> [!note] New — 2026-03-20 ![[assets/covers/cost-of-conversion.jpg]] For a Muslim, conversion to Christianity is not simply a change of theological position; it is social annihilation. Family ties, community belonging, professional networks, and cultural identity are all threaded through religious identity in ways that Western Christians rarely have to reckon with. Ahmad's question to Jabbour is the most direct formulation: 'If I convert to Christianity my support system in life will be completely demolished. I would become, as it were, homeless and family-less. How would I live? Are you able to provide for me a completely new support system?'[^jabbour-crescent-p44] ## What Christian community would actually need to be ==The question is almost never answered honestly. Christian communities in the West can talk persuasively about welcome and belonging, but the actual infrastructure required — housing, employment, family replacement, sustained relational investment across years — is something most churches have never built and few individuals are positioned to provide. Ahmad is not asking for a friendly handshake; he is asking whether Christians can replace everything he would lose.== ==This is where the test becomes concrete. The conversion is not the hard part; the hard part is what follows it. If Christian community cannot functionally replace the support system that a convert from Islam loses, then the invitation to follow Christ is, at some level, an invitation to destitution. That is not a rhetorical point. It is a practical one, and it falls squarely on the community being joined.== ## The dismissal ==The opposite of taking this question seriously is the response Jabbour quotes from a French Christian: 'Muslims who become Christians need to pay the cost of following Christ and should not develop dependency on us, the Christians. God will provide for their needs.' It is a gross deflection. 'God will provide' is not a community care plan. Routing a convert's total social displacement to divine providence while the local church does nothing is a theological move that covers a practical abdication. The quotation is theologically respectable and humanly unconscionable.[^jabbour-crescent-p203]== ## Appearances - [[The Crescent through the Eyes of the Cross (2012)|*The Crescent through the Eyes of the Cross*]], Nabeel T. Jabbour (2012) - Ch. 3 'Ahmad's Worldview' (p. 44), Ch. 15 'Relational Evangelism' (p. 203) ## Related [[Discipleship]] · [[Ethnocentrism]] · [[Shame and Honour Paradigm]] [^jabbour-crescent-p44]: [[The Crescent through the Eyes of the Cross (2012)]], p. 44 · 'If I convert to Christianity my support system in life will be completely demolished. I would become, as it were, homeless and family-less. How would I live? Are you able to provide for me a completely new support system?' [^jabbour-crescent-p203]: [[The Crescent through the Eyes of the Cross (2012)]], p. 203 · 'Muslims who become Christians need to pay the cost of following Christ and should not develop dependency on us, the Christians. God will provide for their needs. — a French Christian'