Conversion to Islam: "the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian's journey"?
I see Sinead O'Connor has converted to Islam. I don't really know much about her, but I was particularly struck by part of her announcement:
Do you agree with Sinead O'Connor's assertion? Why (not)? Does her reasoning mirror that of other converts to Islam from non-Muslim backgrounds? What's the appeal of Islam? Is it really theological, or is it something else?
This is the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian’s journey. All scripture study leads to Islam. Which makes all other scriptures redundant.
Do you agree with Sinead O'Connor's assertion? Why (not)? Does her reasoning mirror that of other converts to Islam from non-Muslim backgrounds? What's the appeal of Islam? Is it really theological, or is it something else?

Comments
ETA quick look at story seems to show that she has, as the saying nowadays goes, issues.
Interestingly, the Islamic cleric mentioned in the reports is a Barelvi, a Sufi movement popular in Pakistan.
* I know the Ahmadiyya are something of an outlier movement in Islam - however I think this sentiment is shared by many Muslims.
Of course both Islam and Christianity are broad - but stepping from a fairly austere version of Christianity to an even more austere version of Islam doesn't seem like a massive step.
Or maybe stepping from a fairly mystical and sensorily engaging version of Christianity to a similar Sufi version of Islam?
Any intelligent person has their coffee black, by the way.
Of course that's hardly a unique sentiment.
Anything that gives you something get up and to pray of a morning gets my vote these days...
Blessings upon her - hope it gives her peace
I think they're only wrong inasmuch as they don't extend that to all objective exclusive faith-based truth claims.
Doesn't necessarily speak to the truth of any of those truth claims of course. Most people haven't thought deeply about how internal combustion engines work but they still do.
No they don't.
But surely we can agree that any intelligent person MUST drink coffee?
As Mr Cheesy referred to, it is the thrust of Islamic theology that God's revelation began with the Jews, progressed with Christians but it completed in the final Prophet. So for one who converted to Islam, it's not a surprising statement.
And whilst, I do hold a lot with Thomas Aquinas' position about the reasonableness and logic of Christian faith, I don't think there is much to be gained from such 'intelligence' arguments. They are usually deeply flawed and rely on either unwitting assumptions or arrogance or both.
AFZ
Ditto. Although it felt rather dismissive to do so.
& the academic arrogance found in many religious traditions is off putting. Although the desenters are too.
Islam is a fairly "narrow" train of thought if you are starting from Christianity.
It seems to be a chain of ideas that build on the last - so it may well be true that if you start in that direction you are very likely to end up at Islam as a destination. It may also be quite true that those who have travelled that path remain puzzled why everyone else doesn't follow them down the "obvious" path of thought.
I'm not saying it is a correct way to think, I'm just saying that it is a common way of thinking and talking for people who are in that school of theology.
That's interesting. So why do they convert, in your experience.
I don't know many converts - I think it is still a fairly rare phenomena - but the ones I do say that they converted because of the beauty of the theology.
I don't think I've heard of anyone who has ever converted C to I for any other reason.
Marriage, perhaps. But even there of the people I've heard of, I don't think any were active Christians in the senses we are all usually familiar with.
Islam provides them with rules to live by and a spirituality. It can also provide them with a sense of family (in prison this can also take the more sinister form of protection).
Presumably not to the convertee to Islam, though!
Do you mean the "desenters" (presumably those who convert to Islam) are offputting?
I think some are attracted to the patterns of daily life and the (perceived) lack of bickering.
That said, there is a considerable amount of sniggering behind the hand about Western* people who convert to Islam. The general feeling seems to be that they're trying way too hard.
* White people in particular. Black conversions to Islam seem to be generally more acceptable, although maybe that's because they often convert to their own versions of the faith - like the Nation of Islam - which is already considered Pretty Weird. Mind you, it's a long time since I spoke to a Muslim about this, it might be that converts are more integrated into the existing structures than they were.
I know an entirely family (to which I am related through aister-in-law) that converted to Islam from Christianity some years ago, but then they are Palestinians living in East Jerusalem (I don't think they have ever regarded themselves as Jordanians). They did so primarily because they were more welcome in the Islamic community than in the Christian or Jewish ones, and yes, they find their former and present faiths compatible.
Not sure, either, what basis there can be for the claim that "it is the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian’s journey. All scripture study leads to Islam." True, I haven't researched Islam that profoundly, and am not proposing to. But as a starter, assuming both Christianity and Islam both depend on being founded in revelation, ours is rather more convincing than theirs.
It was about peace - I can't remember the details, but it wasn't about rules or theology. It was more practical, more political, maybe - I can't think how to describe it, but less individual and more communal in focus. It was very friendly. There was a talk, maybe a few talks, and then afterwards there were different stalls set up, and I talked to a lot of people that my friend introduced me to. There were quite a few white people who had converted to Islam. They were kind of eccentric or hippie types, very friendly and peace-loving - and quite different in approach from the Muslims like my friend who have grown up with it being their culture, their whole family. This was, I suppose, relatively soon after the 9/11 attacks (maybe a couple of years later) so I think that influenced the emphasis on the peacefulness of Islam.
I can see how people might want to convert for the friendliness, the communal aspect, and maybe seeing it as a more exotic than Christianity. Also I can see an appeal in the lack of legalism and petty rules you can often get in British churches, and which to some extent may be British culture (thinking how nuns here in the UK tell me that nuns in Italy aren't so strict with rules as British nuns - that strictly following rules is quite a cultural thing in the UK). Not that there aren't rules in Islam, of course, but perhaps the whole cultural approach to them is somewhat different to the British approach to rules.
