 All right, guys, welcome back to the channel. If you're new, my name is Bobby. Interesting video today, guys. We're going to react to Brian Holtzworth, who's a Catholic thinker, apologist, writer, and speaker with his video, Why I'm Not a Muslim. To me, personally, this is a very strange phenomena. A Catholic making a video about why he is not a Muslim. I am a Muslim. I'm a Muslim revert. I'm not making videos about why I'm not a Hindu. Why I'm not a Buddhist. It is quite interesting to observe how obsessed Christians become with Islam. And that is because Islam is the fastest growing religion in this world today. Guys, before we start the video, if you enjoy my content, leave me a thumbs up. If you haven't subscribed already, guys, please do so. And with no further ado, let's have a look. Ah, the casual. As with all of my other claims about why I don't subscribe to a particular worldview or a particular creed, in this case, Islam. The point for me is to explain why I'm unconvinced by certain claims rather than to provide a scholarly assessment of those claims. But you are a Catholic, so therefore you do subscribe to a particular creed, to a particular worldview. What are you talking about? Don't leave open to correction and refutation of my arguments. I like to treat these opportunities the way I would if I was having a conversation with someone, rather than some kind of indifferent denunciation of something that I disagree with. I also think it's really important to make a distinction between a creed and an adherent of a creed or a belief and a believer. In criticizing Islam, I'm criticizing a creed and not people. I know that when certain people, especially of my particular pigmentation, make commentaries like this or describe things in this way, they're often accused of things like racism. Well, a creed is a race in the same way that people can criticize Christianity. In fact, I welcome criticism of Christianity because it invites the opportunity to explore and to discuss the things that I believe to be true. I'm so confident in my beliefs that I think that they will actually stand up to that kind of scrutiny, which is why I welcome it. So with all of that said, my immediate abbreviation. All right, please defend the Trinity. I'm not a Muslim is because I'm a Christian and I think as any Muslim would agree, the two are incompatible. And also, I think it's important for me to say that I'm not a Christian because I was raised as a Christian, but because I converted to the Catholic Church in my young adult years. And that conversion followed a pattern, something like that. I have to assume that you were raised a Christian and then you chose the domination Catholicism. Yes, I would learn a little bit about Christianity. And then I would respond with, okay, that's interesting. I'd like to learn more. And so I would. And at every interval of that process, I found satisfaction for my inquiry till you fast forward several years later, and I'm still learning and still growing in satisfaction with everything that I learned. Conversely with Islam, I can't say that I have a studied or a comprehensive knowledge and certainly not a firsthand knowledge of the religion because every time I've had some exposure to it, it didn't compel me to respond to it the way that I did with Christianity. Instead of saying, that's interesting. I want to learn more. I had something of an opposite reaction to it. Okay, fantastic. So at face value, he perceived something in Islam as lesser attractive for him personally than Catholicism. However, he's admitting that he hasn't done any further research nor scholarly research into Islam just because of the fact that he found it less interesting. And now he's making a video why he's not a Muslim. How does that make any sense to you? Wow. Amazing. So let me explain why I don't find the claims of Islam compelling enough for me to want to immerse myself in it more, let alone practice it. It's helpful for me to contrast it with Christianity in my explanation. And there are three areas I would want to focus that attention on. They're on the founder of each tradition. So that would be Jesus and Muhammad on the rival conceptions of God. They're both monotheistic religions, but Christianity describes God as a trinity. And on the Quran versus the Bible, the two competing scriptures. So let's start with the, okay, let's interrupt you right then and there because if you would have searched further, if you would have dug deeper into Islam, you would see and recognize that Prophet Muhammad may peace be upon him is not the founder of Islam. Islam simply means submission to God. This is the innate natural predisposition that we find in every human being. And so therefore we say that Adam the first created man was the first prophet as well and moreover was the first Muslim, the first believer, the first one to submit his will to God. This is what Islam means. And therefore we do not have the claim that Islam originated with Muhammad. If you dive further into it, you would find it yourself because as you said Christianity was created by Jesus. Allegedly, if