Re: Tony Blair's SIL Converts to Islam!
Good that she converted to Islam... If it was vice versa, there would have been a fatwa on her head by now.
Rubbish, read post 53, the article is written by a woman who has turned away from Islam. dont see any fatwa against her. Little knowledge is dangerous.
Re: Tony Blair’s SIL Converts to Islam!
lol
Okay little brother perhaps but betaaaaa? 
I’m old but not that old. 
Re: Tony Blair’s SIL Converts to Islam!
I am sorry man but I can’t get myself to believe the idea of making a dead person a bridge between yourself and Allah. What makes you think he wouldn’t listen to you because he is so mad at you for not being a good person? I don’t see much difference in asking these dodgy peers fakeers to do the ‘safarish’ and going to shrines and graves and beg those buried for safarish. Any human, no matter how pious they were, can’t give you nothing once they are dead, although they might give you stuff when they are alive. Like you might learn a lot and build up your character in their company. Once they are gone, I believe the best thing to do is to pray for their forgiveness. Allah is very much accessible, he is close, all we need to do is ask. And if Allah doesn’t want to give us something, you think he will give us that if one of the popular ones ask him to? Doesn’t make much sense to me really.
Khair I really shouldn’t hijack this thread. Call me a wahabi or whatever other names you good muslims have for people who don’t believe in the miracles of dead people 
I respect what you believe in, and I am sure you have good reason to believe what you believe. Its just that I don’t get into too many complications. If I need something, I will go ask the Big Guy directly. And I know he would listen to me just as good as he would listen to anyone else.
Re: Tony Blair’s SIL Converts to Islam!
Good for you.
It’s just a different way of looking at things, Quran says don’t call Shuhda dead, varily they are alive…" Prophets are even much higher in rank than shuhda and awliya. We cannot judge people who visit shrines because we don’t know if they are asking Allah for help or asking others for help or may be they are only making the soul of a pious a wasila to ask God.
Re: Tony Blair’s SIL Converts to Islam!
1-Prophet him self had no “miracles” , I believed when he asked for one allah said “quran is your miracle”
2-miracles are more like metaphysics rather then “proof” of some ones’ holiness. Other wise all magicians would be saints. But they aren’t.
3-Seriously if you cant see “magic” in Gods word.. hmmm
You are just hopeless. :hinna:
Re: Tony Blair’s SIL Converts to Islam!
:k: Agreed twice over!
Re: Tony Blair's SIL Converts to Islam!
haha @ god saying "oi you kafirs, sing my praises on the last day and il forgive you..otherwise im gonna have some fun in the boiler room" hahahah what a sadist !
Re: Tony Blair's SIL Converts to Islam!
Rubbish, read post 53, the article is written by a woman who has turned away from Islam. dont see any fatwa against her. Little knowledge is dangerous.
For a second imagine a high profile person such as the Saudi prince's sister-in-law turning away from Islam. Fatwas would have been the order of the day...
It helps to put things in perspective
Re: Tony Blair’s SIL Converts to Islam!
Not that Wiki is really an authentic source but here is a list of those muslims who converted openly to Christiamity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_converted_to_Christianity
Provide any informatoin where any so called ‘fatwa’ was issued against them.
Been watching hateful channels lately?
Re: Tony Blair’s SIL Converts to Islam!
All they are saying that do not be political or lie.
People who greet others for their religious festivals may be either political or showing off their so called tolerance.
Re: Tony Blair’s SIL Converts to Islam!
Why I love Islam: Lauren Booth defiantly explains why she is becoming a Muslim
By Lauren Booth
Last updated at 12:05 AM on 31st October 2010
It is the most peculiar journey of my life. The carriage is warm and my fellow passengers unexpectedly welcoming. We are progressing rapidly and without delay. Rain, snow, rail unions, these things make no difference to the forward rush.
Yet I have no idea how I came to be on board nor, stranger still, quite where the train is heading, apart from this: the destination, wherever it might be, is the most important place I can imagine.I know this all seems gloriously far-fetched, but really it is how I feel about my conversion, announced last week, to Islam.
‘My father was an alcoholic so if I’m going to avoid the stuff what could be better?’
