A young woman, Tanya becomes muslim after some considerable thought and struggle.
January 18, 2009
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Korean Troops Convert to Islam
January 17, 2009
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Ahead of Iraq Deployment, 37 Korean Troops Convert to Islam |
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“I became a Muslim because I felt Islam was more humanistic and peaceful than other religions. And if you can religiously connect with the locals, I think it could be a big help in carrying out our peace reconstruction mission.” So said on Friday those Korean soldiers who converted to Islam ahead of their late July deployment to the Kurdish city of Irbil in northern Iraq. At noon Friday, 37 members of the Iraq-bound “Zaitun Unit,” including Lieutenant Son Hyeon-ju of the Special Forces 11th Brigade, made their way to a mosque in Hannam-dong, Seoul and held a conversion ceremony.
The soldiers, who cleansed their entire bodies in accordance with Islamic tradition, made their conversion during the Friday group prayers at the mosque, with the assistance of the “imam,” or prayer leader. With the exception of the imam, all the Muslims and the Korean soldiers stood in a straight line to symbolize how all are equal before God and took a profession on faith. They had memorized the Arabic confession, ” Ashadu an La ilaha il Allah, Muhammad-ur-Rasool-Allah,” which means, “I testify that there is no god but God (Arabic: Allah), and Muhammad is the Messenger of God.”
Moreover, as the faithful face the “Kaaba,” the Islamic holy place in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, all Muslims confirm that they are brothers. For those Korean soldiers who entered the Islamic faith, recent chances provided by the Zaitun Unit to come into contact with Islam proved decisive. Taking into consideration the fact that most of the inhabitants of Irbil are Muslims, the unit sent its unreligious members to the Hannam-dong mosque so that they could come to understand Islam. Some of those who participated in the program were entranced by Islam and decided to convert. A unit official said the soldiers were inspired by how important religious homogeneity was considered in the Muslim World; if you share religion, you are treated not as a foreigner, but as a local, and Muslims do not attack Muslim women even in war. Zaitun Unit Corporal Paek Seong-uk (22) of the Army’s 11th Division said, “I majored in Arabic in college and upon coming across the Quran, I had much interest in Islam, and I made up my mind to become a Muslim during this religious experience period [provided by the Zaitun Unit].” He expressed his aspirations. “If we are sent to Iraq, I want to participate in religious ceremonies with the locals so that they can feel brotherly love and convince them that the Korean troops are not an army of occupation but a force deployed to provide humanitarian support.” |
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THE NEW FACE OF ISLAM
December 3, 2008
LONDON,SATURDAY 04.10.08
The new face of Islam
By Nick Compton Last updated at 00:00am on 15.03.02
At first she tried to resist. She did not want this to happen. She was not that sort of person. After all, there were no gaps in her life, no spiritual ache, she did not need support or direction. But she kept reading and it kept making sense.
‘I had absolutely no expectation or desire to end up where I am,’ she says. ‘It was almost with trepidation that I kept turning the pages and the trepidation just increased. I kept thinking: “OK, where’s the flaw? Where’s the bit that doesn’t make sense?” But it never came. And then it was like: “Oh no, I can see where this is leading. This is disastrous. I don’t want to be a Muslim!”
Caroline Bate is 30 years old, blonde, blue-eyed and pretty, with a soft Home Counties accent. She has a degree from Cambridge (she studied Russian and German before switching to management studies) and works for an investment bank in the City. She is Middle England’s dream daughter or daughter-in-law. And though she has yet to make her formal declaration of faith in Allah and the prophet Mohammed – a two-line pledge called the Shahada – she considers herself Muslim. She ticked the box on a form recently. It felt good, she says.
Caroline is not alone. Though data is hard to come by, several London mosques have been reporting an increase in the number of converts to Islam, especially since 11 September. Like Caroline, many of these converts are from solid middle-class backgrounds, have successful careers, enjoy active social lives and are fundamentally happy with their lot.
This is not a new trend, however. Matthew Wilkinson, a former head boy of Eton, became Tariq, when he converted to Islam in 1993. Jonathan Birt, son of Lord Birt, late of the BBC and now the government’s transport guru, converted in 1997. The son and daughter of Lord Justice Scott also converted and Joe Ahmed Dobson, the 26-year-old son of the former Health Secretary Frank Dobson, has recently and, somewhat reluctantly, emerged as the voice of new Muslim converts in Britain. But it is a trend that has been pushed along by recent events. So far it has gone largely unnoticed, as the press concentrates on some of the more colourful characters that 11 September has thrown up. Read the rest of this entry »
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Growing Up O’Muslim
November 20, 2008I wrote this piece about two years ago, please forgive any mistake I may have made :)
I am 6 feet tall.
I have green eyes.
I have freckles.
I was born Muslim.