you dive deeper, you can see it was created by Paul but nevertheless Christianity is based upon Christ and this how you call that religion. Or if you look into Buddhism, it is founded by Buddha. Not really yet again, it has been modified by people later on. However, it is based upon Buddha's teaching. However, Islam is not called Mohammedanism. It is called Islam, the submission to God. This is the red thread that you can find only within Islam. Controlled founding figures of each faith tradition in Islam. Muhammad is described as a prophet and in fact they go far as to say that he's the last prophet after which no more revelation is to take place. And in an attempt to evaluate that, I think it's probably worth trying to define what a prophet is and what we should expect from a prophet. And I don't think that my definition would be particularly unique. I would say that a prophet is a messenger from God who reveals something important about God and points us beyond this life to our fulfillment in another. And the reason that I say that they point us to something beyond is because the mere fact that we have prophets and apparently need prophets tells us that we are estranged from God. And if we weren't, he wouldn't need to send messengers in our midst as a kind of espionage towards our rebellious condition. If we weren't estranged from God, he would just communicate with us directly. So because of that definition and what we think of as the role of prophet in evaluating someone who claims to be a prophet, we should expect to encounter someone who directs our attention towards a different kind of life, one that is markedly distinct from the kind of life that we try to make for ourselves here and now without prophetic guidance. I think that this... Kind of. At the same time, of course, he has to direct you towards a good life here in this creation as well. This prophet should teach you how you have to conduct yourself in this life. Moreover, yet again, the Christian explanation of the prophet is pretty vague here. You talked about prophets pointing us towards an afterlife, coming with a message of God. What is that message of God? Only Islam defines what that message is because God is never changing. Therefore, the message is never changing either. The message is always the same. It is the message of worship God alone, the first commandment. So to speak, you shall have no gods before me. And therefore, Prophet Muhammad may peace be upon him comes with that exact same message. However, he's the last one in that chain. For the very last time, the message of pure monotheism is revealed and it is preserved to this very day. Anybody can open up the Quran and read about worshiping one God alone. It should be readily apparent in both their teachings and the witness of their lives. There should be something about them that forsakes the trappings of this life and instead invests in the one beyond. And by the trappings of this life, I mean that a prophet should be indifferent towards things like money, power, pleasure and sensuality. I don't need someone who isn't me to tell me I should pursue those things. Every corrupted instinct I have already tells me to go after those things and to set my heart upon them. I would expect a prophet to tell me to aim for something other than what my most base desires are already telling me. Okay, Prophet Muhammad did not do that. In Islam, we're consistently talking about the Akhira and that the dunya is nothing but delusion. Here's a beautiful quote from the Quran. The life of this world is nothing but the enjoyment of deception. As so many Christian apologists before you seem to confuse here that Prophet Muhammad came with a complete message. Of course, the main focus is the afterlife. This dunya is short. Everybody knows that who is a Muslim. However, of course, Prophet Muhammad taught us as well how to conduct ourselves properly in this world. Case of Muhammad, at least by his example, we have someone who seemed to invest significant effort into acquiring wealth, honour, power and sensuality. He literally raised an army to himself. He fought battles and killed people. And he reaps the kinds of rewards that virtually every well-known warlord in history seeks for themselves. You haven't researched the subject whatsoever, but you feel competent on speaking about it. Shame on you. This is not only ignorant because we're all ignorant to some degree. This ignorance paired with arrogance. This is what is defining your mindset at the moment. If you would have looked into the story of Prophet Muhammad, you would have seen that he was persecuted first by the pagans in his city, in his birth town. Because he came with a message of pure monotheism in a world that was filled with paganism, idol worship. He was brave enough to stand up to his own people and preach monotheism. Through this mission, he united the Arab world under Islam. He seemed to conduct himself the way that a typical warlord would do. He executed prisoners of war who had surrendered. He took and sold slaves, including women and children. He took many wives for himself, including