Islam awareness weak? Get up to speed with these sites

Islam awareness week

http://kwelos.tripod.com/anglican.htm

May be one week isn't sufficient. Perhaps it should be the full 52 . After all, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Checkout these sites daily, and make every week ' Islam Awareness Week'!

Monday http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/

Tuesday http://www.danielpipes.org

Wednesday http://frontpagemag.com

Thursday http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/News/Trifkovic/NewsViews.htm

Friday http://www.steynonline.com

Saturday http://www.jihadwatch.org

Sunday http://www.memri.org

http://kwelos.tripod.com/anglican.htm

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A Wave of Conversion to Islam in the U.S. Following September 11

Excerpts from "Muslim American Leaders: A Wave of Conversion to Islam in the U.S. Following September 11" © Middle East Media & Research Institute

http://sultan.org/articles/convert.html

Muslim American reports in the Arab press indicate that Muslim proselytizing efforts have been unusually successful since the September 11 attacks. 'Alaa Bayumi, Director of Arab Affairs at the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), wrote in the London daily Al-Hayat that "non-Muslim Americans are now interested in getting to know Islam. There are a number of signs...: Libraries have run out of books on Islam and the Middle East... English translations of the Koran head the American best-seller list... The Americans are showing increasing willingness to convert to Islam since September 11... Thousands of non-Muslim Americans have responded to invitations to visit mosques, resembling the waves of the sea [crashing on the shore] one after another... All this is happening in a political atmosphere that, at least verbally, encourages non-Muslim Americans' openness towards Muslims in America and in the Islamic world, as the American president has said many times in his speeches..."(1)

CAIR chairman Nihad Awad told the Saudi paper 'Ukaz that "34,000 Americans have converted to Islam following the events of September 11, and this is the highest rate reached in the U.S. since Islam arrived there."(2)

According to Dr. Walid A. Fatihi, instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston has recently become a center of Islamic proselytizing aimed at Christians. On September 22, 2001, Al-Fatihi sent a letter to the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram Al-Arabi, in which he described the unfolding of events since September 11: "...From the first day, the media began to insinuate that Muslim Arab hands were behind this incident. At noon, the directors and administration of the Islamic Center of Boston held an emergency meeting, and I stayed on the line with them from my clinic. We decided to hold a blood drive, and we set up a committee to contact the Red Cross and organize it for us. We invited the media to cover the event..."

"All of us tried to grab onto every scrap of information that would indicate that Muslim Arab hands were not involved in the loathsome crime. Yes, my brothers and sisters, we tried to prove our humanity on the day we found ourselves attacked from all sides. Our hearts bled and our spokesman said that proselytizing in the name of Allah had been set back 50 years in the U.S. and in the entire world..."

"On Saturday, September 15, I went with my wife and children to the biggest church in Boston, [Trinity Church in] Copley Square, by official invitation of the Islamic Society of Boston, to represent Islam by special invitation of the senators of Boston. Present were the mayor of Boston, his wife, and the heads of the universities. There were more than 1,000 people there, with media coverage by one of Boston's main television stations. We were received like ambassadors. I sat with my wife and children in the front row, next to the mayor's wife. In his sermon, the priest defended Islam as a monotheistic religion, telling the audience that I represented the Islamic Society of Boston."

"After the sermon was over, he stood at my side as I read an official statement issued by the leading Muslim clerics condemning the incident [i.e. the attacks]. The statement explained Islam's stance and principles, and its sublime precepts. Afterwards, I read Koran verses translated into English... These were moments that I will never forget, because the entire church burst into tears upon hearing the passages of the words of Allah!!"

"Emotion swept over us. One said to me: 'I do not understand the Arabic language, but there is no doubt that the things you said are the words of Allah.' As she left the church weeping, a woman put a piece of paper in my hand; on the paper was written: 'Forgive us for our past and for our present. Keep proselytizing to us.' Another man stood at the entrance of the church, his eyes teary, and said, 'You are just like us; no, you are better than us.'" (3)

"On Sunday, September 16, the Islamic Society of Boston issued an open invitation to the Islamic Center in Cambridge, located between Harvard and MIT. We did not expect more than 100 people, but to our surprise more than 1,000 people came, among them the neighbors, the university lecturers, members of the clergy, and even the leaders of the priests from the nearby churches, who invited us to speak on Islam. All expressed solidarity with Muslims. Many questions flowed to us. Everyone wanted to know about Islam and to understand its precepts."