I am a third-generation Irish-American daughter of converts.
My dad converted over 27 years ago, while my mom converted around 25 years ago. My mom whose family is agnostic, converted through Muslim friends of hers. My dad whose family is Catholic, also converted through Muslim friends but he also had an experience which brought him closer to making his decision to convert.
My dad was driving his friend’s camper on a trip they were taking. Inside of his friend’s camper was a sign that said “There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is His messenger. My dad’s friend was not Muslim, but he was appreciative of the teachings of Islam. To make a long story short, my dad fell asleep at the wheel and crashed the camper. He was ejected through the front windshield and ended up breaking both of his ankles. As soon as he made his way back to the camper wreckage, the sign which he had seen was still affixed to the wall and it was the first thing that he came to.
Surprised?
Well most people are, even more so since I recently started wearing the
hijab, or headscarf.
I chose to start wearing hijab on March 9. I had been going through
difficulties in my personal life and during that time God was the only
consistency in my life- when I felt I had no one else to turn to, He was
there. In Islam, modesty is commended in women (as well as men)- not only in appearance, but also in demeanor. Regardless of images that are shown daily on television, one of the key points of Islam, which is also written in chapter two of the Quran, is that there is no compulsion in Islam. Meaning whether a person wants to follow the guidelines of Islam or not, people cannot force religion upon each other, it is strictly between each individual and God.
Muslim women do not cover to please the men in their life. On the contrary, it has to do with their own self-respect, their own sense of self-worth and their own sense of independence. When you see a Muslim woman on the street she stands out. The hijab is worn so that we are respected. In today’s society where anorexia is rampant and plastic surgery is the norm, hijab is a form of liberation from these pressures. In Islam, we are told that each woman in her individuality is beautiful, there is no standard for physical beauty. We value inner beauty far more than outer beauty.
What many people forget is that other women of the book, both Jews and
Christians, were also instructed to cover their hair out of modesty. All one has to do is look at the statues and paintings of the Virgin Mary. She is always depicted with long loose clothing and a head covering just like the hijab. Read the rest of this entry »
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THE BEAUTIFUL DIGNITY OF WOMEN
October 31, 2008
THE TITLE AND VIDEO SAY IT ALL…… IF YOU THINK THAT AS A WOMAN YOU ARE REALLY TRUELY FREE THINK AGAIN. THIS WOMAN EXPLAINS SO ELOQUENTLY HOW ISLAM AND HIJAB GAVE HER WHAT ALL WOMEN DESERVE!
SAKINA
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Why I Shed Bikini for Niqab
October 29, 2008Former Actress Sara Bokker
I AM an American woman who was born in the midst of America’s “Heartland.” I grew up, just like any other girl, being fixated with the glamour of life in “the big city.” Eventually, I moved to Florida and on toSouth Beach of Miami, a hotspot for those seeking the “glamorous life.”
Naturally, I did what most average Western girls do. I focused on my appearance and appeal, basing my self-worth on how much attention I got from others. I worked out religiously and became a personal trainer, acquired an upscale waterfront residence, became a regular “exhibiting” beach-goer and was able to attain a “living-in-style” kind of life.
Years went by, only to realize that my scale of self-fulfillment and happiness slid down the more I progressed in my “feminine appeal.” I was a slave to fashion. I was a hostage to my looks.
As the gap continued to progressively widen between my self-fulfillment and lifestyle, I sought refuge in escapes from alcohol and parties to meditation, activism, and alternative religions, only to have the little gap widen to what seemed like a valley. I eventually realized it all was merely a pain killer rather than an effective remedy.
By now it was Sept. 11, 2001. As I witnessed the ensuing barrage on Islam, Islamic values and culture, and the infamous declaration of the “new crusade,” I started to notice something called Islam. Up until that point, all I had associated with Islam was women covered in “tents,” wife beaters, harems, and a world of terrorism. As a feminist libertarian, and an activist, I was pursuing a better world for all.
One day I came across a book that is negatively stereotyped in the West – The Noble Qur’an. I was first attracted by the style and approach of the Qur’an, and then intrigued by its outlook on existence, life, creation, and the relationship between Creator and creation. I found the Qur’an to be a very insightful address to heart and soul without the need for an interpreter or pastor.
Eventually I hit a moment of truth: my new-found self-fulfilling activism was nothing more than merely embracing a faith called Islam where I could live in peace as a “functional” Muslim. Read the rest of this entry »
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The new face of Islam
October 21, 2008
LONDON,SATURDAY 04.10.08
The new face of Islam
By Nick Compton
At first she tried to resist. She did not want this to happen. She was not that sort of person. After all, there were no gaps in her life, no spiritual ache, she did not need support or direction. But she kept reading and it kept making sense.