one that was so young that the hadith said that he still played with dolls. In her own words, in her own testimony in the hadith, it says that she was six when they married and nine when he comes. It's so funny yet again, they don't do any scholarly research. However, they all know the same hadiths. How come? He automated that marriage. Jesus Christ, by contrast, seems to forsake the things of this life in teaching and example. He tells us to avoid storing up treasures in this life, which will only decay and end up being confiscated in the end anyways. Instead, he says that we should store up treasure in heaven by doing God's will. The Bible depicts Jesus as... That's exactly the same teaching of Prophet Muhammad as well. We should accumulate good rewards for our afterlife. What are you talking about, man? Moreover, I love Jesus. May peace be upon him. He is the Messiah. He has an exalted position. However, to lead as an example for us, it becomes tricky with certain practical examples, such as he did not get married. Therefore, if we all wouldn't get married and would all do what Jesus did, then we wouldn't have any family whatsoever. Prophet Muhammad, on the other hand, shows a beautiful example in all kinds of life situations. And I know nowadays when people hear war, they start crying. But this is absolutely hypocritical. Does the US not have an army? Did the Roman Empire not have an army? This is absolutely ridiculous. As men, we have to know how to defend ourselves. Someone who fasts, who deprives himself of the luxury... And Prophet Muhammad did not fast? What are you even talking about, man? We have Ramadan in which we truly fast. It's not like the Catholic fast or like the Orthodox fast. We truly fast. We do not drink. We do not eat the whole day. And Prophet Muhammad was known for fasting throughout the year, two days out of the week. Fasts? Who deprives himself of the luxuries of this world? Who prays all night long? Who performs miracles? Who identifies with the lowest members of society? And Prophet Muhammad was not praying all night long. What are you talking about? This is absolutely ridiculous. We speak today of none other than Qiyamul-Layl, the night prayer. The Messenger, peace be upon him, said, Uphold the night prayer. Take care of the night prayer because it is the way of the righteous people before you. And it is a means of drawing closer to your Lord. And it is a means of erasing sins. And it is a means of guiding you from sins. La ilaha illallah. Who performs miracles? Who identifies with the lowest members of society? Who protects children? And who is indifferent? Wow, man. Amongst the first Muslims was Bilal, a slave that Prophet Muhammad freed. He was the first to pronounce the ad-dang. Allahu Akbar. The laudiest people followed Prophet Muhammad. Whereas Muhammad, by contrast, he does not perform miracles. He rules over the lowly. He apparently uses children instead of protects them. And he grasps that honor, wealth and power using all of his might to get those things. Which again is no different from hundreds of other powerful figures from history who have had those things in reach. And they all came with a message of worshiping one God alone. Friends, again, this is me asking that question to someone on the outside looking in. What should compel me to want to learn more about him? What makes him different? What makes him someone who points us beyond this life instead of all the things that my heart already desires in this life? In the case of Jesus. It's so absolutely ridiculous. Yet again, in Islam, drinking alcohol is prohibited. We people desire drinking alcohol. However, it is absolutely prohibited in Islam. It is not prohibited in Christianity. People love bacon. Mmm, yummy bacon. In Islam, pork is prohibited. Moreover, in Islam, ribba, interest is prohibited as well. If you look at our world, you see what truly destroys people and countries. It is the financial system. So the picture that you're painting of Islam as this indulgent religion where you can just follow your pleasures is absolutely ludicrous. In fact, this reminds me of another beautiful surah in the Quran which states Have you seen he who has taken as his God his own desire? So Islam directly warns us from those pitfalls. However, you're so focused on a man and this simply shows your own shortcomings. This shows your mindset as a Christian. You do not really worship God. You worship Jesus. Oh, Jesus was like this. Jesus was like that. Such a nice guy. You're not concentrating on the core teaching. Christianity teaches you that God is three in one. Islam teaches you that there is only one God worthy of worship. His teaching is unique and the kind of thing that I would expect from a true prophet. But I also find the claims about him to be very compelling, especially his resurrection as it is attested to by his followers. As I've argued in other videos, so I spent a lot of time on it here, the followers of Jesus either witnessed his resurrection from the dead or they lied about it. If they lied about it, But you do understand that the New Testament has not been