Although the means and *mechanisms that brought me to this point remain mysterious, the decision will determine every aspect of my life to come as firmly as the twin rails beneath that exhilarating express.
Asked for a simple explanation of how I, an English hack journalist, a *single working mother, signed up to the Western media’s least-favourite religion, I suppose I would point to an intensely spiritual experience in an Iranian mosque just over a month ago. But it makes more sense to go back to January 2005, when I arrived alone in the West Bank to cover the elections there for The Mail on Sunday. It is safe to say that before that visit I had never spent any time with Arabs, or Muslims.
The whole experience was a shock, but not for the reasons I might have expected. So much of what we know about this part of the world and the people who follow Mohammed the Prophet is based on disturbing – some would say biased – news bulletins.
So, as I flew towards the Middle East, my mind was full of the usual 10pm buzz words: radical extremists, fanatics, forced marriages, suicide bombers and jihad. Not much of a travel brochure.
My very first experience, though, could hardly have been more positive. I had arrived on the West Bank without a coat, as the Israeli airport authorities had kept my suitcase.
Walking around the centre of Ramallah, I was shivering, whereupon an old lady grabbed my hand.
Back in the day: Lauren and her father looking close before she her interest in Islam grew
Talking rapidly in Arabic, she took me into a house on a side street. Was I being kidnapped by a rather elderly terrorist? For several confusing minutes I watched her going through her daughter’s wardrobe until she pulled out a coat, a hat and a scarf.
I was then taken back to the street where I had been walking, given a kiss and sent warmly on my way. There had been not a single comprehensible word exchanged between us.
It was an act of generosity I have never forgotten, and one which, in various guises, I have seen repeated a hundred times. Yet this warmth of spirit is so rarely represented in what we read and see in the news.
Over the course of the next three years I made numerous journeys to the occupied lands which were once historic Palestine. At first I went on assignments; as time went by, I started travelling in solidarity with charities and pro-Palestinian groups.
I felt challenged by the hardships suffered by Palestinians of all creeds. It is important to remember there have been Christians in the Holy Land for 2,000 years and that they too are suffering under Israel’s illegal occupation. Gradually I found expressions such as ‘Mashallah!’ (a phrase of gratitude meaning ‘God has willed it’) and ‘Al Hamdillilah!’ (akin to ‘Hallelujah’) creeping into my everyday speech. These are exclamations of delight derived from the 100 names of God, or Allah. Far from being nervous of Muslim groups, I started looking forward to meeting them. It was an opportunity to be with people of intelligence, wit and, above all else, kindness and generosity.
I’m going to take a break here to pray for ten minutes as it’s 1.30pm. (There are five prayers each day, the times varying throughout the year depending on the rising and setting of the sun.)
I was in no doubt that I had embarked on a change of political understanding, one in which Palestinians became families rather than terror suspects, and Muslim cities communities rather than ‘collateral damage’.
But a religious journey? This would never have occurred to me. Although I have always liked to pray and, since childhood, have enjoyed the stories of Jesus and the more ancient prophets that I had picked up at school and at the Brownies, I was brought up in a very secular household.
It was probably an appreciation of Muslim culture, in particular that of Muslim women, that first drew me towards a broader appreciation of Islam.
How strange Muslim women seem to English eyes, all covered up from head to toe, sometimes walking behind their husbands (although this is far from universally the case), with their children around their long skirts. By contrast, professional women in Europe are happy to make the most of their appearance.
I, for example, have always been proud of my lovely blonde hair and, yes, my cleavage. It was common working practice to have this on display at all times because so much of what we sell these days has to do with our appearance.
Yet whenever I have been invited to broadcast on television, I have sat watching in wonder as the female presenters spend up to an hour on their hair and make- up, before giving the serious topics under discussion less than 15 minutes’ attention. Is this liberation? I began to wonder just how much true respect girls and women get in our ‘free’ society.
In 2007 I went to Lebanon. I spent four days with female university students, all of whom wore the full hijab: belted shirts over dark trousers or jeans, with no hair on show. They were charming, independent and outspoken company. They were not at all the timid, soon-to-be-forced-into-marriage girls I would have imagined from what we often read in the West.