"Of all the questions, not a single one attacked me; on the contrary, we saw [the people's] eyes filling with tears when they heard about Islam and its sublime principles. Many of them had never heard about Islam before. Well, they had heard about Islam only through the biased media. That same day, I was invited again to participate in a meeting in the church, and again I saw the same things. On Thursday, a delegation of 300 students and lecturers from Harvard visited the center of the Islamic Society of Boston, accompanied by the American Ambassador to Vienna. They sat on the floor of the mosque, which was filled to capacity. We explained to them the precepts of Islam, and defended it from any suspicions [promulgated in the media]. I again read to them from the verses of Allah, and [their] eyes filled with tears. The audience was moved, and many asked to participate in the weekly lessons for non-Muslims held by the Islamic Center..."

"On Friday, September 21, the Muslims participated in a closed meeting with the governor of Massachusetts. In the meeting, a discussion was held on introducing Islam into the school curriculum, to inform the [American] people and to fight racism against Muslims arising from the American people's ignorance regarding the religion. With the governor's support, measures to examine implementation of this goal were agreed upon..."

"These are only some of the examples of what happened and is happening in the city of Boston, and in many other American cities, during these days. Proselytizing in the name of Allah has not been undermined, and has not been set back 50 years, as we thought in the first days after September 11. On the contrary, the 11 days that have passed are like 11 years in the history of proselytizing in the name of Allah. I write to you today with the absolute confidence that over the next few years, Islam will spread in America and in the entire world, Allah willing, much more quickly than it has spread in the past, because the entire world is asking, 'What is Islam!'(4)

Fatihi's reports of American Christians' crying upon hearing Koranic verses have an historical context. This type of narrative is about part of the ethos of Islamic proselytizing. It comes from the tradition of the Prophet Muhammad's invitation to the Christian community of Najran, located in what is today North Yemen, to visit the mosque. When the Christians of Najran were exposed to the verses of the Koran, the tradition says they burst into tears and converted to Islam.

Fatihi also published an article in the London daily Al-Hayat:

"...There are initial signs that the intensive campaign of education about Islam has begun to bear fruit. For example, the rate of converts to Islam since September 11 has doubled… There is solidarity with the Muslims on the part of many non-Muslims in American universities. For example, dozens of non-Muslim American women students at Wayne [State] University… have put on veils as a symbol of identification with the Muslim women students at the university and at the other universities of America."

"One of the most important topics [in an NPR broadcast] was an interview with several young women at American universities who recently converted to Islam through the Islamic Society of Boston. They hold advanced degrees from universities in Boston, such as Harvard, and they spoke of the power and the greatness of Islam, of the elevated status of women in Islam, and of why they converted to Islam. The program was broadcast several times across the entire U.S..." (5)

Notes and references:

(1) Al-Hayat (London), November 11, 2001

(2) Al-Ayyam

3) The phenomenon of sincere Christians shedding tears as they recognize the truth and beauty of Islam is mentioned in the Qur'an:

And thou wilt find the nearest of them in affection to those who believe (to be) those who say: Lo! We are Christians. That is because there are among them priests and monks, and because they are not proud. When they listen to that which hath been revealed unto the messengers, thou seest their eyes overflow with tears because of their recognition of the Truth. They say: Our Lord, we believe. Inscribe us as among the witnesses [Qur'an 5:82-83]

(4) Al-Ahram Al-Arabi (Egypt), October 20, 2001

(5) Al-Hayat (London), November 11, 2001

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All roads lead to Mecca: Except for infidels:

Why do Muslims think we are afraid of them and label it Islamophobia ?

Maybe the kuffars and infidels show of mutual respect and tolerance which Muslims have for them is could more aptly be labelled 'Islamistanthropic?'