written by the followers of Jesus Christ. Is this a newsflash for you? The followers of Jesus Christ, as you said, were lowly people. They were fishermen. Most of them couldn't even write, let alone in Greek. But the New Testament has been written in Greek by anonymous writers, people that we do not know. We have no clue who those people are. Do you really believe that the followers of Jesus Christ were named Matthew, Luke, Mark? Those names are made up and therefore they're not eyewitness accounts. This test of that lie is the threat of severe punishment or even death if they hold to it. And in the case of the apostles of Jesus, all of them except for one were threatened with death if they did not recant their claims about him returning from the dead. And nobody would die for a lie, especially when they have nothing to gain and everything to lose. And yet that's exactly what they did when every single one of them was put to that test. Again, a prophet is someone who brings us some revelation about God, the afterlife or ultimate reality, these big questions. So through Prophet Muhammad, keep in mind the whole Quran has been revealed. If you look into the Bible, the Bible, you know it yourself, is a compilation of many different books and you see some revelations spread out through the book. However, the Quran came solely through Prophet Muhammad and now you want to tell me that there was no revelation coming from Prophet Muhammad. And who is supreme. This is absolutely ridiculous. All knowing, all mighty. And holy other than us, he isn't a figment of our imagination. His being doesn't arise from us, but rather we arise from his creative act. So what I would expect from a prophet... So you cannot imagine God and then you want to tell me that Jesus is God? Off its message about God is something at least somewhat surprising because I'm not those things. I'm not perfect. I'm not all powerful. I'm not all knowing. So when I encounter one who is, it should be surprising being so distinct from me. And if someone comes to me with a message that sounds familiar and unsurprising, then my first instinct is to assume that the message that they are carrying isn't coming from another world, but from the one, the plain old obvious one I currently inhabit. And I don't need a prophet to tell me about that. But the message of Jesus is full of surprises even to a world that has been hearing that message for over 2,000 years now. But in a world in which those teachings were new, the world that he lived in, they weren't just new. They were just new. They were shocking to many of the people that heard them. Before Jesus, nobody thought it was a noble thing to identify with the poor, the sick, the lame, and the orphaned. Those conditions were seen as evidence of divine disfavor and there's certainly nothing rational about blessing and helping those who can't return the favor. Jesus was the first to insist on this and the first to tie it back to the will of God. But yet again, this is not correct whatsoever. Most prophets lived a lowly life even prior to Jesus. Of course, you had a few kings here and there, but most prophets lived a very lowly life. Jesus was the first to insist on this and the first to tie it back to the will of God. Perhaps one of the most surprising things that Jesus in the Bible reveals to us about the nature of God is God as Trinity. And interestingly enough, there's... But Jesus did not reveal that whatsoever. I'm really wondering how people come to the conclusion that Jesus revealed this. The Church Fathers after Jesus, yes, they came to that conclusion. However, you do not see Jesus in the Bible speaking about the Trinity whatsoever. This seems to be a point that many Muslims, especially those commenting on my own videos, seem to grab onto as an obvious weakness in Christian theology. But I think the reverse is strongly, strongly implied here. A non-Trinitarian formulation of God is actually a weakness. People want to try to say the kinds of things that Islam does apparently say about God. For example, one of the names of God is Al-Wadud in Islam, which means all-loving. To say that God is all-loving means that this is something that you can always ascribe to him and that it doesn't require us to have been created for him to be described in this way. If it did, then you'd be conceding that God's love is contingent upon us existing and therefore we would be needed for God to be what he is. But how can someone who is all-loving, all-powerful and utterly self-sufficient require us to exist to be what he is? He does not. You're baiting a straw man. That is all-loving. And this raises a big difficulty in the Islamic conception of God. Because before God created us, how could you say that he was all-loving? Love after all means to will the good of another. To love means to focus your attention on someone who is not yourself. If God is the only one who existed from all... Alright, yada, yada, yada. We heard this argument a billion times before coming from Christian apologists yet again. What he wants to tell you, what he wants to convince you of is that God needs a