At one point they accompanied me to interview a sheikh who was also a commander with the Hezbollah militia. I was pleasantly surprised by his attitude to the girls. As Sheikh Nabil, in turban and brown flowing robes, talked intriguingly of a prisoner swap, they started butting in. They felt free to talk over him, to put a hand up for him to pause while they translated.
HOW WE BROKE THE STORY AND WHAT LAUREN’S CRITICS SAID
‘There is quite a lot that could be said about anyone who converts to Islam in Iran under the impression that it is less inhumane than New Labour, but as a piece of theatre, Lauren Booth’s conversion could hardly be beaten.’
Andrew Brown’s blog,
The Guardian
‘I can’t help but feel a pang of sorrow that an educated female from the free West, however well-intentioned, wants to embrace a religion whose hardline adherents appear to have so little respect for women.’
Jan Moir, Daily Mail
‘Can you really claim to have converted to Islam when you’ve only read the first 60 pages of the Koran? What if you don’t like the ending?’
High Street Ken diary,
The Independent
‘A woman, choosing to act as a front for a gang of thugs who uphold the punishment of death by stoning for adulteresses. This is surely Stockholm Syndrome gone gaga.’
Julie Burchill, The Independent
‘It’s baffling how a journalist could visit a country with Iran’s appalling human rights record and not be moved to report on the injustices suffered by its people.’
Peyvand Khorsandi,
Evening Standard
‘Could I start a fund for a full veil?’
Janet Street-Porter, Daily Mail
In fact, the bossiness of Muslim women is something of a joke that rings true in so many homes in the community. You want to see men under the thumb? Look at many Muslim husbands more than other kinds. Indeed, just yesterday, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia rang me and only half-jokingly introduced himself as ‘my wife’s husband’.
Something else was changing, too. The more time I spent in the Middle East, the more I asked to be taken into mosques. Just for touristy reasons, I told myself.
In fact I found them fascinating. Free of statues and with rugs instead of pews, I saw them rather like a big sitting room where children play, women feed their families pitta bread and milk and grandmothers sit and read the Koran in wheelchairs. They take their lives into their place of worship and bring their worship into their homes.
**Then came the night in the Iranian city of Qom, beneath the golden dome of the shrine of Fatima Mesumah (the revered ‘Learned Lady’). Like the other women pilgrims, I said Allah’s name several times while holding on to the bars of Fatima’s tomb. **
When I sat down, a pulse of sheer spiritual joy shot through me. Not the joy that lifts you off the ground, but the joy that gives you complete peace and contentment. I sat for a long time. Young women gathered around me talking of the ‘amazing thing happening to you’.
I knew then I was no longer a tourist in Islam but a traveller inside the Ummah, the community of Islam that links all believers.
At first I wanted the feeling to go, and for several reasons. Was I ready to convert? What on earth would friends and family think? Was I ready to moderate my behaviour in many ways?
And here’s the really strange thing. I needn’t have worried about any of these things, because somehow becoming a Muslim is really easy – although the practicalities are a very different matter, of course.
For a start, Islam demands a great deal of study, yet I am mother to two children and work full-time. You are expected to read the Koran from beginning to end, plus the thoughts and findings of imams and all manner of spiritually enlightened people. Most people would spend months, if not years of study before making their declaration.
People ask me how much of the Koran I’ve read, and my answer is that I’ve only covered 100 pages or so to date, and in translation. But before anyone sneers, the verses of the Koran should be read ten lines at a time, and they should be recited, considered and, if possible, committed to memory. It’s not like OK! magazine.
This is a serious text that I am going to know for life. It would help to learn Arabic and I would like to, but that will also take time.
**I have a relationship with a couple of mosques in North London, and I am hoping to make a routine of going at least once a week. I would never say, by the way, whether I will take a Sunni or a Shia path. For me, there is one Islam and one Allah. **
Adopting modest dress, however, is rather less troublesome than you might think. Wearing a headscarf means I’m ready to go out more quickly than before. I was blushing the first time I wore it loosely over my hair just a few weeks ago.
Luckily it was cold outside, so few people paid attention. Going out in the sunshine was more of a challenge, but this is a tolerant country and no one has looked askance so far.
Change of lifestyle:Lauren enjoying a drink with Chris Evans at the 1998 Labour conference
A veil, by the way, is not for me, let alone something more substantial like a burka. I’m making no criticism of women who choose that level of modesty. But Islam has no expectation that I will adopt a more severe form of dress.
