An evening with reverts
a non-Muslim’s perspective 23 Muharram 1426
by Liz Harris
We arrived early at the beautiful Azizye Mosque in Stoke Newington. The hall was pretty empty and on such a cold night, I expected perhaps 50 people to turn up. I was wrong. After another half an hour, the hall was packed with around 200 reverts. Initially, I felt a little awkward – after all, I was the only woman with her head uncovered. Most women were wearing the jilbab and there were several niqabis as well. Should I cover my head? I asked my friend. No, no, it’s fine, she smiled back at me. My sense of awkwardness soon dissipated as I chatted to other women on the ‘sister’s’ side of the room.
The event began with the film, ‘From Darkness to Light’ which documented the journey of several reverts to Islam. Each of them spoke about their initial preconceptions about the religion and most had formerly had a negative impression of Islam, one even going so far as to say that she was known as, ‘the Muslim hater.’ I could strongly relate to this negativity, as I too once bore the same prejudices. I would never have admitted to having them, however; in fact, in true, liberal knee-jerk tradition I would defend Muslims in the face of any detractor, but quite frankly, Islam scared me. Then, after university, I gained employment with an international organisation in a Muslim country and this experience changed both my life and my previous opinions. And so here I am, in a meeting which just two years ago, I would never have dreamed that I would have attended. What’s more, I am covering it as a journalist for a Muslim newspaper. Am I a Muslim? Could I be a Muslim? Perhaps this meeting would help me find out.
After the film, there was a question and answer session with a panel of four revert brothers. Reverts from the audience asked variously how to help their families (often agnostic or atheist) cope with their acceptance of Islam, what the particular personal difficulties were that they had encountered, what the turning point had been for them. The issue of racism arose, an aspect which had never occurred to me. Apparently there are prejudices against reverts which surface particularly when the question of marriage is at stake as parents often prefer that their child’s match is from the ‘right’ racial background. Our parent’s generation were more concerned with nationalism than pure Islam, Hamida explains afterwards. Born and raised in the UK, Hamida is from a Bengali Muslim background, but her background was not particularly religious. We fasted during Ramadan and observed halal, but it was more as a ritual than from any deep-seated conviction. Was she brought up wearing the hijab and jilbab? Oh no! She laughs, my mother calls me ‘the convert’ It was a fascinating realisation for me that many of the people present were from a similar background. It is easy to assume that just because someone is of Asian appearance, that they have always been a Muslim. However, many have simply been brought up observing the rituals and did not come to a conscious acceptance of Islam as the truth until later in life.
Later, I met 21 year-old Abi Lee Carter, a revert who was not from a Muslim or even a very religious background. Abi became a Muslim about 8 months ago after studying Islam for about a year. A very bright and articulate girl who now wears the hijab and jilbab, she confessed to a weakness for night-clubbing before she converted. Like me, she had quite a negative view of Islam before she started finding out about it. Speaking to Abi, I found there were many things we shared in common in our appreciation of Islam, particularly in the treatment of women and in the issue of covering up. I used to think that being ‘made ‘ to cover up was repressive and whilst I still support the right of any woman to wear what she wants, I have come to realise that covering up gives the woman back her power not to be viewed merely as an available, sexual object. As Abi put it, If I wear skimpy clothes, I can’t control who looks at me and what they are thinking about me.
By the end of the meeting I had come to realise the important difference between myself and the other reverts: my appreciation of Islam is based on its practices and not on the conviction that the Qur’an is the word of God. It was kindly pointed out to me that my affection so far has been for a particular Islamic culture that I experienced, rather than a true realisation of the deen. In itself, this was encouraging as it showed that rather than wanting to gain another Muslim ‘scalp’, these Muslims wanted me to gain a thorough understanding, knowledge and above all acceptance of the truth of Islam before taking the mighty step of reversion. So it’s back to the drawing board for me!
http://www.themuslimweekly.com/newspaper/viewfullstory.aspx?NewsID=TW00002151
Reverts to Islam on the rise in the UK… i’m sure the Church must be planning something.
