Misleading Headline of the Week: Prominent Muslim becomes Catholic on Easter
March 23rd 2008 06:02
I'm not one to hold it against someone for changing religions, assuming of course they are changing religions. In the case of Magdi Allam he did not change religions, he never was a Muslim to begin with.
To be a Muslim you have to follow the five pillars of Islam, starting with accepting that there is only one God and that Mohammed is his last messenger, pray five times a day, give charity, fast on Ramadhan and if possible make a pilgrimage known as 'Hajj'
Magdi Allam says so himself, that he never "never prayed five times a day, facing Mecca. I never fasted during Ramadan" and that he was "never practicing".
He was about as 'prominant' a Muslim as George Bush is a prominant Athiest.
To be a Muslim you have to follow the five pillars of Islam, starting with accepting that there is only one God and that Mohammed is his last messenger, pray five times a day, give charity, fast on Ramadhan and if possible make a pilgrimage known as 'Hajj'
Magdi Allam says so himself, that he never "never prayed five times a day, facing Mecca. I never fasted during Ramadan" and that he was "never practicing".
He was about as 'prominant' a Muslim as George Bush is a prominant Athiest.
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Comment by tlcorbin
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Comment by signals
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Comment by Damo
I see a problem here with your headline.
Who makes you the decider of who a true Muslim is?
Lapsed Catholics convert to other religions all the time and people still say that a Catholic converted.
Tony Blair changed religion and it was news.
Imran Khan's wife changed religion and it was news.
In all these cases no asked how committed they were to the previous religion before they changed.
In this case the person i well known in the Italian public media. He was journalist for a Muslim paper and he was baptized by the Pope.
What part of this story is not news?
Comment by Scott Rosenberg
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Comment by RubySoho
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Not saying I agree here, however apostates have been executed in some Muslim countries for denying their faith, even when they may not have had it in the first place.
I do agree with your point though, we assign labels to people even when they give us no indication that they want that label.
Comment by Ahmed
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I don't decide, but when you openly admit you don't even practice the basic tenants of being a Muslim then you're not a Muslim, much like when you openly admit you don't follow the basic tennants of catholicism you're not a catholic. I don't see the point here being that he claimed he was a Muslim, if he claimed to be a 'prominant catholic' converting to Islam while he never actually practiced catholicism you'd see the same story here highlighting the fact.
I also never said it wasn't news, I don't personally care about it but if people do then its news, however the headline to the story itself is completely misleading.
The Prophet Mohammed explicitly warned against this kind of thinking, your ancestory does not automatically make you a Muslim in Islam or anything close, neither do your relations.
Comment by The wonderful Peter Yang
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And the media isn't really helping either. Channel 7 and Channel 9 is more interest in selling more stories through reporting their stories from a extremely bias point of view and "A current Affair" and "Today tonight's" way of representation of Muslim is seriously problematic and questionable.
Just to make it clear I am not a muslim my self, but the problemetic natural of channel 7 and 9's represetation of Muslim is obvious and once I start researching it, you find out that they are just plain buu shit.
Then you got people like Asala Binladan who are seriously fuck up in the head calling "Death to America"
Honustly, if you look at it carefully both the Muslim and Christain world have people egging on to create religion war and they are really working hand in hand.
THEY ALL SHOULD GO TO HELLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheers
Comment by Lilla
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Nice to see that the poop flies on 'that side' of the fence with equal alacrity as it does on the Christian side....
Well noted.
Lilla ...