Greek Muslims majority at European camp

Source:  IslamOnline.net

Article:  EU Muslim Converts Sharing Experiences (at NEMA Camp in Turkey)

“Participants are coming from different European countries, but Greek Muslim participants represent the majority.”

Imagine 60 native European Muslims to gather in one place for four days to discuss, learn, and seek beneficial inspiration for overcoming any challenges facing them as European Muslim reverts – that is what the Native European Muslim Assembly (NEMA) current camp looks like.

As one of the associations of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE), NEMA organizes its second annual meeting for EU Muslim converts in Istanbul. The camp, which started on April 10 and lasted for three days, aimed at reinforcing a European-scale network for the new Muslims.

“NEMA has already held two important meetings; the first took place in Brussels which aimed at getting accurate view of new Muslims, determining the main challenges, and setting an action plan for NEMA’s task while the second one was in Birmingham, UK, where the reverts’ monitors had a series of training sessions,” said Dr. Hany El-Deeb, NEMA’s president.

“This project came very late as it should have been launched years ago,” said Dr. Ayman Ali, FIOE’s secretary general,referring to NEMA’s recent launch that was founded after the FIOE’s New Muslims Committee (NMC)’s workshop in May, 2007.

Inspiring Models

Over the four-day camp, EU reverts are presenting their successful experiences to set models for the other participants.

Nourdeen Wilderman, a Dutch lecturer within the Dutch Islamic Ummah, is one of the converted presenters who came to Istanbul to share his inspiring experiences with others. His range of activities included delivering speeches, interacting with the media and acting as a stand-up comedian.

Wildeman’s presentation was mainly tackling his well-developed project: “Masjid Finder”, which he hoped to expand with the help of fellow Muslims. Speaking about his project, which serves as a good example for a Da’wah effort carried out by a proactive revert according to NEMA, he says, “My project provides a detailed database of Mosques in the Netherlands.”

“By car, I have visited more than 250 mosques in the Netherlands to confirm their addresses, the services they offer, the languages they use in Friday khutbas, and more detailed information.”

Wildeman, who was officially converted to Islam in December2007, got his project’s idea from what he used to experience when googling the mosques in his region.

“I used to follow the information available online, but unfortunately it was usually out of date.”

Greek Muslims Rethink

Participants are coming from different European countries, but Greek Muslim participants represent the majority.

“The group of Greek Muslims who came here not only for the camp’s activities, but also to discuss serious issues of the Muslim affairs in Greece,” said Naim Al-Ghandour, president of the Muslim Association of Greece who takes part in the camp.

The Greek Muslim group has managed to create a team that would work hard on solving the Muslims’ problems in Greece. The meeting was coordinated by Greeks Rethink, member of the Muslim Association of Greece. “It is absolutely necessary for our team to act radically since the Muslim population in Greece is constantly increasing.”

Networking

While Dr. Jamal Badawi’s lectures were advantageous for many participants who came to learn from him how to respond to controversial questions and how to deal with other non-Muslims in general, networking also was of interest to many of the camp attendants.

“I am attending the camp to do networking with other European converts,” says Alser Ebroothaers, a Belgian Muslim convert. Ebroothaers, who has been a Muslim for almost a year, is looking forward to getting connected with new converts through the camp as she worked with a Belgian organization for converted women. She wants to see how her organization can expand and reach out to new converts in Europe through making use of others’ previous experiences and collaboration.

Non-Membership NEMA

As one of the projects that was founded and operated under the umbrella of the FIOE’s Da`wah department, NEMA camp’s organizers were keen to involve Dr. Jamal Badawi in the camp. Dr. Badawi is a prominent Muslim Canadian scholar and a member of the Islamic Juridical [Fiqh] Council of North America, the European Council of Fatwa and Research and the International Union of Islamic Scholars.

At the camp, a couple of lectures are given by Dr. Badawi on different issues that have to do with European Muslim converts, such as converts’ isolation and the way of integration, balanced Islam, how to deal with controversial questions about Islam, etc.

“This camp is our first experience in gathering Muslim converts from different European countries at the same place and time,” declares Wanees Mabrook, head of the Dua`wah department in the FIOE.

Both Mabrook and Al-Deeb insist that NEMA be a non-membership organization that offers services to any native European Muslims. “We felt happy when we knew that we helped any convert on an educational or a social basis.”

Converts’ challenges range from social, spiritual, to educational ones. Such gatherings are seen as “turning points” in their path to become active European Muslims who can serve their Muslim Ummah and their local European communities.

In your opinion, what are the challenges which the European Muslim converts face? How can they get encouraged to overcome those challenges? Do you think sharing experiences through such camps and events can help them positively?

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Radwa Khorshid is an editor in the Euro-Muslims Zone at IslamOnline.net. She is a graduate of the Department of English Studies, Faculty of Law, Cairo University. You may contact her at radwa.khorshid@iolteam.com.