We live in a world in which we can deny 90% of a religion, yet still identify with it, and that identity will be accepted. The official sources of that religion do not matter. The history of that religion does not matter. Even the very founders of that teaching do not matter. What matters is your word, and sometimes, even that does not matter.
This tends to be more of a debate strategy than a heartfelt belief. If you try to say, for example, that Hitler was a Christian, the world will typically back you up. Because obviously, history's most notorious anti-Semite accepted a Jew as his God... By contrast, there are, and have been, some truly terrible people in this world, many of which are Muslims. But our culture has this strange idea that all religions teach love, and that Islam, in particular, is a religion of peace. Therefore, while it's ok to try to pin Hitler on the Christian faith, it's entirely inappropriate to label Islamic terrorists as Islamic terrorists. These people, supposedly, only hijack Islam for their own personal agendas.
An easy follow up question to this claim is to ask why Islam seems to be the easiest religion to hijack? HAMAS, the Taliban, Hezbollah, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, ISIS, these are just a few Islamic terror groups that are in operation today. Without the use of a search engine, I doubt most people can name a single terror group claiming any other religion. Even I can only name one: Anti Balaka, a Central African terror group which arose in response to the now disbanded Islamic terror group "Seleka". These claim to be Christian, yet even in their local regions, they are not popular within the Christian faith.
Of course, this is low hanging fruit. It's easy to point to the absurdly high number of modern Islamic terror groups. It doesn't take much to highlight that Islamic countries are generally terrible places to live, and people tend to flee from them whenever possible. It's not even difficult to highlight the disgraceful displays of Islamic support for HAMAS in Western countries as we speak. All of this, and more, should make it blatantly obvious that Islam, far from being a religion of peace, is an existential threat to civilised society.
But all of this is fairly easy to deny. With the right earmuffs, it's easy to ignore the evidence when it screams "Islam is Satanic!" What's particularly difficult to deny is what, ultimately, is the number 1 cause of apostasy from Islam. The Islamic sources make it quite clear that as bad as Islamic terrorists are today, Muhammad himself was quite the devil.
If you claim to be a Muslim, there are a few choices you can make when you find out what the Islamic sources truly say about the hypocritical, covetous, greedy, delusional, thieving, violent, sexual predator that founded the religion. If you are so inclined, you can dismiss just about any Hadith, like Sunan Abu Dawood 2155, which tells us Muhammad gave his followers permission to rape their war captives, even if their husbands were still alive and present (which also happened to end up in Qur'an 4:24). You can make a number of excuses for why Muslims are "only" allowed four wives (Qur'an 4:3), while Muhammad was allowed 9 (Qur'an 33:50). You can even cite some obscure source which says Aisha, Muhammad's most famous wife, was 18 when the "prophet" married her, whereas basically all Islamic sources say the marriage was consummated while she was only 9.
Basically, no matter what the Islamic sources say, you can be as consistent as you desire. Or not. You can, as Islamic apologist Daniel Haqiqatjou does, go all in, not only admitting that Islam permits pedophilia, but ultimately defending it. But if you want to remain a Muslim while dismissing the inconvenient aspects of Islam, you're free to do so, the world will still consider you a Muslim.
Conveniently, as despicable and contradictory as Islam is in its purest form, there are actually some very good things within it (which isn't entirely surprising, since Muhammad was a notorious plagiarist, and so the Islamic sources contain a lot of Judeo Christian material). This includes a number of affirmations that the Bible is the inspired, authoritative, incorruptible word of God!
This truth is found littered throughout the Qur'an. Qur'an 3:3-4 tells us that the Qur'an was given to Muhammad to confirm that Allah revealed the Torah and the Gospel as a guidance to mankind, and those who disbelieve it will suffer severe punishment. Qur'an 5:47 tells the people of the Gospel to judge by what Allah has revealed therein, and we are defiantly disobedient if we do not. Verse 66 tells us that if we had only upheld the Torah and the Gospel, we would have consumed provision from above us and below us, while verse 68 tells us we have no ground to stand upon if we do not judge by the Torah and the Gospel.
