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 Islam at a time of deep divisions within the Anglican
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
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 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 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 se 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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