WHY I AM NOT A MUSLIM?

This is a question that I have heard for the last seventeen years, and I have thought about it for many hours. I chose Christ over Islam because of following reasons:

1. Islam gave me a list of rules, regulations and traditions that if with my own power I could keep them, I might have gone to heaven if Allah willed. But Christ gave me the power to keep those rules and regulations in the form of the baptism of the holy spirit. God put His law in my heart and now I live a holy life and follow the commandments of Christ not by my own power but by the power of the Christ who lives within me.

2. When I was praying to God and worshiping Him as a Muslim, Islam gave me some rules and traditions and if I broke a very small part of those rules, my prayers would not be acceptable to God. But Christ gave me freedom to worship God. Now I can worship God with singing, shouting, crying, clapping and so on. I have the freedom to talk to God like a son talking to His father and I can talk to Him even in my own native tongue not Arabic as required by Islam.

3. As a Muslim I was told I could show my bad emotions and I had to cry for the Imams that have died 1300 years ago. I was forbidden to show my good emotion and I was told a true man should not laugh often. But Christ gave me Joy unspeakable and full of glory. I do not cry for Christ today but I rejoice in Him always because He overcame death and grave. He rose from the death on the third day. Now I can show my good emotions openly without any inhibition.

4. Islam taught me to hate the enemies of God, wish them death and help to fulfill this wish. It also taught me to take vengeance of those who have done me wrong. But Christ told me to love my enemies, to pray for them that persecute me and do good to them that hate me. Islam's whole philosophy is 180% different from Christ's philosophy. Also when I compare the lives of Muhammad and Christ, I see major differences. Muhammad did and said what is natural to a human mind and is accepted by the world but Christ's philosophy in life was not acceptable to the world because what he said was contrary to human nature.

How could I follow a leader who shed blood and brought misery to other people's lives for his own and maybe God's sake. What about the wives and the children of the men Muhammad and his followers killed? Were they not human beings with feelings? Christ never shed any blood and He only did good to people. He healed blind eyes, opened deaf ears, made the dumb to speak, cleansed people from leprosy, forgave people's sins, set people free from the influence of evil, He raised the dead. Even when they hanged Him on a cross, he prayed for the people who were executing Him and He asked God to forgive them. Even if Christ was nothing more than a man I would rather fashion my life after Him than any other person in the history of the world. But I know He was more than a man. He was born of a virgin and overcame death when He rose from the death. He had the spirit of God without measure. I thank God that I know Him.

INFORMATION: