A former Muslim has turned to Christianity after comparing the lives of Muhammad and Jesus Christ for himself.
Enes Ovat, born into a strict Turkish Muslim family in Australia, wholeheartedly believed what he was taught about the Muslim faith and its version of Jesus, but eventually he sought to make his faith his own.
“I didn’t know much about Jesus. I mean, I would see Him on TV shows, movies on the cross and I thought to myself, ‘What does that mean? Someone on the cross?'” Ovat shared with CBN News. “Although we viewed Him as a prophet, I never really understood the mission.”
Islamic leaders taught that the Bible was corrupt, and Jesus’ words could not be trusted. So, despite his lack of personal knowledge of Christianity, Ovat believed it was an ever-changing religion, using the death of Jesus as an excuse to remain in sin.
“The Muslims say that the Bible is corrupt and all these sort of things. So I just thought it wasn’t something to be trusted – that Jesus’ words can’t be trusted, and simply, yeah, just a religion that white people followed that kept changing it and they just truly did it to continue to sin because someone died for you,” Ovat explained. “So, I just thought it was a religion for the weak, perhaps, you can say. So that was my view on Christianity.”
This seemingly iron-clad belief began to crack when he decided to critically examine Muhammad’s life and compare it to Jesus Christ for himself.
“It more so started with doubting Islam, so really looking to the life of Muhammad and really understanding, is this truly the prophet for all time? I mean Muhammad had 11 wives at one point and one of them being a child, right? And this is someone that 1.9 billion people follow. And if we want to take him as a role model, I mean, we have to ask the questions of Muhammad’s actions and what he did. And do we really want to emulate him and everything that he done?” Ovat questioned. “So, after questioning that and seeing the faultiness of Muhammad, I started to look into Jesus and how highly the Quran speaks of Jesus. He is the Messiah; He’s going to come back to judge. He’s the word of God. He has all these titles, so I started to think, ‘what is it about Jesus that’s so special?'”
For Ovat, Jesus’ specialty is love. “Looking into that and seeing the contrast of the teachings that Jesus taught to love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. Whereas for Muhammad it was totally the opposite. He says in Quran chapter 9 verse 29 to fight the people of The Book,” Ovat expressed. “So, I saw that big contrast and that’s what really started to shift my mindset on religion, shift my mindset on Islam. I really started to lower my barriers for Christianity and Christ overall.”
Ovat believes the internet challenges the Islamic faith as Muslims around the world have access to seek truth and freedom for themselves.
“I think right now because of the rise of the internet and because Islam was never really under that pressure of scrutiny and questioning…Now that the internet is here, I mean the information is out there. It’s all exposed and people are seeing the true fruits of Islam, the reality of Islam, the things that we weren’t taught when we were younger. All those lies are being exposed, so Muslims are seeing this and they think to themselves, ‘Man, I was never told this. I was never told that,'” Ovat explained.
“They’re hearing the gospel message and because we come from a radical religion, which is Islam, when we’re transformed into Christianity, it’s like that Saul to Paul moment where you convert and you feel that power and you just want other people to be free. You know, we feel free and we want you to be free as well. So that’s that passion and I think that’s why in Iran we’re seeing that movement,” Ovat exclaimed.
“All these other worldviews say obey, obey, and then you’ll be accepted. But Jesus says, ‘I accept you, now obey.'”
Watch: Why Muslims Are Turning to Jesus | CBN News
