UK Women & Islam: The rise and rise of the convert

Women & Islam: The rise and rise of the convert


Three-quarters of Britons who become Muslims are female. Now a major new study has shed light on the difficulties they face in adjusting to their new life.

Many of the young women – the average age of conversion is 27 – are also coming to terms with experiences of discrimination for the first time, despite the only visible difference being a headscarf. Yet few find easy sanctuary within the established Muslim population, with the majority forming their closest bonds with fellow converts rather than born Muslims.

"My research also found converts came in two types: some are converts of convenience, who adopt the religion because of a life situation such as meeting a Muslim man, although the religion has little discernible impact on their day-to-day lives. For others it is a conversion of conviction where they feel a calling and embrace the religion robustly.

"That's not to say the two are mutually exclusive – sometimes converts start out on their religious path through convenience and become converts of conviction later on."

Another finding revealed by the Leicester study was that despite Western portraits of Islam casting it as oppressive to women, a quarter of female converts were attracted to the religion precisely because of thestatus it affords them.

Some analysts have argued that dizzying social and cultural upheavals in Britain over the past decades have meant that far from adopting an alien way of life, some female Muslim converts are re-embracing certain aspects of mid-20th-century Britain, such as rigid gender demarcation, rather than feeling expected to juggle career and family.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...the-rise-and-rise-of-the-convert-6258015.html


Sounds like these lost souls are rejecting the valueless lifestyle of secular humanist socialism. After the UK riots of the last summer, I can see why.

 

I think with that last statement it sounds like you really hit on something. You can't really replace something with nothing. That's the problem with modern secular humanism. With Christianity weak in the west, Islam will become very attractive for all the reasons that religion is always attractive.

And I say that as a secular humanist myself.

 

I have no issue with people looking for a relationship with life in any form though I myself take the DIY approach as opposed to using a guidebook. But whatever teaches you to eat fish.
Sounds like some souls have been habituated into either requiring someone else to tell them how to have a relationship with life or not considering life as something to have a relationship with. There are other options.
You don't have to be spiritual or an atheist, you just have to be mildly interested.

 

Must be something in the air at Leicester.

Very soon, we will be back in the Dark Ages and women will return to the kitchen!

 

Well, the women could always become and marry a fundamentalist Catholic (barefoot and pregnant), or become and marry an Evangelical (the man is head of the house to be obeyed in ALL things).

Or she could choose to do something intelligent.

 

One would have hoped that wmen would choose to be a part of the real world instead of subjugating themselves as they have historically done.

I cannot fathom how a woman would be atracted to living as a child would (under the control of a patriarch)

 

Sounds like these lost souls are rejecting the valueless lifestyle of consumerism. After the financial crash and hardship of the last summer, I can see why.

Fixed it for you.

 

I'm guessing that if this article was about women converting to the jewish faith, the OP would have no problem with it at all...

 

Considering how minor a religion it is in the UK I would imagine so. You are free to post a report about how converts to Judaism are not treated equal.

 

Mike, I agree. They are filling a personal void.

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Yeah, I know all the Catholic women at the grocery store because they are barefoot. LOL! Liberals, where do they come up with this stuff?

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Of course, the Jews don't insist on Western states respecting Jewish religious laws. They don't behead each other for not being orthodox either. I don't think they have the war between sects going on as well.

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I really didn't expect to see you start a thread defending Islam....

For the record though... quite a bit of Islam actually supports "socialism." It also supports big government -- much bigger government than most "secular humanism."

 

I very much doubt that Dr. Katherine Bullock for example lives as a child under the control of a patriarch. Her bio just doesn't sound as if she had the time and patience to bring her husband his tea and slippers whenever he snips his fingers.

http://www.cmss.uwa.edu.au/fulbright_symposium/dr_katherine_bullock

If you're interested why she decided to convert to Islam, you'll find a very personal article here. Apparently she once had ideas about Muslim women that are quite similar to the ones expressed in your post, but then had to reassess her preconceptions when actually meeting some:

http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/1824/

Katherine Bullock is just one example of a convert woman. Of course everybody is different and I suppose there are as many reasons for people to convert to a certain religions as there are people doing so. It's probably worthwhile listening to their stories before putting them into our convenient boxes.

 

Yes, here's another personal account from someone with a busy bio you might find worthwhile listening to before putting all such people into convenient boxes:

"Once, I complained to my grandmother," says Baz. "I said, 'I am like his maid in the house.' And she replied straightforwardly, 'Correct, you are his maid.'"

source

Rania al-Baz popular Saudi TV news presenter


Not to say Katherine Bullock lives under the control of a patriarch only that you have a rather restricted notion of what that encompasses. There were maids to bring Rania's husband his tea and slippers and yet she was still one of them.

Reading Katherine Bullock's personal account gave me very much the impression of a child so perhaps Liebe is on track that women converts are drawn by an attraction of living as a child? It doesn't sound though as her husband is Muslim although as I understand it Muslim women are not allowed to have non Muslim husbands.

 

Actually Rania al-Baz is not a convert but a Muslim by birth, so she does not even tick the one common box for „such people“ we're talking about here. But never mind.