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FANTASTIC REASONS WHY CHRISTIANS SHOULD EMBRACE ISLAM !!! http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles/Al-Mansur/Christians_emberace_islam.htm By Al Mansur It seems that there are many testimonies of Christians embracing Islam being posted on the web. That is the most logical thing to do and if I am a Christian, I would embrace Islam too. Among the 1001 reasons are: 1) Know What Your Muslim Brethren would do for you !!! Peace-Loving Western "moderate" Muslims formed the Committee to free Shaikh Omar Abdel Rahman. Just to refresh your memory, a massive terrorist car-bomb explosion damaged portions of the then World Trade Center in 1993, KILLING six Non-Muslim Americans ONLY and causing more than $300 million in damages. The convicted mastermind was the aforesaid Shaikh Omar whose team was unfortunately not as efficient and friends of Osama bin Laden apparently had to finish the job. The Islamic world gives the highest respect to this "man of God" as Shaikh Omar is naturally called and American Muslims have complained that the U.S. is denying him his basic rights as a human being. At the end of 1999, New Trend magazine, America's most widely distributed Islamic publication carried out a survey of its readers to select the TOP FIVE MUSLIM MEN OF THE 20TH CENTURY. Shaikh Omar Abdel Rahman was inevitably chosen among the top five by this HIGHLY EDUCATED and WELL-READ audience. Congratulations Shaikh Omar!!! (MIM: see below for Committee to Free Abdel Rahman and additional information) Do you see the beauty of how this works?! Fundamentalist Muslims FIGHT against Non-Muslims and Moderate Muslims FIGHT to get them out of jail. Now if you are a Christian who killed six innocent Muslims, would your fellow Christians do that for you? Would Christians form a committee to call for your release? Would highly educated and well-read American Christians select you as the top five Christian of the 20th century? [Osama the alleged mastermind who had way more than just six Non-Muslims killed on 9/11, has his face printed on T-shirts. Would Christians pay such tribute and honor to you?] THINK ABOUT IT MAN !!! 2) Conclusive Proof that Islam is a Mega-Fantastic Religion Muslims in the Middle East who persecute Christians today in the name of Islam are themselves descendants of Christians. The Egyptian Muslim today calls for the death of Christian Copts the same way yesterday's Muslims called for the death of this very same Egyptian Muslim's Coptic ancestors. Yesterday, your ancestors were persecuted in the name of Islam …. Today, you persecute someone else in the name of Islam. What goes around comes around. Bravo!!! If you devoutly follow a religion which called for death, war, rape, plunder, tribute against your own ancestors, it must truly be conclusive proof that this religion (i.e. Islam) is so fantastic. This is because anyone else would have called for revenge for what was done to his innocent ancestors save for a TOTAL FOOL. 3) Rome and Mecca : Conclusive Proof that Islam is the True Religion Why is it that the Muslims have been allowed to build the largest or one of the largest mosques in the World in Rome whereas the Catholics are not allowed to build even a small pathetic chapel in Mecca? This in itself is conclusive proof that even the Pope knows that Islam is the one true religion and the Catholic Italians need Islam. Even if this is not the case, the Pope knows that allowing the Muslims to gradually transform the decadent Italian society into a PERFECT MUSLIM SOCIETY will do a lot of good to the Italians. Saudi Arabia on the other hand obviously does not need Christianity because it is the PERFECT MUSLIM SOCIETY for Christian nations to emulate. Apostates who left Islam are killed, adulterers are stoned, thieves have their hands chopped off, women are liberated with ‘protective clothing' in the sweltering heat etc. What other improvements or reforms can one asks for??? If this is not the perfect society what is??? I salute the selflessness of millions of Muslims who have left their PERFECT MUSLIM SOCIETIES to improve the decadent Christian ones. 4) As Muslims say "ISLAM MEANS PEACE" Does your own religion and co-religionists condemn you for killing an "infidel"? Apparently, it is a sin for a Christian to kill anyone, even a Non-Christian. 