Between faiths
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Religion is more than just adherence; it reflects shared values, often traces your personal history, and creates bonds with your family and community. Diouf rightly points out that non-Muslim Africans might be more open to conversion than Muslims due to several factors, with two standing out in particular. First, while Islam and Christianity share many values, their creeds beliefs differ. Once someone has internalized the doctrines of their faith, the creeds of another feels alien. For example, a Muslim who holds the principle of Tawhid; the belief in the absolute oneness of God would find it difficult to accept the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, where God is understood as one being in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The contrast in beliefs goes deeper, and the point here is that forced conversion dismantles a person’s pillars and foundational beliefs. Forcing someone to convert from any religion involves a brutal shift, uprooting deeply held convictions, making it incredibly challenging to abandon everything they once believed in. This is why it was common to have pseudo conversions among slaves or “Liminal Figures” as Ghanea Bassiri describes them, occupying a unique space between external Christianity and internal Islam. For many African Muslim slaves, maintaining their religious and cultural identity required careful navigation of this in-between world. They outwardly adopted the appearance of Christian converts, yet methodically upheld the core practices of their faith. In contrast, for an atheist, the shift to a new belief system, while still impactful, may feel less shattering, since they don’t have the same pillars of faith being destroyed. The transition is more about adhering to something new rather than letting go of a deeply ingrained belief in a higher power. The second point is just as important: the years of struggle that have been endured to preserve Islam. The men who fought in the name of their religion find it even harder to let it go. Losing brothers and comrades in religious battles makes changing faith feel like betraying not only the cause but also the sacrifices of those who died defending it.