no better than anyone else."
He was right in that Muslims are human beings and imperfect.
Is there a punishment for someone whose incorrect Islamic etiquette causes someone not to embrace Islam or leave it all together? I see this happening all the time. Some people embrace Islam but leave it shortly after because they are treated awfully, if not worse, than non-Muslims by their own brothers and sisters in Islam.
The other day I was talking with someone who studied Islam and said that reading it on paper it seems like a beautiful idea that will work in terms of Islamic governance and fixing some of the things wrong in the world but when you try to put it into place it will not work because of the major deficiency and division of modern Muslims.
But I wonder for Muslims out there, at any point, especially in recent times, have the actions of other Muslims made you question why you're apart of Islam? Strengthened your faith or made you feel ashamed? And if so, what do you do to help yourself understand and remind yourself that Islam is different from the actions of Muslims?
Did any of you pause before embracing Islam or experience some hardship after being a more active Muslim because of your local Muslim community?