Predictably, some areas of the Press have had a field day with my conversion, unleashing a torrent of abuse that is not really aimed at me but a false idea of Islam. But I have ignored the more negative comments. Some people don’t understand spirituality and any discussion of it makes them frightened. It raises awkward questions about the meaning of their own lives and they lash out.
One of my concerns is professional. It is easy to get pigeonholed, particularly if I continue to wear a headscarf. In fact, based on the experience of other female converts, I’m wondering if I will be treated as though I have lost my mind.
I’ve been political all my life, and that will continue. I’ve been involved in pro-Palestinian activism for a number of years, and don’t expect to stop. Yet Britain is a more tolerant country than, say, France or Germany.
I’m well aware that there are plenty of Muslim women who have great success on television and in the Press, and wear modest but decidedly Western dress.This is hardly a choice for me, though. I am a newcomer, still getting to grips with the basic tenets. My relationship with Islam is different. I am in no position to say that some bits of my new-found faith suit me and that some bits I’ll ignore.
There is a more profound uncertainty about the future, too. I feel changes going on in me every day – that I’m becoming a different person. I wonder where that will end up. Who will I be?
I am fortunate in that my most important relationships remain strong. The reaction from my non-Muslim friends has been more curious than hostile. ‘Will it change you?’ they ask. ‘Can we still be your friend? Can we go out drinking?’
The answer to the first two of those questions is yes. The last is a big happy no.
As for my mother, I think she is happy if I’m happy. And if, coming from a background of my father’s alcoholism, I’m going to avoid the stuff, then what could be better?
Growing up in an alcoholic household with a dad who was violent, has left a great gap in my life. It is a wound that will never heal and his remarks about me are very hurtful. We haven’t seen each other for years, so how can he know anything about me or have any valid views about my conversion? I just feel sorry for him. The rest of my family is very supportive.
My mum and I had a difficult relationship when I was growing up, but we have built bridges and she’s a great support to me and the girls. When I told her I had converted, she did say: ‘Not to those nutters. I thought you said Buddhism!’ But she understand now and accepts it.
And, as it happens, giving up alcohol was a breeze. In fact I can’t imagine tasting alcohol ever again. I simply don’t want to.
Wrapping up: Sister of Cherie Blair wears the traditional Hijab headwear since she has converted to Islam
This is not the time for me to be thinking about relationships with men, either. I’m recovering from the breakdown of my marriage and am now going through a divorce. So I’m not looking and am under no pressure to look. If, when the time came, I did consider remarrying, then, in accordance with my adopted faith, the husband would need to be Muslim.
I’m asked: ‘Will my daughters be Muslim?’ I don’t know, that is up to them. You can’t change someone’s heart. But they’re certainly not hostile and their reaction to my surprising conversion was perhaps the most telling of all.
I sat in the kitchen and called them in. ‘Girls, I have some news for you,’ I began. ‘I am now a Muslim.’ They went into a *huddle, with the eldest, Alex, saying: ‘We have some questions, we’ll be right back.’
They made a list and returned. Alex cleared her throat. ‘Will you drink alcohol any more?’
Answer: No. The response – a rather worrying ‘Yay!’
‘Will you smoke cigarettes any more?’ Smoking isn’t haram (forbidden) but it is harmful, so I answered: ‘No.’
Again, this was met with puritanical approval. Their final question, though, took me aback. ‘Will you have your breasts out in public now you are a Muslim?’
What??
It seems they’d both been embarrassed by my plunging shirts and tops and had cringed on the school run at my pallid cleavage. Perhaps in hindsight I should have cringed as well.
‘Now that I’m Muslim,’ I said, ‘I will never have my breasts out in public again.’
‘We love Islam!’ they cheered and went off to play. And I love Islam too.
Source: Why I love Islam: Lauren Booth defiantly explains why she is becoming a Muslim | Daily Mail Online
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Re: Tony Blair's SIL Converts to Islam!
All they are saying that do not be political or lie.
