Converting to Islam

[rocam]

Please feel free to share your articles and personal stories.

Jazakoum Allah Khayr

[rocam]

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/ht...405280041.html

"I became a Muslim because I felt Islam was more humanistic and peaceful than other religions. And if you can religiously connect with the locals, I think it could be a big help in carrying out our peace reconstruction mission." So said on Friday those Korean soldiers who converted to Islam ahead of their late July deployment to the Kurdish city of Irbil in northern Iraq.
At noon Friday, 37 members of the Iraq-bound "Zaitun Unit," including Lieutenant Son Hyeon-ju of the Special Forces 11th Brigade, made their way to a mosque in Hannam-dong, Seoul and held a conversion ceremony.


Captain Son Jin-gu from Zaitoon Unit recites an oath at ceremony to mark his conversion to Islam at a mosque in Hannam-dong, Seoul on Friday. /Yonhap


The soldiers, who cleansed their entire bodies in accordance with Islamic tradition, made their conversion during the Friday group prayers at the mosque, with the assistance of the "imam," or prayer leader.

With the exception of the imam, all the Muslims and the Korean soldiers stood in a straight line to symbolize how all are equal before God and took a profession on faith.

They had memorized the Arabic confession, " Ashadu an La ilaha il Allah, Muhammad-ur-Rasool-Allah," which means, "I testify that there is no god but God (Arabic: Allah), and Muhammad is the Messenger of God."


Soldiers from Zaitoon Unit pray after conversion ceremony at a mosque in Hannam-dong, Seoul on Friday./Yonhap


Moreover, as the faithful face the "Kaaba," the Islamic holy place in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, all Muslims confirm that they are brothers.

For those Korean soldiers who entered the Islamic faith, recent chances provided by the Zaitun Unit to come into contact with Islam proved decisive.

Taking into consideration the fact that most of the inhabitants of Irbil are Muslims, the unit sent its unreligious members to the Hannam-dong mosque so that they could come to understand Islam. Some of those who participated in the program were entranced by Islam and decided to convert.

A unit official said the soldiers were inspired by how important religious homogeneity was considered in the Muslim World; if you share religion, you are treated not as a foreigner, but as a local, and Muslims do not attack Muslim women even in war.

Zaitun Unit Corporal Paek Seong-uk (22) of the Army's 11th Division said, "I majored in Arabic in college and upon coming across the Quran, I had much interest in Islam, and I made up my mind to become a Muslim during this religious experience period [provided by the Zaitun Unit]."

He expressed his aspirations. "If we are sent to Iraq, I want to participate in religious ceremonies with the locals so that they can feel brotherly love and convince them that the Korean troops are not an army of occupation but a force deployed to provide humanitarian support."

[rocam]

http://www.islamonline.net/English/N...rticle06.shtml



BERLIN, October 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) -

The number of Germans who accept Islam "is rising each year" and they "are getting younger and younger," confirmed the director of a Muslim cultural center in the capital Berlin.

"Many are looking for new lifestyles and some sense of direction," Herzog-turned Mohammed – a former Protestant who worked in a social welfare center for Turkish immigrants for many years, told Agence
France-Presse (AFP) Saturday, October 25.

To all appearances Herr Herzog is an average German, but on Sunday, October 26, he will be one of a growing number of his compatriots to observe the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, one of the five pillars of
their faith, according to AFP.

Herzog converted to Islam in 1979 when he realized that "the Qur'an gathered together everything I had ever believed in."

Today he is the director of a Muslim cultural center in the capital Berlin and he maintains that the number of Germans who embrace Islam "is rising each year."

The central institute on Islam archives estimates that about 12,400 people born in Germany to German parents are Muslims, with the total Muslim population set at around 3.5 million people, most of them of Turkish
origin.

Each year, the institute issues between 350 and 400 documents in German and Arabic, complete with identity photograph, as proof people have converted.

"It would be an exaggeration to talk of a rash of conversions," the center director Salim Abdullah told AFP.

Nevertheless, the document gives its owner the right to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, another of the five pillars of Islam which has to be performed at least
once in a lifetime, provided the believer is both financially and physically able.

