The number of Britons choosing to become Muslims has nearly doubled in the past decade, according to one of the most comprehensive attempts to estimate how many people have embraced Islam.

Following the global spread of violent Islamism, British Muslims have faced more scrutiny, criticism and analysis than any other religious community. Yet, despite the often negative portrayal of Islam, thousands of Britons are adopting the religion every year.

Estimating the number of converts living in Britain has always been difficult because census data does not differentiate between whether a religious person has adopted a new faith or was born into it. Previous estimates have placed the number of Muslim converts in the UK at between 14,000 and 25,000.

But a new study by the inter-faith think-tank Faith Matters suggests the real figure could be as high as 100,000, with as many as 5,000 new conversions nationwide each year.

By using data from the Scottish 2001 census – the only survey to ask respondents what their religion was at birth as well as at the time of the survey – researchers broke down what proportion of Muslim converts there were by ethnicity and then extrapolated the figures for Britain as a whole.

In all they estimated that there were 60,699 converts living in Britain in 2001. With no new census planned until next year, researchers polled mosques in London to try to calculate how many conversions take place a year. The results gave a figure of 1,400 conversions in the capital in the past 12 months which, when extrapolated nationwide, would mean approximately 5,200 people adopting Islam every year. The figures are comparable with studies in Germany and France which found that there were around 4,000 conversions a year.

Fiyaz Mughal, director of Faith Matters, admitted that coming up with a reliable estimate of the number of converts to Islam was notoriously difficult. “This report is the best intellectual ‘guestimate’ using census numbers, local authority data and polling from mosques,” he said. “Either way few people doubt that the number adopting Islam in the UK has risen dramatically in the past 10 years.”

Asked why people were converting in such large numbers he replied: “I think there is definitely a relationship between conversions being on the increase and the prominence of Islam in the public domain. People are interested in finding out what Islam is all about and when they do that they go in different directions. Most shrug their shoulders and return to their lives but some will inevitably end up liking what they discover and will convert.”

Batool al-Toma, an Irish born convert to Islam of 25 years who works at the Islamic Foundation and runs the New Muslims Project, one of the earliest groups set up specifically to help converts, said she believed the new figures were “a little on the high side”.

“My guess would be the real figure is somewhere in between previous estimates, which were too low, and this latest one,” she said. “I definitely think there has been a noticeable increase in the number of converts in recent years. The media often tries to pinpoint specifics but the reasons are as varied as the converts themselves.”

Inayat Bunglawala, founder of Muslims4UK, which promotes active Muslim engagement in British society, said the figures were “not implausible”.

“It would mean that around one in 600 Britons is a convert to the faith,” he said. “Islam is a missionary religion and many Muslim organisations and particularly university students’ Islamic societies have active outreach programmes designed to remove popular misconceptions about the faith.”

The report by Faith Matters also studied the way converts were portrayed by the media and found that while 32 per cent of articles on Islam published since 2001 were linked to terrorism or extremism, the figure jumped to 62 per cent with converts.

Earlier this month, for example, it was reported that two converts to Islam who used the noms de guerre Abu Bakr and Mansoor Ahmed were killed in a CIA drone strike in an area of Pakistan with a strong al-Qa’ida presence.

“Converts who become extremists or terrorists are, of course, a legitimate story,” said Mr Mughal. “But my worry is that the saturation of such stories risks equating all Muslim converts with being some sort of problem when the vast majority are not”. Catherine Heseltine, a 31-year-old convert to Islam, made history earlier this year when she became the first female convert to be elected the head of a British Muslim organisation – the Muslim Public Affairs Committee. “Among certain sections of society, there is a deep mistrust of converts,” she said. “There’s a feeling that the one thing worse than a Muslim is a convert because they’re perceived as going over the other side. Overall, though, I think conversions arouse more curiosity than hostility.”

How to become a Muslim

Islam is one of the easiest religions to convert to. Technically, all a person needs to do is recite the Shahada, the formal declaration of faith, which states: “There is no God but Allah and Mohamed is his Prophet.” A single honest recitation is all that is needed to become a Muslim, but most converts choose to do so in front of at least two witnesses, one being an imam.

Converts to Islam

Hana Tajima, 23, fashion designer

Hana Tajima converted to Islam when she was 17. Frustrated by the lack of variety in Islamic clothing for converts she founded Maysaa, a fashion house that designs western-inspired clothing that conforms to hijab. 

