Every Muslim should read "Seeking Allah, Finding
Jesus." Faith is worthless unless it can withstand a challenge. "Finding
Jesus" is a reader-friendly book. Its chapters are short and its language
is simple and direct.
Nabeel Qureshi is the son of Pakistani Muslims and the
grandson of Muslim missionaries. His family scrupulously practiced the five
pillars of Islam. In the US, at college, Qureshi met David Wood, now an
evangelist. Qureshi and Wood became best friends and had a banteringly competitive
relationship. Qureshi was confident that he could present his Islamic beliefs in
a way that would triumph.
Qureshi was deeply uncomfortable when Christians said
things that shook his belief (211). He plunged into study and prayer and had to
confront the fact that Islam does not withstand analysis, whereas Christianity
does. In the final pages of the book, Qureshi describes accepting Christ and
the shattering effect that had on his personal life. Islam proscribes the death
penalty for apostates. Qureshi is a brave man.
Approximately the first hundred pages are an apologetic
for Muslims. Qureshi loves his parents deeply and he wants anyone who reads his
book to love them, too. His parents, his extended family and their friends,
Qureshi insists, are lovable people completely innocent of any association with
terrorists or jihad. He describes Ramadan, for example, as "a time to
build community, restore broken relationships, strive for purity" (69). His
description of the 9-11 terror attacks focuses on Muslims as potential victims
of American hate crimes. "They're blaming Muslims" (114) he writes.
Qureshi was raised to believe that Mohammed was al-Insan
al-Kamil, the perfect man. Many English-language texts use "PBUH" (peace
be upon him) after mentions of Mohammed but Qureshi uses Arabic script that
looks like a porcupine walking across the page. The presence of Arabic script
in an English language book felt like an affectation, and given how Qureshi came
to feel about Mohammed, I'm not sure why it appears at all.
Most Muslims he knew could recite many chapters of the
Koran from memory, but they didn't know what it meant. The Koran was never to be
placed on the floor. One had to wash one's hands before touching it. Salaat,
prayer, is performed by rote. Even postures are dictated. "There is
nothing personal about salaat…it is simply an act of duty, not personal or
heartfelt" (49). The prayers are performed in archaic Arabic. "The
language of the daily prayers is not personal to anyone" (50).
Qureshi's parents do not encourage him to develop his own
conscience, or to question. At one point Qureshi was practicing a pro-Islam
speech his mother had written for him. During practice runs, "she stood
behind me while I was speaking and moved my arms and hands at appropriate
times…as if I were her marionette" (58).
Qureshi acknowledges that his propensity to think and ask
questions did not win favor from his elders, whom he was supposed unquestioningly
to obey. He experienced culture shock when he was encouraged, in an American school,
to question everything (76). "Authority in Western culture is reason
itself" (108).
A cousin falls in love with a Hindu. Her entire extended
family, including aunts and uncles, descend upon her and subject her to the
third degree "Are you still a virgin?" "How could you fall in
love with a Hindu?" "Allah forgive us!" "Don't become
Americanized!"
Qureshi proposes a paradigm to explain Pakistani
behavior. Pakistani Muslims, he argues, believe in authority, rather than
personal conscience. Thus, his fellows could cheat insurance companies and
restaurants without discomfort, as long as they were not found out. Once their
crimes became publicly known and resulted in public shame, then and only then
did the crimes become a problem.
Muslims think badly of Christians, Qureshi says, because
Christians have not represented themselves well (81). Muslims are taught, and
repeat, misconceptions about Christians. Christians have no concept of sin or
responsibility, the Bible is corrupt, Christians are polytheists, Jesus either
was never crucified or he survived crucifixion.
Through contact with David Wood, Qureshi discovers that
he and other Muslims have spent their lives immersed in falsehoods. No,
Mohammed was not a nice guy. His prophetic call was ugly; a supernatural being
pressed his chest and terrified him so badly he contemplated suicide. Mohammed
did condone the worst violations for female captives. Early Muslims did fight
offensive wars and slaughter innocents.
Yes, Mohammed did unambiguously state that it is his
mission to violently fight all humanity until everyone submitted to his concept
of God; otherwise, he had every right to murder them and claim their property.
The Koran, contrary to popular claims, contains no accurate prophecies of
future events nor any advanced scientific knowledge. The Koran is not exactly
as it was first set down; there were political struggles in its compilation and
previous versions were burnt.
With the same thoroughness and accessibility that he
devotes to detailing his reasons for leaving Islam, Qureshi walks the reader
through his responses to Islam's theological objections to Christianity.
Muslims claim the Bible is corrupt; not true; the New Testament was written
within decades of Jesus' death, and we have manuscripts going back to
antiquity. Jesus did claim divinity, he was crucified, and he did rise from the
dead.
"Finding Jesus" is more of an evangelical tract
than it is a memoir; it reveals no literary ambition. I was disappointed by its
lack of intimacy and passion. Qureshi's coming out to his parents as a
Christian is described in a skeletally brief sketch that leaves more questions
than it answers.
I was put off by what struck me as Qureshi's assumption
that his Western, Christian readers needed airbrushed, super-nice, "Leave
It to Beaver" Muslims to feel comfortable with them.
Qureshi lets his parents and his former fellow believers
off too easily. It's clear that his parents know the Koran backward and
forward. Why had they never questioned its violence, its contempt for
non-Muslims, and condoning of the worst violation of female captives?
Pakistan assassinates its leaders, imprisons Christians, blames
rape victims, torches Ahmadis, wars on its neighbors, harbors Bin Laden, does
not educate its children, and spawns lowlifes who shoot in the face little
girls who want to learn to read. America ended slavery, defeated the fascists, rebuilt
Europe, produced Jazz, Hollywood, Broadway, NASA, and the Civil Rights
Movement.
Can mommy and daddy Qureshi really not see anything to
critique in their natal country and nothing to admire in the one they
immigrated to? When Qureshi married, I'm guessing an American Christian, his
parents and sibling refused to attend his wedding. All of his efforts to create
a positive image of his parents in his readers' eyes fell flat for me. I think
I could have learned to love these folks if the book had been more literary,
more intimate, and presented a less airbrushed picture of these two with all of
their hopes, fears, warts and failings.
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