Norbert Mueller grew up with almost no exposure to religious instruction, but he says he has found warmth and "the feeling that he belongs to a community" with his Turkish and Arab friends in the northern city of
Hamburg.

A 41-year-old practicing lawyer, Mueller embraced Islam in 1991 and has married a Muslim woman from Iran.

When he was a student, he used to go to bars with other Germans, but some grew irritated when he refused to drink a beer with them.

"I never realized that alcohol played such an important role in one's social life," says Mueller, who now mainly frequents other Muslims.

"Impossible To Know How Many"

According to Monika Wohlrab-Sahr, a Leipzig University professor and author of a study on religious conversions in Germany and the United States, it is
impossible to know how many people have become Muslims.

Professing one's faith before another Muslim is enough to convert, she says.

"The majority are people whose spouses are Muslims. Nothing obliges though to convert," Wohlrab-Sahr says.

"Many of them have difficult pasts that pose them problems, they are looking for discipline in their lives."

By becoming Muslims, though, they are confronted with other problems.

"The newest of converts have to deal with a new world which they have to assimilate," says Norbert Mueller.

"They have to find their way and for that reason some give the impression they are observing the rules 150 percent, but it's usually a passing phase."

Nor does Wohlrab-Sahr see this as a big issue.

"One could say that some new converts follow the rules in a particularly strict way. But that's a tendency one finds with all converts, Catholics included," she says.

[rocam]

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/...027046245.html


"Islam is compassionate, it's merciful and it's got everything I ever wanted in a religion" ... Brian Leaver at the Australian New Muslims Association.


November 18, 2003

Brian Leaver was a truck driver, an Aussie who loved his footy, beer and the Saturday "arvo" barbecue - and so did his mates. Recently he stood before a small gathering at a former Lakemba bowling club to explain why two years ago, after years of spiritual struggle, he turned to Islam, a faith not only foreign to his Christian upbringing but one which he had once dismissed as the quackery of misogynists and terrorists.

"When I told my father he said, 'You're an adult, it's your life, I like bacon and don't you go preaching in my house.' My mum did cry a bit but these days she's very defensive of Muslims because I don't come home and drink any more and I treat her with the respect she deserves," Leaver says.

He first became convinced of the truth of Islam about 1999, before September 11 and the Bali bombings. Back then it was difficult enough eschewing a lifestyle and ultimately friendships which had been with him since childhood. Now in a political climate that is often antagonistic to Islam, being Muslim requires, if nothing else, a thick hide.

Yet, Islam is among NSW's fastest-growing religions, the numbers of adherents increasing by 40 per cent since the 1996 census when 102,288 nominated themselves as Muslim. Its growth is not solely the result of Sydney's status as an immigration centre and the higher birth rates of Arabic-speaking families.

Against all expectations, Australian Christians, including Catholics and Anglicans, and agnostics are finding Islam an answer to their spiritual voids.

Conversion is as simple as reciting one sentence: "I bear witness that there is no God except Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger" in front of witnesses, a ceremony known as Shahadah.

The faithful believe that everyone is born Muslim and pure, and thus it is more correct to describe a new Muslim as a revert rather than convert. In a strict sense there is no calling in Islam for missionary work but spreading the message is demanded by the Koran, whether it is by leading by example or directly proselytising.

"We are not in the habit of door knocking or standing outside stations handing out literature," said a spokesman for the Australian New Muslims Association (ANMA), formed a year ago as a support group for converts. "People come to us wanting to explore the concept of God, wanting to know about the Muslim concept of Jesus and our position on the Bible."

It was the charismatic evangelist Billy Graham, armed with the New Testament and a tone of paternal superiority, who triggered Denise Hussein's decade-long quest for inner fulfilment.

Hussein grew up in a part of working class Sydney where the "only foreigners in town were the Casaceli family at the milk bar". The daughter of "religiously uncommitted parents", she had an inquiring mind and in her teens was already questioning church dogma that declared only Christians could go to heaven. During her search for faith and meaning, Hussein met her husband Ameen, a Muslim student from Hong Kong. They had five sons. "He had a strong attachment to his religion but he did not practise it meticulously at that time, nor did he pressure me to convert," she says.