“It’s true that I never decided to convert to Islam, nor was there a defining moment where I realised I wanted to be Muslim.  My family aren’t particularly religious.  I was interested in religion, but very disinterested in how it related to my life.  I grew up in rural Devon where my Japanese father was the ethnic diversity of the village.  It wasn’t until I studied at college that I met people who weren’t of the exact same background, into Jeff Buckley, underground hip-hop, drinking, and getting high.  I met and became friends with a few Muslims in college, and was slightly affronted and curious at their lack of wanting to go out to clubs or socialise in that sense.  I think it was just the shock of it, like, how can you not want to go out, in this day and age.   

“It was at about that time that I started to study philosophy, and without sounding too much like I dyed my hair black and wore my fringe in front of my face, I began to get confused about my life. I was pretty popular, had good friends, boyfriends, I had everything I was supposed to have, but still I felt like ‘is that it?’  So these things all happened simultaneously, I read more about religion, learned more about friends of other backgrounds, had a quarter life crisis.  There were things that drew me to Islam in particular, it wasn’t like I was reaching for whatever was there.  The fact that the Qur’an is the same now as it ever was means there’s always a reference point. The issues of women’s rights were shockingly contemporary.  The more I read, the more I found myself agreeing with the ideas behind it and I could see why Islam coloured the lives of my Muslim friends.  It made sense, really, I didn’t and still don’t want to be Muslim, but there came a point where I couldn’t say that I wasn’t Muslim. 

“Telling my family was the easy part.  I knew they’d be happy as long as I was happy, and they could see that it was an incredibly positive thing.  My friends went one of two ways, met with a lack of any reaction and lost to the social scene, or interested and supportive.  More the former, less the latter.”

Denise Horsley, 26, dance teacher

Denise Horsley lives in North London. She converted to Islam last year and is planning to marry her Muslim boyfriend next year. 

“I was introduced to Islam by my boyfriend Naushad. A lot of people ask whether I converted because of him but actually he had nothing to do with it. I was interested in his faith but I went on my own journey to discover more about religion. 

“I bought loads of books on all the different religions but I kept coming back to Islam – there was something about it that just made sense, it seemed to answer all the questions I had. 

“I would spend hours in the library at Regents Park Mosque reading up on everything from women’s rights to food. Before I went to prayers for the first time I remember sitting in my car frantically looking up how to pray on my Blackberry. I was so sure people would know straight away that I wasn’t a Muslim but if they did no-one seemed to care. 

“During Ramadan I’d sit and listen to the Qur’anic recitations and would be filled with such happiness and warmth. One day I decided there and then to take my shahada. I walked down to the reception and said I was ready to convert, it was as simple as that. 

“My friends and family were rather shocked, I think they expected there would be some sort of huge baptism ceremony but they were very supportive of my decision. I think they were just pleased to see me happy and caring about something so passionately. 

“I grew up Christian and went to a Catholic school. Islam to me seemed to be a natural extension of Christianity. The Qur’an is filled with information about Jesus, Mary, the angels and the Torah. It’s part of a natural transition. 

“I do now wear a headscarf but it wasn’t something I adopted straightaway. Hijab is such an important concept in Islam but it’s not just about clothing. It’s about being modest in everything you do. I started dressing more modestly – forgoing low cut tops and short skirts – but before I donned a headscarf I had to make sure I was comfortable on the inside before turning my attention to the outside. Now I feel completely protected in my headscarf. People treat you with a new level of respect, they judge you by your words and your deeds, not how you look. It’s the kind of respect every dad wants for their daughter. 

“There have been some problems. Immediately after converting I isolated myself a bit, which I now recognise was a mistake and not what Islam teaches. I remember a lady on a bus who got really angry and abusive when she found out I had converted. I also noticed quite a few friends stopped calling. I think they just got tired of hearing me say no – no to going clubbing, no to going down the pub. 

“But my good friends embraced it. They simply found other things to do when I was around. Ultimately I’m still exactly the same person apart from the fact that I don’t drink, don’t eat pork and pray five times a day. Other than that I’m still Denise.”

 Dawud Beale, 23

Dawud Beale was a self-confirmed “racist” two years ago who knew nothing about Islam and supported the BNP. Now a Muslim, he describes himself as a Salafi – the deeply socially conservative and ultra-orthodox sect of Islam whose followers try to live exactly like the Prophet did. 