20th century Christians have never ceased to condemn the Crusaders and the Inquisitors of Catholic Spain. Presumably, the Crusaders and Inquisitors are now languishing in Hell because their actions were contrary to the Bible. Muhammad on the other hand said, " No Muslim should be killed for killing a Kafir" (infidel). Sahih Al-Bukhari Vol. 9:50 Killing, plundering and raping Non-Muslims according to the Quran is okay. If you love sex and violence, embracing "ISLAM MEANS that you can at last be at PEACE" with yourself. No more confessions to the Priest. No more having a guilty conscience. As a Muslim, raping and killing infidels are not sins. They are merits. The Quran and the Hadith have hundreds of encouraging words such as: "Those who die FIGHTING for the only true religion, Islam, will be AMPLY REWARDED in the life to come" "KILL THE UNBELIEVERS wherever you find them, capture and besiege them and prepare for them every kind of ambush." If you fight Non-Muslims in a Jihad and get killed in the process, you get your 72 virgins. If you don't die, you get to sleep with the wives and daughters of your former Christian friends. In other words this is a WIN-WIN SITUATION for you. Imagine…. 72 virgins!!! How many virgins have you slept with? And because apparently the 72 virgins have renewable virginity (or some shit like that) you will be sleeping with far more than 72 virgins. The mathematical formula for the number of virgins would be 72 to the power of infinity!!! What would Muslim women get in Paradise??? Don't worry. The majority of them would be in Hell anyway. So. If you're a man your chances to get to Paradise is statistically higher. Mohammed said, "I was shown the Hell-fire and that the majority of its dwellers are women. Sahih Al-Bukhari" Vol. 1:28, 301; Vol. 2:161; Vol. 7:124 5) Why Give to Receive when you can Receive it for Free??? Common Sense!!! Christianity teaches "Give and you shall Receive". Islam teaches that you can just take from the Non-Muslims in an orgy of sex and violence called a Jihad. Take their countries…….. Take their possessions…….. Take their wives, daughters and sisters….. . etc. Jihad is a buffet. Just help yourself. The concept of "God Helps Those Who Help Themselves" actually came from Islam. If you read the Hadiths, you will see how Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his companions really "helped themselves" with the help of Merciful Allah with regards to the women and possessions of the Jews and unbelievers. As a Muslim, you don't have to feel sorry for those poor bastards because ….. remember, the EARTH BELONGS TO ALLAH. So, your "victims" never owned anything in the first place. What has Christianity offered you for free anyway??? And because 99% of the world's Muslims call themselves "moderates" (in other words they are foolish enough not to exercise their rights as Muslims notwithstanding what is written in black and white in the Quran and the Hadith) you can have a greater share of the booty and the women!!! [Note : Moderate Muslims are those Muslims who believe that Jihad TODAY should no longer be KILLING Non-Muslims BUT KILLING NON-MUSLIMS YESTERDAY (from the time of Muhammad to the Armenian Genocide in 1915) WAS OKAY…or perhaps it never really happened. When exactly is the cut-off date when killing Non-Muslims was no longer acceptable, these moderates themselves are not sure] Al-Mansur P.S. Hope that you'll give Islam some serious thought. ------------------------------------------------- For more on Islam and Christianity and the Free Abdel Rahman Committee see: http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/61 ---------------------------------------------------------------