"At this stage some of the born Muslims I met turned me off because of their rigid views on women's issues as I considered myself a feminist and I also doubted my own ability to pray five times a day and fast at Ramadan.

"I couldn't see myself adopting a completely covered style of dress which was not in accordance with my Australian culture."

It was not until her 40s that she took the final step and converted to Islam. By then she was a lecturer in law at a Sydney university. "We had a series of family crises and I felt that it would be better if I converted to support my husband in bringing up our children in the Islamic faith," Hussein says

Why would Christians convert? A University of New England academic, Laurence Tamatea, says Islam is attractive because of its universal message, its "sense of community, sense of belonging, of a brotherhood and sisterhood".

"There's a sense of being part of something that is larger than yourself. I think it also provides a source of identity in a complex world." The familiarity of its teachings and its shared traditions with Jewish and Christian faiths cushion the cultural divide. There is a common belief in the existence of one God, the honouring of Jesus Christ, the Jewish patriarch Abraham and other Biblical figures, such as John the Baptist as prophets.

The vast majority of converts, Tamatea says, are lapsed Catholics and lost Protestants, often highly educated professionals, whose curiosity was triggered by Cat Stevens's conversion to Islam. "There was no road to Damascus conversion," Tamatea recalls of having decided himself to convert after several years of introspection and research.

"It's said that people come to Islam through the head rather than the heart. They have researched it well and intellectualised it. At some point in time you have to make a decision where you stand in the world."

Others come to Islam through the course of contact and friendship with Muslims, like Cherie Soltesz, who was among those who came to hear Brian Leaver's personal story of conversion.

A former student at Sir Joseph Banks High School in East Hills, she had originally been impressed by the strong family ties of her Arabic friends. Her mother was a Jehovah's Witness, her father a Catholic. Neither were especially religious and when Cherie went to Sunday school she went alone. "At first the culture enticed me more than the religion," Soltesz says.

Lucy Kilani, 24, was introduced to Islam by a friend. "I became curious and I started to learn about the Muslim faith. It was not a flash of light and then I was Muslim. It was very gradual. I converted over months," she says.

Breaking the news to family is the single most daunting moment for most converts. "My family was a really big issue," Kilani recalls. "As a daughter you don't want to disappoint your parents. I have maintained most of my friendships and now they respect who I am and can see the happiness the faith has brought to my life. This is important as some converts think they have to sever all ties, which is not at all required."

Just as Muslims are split in their approach to classic Islamic law, so converts embrace Islam in different ways. Denise Hussein took a Muslim first name, Jamila. Lucy Kilani did not. Hussein dresses conservatively and, except for religious functions, does not wear the hijab and resents those who would force her to do so. In its original form, unencumbered by the straitjacket of cultural conservatism and patriarchy, Islam, she says, is liberating for women, recognising their equal standing in faith and law.

Hussein has also discovered unexpected benefits from her faith. "I only had brothers and sons and while I've got one really good female friend, I didn't have a lot of mainstream friendships. The Muslim sisterhood is very warm and very welcoming. They couldn't do enough for you," she says.

Among conservative academia, no one would know that Laurence Tamatea was a Muslim.

"As a lecturer my clothes are modest and here in Armidale its pretty cold. When you come to a religion it takes time to figure your place in it and when you are new to anything you are presented with a diverse range of options," he says.

Cherie Soltesz has not yet taken to wearing the hijab full-time, preferring to take one step at a time: "It feels great when you wear it. I became a lot more kinder, calmer and at peace. But it's not yet the right time for me."

Lucy Kilani made her first trip to Mecca this year. "It was the best experience of my life. I've never been more emotional ... I went to Medina where the prophet died and Islam flourished and that's just beautiful to visit his tomb. I can't believe I didn't believe who the prophet was four years ago."

Brian Leaver has given up many things. Despite his best efforts, his long-term relationship with his girlfriend floundered, old friends started to drift off but he has, he says, traded a hedonistic life for a supreme lightness of being, and he has forged a new life with new friends.

