J'accuse!

[Khandro]

Has boring rationalism, secularism and atheism squeezed out the very life of our society leaving a vacuum which is now being readily filled by Islam?
I read in an article written by a worried mother on her son's 'conversion'; Spectator 4:10:14.

"...Our boy had never shown any interest in religion before he found Islam at 16. We're atheists, and we raised him to be tolerant of all faiths but wary of anyone selling easy answers ....."

She seems to fail to see that there just might be some connection.

[naomi24]

Khandro, //Had he been brought up in even a moderately Catholic, Anglican, Buddhist or Hindu family and given at least a modicum of religious guidance and standpoint, they wouldn't have wasted their time on him because what they seek are 'empty vessels'.//

That's an erroneous assumption. The killers of Lee Rigby converted from Christianity to Islam. As I said earlier perhaps rather than teach their son to respect all religions, these parents would have been wiser to teach him that the whole lot is hogwash.

[Khandro]

^ I believe that's all hokum, put out by the Nigerian immigrant parents and defence.

[naomi24]

Why?

[jomifl]

Khandro, are you seriously postulating that a person brought up in a culture where the acceptance of the existence of a god is seen as at the least erroneous and at the worst an indication of imbecility, would be more likely to fall prey to islamic recruiters than someone who believes in god but isn't sure which flavour to choose?

[Khandro]

Pied Piper; //The mind of an atheist is crammed to the brim with imagination,curiosity,wonder and awe at the marvels of the natural world,all things scientific.//
Take care! you might wet your pants. You have such a wonderful way with words.

[Khandro]

birdie; // why do you chose to believe that Adebolajo was not a former Christian when all the recorded evidence suggests that he was?//

What evidence? The press picked a story to add colour, that he had been a "Christian", based on the fact that his Nigerian immigrant mother had said she had shown him as a child "how to pray" and then the story did the rounds. Also the one in which she said he was "bright". The fact is, he is a moron and his only interests were girls and screen games.
He was no more a Christian than you are, but it seems to suit you to believe that he was, I wonder why.
I have searched the web and can find no examples of real Christians, of any variety, Hindus, Buddists, Jews, Taoists or followers of any religion having become jihadists, though there is evidence that jihadists have done the opposite, one example;


http://www.christiantoday.com/article/isis.militant.coverts.to.christianity.after.meeting.jesus.in.a.deam/55408.htm

[nailit]

list of converts to islam from christianity for your perusal Khandro
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_converts_to_Islam_from_Christianity

[Khandro]

nailit; //I'm not going to trawl through them, but have any of them become (as I said above) jihadists ?

[Khandro]

Birdie; If you return to my post 10:24 Tues. you will see what I actually said was;
//Had he been brought up in even a moderately Catholic, Anglican, Buddhist or Hindu family and given at least a modicum of religious guidance and standpoint, they wouldn't have wasted their time on him because what they seek are 'empty vessels'.//
Empty vessels is in quotation marks and refers to how such a boy would be perceived by Islamists. I have not said, nor implied that all atheists are empty vessels, (though of course one or two may well be!) :0)

[naomi24]

Khandro, I concur with PiedPiper15. It follows that anyone to whom the whole notion of a supernatural God is an absurdity would be very unlikely to be influenced by any religion.

[jomifl]

I think I said that earlier at 13:50 though I could have worded it more simply.

[naomi24]

I think several people have said it in one way or another, me included, but it's fallen on unwilling eyes.

[Khandro]

naomi; //It follows that anyone to whom the whole notion of a supernatural God is an absurdity would be very unlikely to be influenced by any religion.//

Of whom do you speak? Read the OP instead of inventing your own agenda, it says "...Our boy had never shown any interest in religion before he found Islam at 16. "

[jomifl]

Khandro, your grasp of statistics is somewhat wanting, one 16 year old teenager is not representative of the estimated 12 million people in Britain who categorize themmselves as atheists.