http://thetruereligion.org/modules/xfsection/article.php?articleid=170

by Marina Jiménez, National Post, January 19 2002 CE

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Like all Americans, Debra Portmann felt overcome with grief after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and mourned for the slaughter of her countrymen.

But she also felt something else: a lingering sadness for Islam itself, a faith she felt had been grossly abused by the terrorists to justify their actions.

Ms. Portmann, a Boston native whose Christian ancestors arrived here in 1649, wrote a note of sympathy and slipped it under the door of the Islamic students' group at the University of Massachusetts, where she studies classical music.

Less than a month later, the 46-year-old liberal converted to Islam, in the basement of the Islamic Society of Boston's Sunni mosque. It was a simple ceremony that took only moments. She said the shahadah (There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger) in Arabic, a simple testimony of faith she will repeat five times a day for the rest of her life.

Tiffany Motschenbacher, an extroverted theatre major from Michigan with curly brown hair, converted a few days later, sitting on the floor of the society's cultural centre with a group of sisters, celebrating the occasion later over pizza and soda.

"I said the testimony and, poof, I was a Muslim. I was shaking and weeping," recalls Ms. Motschenbacher, 30, with a laugh. "I really felt that this religion was the truth and what I'd been looking for my whole life. I used to feel something was wrong with me because I couldn't grasp the concept of God. Now I finally had peace of heart."

The terrorist attacks perpetrated by fundamentalist Islamists served as a kind of a catalyst for both of these women and at least four others in their class of New Muslims, propelling them forward on a long and sometimes hesitant spiritual journey toward conversion.

"Instead of running away, I felt myself running toward Islam. My heart had already opened to the religion and I knew that what had happened [in New York and Washington] was not Islam at all," Ms. Motschenbacher said.

Adds Ms. Portmann, who wears a shalwar kameez -- baggy trousers and a loose tunic -- and covers her red hair with a pink hijab, or head covering: "When 9/11 happened, it gave Islam a black eye. But I knew the terrorist act was nothing Islam would ever sanction. I knew the terrorists' idea of jihad was wrong."

These women are part of a curious trend: a surge in conversions since Sept. 11 both in the United States and in Europe. It is a pattern that has replicated itself throughout recent history; there were many converts during the Bosnian conflict. During the Gulf War, the Saudis claimed to have welcomed 5,000 new Muslims into the fold.

"Americans have bought more flags since 9/11, but they've also bought more Korans," says Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who runs the al-Taqwah mosque in Brooklyn, N.Y. "I've had more converts since 9/11 and I've spoken in so many different forums and inter-faith meetings."

At Harvard's Islamic Society, attendance at the annual Ramadan dinner nearly doubled this year, while several open houses at the Islamic Society of Boston attracted so many people they spilled over into the parking lot.

In New York, Sheik Ishaq Abdul Malik-ul-Mulk, a convert who also goes by his Puerto Rican name Luis Alejandro, says that every week, someone takes shahadah at the Long Island mosque where he worships. "The more controversial something is, the more people it attracts," he says. "But attraction is just the first step. After that, you have to believe, and the message of Islam is so simple, without any of the Holy Trinity mysteries. You can practise it on your own."

One Dutch Islamic centre claims a tenfold increase while the New Muslims Project, based in Leicester, England, reports a steady stream of new converts.

In a videotape released by the Pentagon last month, Osama bin Laden himself remarked on the phenomenon to his al-Qaeda lieutenants. "In Holland, the number of people who accepted Islam during the days that followed the operations were more than the people who accepted Islam in the last 11 years. I heard someone on Islamic radio who owns a school in America say: 'We don't have time to keep up with the demands of those who are asking about Islamic books to learn about Islam.' This event made people think [about true Islam], which benefitted Islam greatly."

Some of the high-profile Western converts who have captured the public limelight have been those drawn to the terrorist cause espoused by radical Islamists. According to the FBI, John Walker, a 20-year-old California man, took up arms with the Taliban and even met bin Laden and knew he had ordered the attacks.

Richard Reid is alleged to have packed plastic explosives into the heels of his black suede high-tops in an attempt to bomb American Airlines Flight 63 last month. In the mid-1990s, he came out of prison and joined a Brixton mosque in London, where he met Zacarias Moussaoui, the "20th" terrorist who engineered the hijacking of the planes that crashed into New York's World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon in Washington.

However, many American and European converts are similar to those in the New Muslim class for converts run by the Islamic Society of Boston. They do not support terrorism, nor share the al-Qaeda credo. They are well-educated, articulate, former Christians; some are even Jewish and Hindu.

These new Muslims, like the approximately 25,000 Hispanic converts in New York and California, are surprise converts to a religion that is the fastest growing in the United States. There are now six million adherents across the country, and more than 30% of mosque attendees are converts, according to a recent survey by four Muslim-American groups.

Some had studied Buddhism, flirted with Roman Catholicism or spent time with Quakers, but ultimately found them lacking.

