http://www.islamfortoday.com/england01.htm
The new face of
Islam
The phenomenon of educated, white, middle
class English converts to 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.
Talking to recent Muslim converts,
it is striking how similar the descriptions of their embrace of Islam are. Most
were introduced to Islam, and Islamic history and teaching, by friends. And,
given that Islam is not generally a missionary faith, these were gentle
introductions. For most, conversion was born of curiosity, an attempt to better
understand the people around them.
Caroline first started reading
about Islam last April. A school friend she has known since she was 11 was
marrying a Tunisian, a Muslim. 'My best friend was marrying into a different
culture so I wanted to know more about it,' she explains. 'I came at it from
more of a cultural perspective than a religious one. But the literature that I
picked up just stimulated me. And Islamic teaching made perfect, logical sense.
You can approach it intellectually and there are no gaps, no great leaps of
faith that you have to make.'
Roger (not his real name) is a
doctor in his mid-thirties. About a year and a half ago, he started talking
about Islam to Muslim colleagues at work. 'All I had ever heard about Islam in
the media was Hezbollah and guerrillas and all of that. And here were these
really decent people whom I was beginning to get to know. So I started to ask a
few questions and I was amazed at my own ignorance.' He became a Muslim a couple
of months ago.
For these new converts, embracing
Islam is usually a covert operation. They quietly read, talk, listen, learn. The
hard part is coming out, declaring your newly acquired faith to friends and
family, and, in some cases at least, facing up to fear, scepticism and even
loathing.
Caroline insists that the
coming-out process has not been too painful. 'The reaction has been pretty much
what I expected. I've had everything from "Do you know how they treat
women?" to "Wow, great timing!" But your friends are your friends
and I expect them to deal with it.'
Others have had a harder time.
Eleanor Martin, now Asya Ali (or some other combination of these names,
depending on the circumstance), was a 24-year-old TV actress when she met Mo
Sesay. She had a regular role as WPC Georgie Cudworth in BBC's Dangerfield
during the mid-Nineties and Sesay, who later starred in Bhaji on the Beach, was
also a Dangerfield regular. Sesay is a Muslim.
'Mo was such a kind man, just a
good person. He wanted to know me as a person, there was nothing else going on.
And I thought, well, here is this really decent guy and he is a Muslim. And the
image I had of Islam was of men beating up women and going round in tanks
killing people.
'The thing is we both had regular
parts on the show, but they weren't very big parts, so we had a lot of time to
sit in the caravan and talk. He really opened my eyes.'
Eleanor finally converted in 1996.
'I wasn't sure I was going to until the last minute and then it just felt as if
everything had fallen into place and there was no other option.'
At first she kept her conversion
secret. 'I was afraid of an adverse reaction from friends and family. I was
really worried about what my father would say.' Her father was a devout
Christian. A former radiotherapist, he had taken early retirement to go into the
priesthood. But circumstances forced Eleanor's hand. A few months after she
converted she met a Muslim African-American actor, Luqman Ali, and they decided
to get married. 'I went home and said: "I've got some news. I'm getting
married and I'm a Muslim." My mum was great. My dad said: "I think I'm
going to get a drink now."
'It took Dad time. He went to see
his spiritual adviser, a nun, whose brother happened to be a convert to Islam,
and that helped. And he's great now, too. He's just happy that I'm following a
path to God.'
Roger, meanwhile, has yet to tell
family or work colleagues of his conversion. 'I worry it will affect my career
prospects,' he admits. 'I know first-hand how little people understand Islam. I
know there is prejudice based on ignorance. A couple of years ago, if someone
had told me they had converted, I would have thought they were odd. I don't want
people to think I am an oddity or a curiosity because I don't think of myself
like that.'
Most converts acknowledge that
living in an ethnically diverse city has made conversion easier than it might
have been elsewhere. Stefania Marchetti was born and raised in Milan but came to
London to study in 1997. She converted to Islam from Catholicism in April last
year. 'It would have been far more difficult for me to convert in Italy,' she
admits. 'The Italian media is very anti-Islam and generally Italians think that
Muslim men are all terrorists and all Muslim women are slaves.'
Certainly Karen Allen, a
28-year-old scheduler for Sky TV from Stoke Newington, has enjoyed a relatively
smooth transition period. She converted to Islam last June and soon started
wearing the traditional headscarf or hijab. 'When I first started wearing the
hijab to work, there were a few jibes about Afghanistan and stuff, but people
are fine now. They say things like: "That's a nice one you're wearing
today."
'I think it might be more
difficult outside London, but here there are a lot weirder things to look at
than me.'
What is especially striking about
this stream of converts to Islam is that the majority seem to be women. Some
suggest that twice as many women as men are turning to Islam.
