I want to preface this by saying that in no way am I trying to persuade any of you to leave or push an agenda, I just want to share my thoughts as an unbiased person living in the west.
I grew up in a very conservative Christian family, the religion was forced upon me and not going to Sunday mass was punishable by a day in the room with no food or water. Being the rebellious asshole that I am, 12 year old me had no trouble skipping every week just to spite my parents. I did this through high school until I was able to go to college and live my own life.
In college I took a class on Islam and the philosophy behind it and it made me look deeper into it after graduating. The professor that taught the course made the religion sound absolutely absurd, gave no context, and made Muslims sound like the dumbest people in the world for following this ideology. I thought to myself that there is no way over a billion people on this planet believe in this, which is why I had to look more into it on my own.
I read the Quran three times over an 18 month stretch, took notes, wrote down verses that troubled me or intrigued me. I have spent the last six months talking to the Imam of our local Mosque, going in every weekend and texting throughout the week. During this time I have met some of the nicest and most genuine people I have ever come across, I was the only white person there every time but I wasn't treated any differently. I would go in and observe prayers on some Fridays and chat with people in my age group, really a great experience, I don't regret devoting all this time into looking into Islam.
When it finally boiled down to it however I could just not bring myself to believe that the Quran is the literal word of God and Mohammad is his final prophet. Throughout the Quran there is a ton of strong advice to strengthen one's self and his family, which are valuable life traits and I plan to abide by. But, then there are things that I could not bring myself to agree with or they felt forced to me, like I was having to jump through mental hoops to rationalize them. The bottom line is I think the Quran, if perfect, would be impossible to misinterpret, which is why I was not able to revert.
Thanks for reading guys, I respect your religion, I just wanted to share my opinion as someone who is unbiased towards the religion.
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