Again I get the feeling you fell victim to very selective reading.
Rania-al-Baz is actually an example for a very courageous woman who had a career for herself and who even in a restrictive society as Saudi Arabia did what many Western non-Muslim women who are beaten by their husbands don't manage to do: She made the pictures of her abuse public, thus stirring her countries discussion about domestic violence, brought her husband to court and divorced him.

Why you should want to portray her as a woman who's content to be trodden on beyond me. Just as it is beyond me how this very important article you quoted completely passed you by:

„She sips a glass of St Emilion and emphasises that she is a devout Muslim - "but I do not think about who is Muslim or who is Christian - we all come from God." But, she adds, "none of this is about a religion, it is about society. What happened to me happens to women all over the world. But you can take what happens to women all over the world, and in Saudi Arabia, multiply it by ten.“http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/oct/05/broadcasting.saudiarabia

And what exactly do you find 'childlike' in Bullock's bio, which is mainly about her academic career? Just that she decided to convert to Islam, or that she stands up for Muslim women's rights in a context that is alien to you?

Or do you just secretly feel that all women are childlike just as the very Western poster here who wrote „I never swear in front of women and children“ - a remark that made me spill my coffee in laughter of disbelief.

 

If you think about it, religion itself is very childlike.

It's like a more complicated version of having an imaginary friend.

 

I wasn't giving you an example of a contented downtrodden convert but an example of a busy Muslim career women to demonstrate the fallacy of your argument that such women are too busy to be oppressed by their husbands. What was beyond you was seeing past your preconception about busy career women. Actually I didn't say it was about religion although I consider it plays a role.

I found her account overly simplistic, naive and innnocent. I had a particular problem with this:

Maybe this was the most decisive path. I’d heard on the radio an interview with a physicist who was explaining how modern science had abandoned its nineteenth century materialistic assumptions long ago, and was scientifically of the opinion that too many phenomena occurred which made no sense without there being intelligence and design behind it all. Indeed, scientific experiments were not just a passive observation of physical phenomena, observation altered the way physical events proceeded, and it seemed therefore that intelligence was the most fundamental stuff of the universe.
I read more, and more. I discovered that only the most diehard anthropologists still believed in evolution theory, though no one was saying this very loudly for fear of losing their job. My jigsaw was starting to fall apart.

source

Somehow she must have been hearing what comforted her rather than what is coming out of modern science. I don't think you needed to attribute all the reasons you did for my finding her account childish.

 

Jewish law exists in western states; Beth Din.

 

Well, I had something like an imaginary friend as a kid, a sort of alter ego that would have all kinds of adventures in my little phantasy journeys.
I guess you'll just have to take my word for it that having an imaginary friend is very different to believing in God, but it is.

 

The point being that she didn't actively seek out a husband who'd treat her nasty, he just developed into a Mr. Hyde. It can happen to anybody - even though thankfully it hasn't happened to me yet. And she finally came round to the one sensible thing that's hard for anybody: leaving the bastard.

And yes: I think it's probably save to assume that Bullock won't have much time to get the dinner ready on time each day, nor did it seem to be her goal to be submissive to a man when she converted.

On a discussion on creationism vs. evolution we'd probably agree more than we disagree.
That aside it seems to me though that basically you're sharing serfin's view on religion and are saying you don't only think women converting to Islam are childlike but women converting to any religion must be. You are of course free to be of that opinion. But you may note that there are quite a lot of scientists who have no problem at all with being religious. Here's a little list of just the Christian ones:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...science#2001.E2.80.93today_.2821st_century.29

 

No, the point being that your preconception about busy career women not having time to be oppressed by their husbands has no basis in fact.Unfortunately your preconception sits very firmly and wont budge despite the obvious example I gave you which blows it apart.

No it doesn't just happen to anyone, according to her the risk is an order of magnitude greater if you are a Saudi. I know plenty of women who stay with an abusive violent husband but do you know any cases where a wife has survived attempted murder at the hands of her husband and still found it hard to leave him?

What makes you assume Bullock's husband is a Muslim? Her conVersion didn't seem to have anything to do with her marriage, what makes you think it did?

The point is that Bullock's understanding is on par with a child's. I don't know which radio channel she was listening to but no rightminded physicist is going to come with those statements, using the uncertainty principle to support a conclusion that existance must have an intelligence behind it! Then there's the claim about anthropologists no longer believing in evolution! This is the mind of a child at work.

No, firstly I am not sexist and secondly I believe mature people can become religious or convert from one to another. Yes, there are quite a lot of religious scientists however they are getting fewer and particularly scientists engaged in the nature and origins of the universe. Also of note that Einstein allowed his religious tendancies to mislead him so he failed to make one of the biggest discoveries of all time: the expanding universe. Not to mention losing to Bohr with "God doesn't play dice". Thankfully these days hot shot scientists are less likely to be lead astray.

 

So you would agree that a mature non-child-like woman can convert to Islam. Nice.

 

But other than being a masochist, WHY ?

 

Exactly. I havent found anything of worth in the Quran which cannot be used as part of the Christian belief. The Quran seems to be more a step backwards as an improvement of the Old Testament, like Muhumad was given an OT and he decided to write his own version in secret whilst pretending to be illiterate and claiming divine guidance - whilst not knowing the OT was out of date already as it had been superseded by the NT..... if you believe in that sort of thing.