I suppose if you convert as a white British person, you aren't going to have all the family pressures that many of the Asian Muslims have - the big extended families who are very involved in your life, which can have both pros and cons, from how my friend and other Muslims friends have described it, and from what I observe. Family disapproval seems to be the biggest motivating factor for keeping rules (or keeping it secret when you don't!) rather than a sense of being frowned on by a deity - at least with the Muslims I've known personally. I suppose it becomes more of an individualistic thing when white Brits convert, because our culture is more individualistic, and there is more freedom without such pressures.
Ah! The origins of schism...
SO’s motivations for change are a separate issue to what theirs changes might be, IMO.
Since then, I've become increasingly convinced that the first step in evangelism is to listen to people. What are their needs, hopes, fears, etc. and where are they currently looking for (and maybe even finding) the solutions to these needs. Only then, by meeting them where they are can we start to think about how best to love them.
Intellectual rigour may appeal to some, though I suspect it may be easier to get a camel through the eye of a needle than it is to argue someone into the Kingdom of God. It would be very interesting indeed to dig into the thought process that led Sinead (who I last saw at Greenbelt!) to Islam.
I equally wonder if there is not a similar difference between the Christian liberals who believe in the inevitable progress of humanity and Atheists. These type of liberals tend to see stages in human religious development as progressive and each stage more rational than the last. It seems that the natural progression here is towards Atheism.
In both these cases, the inherent direction of belief fits more closely with other religious traditions.
What I don't get is why white people converting should be strange. If one feels one's religion is the true path, then it is reasonable that everyone should see this as well, regardless of colour.
I say this whilst, admittedly, being sceptical of many Westerners who claim to be Buddhist. Not that Westerns cannot be serious, committed or learned about Buddhism, just that there are a lot of tourist adherents. I suppose that could be true of Islam as well, but it doesn't seem as amenable to that.
That's also the first step in figuring out how to start a cult. Or a Ponzi scheme.
I was reading the book of Acts not long ago and it is very obvious that the Apostles preached different things to different groups of people according to their interests. It is also obvious that none of the sermons in the book of Acts can be summarised as 'Jesus died for your sins'.
Well I guess we don't know what the attitude of any particular person was with regard to their Christology. But it is also fair to say that Muslims have a high regard for Jesus, albeit not as deity.
Depends. I personally agree with you. But OTOH, the Qur'an (AIUI) doesn't have the same issues with textual transmission and variation as the Bible, and, being by a single author, avoids the issues of 'Luke says X while Matthew says Y and Paul says Z'. Plus, since it's largely lacking historical statements, it doesn't get caught out by questions like whether Quirinius was contemporary with Herod.
To my mind, the problem with Sinéad O'Connor's claim is that the Old and New Testaments, to my mind, just don't point to Islam, and if you then argue that that's because the divine revelation in them has been corrupted, then there's no guarantee that the divine revelation in the Qur'an hasn't been corrupted either.
Well as I said in the rest of the post, I was talking about Western converts.
Nope that's true.
But it seems to me the question here is about understanding how Muslims (and/or new Muslim converts) think rather than attempting to critique their thinking or in pointing out that other religions disagree with their assertions.
In contrast, Give this much alms. Eat or don't eat these meals. Pray these prayers at these times. You can rest assured when you've finished that you've prayed the right prayer at the right time.
Not coincidentally, they also think a lot more highly of Mary (officially, with the same caveats mentioned in the paragraph above) than your average Protestant.
Christian => Muslim => Ba'hai => something else
I suspect it is rare. But I don't know.
Yeah, I think that's fair.
But is it the case for the Christian convert? Is there space for a bigger role in daily life for Jesus than maybe most Muslims have?
I don't know.
Yeah. I think neither figure are central to their faith. Generally they've "parked" the issue and are content to say to themselves "there, we've given them some serious respect" and go back to reflecting on various other important points of the faith.
Yep this.
I (as a Christian) would of course, reject the argument that Islam is the terminus but it is what - as far as I understand it - mainstream Islam believes so it is not a remotely surprising statement for a new convert to make.
I am also in agreement with @Lamb Chopped that the centrality of Christ is so critical to my Christianity that I cannot imagine moving to a position other than that necessitated by Islam. However, not everyone believes the same as I do....
AFZ
P.S. @mousethief are you telling me you don't drink coffee? And I had such respect for you... oh well...
I admit I don't know much about all the different ways there are to be a Muslim. I presume there must some kind of Islamic feminism somewhere going on? Expressions of the faith where women have sole agency for themselves and equal freedoms with men? Female Imams presiding over mixed-sex Mosques? Hard to imagine Sinead settling for less, unless she's decided that these things no longer matter to the kind of world she thinks we should be living in.
Because I'm a cynical 'B', my first instinct about well-off, influential, privileged Westerners, who move from lifestyle to lifestyle, is to simply think 'another itch to be scratched, till the novelty wears off'. Especially bearing in mind how often Jesus used to say that the more comfortable a person was in life, the less likely they'd be to find the heaven they're hoping for. But why should her search for peace be any less real than anyone else's. I'm sure she's a sincere seeker; and I hope she finds what she's looking for.
Did she convert to Islam and to a middle-eastern culture at once? I realize that apparently God spoke Arabic in the views of some, and that worship must be in that language in their view, and the cultural practices of the adherents have been dragged along. Much like Christianity dragged along Latin and Greek for centuries, and Christianity being still far too heavily burdened by European culture.