Record number of British women converting to Islam

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RECORD numbers of British women are converting to Islam, The Sun reported on Tuesday. There are up to 100,000 converts in the UK - up from around 60,000 in 2001 - with white women leading the trend, according to research for the Faith Matters organization. A study by Swansea University, on behalf of Faith Matters, found 5,200 people converted to Islam in the UK last year. And a survey of 122 converts last year showed 56 per cent were white British, with women making up 62 per cent of respondents.

Emma Taylor, now a Muslimah

Emma Taylor, 30, from Reading, Berks, loved partying but converted to Islam. She says: “I was raised a Catholic but after-school partying and living a wannabe WAG lifestyle became my religion. I loved buying awful clothes and indulging in immoral activities. As a filing clerk in an office I only earn £16,000 but until last year I managed to make it stretch by living in a shared house so I could spend my cash on looking and feeling good. However in January last year, with my 30th birthday looming, I began to think that waking up with a hangover most mornings, having no long-term bloke in my life and no real ambition meant something was missing. I’d also just come through a bad break-up and one night my Muslim mate invited me around for dinner. Susan was more stable and content than my friends and I always turned to her for advice even though, at 28, she was two years younger than me. She converted to Islam three years ago. While I was at Susan’s she broke away to pray. I watched and she seemed so at peace with her life. That’s when I asked her about her religion.

She didn’t ear bash me but she suggested websites and that I should go to a mosque. She said everyone was welcome, if respectful of others. On March 2 I went to mosque with her. She’d told me what I should wear and supplied me with a headscarf. The day changed my life. Sitting with the other women I felt a weird sense of relief and acceptance come over me. For an hour my problems disappeared. I liked the boundaries, with the men separated from the women, and the sense of reverence, of kindness. For the first time ever I felt spiritually alive. With my friend’s help, I co any role in my life and I was a stereotypical teenager. I rebelled and got a tattoo and a lip ring. I had boyfriends and would go out drinking with my friends. At uni there was a big drinking culture and I did part-time bar work as well. I didn’t have any Muslim friends and had very stereotypical ideas of what Islam was about - a male- dominated culture where women were oppressed. But all that changed when, aged 25, I went on holiday to Egypt. There I met Muslim locals and found myself absorbed by their culture. Hearing the call to prayer every day awoke something in me and I started to feel a strong spiritual connection to Islam. I was astonished at how respectful the men seemed - not like the letches at home.

Once home I decided to find out more and I got in touch with a friend who had converted to Islam. He invited me to a talk and when I walked in, the room was full of women wearing Niqabs. I thought they would judge me but they were so welcoming. As I explored Islam more, it hit home that I felt a connection because it was what I believed anyway. I realized it made sense not to drink because it’s bad for you and I found covering up was more liberating than being a slave to fashion. Soon afterwards I made my declaration of faith and converted to Islam. It felt like the right thing to do but it took a few weeks for me to tell my family and I was nervous about their reaction. At the time there were lots of terrorism arrests taking place in the UK. My family were worried at first but I made a real effort to show them that I hadn’t changed. I wear a headscarf but I chose not to wear the hijab and my family could see I was still the same person. Now they are very supportive.

(Source: The Sun)

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