Conversion or reversion?

Submitted by Prashant, Jul 15, 2017 at 04:46

Dear Dr Pipes,

A lot of Muslim converts call themselves reverts. A person can call themselves whatever they want and it should not be any of our problem but a lot of ignorant media have also started to use the word 'revert' to refer to the Islamic converts as if the word 'revert' and 'convert' were synonymous.

People who call themselves reverts to Islam do so to assert the Islamic belief that everyone is a Muslim in the original state but gets misguided. Conversion to Islam to these people is a reversion because it means that the converted person is returning to the original state. I find the implied meaning behind the word 'revert' particularly troubling and insulting. I do not think that in any state of my being I was ever a Muslim: I am a firm believer in the golden rule, I believe in freedom of thought and speech, I believe that many good paths can lead to the same God, I believe that God and religion should be the last causes for which peoples should fight with each other, I do not think one single book should guide all human beings for all time to come, I, also, do not think that there ever was a last prophet or a last book from God, and I am not misguided. What I just said was a literal opposite of Islamic shahada and I want to keep it that way.

Using the word 'revert' instead of 'convert' is yet another example of Islamic holier-than-thou attitude. There is no chance that I will ever be a Islamic convert and there is an even smaller chance that I will ever be a revert. Sorry.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".