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Why British Women Turning To Islam
THE
SPREAD OF A WORLD CREED Lucy
Berrington finds the Muslim Faith is winning Western admirers despite hostile
media coverage The
Times (London) - Tuesday, 9th November 1993 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. "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 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." 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 - 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 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 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." |
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