"It was like a weight that was lifted from my shoulders. Now I know why I am here. Islam is compassionate, it's merciful and it's got everything I ever wanted in a religion."

[rocam]

By Karen Schwartz, Daily Staff Reporter
October 22, 2003

http://www.michigandaily.com/vnews/d.../3f960929abaeb

LSA sophomore Michael Dann was raised as a Christian, going to church and Sunday school in Amherst, Mass., as was his family's tradition. But four years ago, he decided he was destined for a different path. Dann converted to Islam, which he said has changed his life.


LSA sophomore Mike "Abdulah" Dann said he converted to Islam four years ago.

Dann said he went from being involved in "the drug culture" and party scene in junior high school to looking for something more in life - thanks to the example set by his tennis coach, a black Muslim man from New Jersey.

"Through my contact with him, and especially through tennis, I got to see there was something more serious about life, something more serious than gratifying your immediate desires," he said, adding that his coach did not often talk about Islam explicitly but rather led by example.

"It was just through his approach to life and his character, being around him - I was attracted to something I knew he had, something that was motivating his life," Dann said. "He gave me different books to read, not mostly about Islam except for the Quran, but those books served more to wake me up to that there's more to life than partying and fun, and that God should be in my life."

Dann, who also goes by Abdullah, which means "servant of God," helped organize a panel held last night in Hutchins Hall as part of Islam Awareness Week. The panel featured testimonies from three people who converted to Islam, who told an audience of 50 their stories and answered questions about their experiences with the religion.

"It's important because it's a chance to speak for ourselves, for Muslims to present Islam as they understand it and not as other people understand it," Dann said. He added that the event was a chance for people to learn about the process of becoming Muslim and the diverse experiences that bring people to Islam.

"Ultimately all we can do is present Islam as we've experienced it and understand it," he said. "What other people do with it will be different according to who they are and what they want. I'm looking at it more from our angle, that we have a responsibility to express ourselves."

Law School student Felix Chang said he attended the event out of curiosity and was very impressed with the testimonies he heard.

"I think they were really honest and open about the decisions they had to make, something very personal to them that they shared, and I appreciated that," he said. "I think their stories are really interfaith, that their stories of conversion can pretty much be applied to any belief system, so it has universal appeal."

Muslim Students Association President Omar Khalil said the panel drew positive response last year, and that people commented that they enjoyed seeing how panelists were introduced to Islam and what aspects of Islam affected them the most.

"We had a lot of feedback last year saying perhaps that was people's favorite event of the week, so we felt it was something we should continue," said Khalil, a Rackham student.

He said the event also showcases the diversity within Islam and gives campus and community members a more familiar angle from which to approach understanding Islam.

"First of all, what we wanted to show is that Islam isn't just a foreign religion (and that Muslims are) not just from the Middle East or Pakistan or from Indonesia," he said. "We wanted to show that there are people like the students on this campus who are born American, raised American, and yet they felt this for them was the religion they chose for themselves."

Dann remembers being 14 years old and having a short discussion about Islam with his coach, but it was not until later that he said he realized the impact the discussion had on him and the process he had embarked upon.

"I didn't realize it at the time, but suddenly it had an attraction to me. When I met a Muslim I would ask him what he believed and if he had anything I could read. The seed was already there," he said.

His conversion was a gradual process, Dann said, but it didn't entirely negate his previous beliefs.

"Becoming a Muslim to me wasn't disbelieving in Jesus or leaving everything from Christianity behind. It was about believing in what I considered to be a more accurate version of God's message."

He added that Islam has changed his life and his interactions with his family for the better.

"Without Islam I don't know where I would be today. My motivation for succeeding academically and succeeding professionally - all that stems from Islam, and I don't think it'd be there if it weren't for Islam."

[Kendra1]

Is he married?!

[-thetruth_]

Talking about Young

My son's friend who was a 14 year old Greek Christian orthodox and used to agrue with my son about Jesus pbuh and hos Jesus was son of God finally went to the mosque and Joined our family despite his parents anger. and he did not even tell his friends till he learn how to pray.