People who greet others for their religious festivals may be either political or showing off their so called tolerance.
what do you mean by "so called tolerance" with regards to what i had quoted? how exactly is it political greeting a nonmuslim? when i as a nonmuslim say "eid mubarak" it's neither fake tolerance/respect nor is it political in nature. just trying to integrate with society and in particular islamic culture
Re: Tony Blair's SIL Converts to Islam!
what do you mean by "so called tolerance" with regards to what i had quoted? how exactly is it political greeting a nonmuslim? when i as a nonmuslim say "eid mubarak" it's neither fake tolerance/respect nor is it political in nature. just trying to integrate with society and in particular islamic culture
Suppose it was never 'required' for anyone to greet other on his/her relgious celebrtion to 'assimilate' or 'intiegrate', would you still do that?
Please really think about it.
What I am referring to is that there should not be an expectation from anyone from someone to greet others for his/her religious festivals to accept other as a fellow human being.
Where did you get the idea to say "in particular islamic culture"?
Islamic culture care less if any non-muslim comes and say Eid Mubarak to muslims.
They would still go about their business and would not think of any less of that person just because that person did not say 'Eid Mubarak'. :)
Don't you think others should follow the suit?
Re: Tony Blair’s SIL Converts to Islam!
yes b/c unfortunately i would see you as a fellow human being not only as a muslim, if you were my neighbor, i would want to enjoy with you all the islamic festivities, that’s how most human being would be, i would think..
and i’ve really thought about it.
i would say ramzan mubarak not b/c of any “expectation”, i just would feel weird not being a part of all the festivities if i had most all muslim neighbors.
that’s the thing, i can’t understand that way of thinking that you are talking about or the imam and most muslims talk about in regards to nonmuslims and nonmuslim practices. not caring less about other people’s culture and seeing their religions as fake
no i personally don’t think others should follow suit and the bold part was majorly harsh man, you didn’t pause even for a second before saying something so hurtful to me a fellow human being. wow and ouch.
anyways, thanks for your valuable time in explaining that, it wasn’t arrogant at all 
bubye
Re: Tony Blair’s SIL Converts to Islam!
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Re: Tony Blair's SIL Converts to Islam!
why is it always those people that are in total emotional pain that get convinced to convert to islam though? **muslims never go through emotional hell or suffer from pain ever? I guess muslims are so special that they are exempt from going through any type of emotional pain. God has made sure of that.
**
You're joking right? Nobody over the age of 5 can be this naive
Re: Tony Blair's SIL Converts to Islam!
You're joking right? Nobody over the age of 5 can be this naive
well it was in reference to the fact that she converted to islam after going through intense emotional pain from her family member being in the hospital and even A R rahman converted to his mother's religion after his father's death before which he saw his father suffering for months. what is that revelation that they got....
i mean even i've learned about all the beautiful things about islam too, some things about islamic culture i do love but those parts that i pointed out earlier would always keep me nonmuslim
Re: Tony Blair's SIL Converts to Islam!
some people like the sense of belonging and attachment to a social group you get my joining a highly emotionalised religion
Re: Tony Blair's SIL Converts to Islam!
.
Real arrogant person would the one who accepts someone as being 'good' if other person comes out and greets but not the others who choose to not greet.
i didn't say that a person isn't 'good' if they didn't greet another. but the reasons that the imam gave and even the quranic verses that were used as a reference are implying that the disbelievers are trying to cause a muslim to go on the 'wrong' path if a muslim participates in nonmuslim practices or greets a nonmuslim.
anyways, we'll agree to disagree on this.
Re: Tony Blair's SIL Converts to Islam!
i didn't say that a person isn't 'good' if they didn't greet another. but the reasons that the imam gave and even the quranic verses that were used as a reference are implying that the disbelievers are trying to cause a muslim to go on the 'wrong' path if a muslim participates in nonmuslim practices or greets a nonmuslim. anyways, we'll agree to disagree on this.
I do not think you can get away that easy by saying we agree to disagree.
A muslim should not be required to greet other and a non-muslim should not need to greet a muslim to get accepted or assimilted. That was the whole point I talked about. Same goes with participating in religious activities.
No one should feel compelled to begin with.
Nothing wrong with that.
I asked you will you still greet if this was not even expected from you to get assimilated, integrated or accepted as a felllow human being?
You did not answer that. No problem. :)