But what if the Torah and the Gospel, as modern Muslims claim, has been corrupted? This would be a silly enough claim in light of history alone. Aside from the fact we have many extant copies of the Bible from long before Muhammad was even born, meaning if it was reliable in his day, it must be reliable now, how would such a corruption even occur? It's fairly easy to destroy and re-write a few copies of a text in a single region, but the Bible is one of the most widely spread books of all time. The book of John made it all the way to Egypt so quickly that Dan Wallace said "This manuscript must have been written when the ink on the original text was barely dry."
But let's ignore the objective historical truth and pretend, for a moment, we believe the Qur'an. Allah has admitted that the Bible is his word, sent down to the Jews and Christians before Muhammad was born, and that the Qur'an was even sent down to confirm it (Qur'an 3:3). In other words, it is his word. Can anyone corrupt the word of Allah? Not if we believe Qur'an verses like Qur'an 6:115: "...None can alter His words, and He is the Hearing, the Knowing." Or 18:27: "...There is no changer of His words, and never will you find in other than Him a refuge."
So, the Bible is the word of God, according to the Qur'an. And, since no one can change God's words, no one can change the Bible. The same Bible that Muhammad could have reached out and touched, the same Bible Muhammad could have asked any one of his Jewish or Christian contemporaries about, the same Bible we, as Christians, should be reading on a daily basis even ignoring Islam, is the inspired, authoritative, incorruptible word of God. And we've got to judge by it.
So what does the Gospel say? Let's look at a portion of Matthew's Gospel. Matthew was a personal disciple of Jesus, of whom the Qur'an speaks rather frequently. In fact, according to the Qur'an, Allah himself will make those who believe in Jesus superior to those who disbelieve until the day of resurrection (Qur'an 3:55), and Allah supported them against their enemies so that they became dominant (Qur'an 61:14). This makes Matthew quite a big deal.
In Matthew's Gospel, we read "When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:13-18).
This passage details the foundation of the Church. "Who do you say I am?", Jesus asks Simon Peter, to which Peter responds "you are the Christ, the Son of the living God". Jesus affirms this, not only as the truth, but as a blessed revelation from His Father in Heaven. Then He tells Peter than this is the rock upon which the Church is built, and that the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
This passage is actually commonly misunderstood. When most people hear it, we think of things coming to attack the Church, as if Hades is trying to get rid of the Church, but it will fail. However, gates are not offensive weapons. No soldier runs around with a cumbersome gate in a holster. Rather, gates are defensive structures. We are the attackers. And we're going to win. Dare I say we who believe in Jesus will be superior to those who disbelieve until the day of resurrection, as we have seen the Qur'an says?
So clearly, this passage in the incorruptible Gospel that Allah sent the Qur'an to confirm is quite Islamic. That is, if you ignore other verses in the Qur'an which deny that Jesus is the Son of God, like Qur'an 6:101. But if we don't reject Qur'an 6:101, we have to reject the umpteen verses I showed above, which say that the Bible is Allah's word, and Christians will prevail over unbelievers.
We see, then, that for a Muslim, inconsistency is virtually inescapable. But we live in a world where it is entirely permissible. You can be a Muslim and deny that Muhammad had sex with a 9 year old. You can be a Muslim and deny that violence is part and parcel of your religion. You can even be a Muslim and be a lesbian Feminist in full support of Israel. If this world allows such an absurd amount of inconsistency, then I am here to publicly say the Shahada: There is no God but Yahweh, and Jesus is His Son. And with that, I hereby begin my lifelong journey of faith as a new Muslim. I pray that all my fellow Muslims will study the Qur'an, repent of their sin, and confess the Lord Jesus Christ as the risen savior.