Introduction
To the joy of Christians, and dismay of Muslims, Islam is currently in crisis. Though high birth rates, secret apostasies, and dodgy census data makes it difficult to quantify, a phenomenon known as the "Avalanche of Apostasy" is currently occurring in the Islamic world.
Islam's Avalanche of Apostasy
Though there are many reasons for this, a turning point is the disastrous interview between Muhammad Hijab and Yasir Qadhi. For decades, Muslim apologists have been claiming that the Qur'an has been perfectly preserved, right down to the letter, without variant of any kind. This, they claimed, is a miracle of Allah. However, in the aforementioned interview, Qadhi admitted "the standard narrative has holes".
This is just one example. After decades of Muslim apologists lying to their followers in order to gain, and keep converts, Christian apologists continued taking these lies to task, and finally Muslims have been forced to admit that this popular argument, a staple of Islamic dawah, does not stand up to scrutiny. And when this was finally admitted, the same Christian apologists capitalised on it.
Another example of standard Islamic apologetics in the West has been to deny the violent nature of Islam. Backed by useful idiots in the Liberal community, Muslims would shut down almost any conversation about Islam by babbling about "Islamophobia" if you would dare point out that Islam still has the death penalty for apostates. This, too, fell apart recently. As the more sophisticated generation gave way to the younger, bullheaded influencers, the lies could no longer be maintained.
Ali Dawah, one of the most popular Islamic apologists of our time, gave the game away with his infamous "we're proud of that" video in 2020. Describing apostates as "little weaklings", who leave their religion and cause corruption in the land by spreading it, Dawah unashamedly admitted that capital punishment for apostates is a part of the Islamic religion. To his credit, he did denounce lone wolf attacks, making him significantly more moral than his fake prophet. Yet, rather than deny or dress up the fact that Islam murders apostates, Dawah even threatens to watch happen it when it finally comes to pass.
Even Muhammad's history as a pedophile is no longer untouchable. Whereas the former strategy was to claim Aisha was actually 18 when Muhammad married her instead of 6 (consummating the marriage at 9), modern Dawah now centers around making excuses for why it was, in their view, acceptable. The aforementioned Ali Dawah confirmed that if his daughter reached the age of menstruation at 9 years old, he would tell her she is ready for marriage. Similarly, Daniel Haqiqatjou is quite vocal in his view that Western society is actually an anomaly in its aversion to sexual activity with/among minors, claiming that opposition to marrying a "physically mature" 9 year old is specifically designed to encourage fornication. The answer? Islam! Because that's the religion that marrys 9 year olds off as soon as they're "ready".
All of this, and more, shows us that the Islamic apologetics of the past was based on lies. Telling the truth about Islam, and in particular exposing the fact that past apologists were not telling the truth, has shaken the faith of Muslims worldwide. Islam is crumbling at the foundations, and while it's unclear if it will ever truly be gone until Christ returns, this ancient religion is crippled for life.
Same strategy, different target
Because the Roman Catholic Church is based on similar foundations, using similar defensive strategies, it is my belief that we, as Christians, can devastate it with the same tactics. Thankfully, Catholicism is significantly less dangerous than Islam. I do not expect to see a Daniel Haqiqatjou calling for child marriage emerge from Rome in the near future. But if Trent Horn, for example, was to release a video proudly confessing to Catholicism's historical suppression of Scripture, similar to Ali Dawah's confession of capital punishment for apostates, things would change quite rapidly.
Now of course, I'm not going to run around asking Catholic apologists to admit they've been lying this whole time. Deceit is their friend. But it is also their enemy. By lying so aggressively, Catholic apologists have dug the same holes as Islamic apologists. All we need to do now is push them in. Just as we exposed the lies of Islamic apologists, in spite of fierce opposition, and an apparent lack of hope, we need to do the same to Catholic apologists. To paraphrase David Wood, it works, it's just slow.
I truly believe the main reason we aren't seeing a similar avalanche of Catholic apostasy is the simple lack of focus. Islam, being such a dangerous religion that is known to be opposed to Christianity and Western values, has been public enemy number 1 for quite some time. By contrast, Catholicism was utterly neutered by the Reformation, and has thus been moderately peaceful for at least 200 years. When Catholics claim to want to build bridges with "Protestants", it is entirely believable. And while there are obviously a great many differences between Catholicism and Christianity, there are enough similarities, up to and including the Deity of Christ, to merit some degree of unity. Furthermore, most people do not know just how deep those differences are. Catholicism today, just as it has in times past, thrives on an atmosphere of ignorance, which it has been significantly more capable of maintaining.
But what if that atmosphere was to dissipate? What if more Christians studied history, and so every time Catholics babbled about the "unanimous assent of the Fathers", we were able to show that "the standard narrative has holes"? What if, just as we expose the supposed "scientific miracles" in the Qur'an, we all knew what shoddy fakes Eucharistic miracles are? When Muslims try to cram Muhammad into the Bible, we show that he is present only as a general warning against false prophets. Why can we not do this when Catholics try to force Peter into Matthew 16:18? Why do we let Catholics brag about the size of their denomination, or the people who convert to it, when we are so adept at knocking Dawahgandists down when they try the same failed strategy? Somehow, we can show the sorry state of Islamic denominations, yet we let Catholic apologists pretend there isn't a single division among them? And for goodness sake, for what reason do we allow Catholics to play the "hate" card to escape criticism, avoiding just how much blood they shed just to keep the Bible out of our hands? We never let Muslims get away with pretending to follow the religion of peace.
Conclusion
With obvious variations, as would be demanded from such radically different religions, Islam and Roman Catholicism both use the same deceitful arguments. This means the Avalanche of Apostasy seen within the Islamic faith can be repeated with the Roman Catholic Church. All it needs is the same pressure. We need to take Catholic apologists to task, holding their feet to the fire, and showing that their most popular arguments have never been good ones. They have thrived in an atmosphere of ignorance, but will be swiftly choked out when knowledge begins to spread.