“I was very ignorant to Islam for most of my life and then I went on holiday to Morocco, which was the first time I was exposed to Muslims. I was literally a racist before Morocco and by the time I was flying home on the plane a week later, I had already decided to become a Muslim.” 

“I realised Islam is not a foreign religion, but had a lot of similarities with what I already believed. When I came back home to Somerset, I spent three months trying to find local Muslims, but there wasn’t even a mosque in my town. I eventually met Sufi Muslims who took me to Cyprus to convert. 

“When I came back, I was finding out a lot of what they were saying was contradictory to what it said in the Qur’an. I wasn’t finding them very authentic, to be honest. I went to London and became involved with Hizb-ut-Tahrir, the political group who call for the establishment of an Islamic state. 

 ”But while I believe in the benefits of Sharia law, I left this group as well. The problem was it was too into politics and not as concerned with practicing the religion. For me, it is about keeping an Islamic appearance and studying hard. I think we do need an Islamic state, but the way to achieve it is not through political activism or fighting. Allah doesn’t change the situation of people until they see what’s within themselves. 

“I have a big dislike for culture in Islamic communities, when it means bringing new things into the religion, such as polytheism or encouraging music and dance. There is something pure about Salafi Muslims; we take every word of the Qur’an for truth.  I have definitely found the right path. I also met my wife through the community and we are expecting our first child next year.” 

Paul Martin, 27

Paul Martin was just a student when he decided to convert to Islam in an ice-cream shop in Manchester four years ago. Bored of what he saw as the hedonistic lifestyle of many of his friends at university and attracted to what he calls “Islam’s emphasis on seeking knowledge,” he says a one-off meeting with an older Muslim changed his life. 

“I liked the way the Muslims students I knew conducted themselves. It’s nice to think about people having one partner for life and not doing anything harmful to their body. I just preferred the Islamic lifestyle and from there I looked into the Qur’an. I was amazed to see Islam’s big emphasis on science. 

“Then I was introduced by a Muslim friend to a doctor who was a few years older than me. We went for a coffee and then a few weeks later for an ice cream. It was there that I said I would like to be a Muslim. I made my shahada right there, in the ice cream shop. I know some people like to be all formal and do it in a mosque, but for me religion is not a physical thing, it is what is in your heart. 

“I hadn’t been to a mosque before I became a Muslim. Sometimes it can be bit daunting, I mean I don’t really fit into this criteria of a Muslim person. But there is nothing to say you can’t be a British Muslim who wears jeans and a shirt and a jacket. Now in my mosque in Leeds, many different languages are spoken and there are lots of converts. 

“With my family, it was gradual. I didn’t just come home and say I was a Muslim. There was a long process before I converted where I wouldn’t eat pork and I wouldn’t drink. Now, we still have Sunday dinner together, we just buy a joint of lamb that is halal. 

“If someone at college had said to me ‘You are going to be a Muslim’, I would not in a million years have believed it. It would have been too far-fetched. But now I have just come back from Hajj – the pilgrimage Muslims make to Mecca.” 

 Stuart Mee, 46

Stuart Mee is a divorced civil servant who describes himself as a “middle-of-the-road Muslim.” Having converted to Islam last year after talking with Muslim colleagues at work, he says Islam offers him a sense of community he feels is missing in much of Britain today. 

“Everything is so consumer-driven here, there are always adverts pushing you to buy the next thing. I knew there must be something longer term and always admired the sense of contentment within my colleagues’ lives, their sense of peace and calmness. It was just one of those things that happened – we talked, I read books and I related to it. 

“I emailed the Imam at London Central Mosque and effectively had a 15 minute interview with him. It was about making sure that this was the right thing for me, that I was doing it at the right time. He wanted to make sure I was committed. It is a life changing decision. 

“It is surprisingly easy, the process of converting. You do your shahada, which is the declaration of your faith. You say that in front of two witnesses and then you think, ‘What do I do next?’ I went to an Islamic bookstore and bought a child’s book on how to pray. I followed that because, in Islamic terms, I was basically one month old. 

“I went to a local mosque in Reading and expected someone to stop me say, ‘Are you a Muslim?’ but it didn’t happen. It was just automatic acceptance. You can have all the trappings of being a Muslim – the beard and the bits and pieces that go with it, but Islam spreads over such a wide area and people have different styles, clothes and approaches to life. 