Conversion is an intensely personal journey. But the influx of new Muslims prompts a number of questions. Why would people choose to embrace the faith at this time in history, when it suffers from such a public relations problem that Muslims can be spit on for wearing a hijab, called rag-heads and taunted in the street? And, a more fundamental question: What can a religion that segregates genders, bans dancing and drinking and requires women to cover up not just their hair, but their elbows and knees, offer to liberated American women?

- - -

"Asalam Alaikum!" the New Muslims sisters call out to one another as they arrive at the Old Country Buffet in a suburban mall to celebrate Eid, the end of Ramadan. The class is marking the occasion a few weeks late, to accommodate the Christmas holidays, which many of the new converts observed with their families.

Some are dressed in jeans and running shoes, their long blond hair shiny and loose; others are in shalwar kameez, their hair completely covered by embroidered hijabs.

Laughing boisterously, they tuck into plates of baked potatoes, roast beef and ice cream sundaes. A few have brought along their young children, who race around the restaurant.

Around the table are Ms. Motschenbacher and Ms. Portmann, as well as two "closet converts": Laura, a 21-year-old Harvard medical student in a V-necked sweater and T-shirt, and Lisa, a 36-year-old sales manager with blue eyes and honey-coloured hair, looking as all-American as a Gap ad.

The evening might be mistaken for a women's book club meeting, or a girls' night out, albeit one with lemonade instead of wine.

The conversation flows from social niceties, such as plans for a class member's upcoming engagement party, to where to buy halal meat, and purchase a hijab online.

The eldest class member, Karen Courtenay, a 61-year-old linguist who said the shahadah over the telephone last May, sums up how many of the converts feel about what she calls Islam's rich mysticism and clear theology and rules, which include fasting during Ramadan, praying five times a day and making a pilgrimage to Mecca.

"Many Christians express dismay about the Trinity, about the tri-partite God. With Islam, there are no miracles and things you can't understand. Also, the congregational prayer, where everyone prays in a certain way in Arabic and in ritual positions is very powerful. Then there's the social aspect: If you come from a cold, WASP New England culture, the hugging and hospitality you get from Arab sisters is just wonderful."

Laura, who was raised as a secular Christian, says she converted by herself in her room a year ago. "The Koran really touched my heart and I liked the inner logic of the religion. It can be seen as un-American, but it is one of the great religions of the world and applies to all places and times," she says.

Neither she nor Lisa cover their heads -- they are not ready to take this final step of being publicly identified as Muslims.

"It was a big step to convert. Until I found this class, I felt like I was the only American girl in the whole world who wanted to convert to Islam and that I was losing my mind," says Lisa, grinning.

She converted before she met and married a Pakistani Muslim, and has not disclosed either life change to her Anglican parents. She takes solace in her new faith: "I liked the fact that to become a Muslim you don't have to disrespect Jesus. He is still a prophet, just not the son of God, which I'd always struggled with."

But even as she joyfully embraces Islam's family values and moral certainty, she, like many converts, continues to struggle with some of the cultural mores that forbid women to wear short sleeves or shake hands with males who are not relatives.

"I have an independent nature and there are lots of things I'm still trying to understand," says Lisa, who plans to renew her vows at an American-style wedding reception, with bridesmaids and a white gown.

Some converts do not like having to pray in a separate area from men, with the imam's words coming to them via closed-circuit television. "It's like being back in Alabama in the 1960s with whites on one side and blacks on the other," says Ms. Courtenay, who adds that at her mosque, some women do pray upstairs, behind the men.

Other converts do not miss the distraction of men, and feel more comfortable praying only with women and children. For Ms. Motschenbacher, not having to date or wear the latest styles came as a relief.

Protection from male lust is also what attracted the group's youngest convert: 15-year-old Nirva Guirand, a Haitian-American, in a white head scarf.

"When I developed in the sixth grade, I got unwanted attention from guys. With Islam, I felt I got respect as a young woman," she says.

It was the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, an act perpetrated by al-Qaeda in 1998, that prompted Andrea Useem, a 28-year-old journalist who was raised Episcopalian, to convert. Through her interviews with prominent Muslim leaders, she began to appreciate the religion's structure and form. She separated the theology from the actions of extremists who claimed to kill in the name of Islam.

