Student says move to Islam act of honesty

By Stephanie Hill
Published: Monday, March 15, 2004

An MTSU student who converted to Islam told a captivated audience Thursday about his journey from Christianity to Islam. James P. Dunlap's lecture ended the weeklong Islamic Awareness Week, sponsored by the Muslim Student Association.

Dunlap addressed two main points during his lecture - how he became Muslim and why. He was quick to point out at the start of his lecture that his focus was not to attack Christianity. "The Bible is a book of God, a word of God," he said. "There are many beautiful, true and Islamic things in the Bible. "We do not believe that all other religions are wrong," he said. "We feel like we have added some things to the other religions. We feel like every people have their message that brought them the truth."

He also talked about how there are usually three different types of people in the audience when he lectures: the people who are just interested in what he has to say, the Muslims who are afraid of what he is going to say and the people who accuse him of being wrong for converting. "The hardest part is finding what you believe and honestly believing," Dunlap said.

He then addressed why he became Muslim and explained the five daily prayers, using an athlete analogy. "When you are an athlete, you train and develop all day to serve your purpose," he said. "This is the same thing with the five times a day we pray," he said.

He talked about the concept of 'faith' and what it means in Islam. "Faith in the Western world is a promise of loyalty," he said. "However, in Islam, it is faith with conformation, meaning that what a Muslim finds to be true he keeps, and what he doesn't find true he throws away," he explained.

He also said that the Quran is not a list of dos and don'ts. "The Quran is the words of God," he said. "Other scriptures relate the story of God to man whereas the Quran doesn't have stories; it is God speaking to you directly. It offers a challenge to the people that if they say the book didn't come from God then for them to show it."

Dunlap also lectured about the prophet Muhammad, who could not read and write, and receives criticism from some because he said he received revelations from God. Muhammad was accused of lying about messages from God, but Dunlap said he was predicting revelations that he did not want to happen. "If he were a liar then he would only predict what he wanted to happen," Dunlap said.

Dunlap said that Muhammad was concerned about his visions and thought that he was losing his mind. "His wife took him to a Christian monk," Dunlap explained, "and the monk said that he wished that he could be with him when he preached because he would be a follower."

Dunlap was also quick to point out that some passages in the Old and New Testament in the Bible point out that a prophet will come after Jesus. He warned of over-specification of words, which he illustrated by quoting the Bible when Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes through the Father but by me." "Jesus says he is a prophet, a messenger, et cetera," Dunlap explained. "This translation is different from the original translations of Greek and Hebrew."

He then warned the audience to "beware of people trying to build a case and to beware of confusion of issues." "The term 'son of God' is used to describe Jesus," said Dunlap. "However, there are other 'sons of God' called by Jesus himself."

He also warned about translations of the Bible as they are different then what they were originally translated in Hebrew and Greek.

He also explained that a main difference in Muslims and Christians is the Trinity. "We believe that the Trinity falls under 'shirk' - worshipping something as God that is not God," he said.

Dunlap then moved onto discuss how he became Muslim. He talked about his childhood and how he discovered that one could read the entire Bible and come away with the understanding that Jesus is not God. "I wanted to become more honest," he said. "I started looking at what was said, no more, no less. I also noticed that when I was more honest, I was happier. The void in my life was filled with the Muslim faith."

He told the crowd that he studied both the Christian and Muslim faiths at the same time, while on duty as a security guard working the third shift. "I was terrified to go to a mosque for the first time," he said. "Here I was with all these people of different cultures and religion and I was suppose to walk up and be like, 'I'm a redneck boy saying I want to be a Muslim and I don't know how.'" Despite his initial fears, Dunlap said that attending a mosque for the first time is one of the most beautiful things in the world. He said he felt filled for the first time in a long time.

Throughout Islamic Awareness Week, MSA also hosted documentaries and a lecture by Awadh A. Binhazim, professor of pathology at Meharry Medical College, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, throughout the week.