Why British Women are turning to Islaam
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 comprehensive and the author of a
textbook guide to the Koran. She says: "Islam is as much a world faith as is
Roman Catholicism. No one nationality claims it as its own". Islam is also
spreading fast on the continent and in 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. It is even more ironic that most
British converts should be women, given the widespread view in the west that
Islam treats women poorly. In the United States, women converts outnumber
men by four to one, and in Britain make up the bulk of the estimated 10, 000
to 20, 000 converts, forming part of a Muslim community of 1 to 1.5 million.
Many of Britain's "New Muslims" are from middle-class backgrounds. They
include Matthew Wilkinson, a former head boy of Eton who went on to
Cambridge, and a son and daughter of Lord Justice Scott, the judge heading
the arms-to-Iraq enquiry.
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's prominent Islamic
speakers. She adds: "Western converts are coming to Islam with fresh eyes,
without all the habits of the East, avoiding much of what is culturally
wrong. The purest tradition is finding itself strongest in the West."[3]
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 practising 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
Churchand thought about taking the veil." Her crisis came when a
prayer was not
answered. She slammed the door on visiting vicars but travelled to convents
for discussions with nuns. "My belief came back stronger, but not for the
Church, the institution or the dogma." She researched every Christian
denomination, plus Judaism, Buddhism and Krishna Consciousness, before
turning to Islam.
Many converts from Christianity reject the ecclesiastical hierarchy
emphasising 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 its 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 Allaah, His and His sole right to
subservience, worship and legislation) , the sum total of its injunctions,
formulated by Allaah (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 realise why it poses a threat to the
leading elite of the western civilisations ( 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 peoples 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 Allaah alone. This is the essence of Islam - That enslavement is
to none but to Allaah 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 became Muslims during and shortly after the Gulf
War.
3 Much of the alleged oppression of women is due to localised 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
'normalisation of the thought process', the 'desensitisation of the
humanistic concern', and the intensification of the 'my pleasure and
gratification is what is most important' syndrome.
*The Times (London) - Tuesday, 9th November 1993 -Home-news Page*
*Lucy Berrington finds the Muslim Faith is winning Western admirers *