"I thought it was genius to pray five times a day," says Ms. Useem, who now teaches the class. "It is more comprehensive than Christianity. It's a total package. Sometimes I've had to stop and pray under a tree. At times, you feel you're just like every other weird American doing their thing."

- - -

Religious scholars believe it is difficult for a Western, secular culture to understand the power of religion, because it plays such an ambiguous role in our own society. This might be precisely the draw of Islam. While new Muslims see their change of faith in theological terms, it also gives them a sense of community order they might not find in U.S. society, explains Earl Waugh, a professor of religion at the University of Alberta.

"They may be converting in reaction to feelings of ambivalence and ambiguity of being a Christian in the U.S., when Santa Claus is more predominant in the consciousness than the birth of Jesus," he says. Islam is seen as the best and only way to answer the United States' moral decay and materialism.

Others might be identifying with the underdog and the downtrodden and see conversion as an act of defiance.

A crisis such as the terrorist attacks can often prompt those who have not yet had publicly to declare their conviction to do so. "It makes them want to say something about their existential person, rather than just to be an American," says Prof. Waugh.

Last September's terrorist attacks may have attracted new converts -- but they also prompted a crisis for the larger Muslim community.

When Ms. Useem heard bin Laden's bragging about the many Islam converts that followed the terrorist "operation," she felt sickened. "I converted in spite of him, not because of him," she said. "Sept. 11 has forced Muslim-Americans to become outward-looking overnight. There are inner contradictions. With immigrant Muslims, you get their politics, and you have to figure out what are your politics? What is a Muslim's responsibility when a Muslim does something like that?"

Lack of understanding is often greatest closest to home.

After Sept. 11, Ms. Guirand's own mother interpreted her recent conversion as a gesture of support for terrorism. "My mother said, 'What's the matter with you, do you love Osama bin Laden? Do you want to be his wife?' I told her, it's something he did, it's not what the religion teaches."

In the neighbouring state of New York, Ms. Guirand might have something in common with another group of surprising converts, or "reverts" as many of them prefer to be known: Latino Muslims.

At first glance, the religion might seem as alien to Latinos, with their long tradition of Roman Catholicism and fiesta spirit, as to liberated American women. But many Hispanic Muslims see their conversion as a return to their Moorish roots, just as many blacks see Islam as part of their African heritage.

"People say, you're not really Latino if you're Muslim but being a Muslim means you've embraced Arab culture, which was present in the Iberian peninsula for 900 years," says Ibrahim Gonzalez, a "Nuyorican" or Puerto Rican New Yorker, who co-founded Alianza Islamica, a Hispanic mosque in the Bronx.

Other Hispanics are attracted to Islam for reasons of spiritual redemption; as an alternative to the Judeo-Christian establishment; and because they are influenced by the African-American communities they live near.

Some may have converted in prison, following the lead of their black brothers. In New York State prisons, for example, as many as 40% to 60% of black prisoners are Muslim converts, according to Robert Dannin, a New York University professor and author of Black Pilgrimage to Islam.

As with American women, Latino Muslims must relinquish elements of their effusive culture; samba music, dancing and the barranda, a Puerto Rican holiday tradition that involves going from house to house dancing and drinking, have no place in Islam.

Yet just as some new sisters still bare their tresses, some Latinos continue to play their merengue and salsa music quietly at home.

Others know that conservative Islam forbids these pleasures -- and relish the sacrifice as proof of their new-found devotion.

Source: http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20020119/1180278.html

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Famous converts to
Islam

MIM: Skip aka Sheik Estes is fond of asking rhetorical questions.

He produced a tape entitled "Does Islam =Terrorism?"

http://www.islamtomorrow.com/yusuf.asp

Priests And Preachers Enter ISLAM?

The media classifies Muslims as "terrorists," "highjackers" and "kidnappers." So why would anyone even look at Islam? Why are so many priests and preachers going to Islam?

MIM: Peace Train Man Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens) was "peaced off" at being banned from entering the US due to his funding for Hamas and Al Qaeda . Islam feigned ignorance and said he planned to sue the American government."Half of me wants to smile, and half of me wants to growl" he said, after being deported from the U.S.