personality disorder. He needs to have three persons in one in order to generate an experience love. So if God is all-loving, how can he have any love if there is no subject to his love? Therefore, God needs a son in order to love the son eternally through the Holy Spirit. This is the beyond-ridiculous argument. However, as you heard me say, God needs in this equation the son in order to be all-loving. In the Islamic equation, God is only one. He is self-sufficient. Yes, he's all-loving. He transcends everything you can imagine. And therefore, he transcends the dichotomy of object-subject as well. Genius. Go figure. You as a human being, you're in a dual state. You're not a singularity. Therefore, you're in a constant state of need. You need things all the time. Oh, I talked a lot. Now I need a sip of water. When you're hungry, you need food. When you're cold, you need clothing. When you're alone, you need a hug, etc., etc., etc. So you, as a human being, as a creation, are full of need. And you need an object as well that you can direct your limited love towards too. God, on the other hand, is the absolute transcendent creator of all things. He is self-sufficient. In his unity, he possesses the potential for all of those things. He does not need a mere object to express his love. This yet again, the Christian anthropomorphism. Jesus is God. And how could he love someone else from all eternity? The Christian understanding of God solves this by telling us that within him He doesn't need to love somebody else. Don't you understand this selfish idea of God comes from your ego? You're already in a separated state. You cannot wrap your limited mind that is bound to time and space towards God. And because you are this limited ego partition, you believe that God operates the same way. Or three distinct persons who are a perpetual exchange of love from all eternity while sharing in one divine nature. Thus, one divine nature or one God and three persons to fulfill the nature of God, which is love. So the nature of God is love and the expression of his persons is male. There couldn't have been a daughter, right? It has to be a father and a son together through the Holy Spirit. To by himself from all eternity cannot be said to all loving unless there was an object of love from all eternity as well. And in the Christian tradition that is inherent in the divine nature. And since in the Islamic conception of God there isn't, we can't ascribe love as part of the divine nature in that system. Now, what about the two contrasting scriptures? He bunked just because God does not operate like a human being therefore Tauchid does not work. Christianity we have the Bible which is often thought of as a single book but in reality it's a library or a canon of books written over the course of some say over 1500 years by dozens of authors. And yet in spite of that vast separation of space and time, those same authors managed to somehow coordinate a coherent system of thought that finds its fulfillment in the life and teachings of Jesus. Some scholars estimate that Jesus fulfills over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament. To be totally honest it goes exactly against it because Jesus tells you to love your neighbor Jesus tells you to point to the other cheek if you're being hit and then if you look into Leviticus you see that if a man lies with another man they should surely be put to death. How do you reconcile those two? Some scholars estimate that Jesus fulfills over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament. As I argued in another video a conspiracy to coordinate an effort to develop a scripture like that drawn from multiple generations of people and multiple authors of that length of time that coheres in the life and teachings of Jesus. But it really does not... I mean that's impossible. But a book that is written by... Jesus displayed as this very pacifistic character and the God of the Old Testament is extremely vicious. Moreover the Old Testament tells you that you cannot eat pork and the New Testament tells you that you can eat whatever. I would go so far to say they're mutually exclusive. One person over a short length of time claims to be the be-all-end-all of Revelation. Well that's much easier to ascribe to a conspiracy or to just a simple deception. But yet again you don't understand at all what this statement entails. The statement of the last prophet entails that Prophet Muhammad will be the last prophet that comes with a message of pure monotheism. And now look at all the religions. As you said yourself Christianity comes with a trinity. Hinduism, Buddhism, idol worship and what not. Only Islam worships God directly. Without saints, without icons there in the background, without anything added to it. We simply worship one God alone. This is the last time that this pure message has been revealed. Worshiping God without ascribing any partners to him. And it stood the test of time. Now 1400 years later we have not one true prophet coming with a pure message of monotheism. As a young convert the more it interested me but the Quran on the