“Provided I am working within Islamic values, I see no need in changing my name and I don’t have any intention of doing it. Islam has bought peace, stability, and comfort to my life. It has helped me identify just what is important to me. That can only be a good thing.” 

 Khadijah Roebuck, 48

Khadijah Roebuck was born Tracey Roebuck into a Christian family. She was married for twenty five years and attended church with her children every week while they lived at home. Now, divorced and having practiced Islam for the last six months, she says she is still not sure what motivated her to make such a big change to her life. 

“I know it sounds odd, but one day I was Tracey the Christian and the next day I was Khadijah the Muslim, it just seemed right. The only thing I knew about Muslims before was that they didn’t drink alcohol and they didn’t eat pork. 

“I remember the first time I drove up to the mosque. It was so funny; I was in my sports car and had the music blaring. I wasn’t sure if I was even allowed to go in but I asked to speak to the man in charge, I didn’t even know he was called an Imam. Now I wear a hijab and pray five times a day. 

“My son at first was horrified, he just couldn’t believe it. It’s been especially hard for my mum, who is Roman Catholic and doesn’t accept it at all. But the main thing I feel is a sense of peace, which I never found with the Church, which is interesting. Through Ramadan, I absolutely loved every second. On the last day, I even cried. 

“It is interesting because people sometimes confuse cultures with Islam. Each Muslim brings their different culture to the mosque and different takes on the religion. There are Saudi Arabians, Egyptians and Pakistanis and then of course there is me. I slot in everywhere. A lot of the other sisters say to me, ‘That is why we love you, Khadijah, you are just yourself.’”

Questions were racing through my mind.  Does this makes me a Muslim? What is a Muslim after all? And is it easy to become one? And what happens after that? What if I regret?

It was minutes after my shahada (my declaration of the Islamic faith), a few weeks ago.

It took me almost 9 years to believe there is actually a God and choose Islam as the way to worship Him.  But why was that? Having a very hard life so far, full of personal traumatic experiences of which I could not be responsible for during childhood, puberty and adolescence, a person does not have the right to make his own choices by law, I was led to disappointment.

I almost completely rejected the presence of God or of any Divinity in my life.

Although I was completely dissatisfied by the behaviour of the clergy in Greece and still having the words of the burial service which says “rest your servant ignoring all sins,” I decided to start reading about religion.

Feeling tormented, tired and a bit desperate to find answers to my questions, I choose to read religion initially and then philosophy and history of sciences instead of trying to find my way through fortune tellers or tarot readers, drugs or alcohol.

No matter how hard someone tries to numb himself so he doesn’t feel any pain, the pain will always be there, waiting to be confronted. Being deeply ethical and raised with the traditional values of a middle class Greek family , values of honesty, pride and dignity, I did not want to be part of any religious or philosophical group just to satisfy my needs for warmth and affection. And I definitely, loved and honoured my Greek cultural identity and I did not want to imitate or fake any other identity or nationality.

I started researching Christianity and mainly the Orthodox Dogma, then Judaism and Buddhism and finally Islam. I started gradually believing in God, my faith becoming stronger with time. At some point I started having questions about the Trinity, questions for which I found the answers in Islam.

What I realised is that Islam is the religion that closes the circle of Divine revelations. Islam means peace and Muslim means the person who offers himself to God and God only, with no remorse or personal benefit. Allah is not a new invention, it’s just the Arabic word for God, the half moon is not a symbol of blood bathing and revenge but is a reminder that Muslim people calculate the time based on the moon rather than the sun.

At this point I seriously started to consider myself as a believer rather than an agnostic. In the meantime, I moved to United Kingdom, to further educate myself though postgraduate studies. I do not know if it was a sign but while I was in UK, I kept meeting really nice people, the majority of them being Muslims, and I ended up marrying one of them.

I continued reading more and more and was becoming focused on Islam this time. Though not only reading, watching documentaries, attending Islamic lectures, going to Islamic museums, attending Islamic classes.

And there comes the questioning. Do I want to be part of a religion that has so many different variations of interpretation of its Holy Book? Would I want to be part of a group that would be a religious minority in my country? Would I want to be part of a religious group where most people, of the ones I have met at least, are paying attention just to the rules of worship and not the worship itself? Or would I want to be part of a religion which is used by its own followers to inspire hate and hostility?

