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 Qur'an. 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 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."[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 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 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 of 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
     entertainments industry is one of the effective tools in the 'normalisation 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.