Poll For Converts Only

What religion did you follow prior to converting to Islam?


  • Total voters
    475

q8penpals

Junior Member
Salam

I just was wondering, what religion did you adhere to prior to becoming Muslim?

I was Catholic, and from what I read, there seems to be a lot of Catholic converts on here. I think it was easiest for me because it seemed to me that there was very little difference in TRUE Catholicism and TRUE Islam. I don't know about the other Catholics, but I found out only a few years ago that it was the US Census Bureau that lumped Catholics into the "Christianity" group of religion (and many "Christians" don't belive that Catholics are Christian, because Catholics pray to God more than to JEsus).

Lana
 

Steve940

Junior Member
:salam2:

I was a Christian from a non-practicing family. We only went to church a couple of times, but I was too young to understand it and it never influenced me. I had a copy of the bible that I would read sometimes but again seeing as I was young and not thoroughly interested, I would skim some parts whenever I felt like it. Alhamdulilah I never came into contact with the concept of the trinity, and I didn't know anything about it, so I just prayed to Allah (not too often) and said what came to mind. I am glad to say that I never worshiped anything besides Allah subhana wa ta'ala even though I was Christian

:salam2:
 

q8penpals

Junior Member
Salam

Well, I was a regular church-goer growing up, sunday school, catechism, summer bible school, the whole bit. BUT, I was always taught that we PRAY TO God, and we PRAISE Jesus - I was never taught that I had to pray TO Jesus to get to heaven (or at least, I never understood my teachings that way).

I was taught that the "Our Father" (the Lord's Prayer) was the most important prayer (and that was a prayer directly to GOD) and that the 10 Commandments were the most important "rules" (which do not mention Jesus at all). The rest was bible study, learning other prayers, and learning to be a good, charitable person. Yes, we did pray to Saints and Mother Mary and Jesus to intercede for us, but there was never a belief (in my mind) that teh Saints or Mary or Jesus were actually DOING anything for us (they did not answer prayers, I believed that at the most, they would kinda "go talk to GOd" for us).

So when I started studying ISlam when I was moving to Kuwait, it seemed very similar and logical to me.

Lana
 

Yusuf1990

al-Inglezi
I was a Catholic, but not brought up one I was a convert to Catholicism because I discovered God and that was the first religion I came in contact with.
But, Alhamduililah I was slowly guided to the Straight Path and yesterday became Muslim! :D

Peace
 

umm hussain

Junior Member
Asalam alaikum warahmatullah

I was Catholic as well and I started a similar thread some time ago but it was not a poll. It does seem like a lot of Catholics later turn to Islam.
http://www.turntoislam.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6661


I was baptised and confirmed and went to Sunday School and did Hail Mary, etc and went for 'confessions' as well a couple of times until I decided it didn't make sense to ask for forgiveness from another human being. I didn't dwell too much on those prayers to the saints even though we went to Church almost every Sunday(my mum made sure we did) and as she would say 'as long as you are living under my roof you will go, from her statements I am sure you can tell we did have confrontations about going to Church. I just hated it and for me it was just boring but did not have much of an option. When I did get older I tried out a few other Christian denominations and in some instances only went once and Never again because in my opinion then were worse than what I had been brought up with until finally Allah led me to Islam
 

curious89

Junior Member
I was agnostic and didn't adhere to any religion before Islam.
I beleived in God but didn't find the right religion that I thought was right and that I agreed with.
But alhumdillah I found Islam and converted a few weeks ago.

:blackhijab:
 

umm hussain

Junior Member
Salam

Well, I was a regular church-goer growing up, sunday school, catechism, summer bible school, the whole bit. BUT, I was always taught that we PRAY TO God, and we PRAISE Jesus - I was never taught that I had to pray TO Jesus to get to heaven (or at least, I never understood my teachings that way).

I was taught that the "Our Father" (the Lord's Prayer) was the most important prayer (and that was a prayer directly to GOD) and that the 10 Commandments were the most important "rules" (which do not mention Jesus at all). The rest was bible study, learning other prayers, and learning to be a good, charitable person. Yes, we did pray to Saints and Mother Mary and Jesus to intercede for us, but there was never a belief (in my mind) that teh Saints or Mary or Jesus were actually DOING anything for us (they did not answer prayers, I believed that at the most, they would kinda "go talk to GOd" for us).

So when I started studying Islam when I was moving to Kuwait, it seemed very similar and logical to me.

Lana

Walaikum salam warahmatullah

We were taught in Catholic faith that Jesus is God, if you remember the prayer, Hail Mary full of Grace.........................................Holy Mary, Mother of God,..........

So we were taught Jesus is God but in a way indirectly, so the God is Actually Jesus. I have spoken to my mum as well and this is what she understands. So Catholic is far from Islam and not similar in terms of worship. You say it seemed similar when you started studying Islam but before that you did admit we used to pray to Saints to intercede for us which totally goes against Islam.