I got again disappointed but this time not by the religion itself or the philosophy itself or from the Quran but from the followers. And then I realised that I cannot blame the religion itself since I found the answers to my questions, from its followers. I decided to start living as a Muslim for a period of time, to see what it takes and see if it is really so hard. As it is stated in Quran, men and women were created equally having their own free will.

But what does it mean to live as a Muslim? Wearing an abaya and niqaab? Praying 10 times a day? Fasting strictly during Ramadan? Staying at home and having loads of children? Avoiding any kind of joyful experience just in case you do something forbidden? Certainly not, in my opinion.

Islam is not a strict system of rules or a kind of imprisonment. Doing good deeds every single day, trying to avoid bad actions, praying as much as you can, fasting as much as you can, showing love and compassion and always fighting peacefully to improve yourself, progressing and evolving in knowledge day by day, trying your best every single day, this is what it takes to be a Muslim.

I realised that I could live as a Muslim, I just changed the way and the frequency of my prayers, I stopped completely eating pork or drinking alcohol and I wore a headscarf. That’s all. So after this so long journey, I decided to have my shahada done admitting firstly to myself that ‘There is no god but Allah (God), and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah (God).

Written by:

Myrto Z.

Athens, Greece

By Nikos Xydakis

The peaceful prayer services held by Muslims in Athens as part of Eid al-Adha celebrations earlier this week were followed by protests and sporadic violence against Muslims, clashes between locals and foreigners, as well as skirmishes among Muslims. The neighborhood around Acharnon Street has recently witnessed attacks on makeshift mosques and the faithful who visit those sites to pray.

In Kotzia Square, an illegal street vendor from Egypt who was stopped by municipal police officers for an ID check, began to yell that they were desecrating the holy scripture of Islam that they found on him.

Some 300 Muslims from nearby streets immediately gathered on the spot, angry at the insult to the Quran. But the affront never really took place, as the confiscated items were not sacred – a fact acknowledged by the street seller’s fellow Muslims.

Both cases demonstrate the failure of the state to implement the law and protect the civic and human rights of Greeks as well as foreigners.

In both cases, the failure was interpreted as the lack of legal order, as the absence of the rule of law – and that vacuum was filled by crowds which sought to take the law in their own hands.

Seeing the state withdraw from the civic realm as the people begin to take the law in their own hands with increasing frequency is one of the most worrying signs of this difficult period in history in which politics, society and the democratic state are coming under great duress.

It is becoming an uneasy coexistence: In the gray neighborhoods, poor Greeks live next to thousands of impoverished immigrants – most of these without legal documents.

The recession is deepening, fueling mistrust and intolerance.

Everyone is threatening to take the law into their own hands. Violence is gradually becoming the rule in our daily existence. This threat against the moral and legal foundations of society is, in many ways, more frightening than the threat of financial bankruptcy.

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Many people do not know this but Islam did not start at the time of prophet Muhammad (pbuh) – it started at the time of Adam and Eve.

Muslims believe that there is only one God in this world, the same God that Abraham, Moses and Jesus worshipped.

What is your belief about God?

Muslims believe God is one and that He created the heavens, the earth, human beings, animals – everything in this universe.  He has no partners and there is no object worthy of worship except Him.  This means Muslims do not believe that a stone, a tree, a cow or a human being is God and they do not worship any of these.  In other words, Muslims cannot fathom Jesus being God or part of God.  This would go against the very nature of monotheism – of God being strictly one. He does not need anyone but we need Him.  He is the most merciful, He sees everything, hears everything and knows everything.  And nothing is comparable to God.

So why do you call Him Allah?

When Muslims use the word ‘Allah’, that does not mean a different god, a moon god or a cow god.  Allah is just the Arabic word for Almighty God in English or Theos in Greek.  Arab Christians and Jews also say ‘Allah’ because it means God.  We prefer to say ‘Allah’ because it accurately means ‘the God’, i.e. the One God without any partners because if you say God in English, some people might think we are talking about Jesus.

Why are there so many religions?

Muslims believe that all of the prophets from Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, David, Solomon to Moses, to Jesus and Muhammad etc. (peace be on them all) came to teach the people the exact same message – that God is one, without any partners and to submit your life to God.  This is what we call Islam because the meaning of the word Islam is “submission”, i.e. submit to the will and law of God.  So, in this sense, we believe that all prophets were following Islam, or ‘Muslim’ – someone who submits to God.  Islam is more than a religion, it is a way of life.