‘I had absolutely no expectation or desire to end up where I am,’ she says. ‘It was almost with trepidation that I kept turning the pages and the trepidation just increased. I kept thinking: “OK, where’s the flaw? Where’s the bit that doesn’t make sense?” But it never came. And then it was like: “Oh no, I can see where this is leading. This is disastrous. I don’t want to be a Muslim!”
Caroline Bate is 30 years old, blonde, blue-eyed and pretty, with a soft Home Counties accent. She has a degree from Cambridge (she studied Russian and German before switching to management studies) and works for an investment bank in the City. She is Middle England’s dream daughter or daughter-in-law. And though she has yet to make her formal declaration of faith in Allah and the prophet Mohammed – a two-line pledge called the Shahada – she considers herself Muslim. She ticked the box on a form recently. It felt good, she says.
Caroline is not alone. Though data is hard to come by, several London mosques have been reporting an increase in the number of converts to Islam, especially since 11 September. Like Caroline, many of these converts are from solid middle-class backgrounds, have successful careers, enjoy active social lives and are fundamentally happy with their lot.
This is not a new trend, however. Matthew Wilkinson, a former head boy of Eton, became Tariq, when he converted to Islam in 1993. Jonathan Birt, son of Lord Birt, late of the BBC and now the government’s transport guru, converted in 1997. The son and daughter of Lord Justice Scott also converted and Joe Ahmed Dobson, the 26-year-old son of the former Health Secretary Frank Dobson, has recently and, somewhat reluctantly, emerged as the voice of new Muslim converts in Britain. But it is a trend that has been pushed along by recent events. So far it has gone largely unnoticed, as the press concentrates on some of the more colourful characters that 11 September has thrown up.
Since 11 September, the luridly painted poster boys of British Islam have been radical clerics such as Abu Hamza al-Masri, the steel-clawed, milky-eyed so-called ‘mad mullah’ of Finsbury Park mosque. Here are Victorian villains, fiendish emissaries of some ancient and foreign evil, straight out of an Indiana Jones movie.
Their followers are blank-eyed drones like Richard Reid, packing his high-tops with high explosives. Or James McLintock, the ‘Tartan Taliban’. There are lost boys, dislocated and dysfunctional, petty thieves preyed on in South London prisons and young offenders’ institutions by fakir Fagins who forge an untempered anger into a righteous ire and provide it with a target. (Three imams working in British prisons have been suspended since 11 September for making ‘inappropriate remarks’ about the terrorist attacks.)
But that is a sideshow, a compelling melodrama played out beyond the fringes of Islamic culture in this country. And while it might be stretching a point – and answering caricature with caricature – to insist that a demure English rose is the exemplar of the modern British convert to Islam, Caroline Bate is certainly more representative than Richard Reid. Read the rest of this entry »
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A MOST BEAUTIFUL STORY
October 10, 2008By Ann Spaulding
I love to read revert stories. It is amazing to me how people come to
know about the love of Allah and the way of life in Islam, and how many
come to the conclusion that Islam is the Truth out of many different
ways of life. This is a miracle of our faith.
I would like to tell you how I too found the Truth. Part of this was
written when I moved to Virginia around December 2002.
Childhood
I was born and raised in West Virginia in a Christian family. My father
was a Jew. Needless to say we never talked much after my reversion to
Islam, not that we really talked much before then. My father and mother
divorced when I was only 1 year old. My older sisters said it was
because I was born a female, and he had wanted a male. I think he was a
man that could not handle the responsibilities of his actions. So he
left my mother with four daughters to raise and support without his
help. Thus, we grew up very poor.
My father died in July of 2003 as a Jew. He refused to talk to me
during those last few years since I reverted to Islam. We did talk a
little before then. I am afraid that when I was older and met my
father, I did not like him as a man. My mother believed in God but also
was a scientist of some sort. But, al-hamdu lillah, she believed in
charity and in helping others. I came from a mostly Christian family
that knew fear of God and practiced it to the best of their ability. In
the area where I grew up, people did even know what a Muslim was, and
they certainly never saw a woman walking down the street wearing hijab!
I started playing the flute when I was only five and became a
professional flute player when I was only 12. I also played many other
instruments, such as the oboe, the saxophone, and more. I even made
good money playing in jazz groups and symphonies. My family never
really had time for me. I was dropped off at my grandparents’ house a
lot, and because my grandfather was bedridden, my grandmother never
truly had time to care about what I did. Fortunately for me, I never
sought out bad things. I was just busy with my flute and music. This
was my life and my only love in life.
My mother was a social worker; she was out saving the lives of many
children who were handicapped or had mental disabilities. She got them
out of abusive homes and placed them into safer homes. I was proud of
her for that. But when I needed her as my own mother, she was just not
there. I guess she could not save all the children in the world, so
someone had to be left out. I basically raised myself. Read the rest of this entry »
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