Batool Al Toma, who heads the New
Muslim Project at the Leicester-based Islamic Foundation, which offers advice
and support to recent converts, suggests this might be exaggeration, but admits
that female converts are in the majority. 'A lot of people seem to think that
women are more susceptible to Islam. I think it's largely because a lot of
people are obsessed with the idea of an educated, liberated British woman
converting to Islam which they feel subjugates and represses them in some way.
We just get a lot more attention I suppose and that sparks people's interest.'
The lure of Islam for women is
surprising, given that the conversion process may be even more problematic for
them than for men. There is the commonly held belief that Islam represses women
and female converts often have to deal with recrimination from female friends
who view their adoption of Islam as some sort of betrayal. The wearing of a
headscarf or hijab (a sartorial option, it should be noted, not a requirement)
also makes Muslim women more visible than their male counterparts.
Certainly, all the women I spoke
to were quick to refute the idea that Islam imposes a women-know-thy-place
ideology.
'The perception of how women are
treated is completely incorrect,' insists Caroline. 'Women have a fantastic
position in Islamic society.'
Indeed, many women converts talk
about the adoption of the Islamic dress code as a liberation. They see it not as
a denial of sex and sexuality but rather as an acknowledgement that these are
treasures to be shared with a loved one and them alone. They are not hidden but
rather freed from objectification.
Asya insists that the trick is to
turn preconceptions on their head. She wears a scarf to show she is a Muslim and
a smile to prove she is happy being one.
One problem for converts is that
they are caught between two cultures. 'Young Muslims are very accepting,' says
Caroline. 'They are really happy that you have chosen to become Muslim. The
older generation are not so accepting. For them, Islam is part of their cultural
background, it's about the country they came from and it's what binds their
communities together.'
One step towards greater
acceptance came last October when Reedah Nijabat opened ArRum, an Islamic
restaurant/members' bar/ cultural centre/social club in Clerkenwell. Nijabat, a
31-year-old former barrister and management consultant from Walthamstow,
originally conceived ArRum as a meeting place and networking venue for
professional first- and second-generation London Muslims. But it has also become
a focal point for many of London's Muslim converts.
It is easy to see why. On any work
evening, a mixed bag of middle-aged Pakistani men, young couples (some Muslim,
some curious non-Muslim), kids and white British converts chat and tuck into
halal 'fusion' food. While the club promotes Islamic culture, the vibe is a
Hempel temple of inner calm. Sufi wailing calms the nerves, while the bar
specialises in healthy juices.
For the new converts I spoke to,
ArRum is a place to meet other Muslims and somewhere to bring non-Muslim friends
and introduce them to Islam in a way that doesn't scare them.
ArRum accents Islam's USP among
the major faiths: its openness and lack of hierarchy. And Nijabat has realised
that if there is an endemic suspicion of stuffy organised religion among the
British (and increasingly, one suspects, second-generation British Muslims)
there is great interest in 'spirituality', whatever that might mean.
'I think that the problem has not
been with the substance of the major faiths, whatever they are, but a marketing
defect,' argues Nijabat. 'Everything we do here is about remembrance of God and
Islam, but you can get that across in a cool way. I'm not saying anything that
isn't in the Koran, but you have to talk to people on their level.
'I'm beginning to see that there
is a huge misunderstanding and a bridge that needs to be crossed between ethnic
communities, host communities and spiritual communities, and I think we are
making a contribution to that. You can get so hung up on the divisions and how
different we are, but it is the same God for all of us. And we still feel that
loss whether it is an American life or a Palestinian life. A lot of people are
going through a period of soul-searching and that can only be a good thing.'
For many, that soul-searching has
led them to Islam, not the Islam of the suicide bombers but mainstream Islam.
And, as Joe Ahmed Dobson points out, ArRum and its new converts do not represent
some kind of liberal IslamLite, a media-friendly dilution of the real thing.
Dobson and the other new converts are orthodox, in the truest sense, and proud.
They are also part of a project
that may help all parties see Islam in new ways. As Nijabat admits: 'You can end
up being quite defensive about it. And you can either get hung up about it or be
proactive. Opening ArRum has helped me recognise that I can be British and
Pakistani and a Muslim and a woman. And I'm not going to be a victim in any of
this.'
London Evening Standard,
March 15, 2002
--- On Wed, 11/2/09, jano ko <ko_j...@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: jano ko <ko_j...@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [wanita-muslimah] Norway to allow police to wear Islamic head
scarf +
To: wanita-muslimah@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, 11 February, 2009, 8:55 AM
http://www.zeenews. com/world/ 2009-02-05/ 504780news. html
Norway to allow police to wear Islamic head scarf
Oslo, Feb 05: The Norwegian government on Wednesday announced that it
will allow Muslim women police officers if they choose to wear the
Islamic head scarf.
----
Ko_Jano :
Marilah kita sambut kebangkitan Islam dengan rasa bersyukur, kebangkitan
perdamaian diseluruh dunia yang diidam - idamkan oleh semua insan manusia.
Salam.
