I grew up believing that all other faiths engage in brainwashing but in Islam, there is no brainwashing.
In Islam we engage the brain with logic and reasoning. We don’t just accept things, we discuss them within red lines. What I did not realise is that we were living inside a filter bubble – a bubble where we could discuss things like how do we know Allah exists, what type of hijab is correct, what is hallal to eat, is this Hadith authentic, and if I swim will that invalidate my fasting. In the world of critical thinking and reasoning, we were given a small sandbox and told “You are allowed to play here.”
Anytime we tried to leave and explore beyond, it was like “haaaayyy where you going??? Go back to your sandbox now”
Things like:
– How come ISIS, AlQaida, Bokoharam, Talban, Wahabies, Brotherhood, and other terrorist cite the Quran and Hadith?
– What does ملك اليمين “What your right hand possess” means? What do you mean these are women prisoners of war distributed as war bounty among the fighters for use and abuse?
– why did Muhammad have so many wives when Allah destiny was to make him childless (no male heir) like Essa (Jesus) and not like Abraham or Moses? Jesus did not have even one wife!
– How come we say we are the religion of peace, but other faiths don’t have so many terrorists groups like us?
– Why do I see 11 verses in the Quran that clearly say the earth is flat like a rug, carpet, bed, sheet, and spread? Dahaha is a verb, cannot mean an ostrich egg!
– What do you mean this year is the end of time? What do you now change your mind and say next year is the end of time? What do you mean now you have another sign it is the end of time? Haven’t people been talking about the end of time being “this year” for 1400 years???
– Why do we start teaching religion and sectarianism so early? If it is innate to believe in Islam, why not let them find their way? How can we claim our faith is innate but we need to teach it aggressively anyways!! What if we are brainwashed into Islam?
My brothers and sisters know exactly what I am talking about…