American Mom

Mon, 07 May 2001

Dear Ali,

Thank you so much for your courage in establishing this site.  I check in very frequently and feel somewhat cheered up when I read the testimonies of the former converts to Islam who later walked away when they found out more about it.

I always hope to find my son (in his early 20s) among these people, although it doesn’t look likely at this point.

Attracted to Islam as a teenager, he is now a hardline Islamist and makes no apologies for any of it -- death sentence for apostasy, slavery, polygamy, concubinage. He actually told me once that he would support my execution if we lived in a Muslim state and I "fought against" Islam. In a way it's refreshing to talk to him because he doesn't deny all of this stuff like the wimpy Western apologists. I dislike the wimpy Western apologists much more than the hardliners, frankly. He's more honest than that. He follows the ahadith as exactly as possible and is always coming up with some new, strange prohibition he has to follow because of it.

Some of my son’s beliefs have led to self-destructive acts that have affected his ability to find a decent job. This is just one small example of how Islam has screwed up his life (and mine because I have to worry about him!). He now wants to move to an African country which is so bad that slavery is still legal there under the Islamic sharia. He was once the sweetest kid in the world, someone who actually burst into tears when he read stories about slavery in the U.S. before the Civil War. Now he excuses slavery in Islamic states and says it is "God's Will"!

I feel the need to warn other parents of the way they prey on the young, confused people, so that's why I support your site and Ibn Warraq's.

Best,

A Saddened American Mom