British Women converting to Islam

Why British Women are turning to Islaam

THE SPREAD OF A WORLD CREED

The Times - Tuesday, 9th November 1993 - Home-news Page

"Lucy Berrington 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 Islaam at a time of deep divisions within the
Anglican and Catholic churches.

The rate of conversions has prompted predictions that Islaam will
rapidly become an important religious force in this country. "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 Qur'aan. She says: "Islaam
is as much a world faith as is Roman Catholicism. No one nationality
claims it as its own". Islaam is also spreading fast on the
continent and in America.

The surge in conversions to Islaam 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 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 Islaam 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 Britains "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 Islaamic 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 Islaam. "Muhammad" said, "The light of Islaam
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 Islaamic speakers. She adds: "Western converts are
coming to Islaam 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."

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 Islaamic, is also said to
have helped. Westerners despairing of their own society - rising
in crime, family breakdown, drugs and alcoholism - 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 Islaam. "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 Islaam, 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 and 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 Islaam.

Many converts from Christianity reject the ecclesiastical heirarchy
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. Islaam
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.

Taken from Is There a God?