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'Catholics need to improve': Reactions after renowned Dutch actor embraces Islam

Reactions - positive and negative, have flooded different social media platforms ever since the reports came in about the conversion to Islam of popular Dutch Actor, Model, Influncer and Singer, Donnie Roelvink about a week ago.

Thursday April 25, 2024 3:46 PM, ummid.com Web Desk

Mumbai: Reactions - positive and negative, have flooded different social media platforms ever since the reports came in about the conversion to Islam of popular Dutch Actor, Model, Influncer and Singer, Donnie Roelvink about a week ago.

'A Special Day'

Donnie Roelvink announced his conversion to Islam on April 19, 2024 and called a "very Special Day" when he changed his religion and became a Muslim.

"I think not many people have noticed that I had a special day yesterday," Roelvink said in a video message posted to Instagram.

“Images were taken of this, posted online and widely reported in the media. That was to be expected when I do that in the presence of a large group of people", he added.

Donnie is reportedly in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and spent whole of Ramadan there. During his stay in the UAE, Donnie has been visiting different mosques and reading the Holy Quran. He, according to some reports, also observed the Ramadan fast.

Donnie Roelvink was badly injured during a shoot as a car stuck him and damaged his ribs last year. He was also diagnosed with cancer but healed after complex treatment.

Documenting his spiritual journey, he shared the profound moment of reciting the Kalma in a mosque on Instagram. Roelvink said that he was in search of spirituality after facing many challenges in his life, and that "dreadful accident".

'Catholics need to improve'

Reactions are pouring in online and offline after Roelvink's conversion to Islam. While Muslims are welcoming him to the natural religion, some Christians are wondering why so many from their fold are embracing Islam as their religion with some saying 'Catholics must improve'.

What Catholics in particular should take seriously is that you see these types of men converting to Islam, and not to Catholicism.

"This boy explains that he became Islamic because after his accident he concluded that there must be "something higher". So he a) grew up without that faith and b) then Islam occurred to him as the best explanation, possibly even the only one", Michael van der Galien, who owns a Media and News company in the Netjerlands, wrote on social media platform X while tagging the video of Donnei reciting the Shahadah.

Donny Roelvink bekeert zich tot de islam

De zoon van Dries en de broer van Dave heeft zich bekeerd tot de islam. Hij is momenteel in Dubai en wil geen tekst en uitleg geven - wat zijn goed recht is.

Wat met name katholieken serieus moeten nemen is dat je ziet dat dit soort… pic.twitter.com/psNdnw45lF

— Michael van der Galien (@MichaelvdGalien) April 20, 2024

"Why wasn't such a boy confronted with his own traditions first? With the traditions of Catholicism, a tradition that has been alive in the southern Netherlands for 2,000 years and which was also everywhere in the northern Netherlands for 1,600 years or so (until the apostate Luther turned it upside down there)?

"These are questions we need to ask. I can speak to both sides because of my personal history and repeat: this is something we need to talk about and that Catholics need to improve on", he wrote.

Based on statistics conducted by the Pew Statistics Center, Islam has the fastest-growing worldwide population of any religion. The number of Muslims is predicted to rise at a rate more than twice as fast as the world population between 2015 and 2060, the center said.

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