This summer I wrote about “the only good Christians are ex-Muslims” as an industry amongst evangelical communities. But that’s just one segment of the industry. It seems there is a new rising star amongst the ex-Muslims and, like his antecedents, his story is highly dubious.
I.Q. Al-Rassooli is being touted as the newest ex-Muslim speaker. A short look at his brief bio reveals many of the same problems that earlier professional converts have had. [Author’s note: A screen shot of the website is included in case the maintainers of the site choose to update in response the criticisms listed here. The screen capture was made on Oct. 19, 2010. Post continues below screenshot.]
There are so many flags with Al-Rassooli’s self-description, I am not sure where to begin. His name is spelled in a way no Arab would spell his name, opting for a corruption of “ar-rasul,” or “prophet.” No native Arabic speaker would go for “al-rasul,” and the transformation of using a double “s” is funny because it doesn’t exist in Arabic. For someone who insists he knows Arabic—and he spends a lot of time telling us he does—he doesn’t really show it.
I also find it odd that he was apparently raised in secular Iraq as an engineering student and decided that he was programmed with “Islam.” In the span of 23 years he has managed to become a theological scholar with a 780 chapter thesis. It almost reads like a paranoid conspiracy theory, except that someone thinks this is “humanly possible” and he is therefore a valid speaker.
At the rate the ex-Muslim industry is growing, I suspect they will quickly outnumber Muslims—only, without the number of Muslims actually decreasing.
