This piece from February is yet another in a seemingly endless series of articles designed to make non-Muslims feel guilty about being suspicious of Islam. The full-length piece features a series of converts to Islam telling their sad stories of how they supposedly faced prejudice — in Britain, where Islam is chic and pandered to by government and media — after they found their new religion. What makes it grotesque is that the converts who really face prejudice, in the UK and around the world, are not those who embrace Islam, but those who leave it. A sampling:
Uganda: Imam arrested in murder of convert from Islam to Christianity
Uganda: Muslim in-laws poison mother of 11, convert from Islam to Christianity
Yemen: Muslims murder two converts from Islam to Christianity
Bangladesh: Islamic State claims murder of convert from Islam to Christianity
Sudan: Muslim relatives of convert from Islam to Christianity burn his house down
“Execute her,” says brother of Sudanese convert from Islam to Christianity
Even in Italy, Christian converts from Islam live in fear of reprisals
Europe: Muslim migrants converting to Christianity fear being killed by Muslims
Norway: Two Iranian converts from Islam to Christianity stabbed, called “kuffar”
And yes, this happens in the UK as well:
UK: Muslims attack convert from Islam to Christianity with pickaxe
When is the Independent going to do a feature on those converts and the difficulties they face?
“What it’s like to convert to Islam – when everyone thinks you’re a terrorist,” by Adam Withnall, Independent, February 10, 2016:
Peter was an atheist, happily married in what he believed to be a very loving, caring, thoroughly non-religious relationship.
He believed that his wife and family prided themselves on tolerance and free discourse, and people’s right to do and think what they wanted as long as that didn’t unfairly impinge on the rights of others.
But when Peter converted to Islam, and in spite of his keeping it low-key with no real outward displays of his faith, his “very open-minded” partner could not live with the change and divorced him, leaving him heartbroken.
This is one of the most moving stories heard by Professor Yasir Suleiman for Cambridge University’s new study into the reasons men in Britain have for becoming Muslims, and the challenges they face.
“This was a very hard story to listen to,” Professor Suleiman told The Independent, “because it shows that sometimes our commitment to tolerance, and to giving people the freedom to believe what they want, when tested is found wanting.”
Peter (not his real name) was one of 50 men taking part in the 18-month project at Cambridge’s Centre of Islamic Studies, and his case highlights the kinds of prejudice felt by almost all new converts in Britain today.
Professor Suleiman said one of the most significant findings of his study was the extraordinary range of different routes people took to come to Islam.
Many found faith through an interest in music, architecture, food or art, he said. Some converted following “revelatory dreams”, others after meeting someone they loved, and one even became a Muslim himself despite having never met another Muslim in his life.
“We are in an age of modernity, where secularity is the dominant social and political framework for living our lives,” Professor Suleiman said. “And within that, Islam is seen to be oppressive, to be violent, to be out of tune with the rationality of the modern world.”
“Yet in spite of the dominance of this secularity, there are still these very interesting, very intelligent people who find that faith gives them answers, that they are willing to head in that direction – and they find their home in that journey is Islam.”…