By Michael Ashcraft –
Islam’s treatment of women has long been criticized: Child brides. A man may beat his wife. A man may have four wives while a woman may not have four husbands. A man in Paradise can get up to 72 virgins and have sex all eternity long with them. The testimony in court of two women holds only as much evidence as one man’s.
The list of misogynistic edicts in the Koran goes on. But Arian, as she grew up and smarted under the unfairness of them, didn’t reject Islam out of hand. Instead, the Afghanistan-born refugee in Pakistan embarked on a quest for the truth.
For 27 years, she read about Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and other religions. She wished to become Jewish because it was an “easy transition,” she thought, because they were monotheistic. The plan hit a snag, though; she discovered that conversion to Judaism is a cumbersome process.
Christianity was the last and worst choice for her. She would never convert to Christianity, she vowed.
But 27 years is a substantial amount of time. Guess where her research led her.
“I will kill you,” her mother declared, furious when Arian announced her decision to become a Christian in 2015.
“Kill me,” Arian replied calmly, “I’m still becoming a Christian.”
Today, Arian is still alive and well living in the West. She says her life is in danger because she has a YouTube channel comparing Islam and Christianity.
Arian’s family fled war-torn Afghanistan to a small village in Pakistan where the strictest norms of Islam were observed: prayers five times a day, fasting, women covered head to toe. There were no cinemas or parks.
None of that was a problem for Arian. The problem was the Koran itself.
“God gives permission to beat the woman, and men can beat them however much they like,” Arian says on an Encourage Faith YouTube video. “Some will do just a slap. Others will take a belt and beat the hell out of them. There is no limit. It’s a very dangerous place for a woman.”
Disturbed by what she was learning about her family-given faith, Arian undertook at 16 the researching all religions. “When I read the Koran for myself, it opened my eyes,” she said. She read it six times, along with the hadiths, the sayings and acts of Mohammed recorded outside the Koran.
She got married in 2015 and was working as a website developer. In her free time, she read news. One story infuriated her about a Turkish nine-year-old bride who died from hemorrhaging after her wedding night.
“This 40-year-old married like Mohammed did,” she concluded. “These men are not from God. God would not put a child through this.” (Mohammed married a girl named Aisha, reportedly age six or seven.)
The injustices and contradictions piled up. The prophet Mohammed killed the Jews whom the prophet Moses (also revered in Islam) had worked so hard to save. Islam portrayed the Trinity as God, Jesus and Mary, but when she read the Bible she learned the third member was the Holy Spirit, not the mother of Jesus.
The Koran confuses Miriam, the wife of Aaron, with the mother of Jesus, she says.
After years of scouring, she decided to become Christian. She announced it to her mom.
Deadly serious, her mother threatened her with death.
Arian said she was not afraid and was not changing her mind.
Next her family attacked her, then her generally-supportive Muslim husband, egged on by his family. Throughout the onslaught, she remained steadfast. “My in-laws were furious,” she says.
“This is my faith. You cannot force me to become a Muslim,” she said.
Today, her family has relented, and her husband is supportive.
Arian says that Christians should simply tell Muslims about the grace offered by Jesus.
“Muslims have heard the good news,” she says. “In Islam, Muslims sacrifice animals but it’s not atonement of sin. They do it because Abraham sacrificed an animal instead of Isaac, and they do it memory of him as a good deed.
“Explain to them the atonement of sin that Jews used to sacrifice animals. Because when Jesus came, by the blood of an innocent, your sins will be washed. Jesus came and with his blood all of our sins are washed. He is the only way to get to Heaven.”
To learn more about a personal relationship with Jesus, click here
About this writer: Michael Ashcraft pastors a church in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.
