Ahh, excellent questions Kat1, and i am sure the hatred of one preceding me is what you are talking about.
I will tell you simply that I was a devout christian with nagging questions that "faith" simply couldnt answer. What I was to learn later is that faith is not required to answer such questions and to force it to is what is called blind faith. These puzzling questions caused me to leave christianity but i never gave up my belief that God existed. I later found out that it is not simply enough to say "i believe God exists" because that is also a statement made in faith and not one made in reason. These revelations led me to personally reject all religions that require such forms of faith, so me discarding Christian beliefs was quite easy since they not only didnt live up to a coherent and rational idea of the existence of God, but they also required me to believe he had a son, and that there was another "entity" co-equal and co-exisiting with the first two forming the trinity (which has no basis in the bible btw)...I will admit that all of these things were easy and difficult to let go of at the same time. It is hard letting go but it is necessary as a first step to find the truth.
In accepting Islam, there is no blind faith in any of the religion. One must first figure out if God exists using logic, reason, and yes, science. And once this is ascertained, and i must admit, this is probably the most rewarding thing you will ever do as a human being: discovering God not because someone told you that you must and that you must "believe." It soon becomes quite clear why there is the need for prophethood, and messengers all throughout the centuries and millenia. The next part comes with the Message. What did these people say who claim to be messengers from God. The thread that one can find, no matter what is studied is that it is either a spoken tradition or a written down tradition that at the top, is the One, God. Religions may have relied on lesser "gods" to accomplish some task, but even polytheistic religions like Hinduism still believe in the all-powerful One. And with logic one can easily refute the existence of "smaller gods." The very term nullifies itself actually: smaller gods.
One thing also to keep in mind is that Jesus, peace upon him, makes these same claims. He argues in the bible (Sorry for not having reference on hand) that ~No one goes to the Father but as less than the Father.~ Or something very similarly along those lines. And I remember reading this and remarking at how i had been so blind before! Jesus, peace upon him, had stated unequivocally that he was NOT co-equal with God, indeed no one is, thus eveyrthing is below God. This statement alone negates the trinity aside from its invention at the Council of Nicea, in 325? (i think the year is right). And this is relying on the english translation that is indeed not even in the native tongue of Jesus, peace upon him.
Scholars find in the Bible that Jesus, peace upon him, also prophesied that one who come after him. In the Greek (the only surviving and earliest accounts of a translation of the Hebrew and Aramaic of Jesus's, puh, words) Christian translators over the centuries changed the translation over and over so that unfortunatley it became that the Prophecy was of the Holy Ghost and not of another Prophet. But aside from all that. What struck me the most about islam was the message. "There is no god, except God." And once this simple statement squares with what we have already discovered about the natural world (i.e. We find God without using the first bit of religious evidence), it is only natural that the person or people espousing such a message are to be listened to and not just followed but their words should be studied carefully. Do they ever violate this teaching? Do they seek worldly gain? How do they treat people? And when you go back and look in the authentic sources, Prophet Muhammad, prayers of peace upon him, the last person to espouse these ideals, He is the one that must be followed. And anyone who cares for the truth will drop what they do, and say "we hear and we obey."
I understand that all the "rituals" seem overbearing and what not or tedious...but none of them are devoid of purpose in Islam. The prayer itself is an act in humility. And when you read the accounts of every Prophet in the Bible, INCLUDING JESUS, puh, HIMSELF, you will find that he "bowed down" in prostration to pray. It is a necessary relationship between the created and his Creator. A scholar was once asked why girls must cover their hair in Islam and he said: " i could say alot of things, textual proof etc etc, but i will just say this, until you know who created you, you will never be convinced of anything." Thus i wanted to learn for myself who my Creator was. None of us ever saw the miracles that any of the Prophets, peace upon them all, performed. So they CANNOT be reasons why we believe in them...it must come down to the message. The Quran, is a sufficient source for logical debate and challenges Christians thus: ~They say Christ Jesus, son of Mary, is the son of God: Bring your proof if you are truthful.~
I mean no ill will, or to offend, just offer my experiences and thought processes and the avenues I was led in to arrive at my conclusions.
-Ismael