British Cleric Abu Layth Al-Maliki: Muslims Should Stop Converting People to Islam and Instead Focus On Being Good People

British cleric Nahiem Ajmal, also known as Mufti Abu Layth Al-Maliki, was asked during a Q&A session what his first piece of advice would be to Muslims. Ajmal answered that Muslims should stop focusing on bringing new converts to Islam through da'wa and criticized the "da'wa industry" for being run by people with "five minutes of Islam under their belt." Ajmal added that he finds it amazing that anybody converts to Islam given its reputation today. He said that many Muslims today are apostatizing because they're "sick to death of the religion," and that many others are being "chucked out of the religion" through takfir, and that there is no point to converting new people into "this mess" because they are likely to suffer the same fate. Ajmal said that the first focus of Muslims should be to become good people, and that there's nothing in Islam for Muslims, let alone for converts. The video was uploaded to the Internet on November 1, 2018.

Following are excerpts:

Abu Layth Al-Maliki: I was asked in the Q & A by a non-Muslim… He said: "As ambassadors of faith, as ambassadors of Islam, what would be your first piece of advice to Muslims?"

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I said the first thing Muslims should do is stop doing da'wa [proselytizing]. I was very serious, by the way. I say Muslims should just stop this da'wa thing, man. Honestly. I'm really serious when I say stuff like that, because da'wa is a joke.

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The da'wa industry is run by people who've got like five minutes of Islam under their belt, and the damage they do to Islam… I don’t see what the craze is about bringing converts in.

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I find it amazing that anybody converts to Islam, I'm going to be honest, given the reputation that Islam has got today.

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But that said, I do not feel we are in some desperate need of converting people to Islam.

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There are a hell of a lot of Muslims. First of all, a huge portion of them are just apostating [sic] because they're sick to death of the religion. Then there's another huge portion who were chucking out of the religion. So we're throwing out another 20, 25, 30 percent of Muslims out of Islam on a daily basis. This is us as Muslims: "You infidel, you infidel, you infidel." So we're chucking out a huge chunk of Muslims every day, and then were obsessed about bringing in new Muslims. Why? Why do you want to bring them into this mess? This is a mess. And then what's going to happen is they're going to have their fresh ideas, and they're either going to apostate or you're going to chuck them out of Islam anyway. So what's the point of all of this?

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And the first things that Muslims should do is just focus on being good human beings. Rule number one. Honestly, if we can just practice that, everything else will just fall into place.

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Honestly, what good is that? What is there for these people once they convert to Islam? Nothing. There's nothing for Muslims, let alone them. Nobody is there for these people.