other hand at first glance it's written by one person. I mean it's the kind of thing that is just very easy to dismiss as something other than a true revelation. The Bible can also lay claim to being the origin of most. So a clear revelation coming through one man has been revealed to you. You can read it nowadays. And this somehow is confusing to you because it is together from multiple authors over thousands of years and then put together by church fathers canonized. This is a more reliable source to you. The Bible can also lay claim to being the origin of most of what we think of now as monotheism. And an ethical system that is inseparable from the ethical DNA of even the modern world. The Quran by contrast it doesn't introduce us to anything compelling that wasn't already in the Bible. If anything it just rolls things back to much of what had already been described in the New Testament some 2000 years before. Now some people will object and say that if we're going to be wary of Muhammad because he was a warlord because he did things like kill people and buy and sell slaves and indulge in sensuality and the trappings of wealth and power and everything else then we should also hold Moses and Joshua, Saul and David in suspicion as well. The distinction here first of all starting with the fact that Moses wasn't a warlord himself he didn't fight in battles, he was just a prophet but the other distinction... Why are you talking about he did not go to war against Pharaoh? Moses himself went to war against the Amalekites and moreover we have a story in the Bible where Moses kills an Egyptian man pure hypocrisy. Here's that revelation that is the way that God reveals himself to us is something that happens progressively just like any form of education reveals knowledge progressively and iteratively if you want to learn to let's say read or write or do math you start with the alphabet or just your basic sums that's the first lesson but you shouldn't be satisfied without first lesson because it's only a step to the fulfillment that an educated person should expect. What the Bible depicts is... Yet again humanizing God of course you're talking about something that is evolving something that is changing something that has to be built upon however God is eternal his message never changes this game is very very simple we are commanded to worship God alone. This is the Islamic theology. It is not complicated whatsoever. We're not waiting for a new commandment now we're not waiting for a change in God's pattern. Our last pattern is never changing and therefore to this very day we do the same thing that Abraham may peace be upon him did he worshiped God alone. Some people the simplicity is too much in Revelation starting with prophets like Moses that's an introductory revelation of God. If you left it at that you'd be like a kid who only knows the alphabet you have to move on to fully fleshed grammar. The last lesson in the curriculum of the revelation of God is Jesus. If Moses... Alright so Jesus can be the last messenger but Prophet Muhammad cannot to be the final and fullest revelation of God then I would be a little bit wary and skeptical of him too but he doesn't. He tells us that one day God will raise up a greater prophet than him. If all Muslims can do is say that Muhammad is no better than Moses then that gives me a reason to look elsewhere because according to... And that's what Muslims do yeah they just say Prophet Muhammad is a little bit better than Moses. Man what is wrong with you? In Islam Prophet Muhammad is the best example to mankind. From Muhammad's revelation is the final one. It's the last lesson in the curriculum. No it's not Prophet Muhammad's message it is a last message and it is the same message that has been revealed over and over again. Every single time a messenger appeared he said to his people all people worship one God alone stop worshiping idols stop bowing to rocks to sticks to bones to icons to idols stop it return to the pure monotheism and this is what Prophet Muhammad did as well for very last time. It's no more morally or spiritually rich than the first revelation of God some 2,000 years before Muhammad in the Old Testament in other words it's a primitive take on God which had been established and known Wow! It's a primitive take on God to say that God is one. You need to evolve just like the West is evolving becoming more technocratic and more liberal keep on evolving until God is not only one but three maybe we should further evolve this maybe you will be eight at some point. Something new that will lead us on not repeat what had already been said 2,000 years before they were born Help us Hey thanks for watching Alright guys and this is it for today's video absolutely draining way too long as it is. I'm going to cut it off here if you enjoyed the video leave me thumbs up if you haven't subscribed already guys please do so and if you want to support this channel by Patreon for example all the links are in the description box below thank you so much for your ongoing support guys and as always may God bless you all much love and peace