Asalam alaikum warahmatullah
 

cmelbouzaidi

Junior Member
I grew up in Ireland as a non-practising Catholic but I did attend convent school. I never really went to mass unless it was a school function and my parents didn't believe in supporting the Catholic church as an institution. I found Islam when I was 21 and it seemed like the logical route to take, Alhamdulillah. I have never looked back, Masha Allah, and feel very grateful. I was also surprised when I moved to Florida that a lot of Christians do not consider Catholics to be Christian although I would consider them closest to the original Christianity since all of the other denominations came relatively recently. From my own personal experience, out of all the Christians, I find the Catholics to be the most supportive of my converting from Catholicism to Islam and the newer "fundamentalist" Christian denominations from the Southern States of USA to be the least tolerant and ignorant about Islam. However, African-American Christian friends give me a warm reception and are very respectful and anxious to learn more.
 

massi

Junior Member
well from the thread I'm not considered but how I know the result of the poll
can you add one born Muslim ...but of course I vote for other to know ...eh :SMILY288:
 

ShyHijabi

Junior Member
Salaam,

As most know I converted from Judiasm. The religions are probably more alike than any other religion including Christianity. Islam answered questions for me that could not be answered by the Torah and Tanach alone. There was more of a "common sense" approach and women are held to a much higher degree of respect.

Wasalaam

~Sarah
 

al-muslimah

Junior Member
well from the thread I'm not considered but how I know the result of the poll
can you add one born Muslim ...but of course I vote for other to know ...eh :SMILY288:
Brother massi..if you go up, you'll find a link thats says "view poll results" it takes you straight to the results without pressing any choice from the poll.
 

*pink niqaabi*

Junior Member
i converted about a year + ago, i believed in God but detested christianity and everything it stood for, as i child i hated jesus (astafillah!) bcos everything was about jesus and i thought he was way overated, i was bought up in a non practising christian family although my dad was quite a strict catholic, on occasions wen my dad forced me to go to church i HATED it and everything about it, even as a child i thought everything they done in the catholic church was boring, bizarre, nonsensical and pointless and i refused to take part in any of the weird ceremonies i just simply sat at the back of the church and waited for it to end. before properly converting to islam i decided to double check i was def making the rite dcision so i asked my dad a couple of basic questions on christinaity, about the trinity, and about jesus being god. to my shock and surprise he didn't have a clue and just answered the questions with "well we will find out in the end" and sed these things were "mysteries". i cudn't believe he blindy (and still does) follow a religion that is completely illogical and stupid on all levels!!
 

q8penpals

Junior Member
Salam

Actually, I loved going to church up until I was in high school. The church I grew up with was very nice - it was very traditional (we still did a lot in Latin) and I really liked the traditions. I liked how I felt singing to God, I liked the rituals, and after we moved, the new church was more - modern? - and it just didn't FEEL like what church should feel like.

I have been to other truly Christian churches (mostly when staying at a friends' house or for funerals) and found some of them to be, well, a little wacky (I went to a funeral when I was 16 for a girl who was 16 who died in a car accident from my school at the "World Believers' Church" and they were cheering and clapping and dancing that the girl was "SO LUCKY" to be in heaven with God! - I just thought that was StRaNgE!!!).

One thing I do miss is the comraderie of going to church (my family did a lot of church related activities - my mom was the organ player, brother was an altar boy) because here in Kuwait, most of the mosques are men-only (the one by my house does not have a woman's section) and even if they did, because of the nature of Kuwaitis (nearly everyone is related some way or another, near or distantly), the women generally don't bother going to the mosque's except during Ramadan and Eid because they will just go to family homes on Fridays. And because of my non-Arabic speaking, my husband's family non-English speaking, and the dysfunction of his family, I am basically a Muslimah all alone in a Muslim majority country.

I do like the rituals of ISlam - for some reason, having rituals and rules just seems "right" to me (ritual prayer rites, ritual prayer washing, ritual/organized fasting, etc) and they seem to bring the believers together (even if just in spirit, because we are all doing the exact same things, at generally the same time).

See? This would be much easier to explain and discuss in person than on the Internet, but I have no one to discuss it with in real life. *sigh*

Lana
 

Rosheen

Sister in Islam
:salam2: I was raised as a Catholic and have remembered going to church since i can remember...lol.

I went to Catholic schools and was quite ignorant of other religions, in the respect that i didn't know what ohters believed in. However I still respected other people.

When I went to uni my best friends there were muslim, however we were really young and din't discuss religion much! lol. I did learn that muslims believe in Jesus which surprised me ina nice way.

Anyway i never really enjoyed church. To me it was boring, i hated missing the cartoons on sunday and having to get dressed up and listen to a priest go on and on (kids just don't understand adult issues). Even in school i hated it when we had to go to church. Once when i was visiting family in Ireland i had a fit when i was 9 because there was a feast day for Mary and we had to go to church both saturday and sunday! lol.

The mosque is sooooooooo different. You go in pray and then you can sit in circles and learn if you want, or you can go chat with your sisters if you want. And its all good. I love the mosque :) :) :)
 

Gareth

Allahu Akbar!
Assalamu Alaikum

I was a Catholic before but yesterday I reverted to Islam Alhamduluilah!

Islam is the true religion and ALLAH {swt} Is the One and only GOD.

Walaikum Salam
 
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