Each time a prophet came, some people believed in his message and they established the religion (Islam).  Then after some generations, the original message was lost and people started creating their own religion, mostly creating partners with God (ex. a cow, human etc.). So then God would send the next prophet to bring them back to the original message of Islam and the cycle would continue.

So, this is why Muslims believe in all of the prophets and all of the books, which are the spoken word of God– the Torah, the Gospel, the Quran, etc. and also believe in God’s angels and the Day of Judgement.

You can say Islam is the pure Christianity that Jesus taught and the pure Judaism that Moses taught before some priests, rabbis and people changed it to manipulate their followers and control them.

If God created us, would He leave us to figure things out on our own?

Just like most mothers would not leave their babies to the streets to take care of themselves, God would certainly not leave his creation without taking care of them.  But how does God provide us with this guidance if we cannot hear Him?  Through the Quran and scriptures He left us with full instructions on how to live the best life in this world and in the afterlife and through the prophets He sent us to teach us the guidance.

Because submission to God is a way of life and not just limited to a religion that you practise once a week, the guidance of instructions from God must cover everything in our lives such as the spiritual, emotional, economical, social and family aspects etc.

So, when people ask Muslims why Islam is strict with so many rules, they do not view it like this.  They consider these guidelines as ultimate guidance in living the best life.  Imagine you were lucky enough to have the richest man in the world mentor you on how to succeed financially, the best family counselor in the world mentor you in family and marriage aspects, the world leader in civilization and politics guide your country on how to be the most advanced nation and the wisest spiritual mentor guide you in gaining the closest relationship to God.  Would you consider those rules and restrictions in your life or guidance?

What is the purpose of my life?

And the biggest guidance is to answer a question that most human beings ask themselves at some point in their lives – What is the purpose of my life? Why am I here?

God gives us the answer to this in the Quran.  The purpose of our lives is to worship Him and to submit our lives to Him.  Read that sentence again.  The purpose of our lives is to worship God and to submit our lives to Him. 

We will be asked about this when we die and are resurrected on the big judgement day.  We will be questioned about everything we did and if we followed God’s guidance and did good deeds.  God will reward those who submitted their life to Him will punish those who did not and this is the ultimate justice system.

Free will or not?

God knows everything that we will do but He gives us a chance to live out our lives and gives us the free will or choice in order to provide evidence to us when we are on the Day of Judgement.  In this way, on that day, no one can provide excuses that God’s verdict is not fair.

This is a glimpse to what Islam is so that when you ask a Muslim a question about Islam, you can keep in mind that he or she will answer you from this context.

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photo credit: NPCA Photos

 A member of a gang of burglars and stolen goods receiver was finally proven to be a young Syrian that had accused a police officer to rip his Quran an step on it last May. There were serious incidents as a result of this accusation in the center of Athens by Muslims and a serious turbulence from the police.  

The 27year old Hasan Ramsy was convicted a few days ago to 10 months imprisonment because he was selling stolen goods. The Quran that he was holding however orders clearly, “Do not steal”…

After serious information, there was a police swoop in the underground apartment that Hamzy was living with another Syrian and they bumped into a …treasure. Jewels, watches, mobile phones, electronic devices and other valuable objects were found, that were stolen by a gang of burglars from houses and apartments in the north suburbs of Athens.

During the examination, the 27 Syrian denied that he was in the gang but he claimed that he bought the goods by an unknown man without knowing they were stolen.

His allegation did not convince the court that gave him 10 months imprisonment with a three year parole period, for “accepting and supplying products of crime” while the investigations of the police are continuing to track the gang of burglars.

He left at night…

After the end of the trial, Hamzy was left free and he returned to his country as they stated at “Thema” his co-patriots from the Aghios Panteleimonas area, but also the president of the Muslim Association of Greece, Mr. Naim Elghandour, has no better opinion for the 27year old man. “I know that he wanted to leave from Greece. He contacted me and said that he wants to return back to Syria. Generally he was weird. He was hanging around in strange neighborhoods and he was arrested for forged papers. I told him to be careful. He asked me for money to leave Greece but I found out later that he wanted to take advantage of me,” Mr. Elghandour stated.