-o0o-
--- On Tue, 10/2/09, Sunny <am...@tele2. se> wrote:
From: Sunny <am...@tele2. se>
Subject: [wanita-muslimah] Norway to allow police to wear Islamic head scarf +
To: Undisclosed- Recipient@ yahoo.com
Date: Tuesday, 10 February, 2009, 6:14 AM
http://www.zeenews. com/world/ 2009-02-05/ 504780news. html
Norway to allow police to wear Islamic head scarf
Oslo, Feb 05: The Norwegian government on Wednesday announced that it will
allow Muslim women police officers if they choose to wear the Islamic head
scarf.
"After advice from police management, it has been decided that rules on police
uniforms will be modified to allow for the wearing of a religious scarf with
the uniform," the Justice Ministry said in a statement yesterday.
The Islamic scarf, the hijab, is worn to cover the hair and surround the face.
The police management said it was in favour of permitting the scarf to be worn
with the uniform in order to improve the possibility of recruiting in Norway's
Muslim community.
"We think it's necessary to recruit widely and to develop a police force which
reflects all classes in society, regardless of beliefs and ethnicity, which is
more important than demanding a neutral uniform," wrote police chief Ingelin
Killengreen.
Several other European countries, including Sweden and Britain, have already
allowed the wearing of religious headgear by their police officers.
Bureau Report
http://www.republik a.co.id/berita/ 29860/Jilbab_ di_Kesatuan_ Polisi_Norwegia
Jilbab di Kesatuan Polisi Norwegia
By Republika Newsroom
Jumat, 06 Februari 2009 pukul 10:41:00
IOL PHOTO
KELTOUM HASNAOUI: Polwan yang mengenakan jilbab pertama kali dalam sejarah
Polisi Norwegia
OSLO - Pemerintah Norwegia menyetujui peraturan baru, yakni mengijinkan aturan
seragam polisi untuk mengakomodasi jilbal. Keputusan itu langsung saja mendapat
sambutan suka cita komunitas Muslim di negara Skandinavia tersebut.
Ini adalah bentuk sikap baik dan terbuka terhadap komunitas Arab dan Muslim di
Norwegia," ujar Brahim Belkilani, kepala Liga Islam di Norwegia," seperti yang
dilansir oleh IslamOnline. net, 5 Februari lalu.
Pemerintah mengumumkan keputusan tersebut Rabu (4/02) lalu, menyatakan jika
anggota polwan dapat mengenakan jilbab jika mereka menginginkan.
Keltoum Hasnaoui, 23 tahun, Muslim berdarah Ajazair, telah mengirimkan surat
petisi kepada Menteri Hukum dan Keadilan, yang berisi tulisan ingin bekerja
dalam kesatuan polisi tanpa melepaskan jilbabnya.
"Setelah dinasehati oleh Direktorat Kepolisian, akhirnya diputuskan aturan
untuk seragm polisi akan dimodifikasi dengan memasukan pasal membolehkan
penggunaan pentup kepala--untuk tujuan keagamaan--bersama dengan seragam," ujar
Menteri dalam sebuah pernyataan tertulis.
Direktur Dewan Polisi Nasional, Ingelin Killengreen mengatakan keputusan
tersebut merupakan bagian upaya pengadilan untuk memberdayakan komunitas Muslim.
"Kami pikir perlu untuk memberdayakan secara luas, dan mengembangkan kesatuan
polisi yang mencerminkan seluruh kelas masyarakat, tanpa memperdulikan agama
dan etnis. Ini lebih penting ketimbang menuntut seragam yang netral," ujarnya.
"Sangat penting bagi seluruh elemen dalam masyarakat kami merasa sebanding
dalam hubungannya dengan polisi," imbuh Menteri lagi
Bekilani, pemimpin Muslim berharap aturan baru itu akan mendorong wanita Muslim
lain untuk bergabung dengan kepolisian.
Beberapa negara Eropa lain, yang telah mengijinkan penggunaan jilbab dalam
kesatuan polisi adalah Swedia dan Inggris.
Integrasi.
Belkilani, meyakini jika mengakomodasi kebutuhan religius umat Muslim dalam
kepolisian akan memperkuat stabilitas dalam masyarakat. "Politisi mengirimkan
pesan jelas kepada komunitas Muslim dan Arab jika kelompok ini tidak
didiskriminasi, " ujarnya
Ia juga percaya jika komunitas Islam akan menikmati seluruh hak seperti halnya
warga lain di masyarakat. "Hukum memperlakukan seluruh organisasi keagamaan
tanpa perbedaan," ujar Belkilani. "
Jumlah umat Muslim di Norwegia diperkirakan berjumlah 150 ribu orang, dalam
populasi total sebesar 4,5 juta penduduk. Mayoritas Muslim berasal dari latar
belakang Pakistan, Somalia, Irak, dan Maroko. Kini terdapat hampir 90
organisasi Muslim dan Pusat Islam di seantero Norwegia.
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