The Times (London
Lucy Barrington finds the
Muslim Faith is winning Western admirers despite hostile media coverage.
Unprecedented numbers of
British people, nearly all of them women, are converting to Islam at a time of
deep divisions within the Anglican and Catholic churches.
The rate of conversions has
prompted predictions that Islam will rapidly become an important religious
force in this country. [1] "Within the next 20 years the number of British
converts will equal or overtake the immigrant Muslim community that brought the
faith here", says Rose Kendrick, a religious education teacher at a Hull America
The surge in conversions to
Islam has taken place despite the negative image of the faith in the Western
press. Indeed, the pace of conversions has accelerated since publicity over the
Salman Rushdie affair, the Gulf War [2] and the plight of the Muslims in Bosnia Britain Cambridge
A small-scale survey by the
Islamic Foundation in Leicester suggests that
most converts are aged 30 to 50. Younger Muslims point to many conversions
among students and highlight the intellectual thrust of Islam.
"Muhammad" said, "The light of Islam will rise in the West"
and I think that is what is happening in our day" says Aliya Haeri, an
American-born psychologist who converted 15 years ago. She is a consultant to
the Zahra Trust, a charity publishing spiritual literature and is one of Britain
Some say the conversions are
prompted by the rise of comparative religious education. The British media,
offering what Muslims describe as a relentless bad press on all things Islamic,
is also said to have helped. Westerners despairing of their own society -
rising in crime, family breakdown, drugs and alcoholism [4] - have come to
admire the discipline and security of Islam. Many converts are former
Christians disillusioned by the uncertainty of the church and unhappy with the
concept of the Trinity and deification of Jesus.
Quest of the Convert - Why
Change?
Other converts describe a
search for a religious identity. Many had previously been practicing Christians
but found intellectual satisfaction in Islam. "I was a theology student
and it was the academic argument that led to my conversion." Rose
Kendrick, a religious education teacher and author, said she objected to the
concept of the original sin: "Under Islam, the sins of the fathers aren't
visited on the sons. The idea that God is not always forgiving is blasphemous
to Muslims.
Maimuna, 39, was raised as a
High Anglican and confirmed at 15 at the peak of her religious devotion.
"I was entranced by the ritual of the High Church
Many converts from
Christianity reject the ecclesiastical hierarchy emphasizing Muslims' direct
relationship with God. They sense a lack of leadership in the Church of England
and are suspicious of its apparent flexibility. "Muslims don't keep
shifting their goal-posts," says Huda Khattab, 28, author of The Muslim
Woman's Handbook, published this year by Ta-Ha. She converted ten years ago
while studying Arabic at university. "Christianity changes, like the way
some have said pre-marital sex is okay if it’s with the person you're going to
marry. It seems so wishy-washy. Islam was constant about sex, about praying
five times a day. The prayer makes you conscious of God all the time. You're
continually touching base.
Footnotes:
1 ) This is one of the reasons
why there is an onslaught of bad press against Islam and the Muslims. Whoever
considers Islam carefully with its principle belief Tawheed (the Uniqueness of
Allah, His and His sole right to subservience, worship and legislation) , the
sum total of its injunctions, formulated by Allah (which are harmonic and
define the true nature, position, rights and responsibilities of both sexes),
and its justice in every sphere of life (social, economical and political) for
all categories of people - wives, husbands, children, orphans, women, the poor
and indigent, the poverty-stricken - will realize why it poses a threat to the
leading elite of the western civilizations ( i.e. those who benefit most from
the unfair and unjust forms by which the people are governed). It is in the
hands of such people that the control of people’s beliefs and ideas lie (via
television, Magazines, Films, Education) and naturally this advantage is used
to maintain the existing status quo. Muslims are not governed by and enslaved
the false beliefs and ideas of humans; they are enslaved to and governed by
Allah alone. This is the essence of Islam - Which enslavement is to none but to
Allah alone and everything besides Him is undeserving of worship and
subservience.
2 ) It is now an established
fact that around 5,000 of the US Troops who were stationed in Saudi Arabia
3 ) Much of the alleged
oppression of women is due to localized culture which is based on a
superstition that is more akin to Hinduism. It is, however, portrayed as being
Islamic in origin which in turn seriously affects the 'independence of thought'
of those who do not bother to pursue the matter in an objective manner - which
includes most people.
4 ) One of the biggest
industries in the West is that of entertainment and amusement. This is
essential to maintain the false idea of progress, that what comes next is
better and worth enduring for. Peoples minds are preoccupied with their own
pleasures and other pursuits while others are being murdered, slaughtered,
women raped, innocent babies and children butchered with axes and knives,
innocent by-standers in robberies and muggings killed, the aged battered to
death by adolescents, thousands dying of drug abuse, thousands of innocent
lives destroyed by the consumption of alcohol, drunkards beating their women
and children... the list is endless. The entertainment industry is one of the
effective tools in the 'normalization of the thought process', the
'desensitization of the humanistic concern', and the intensification of the 'my
pleasure and gratification is what is most important' syndrome.