He attempted to legalize himself with forged documents

Hasan Hamzy abandoned Greece just as he came. Illegally. He had stated on a TV show that he came illegally to Samos from Turkey in 2002 and after that he came to Athens. In 2003 he applied for his documents to become legal, when government Simitis had those measures, but stating that he was Iraqi by the name Mohammed Attiq and not Syrian. Last May, a policeman that was participating at an operation-broom at Aghios Panteleimonas at the center of Athens stopped Hamzy to check his papers. According to what the young man stated, the policeman ripped pages from the Quran that he had on him and then he stepped on it swearing.

As a result, there was a reaction by a large Muslim immigrant population that lives in Athens and for two days of serious incidents that were provoked from fanatics who damaged vehicles and stores, and there were also injuries. The Muslim Association of Greece and their president Naim Elghandour condemned those incidents then while they applied a law suit against the policeman who offended the holy book of millions of people worldwide.

Mr. Elghandour underlines that some people deliberately attempted to make Hamzy a hero. “Then at the incidents they attempted to make him a hero but the Muslim Association did not allow that to happen. The incidents were incited and we did not allow Athens to burn once again. What we did and proved that we care for this country, is take a law suit against any responsible person, to put responsibility –if there are to the policeman who ripped the Quran. We are waiting the case to go to trial,” he states.

An Islamic group is urging Muslim travellers to choose to be patted down by airport security rather than go through airport body scanners, a practice that it says violate religious and privacy rights.

The Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) said the scanners, which produce a three-dimensional outline of a person’s naked body, are “against the teachings of Islam, natural law and all religions and cultures that stand for decency and modesty.”

“It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women,” the group said in a statement last week.

“The Qur’an has commanded the believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts. Human beings are urged to be modest in their dress,” the group said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations also issued a statement of support of the FCNA’s recommendation.

The United States began using the scanners capable of detecting items hidden underneath clothing at airports as part of new security protocols put in place in the wake of the failed bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound flight on Christmas Day.

Canada installing scanners

Halifax imam Dr. Jamal Badawi, one of 10 Muslim scholars on the council who made the religious ruling, said the only exception to the rules of modesty are medical necessity or another emergency.

“It has to be a clear and compelling case and only to the extent that it is absolutely needed,” said Badawi. “And that doesn’t seem to apply to these scanning machines.”

Canada is also in the process of installing 44 scanners to be used on U.S.-bound passengers selected for secondary screening at Canadian airports.

The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority has said the scanners would protect the privacy of the passenger, and that the officer viewing the image would do so in a separate room and never see the actual traveller.

Only people singled out for extra screening would be scanned, and they would have the option of getting a physical search instead, according to authorities on both sides of the border.

The Fiqh council, which in 2005 issued an Islamic legal ruling, or fatwa, against terrorism and religious extremism, said it appreciated the pat-down search option and recommended Muslims choose this option.

U.S. puts countries on watch list

Canada has not adopted the U.S. approach of requiring additional screening for anyone flying into the U.S. who is a citizen of or is travelling from any of the 14 countries deemed to be state supporters of terrorism or “of interest” to the U.S.

Most of the countries listed are predominantly Muslim, and civil liberties groups say the policy of targeting travellers from specific countries opens the door to discriminatory racial profiling.

Transport Minister John Baird has said that “100 per cent” of Canadian travellers bound for the United States could be subjected to secondary screening.

The focus on security measures stems from the failed attempt by a Nigerian man to set off a bomb on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, is accused of trying to ignite the bomb on the Northwest Airlines flight. Officials said he has told U.S. investigators he received training and instructions from al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen.

© Translation: Muslim Association of Greece

Διαβάστε στα Eλληνικά

I have never met Elena in person. We have been talking on the phone for the past two months. She has a bright smile, nice voice and is very polite. She is 23 years old studying Business in England. The only thing I knew about her is that she was wearing hijab. She started learning about Islam from stubbornness. She wanted to prove to her colleagues at university that they were wrong.  She studied the Quran quickly to gain more arguments against it, but that made her change her own beliefs and religion.

The last emails we exchanged were regarding the French ban of religion symbols. Elena wanted to point out two things regarding that, the cemeteries and the worship places. I am copying what she wrote to me.

“Greece is the only European country that does not have a cemetery and a mosque.  I am a Greek citizen and I pay tax as every other citizen in the country, I obey its laws, I defend its rights when they are correct. What hurts me is the behaviour of the reliable people regarding that matter. What we are asking for is to praise God in its place, to marry and die next to our families as every other human being on that planet.”

 ”The Muslims in Greece are a minority but not only in Thrace, the northern part of Greece, but also in Athens where they are almost 700.000 Muslims working and living. But except the everyday problems they have to deal with, they also have to consider what will happen with their bodies when they will die. And this is because in the European Athens today there is no cemetery, a basic need for a human being and especially a Muslim. And this is because in the Islamic tradition the body must be buried no more than 24 hours after death and under some conditions. Something that Muslims in Athens today cannot even think or dream of. Nowadays the bodies are sent to Thrace or to the country of origin, if that is possible.  What happens though with the many Greek Muslims or with the second generation children that do not know any other country except Greece? Don’t they have that ‘luxury’ or they are excluded from the life circle.”

I used to find it odd – if not heretic – to starve yourself from sunrise to sunset.  Anything that went against fasting in the Greek Orthodox way was indeed heretic, or so I thought. 

The first time I heard Muslims fast in a different way, my stomach churned and I thought, man you guys are completely off the mark.  You need to be saved!

At that point, I’d never researched the proofs for fasting in the Bible or the Quran, but it was my pride that would never let a thought into my brain that said that they might have proof for what they were saying while I have absolutely none – or at least knew of none. 

And frankly, I didn’t care.  Fasting was one of the zillion rituals of the Greek Orthodox faith that you ‘just believed in’  and didn’t question.

The weirdest thing to me was that Muslims would not only fast from food but actually from ‘bad’ things like drinking, going to bars or dating.  Now, that for me was completely illogical !  What does food have to do with having fun?

It was normal for all of us Greek Orthodox to fast before Easter and go out and have fun at the exact same time – without feeling an inch of guilt.

Once you find out why you are supposed to fast in the first place (which, as a Christian I never really did), then you’ll understand that it’s not about the food.

Muslims believe that God revealed to mankind to fast because through self-restraint, you can become pious.

“O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may become Al-Muttaqun (the pious).  (Quran 2:183)

You might be asking, What does piety have anything to do with it?  I was confused at the beginning too but when I started fasting – starving myself from dawn to dusk actually – I realized that it was a true sacrifice.  

It’s like having a close friend that you love more than you love yourself.  You give up something that you love the most to make her happy.  It’s not like you are forced to do this.  You choose this because you love her.  That’s when your relationship has gone to a new level – because she’s seen the proof that you put her before yourself. 

That’s in a way, the purpose of fasting.  When you choose to give up something that is permissible, like food, you realize that you want to because you love God more than yourself.  And you want to show Him that love.  That’s the journey of piety.

So, really, for anyone who is fasting, whether Muslim, Christian or other, fasting was prescribed for all of us as the verse says.  Only when you know what the purpose of fasting is can you really taste the journey of love for God.

—–

  photo credit: opusbloo

Sometimes family members say to me, “You’re so smart but sometimes you’re so dumb!”  Well, part of that is because it doesn’t make sense for an educated person who looks like they have (or ‘had’) everything going for them just drop everything and embrace Islam - in their minds – to a religion that is ‘backwards’.  (Ok, the other part is because sometimes I just say dumb things :) ).

It all boils down to rethinking.

Mind sets, investigating and educating yourself.

Usually top experts are experts because they have a completely different mind set. 

• First, everyone thinks they are crazy.
• Then, some people attack them.
• Finally, people accept their ideas as the norm.

Just because ‘everyone’ does things one way, does that mean it’s the right way?

Smart people are smart because they step back and say, hmm, is this really the right way?  Let me educate myself and decide for myself.

What’s the difference between:

• a smart and dumb person?
• a poor and a rich person?
• a believer and a non-believer?

EDUCATION.

Then I got to thinking, if only people were educated on how sophisticated the Islamic system is, they wouldn’t think that I’m dumb in only this aspect of my life and smart in the rest.  If only they started to rethink like I did.  They would have it all. And that’s the whole point of Greeks Rethink.

Those who remember Allah (God) while standing, sitting and lying on their sides and think/ponder/reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth, then cry out, ‘Our Lord! You have not created this in vain.  Glory to You! Save us from the punishment of fire. (Quran 3: 191)