Like to share an old e-mail that was sent to me some time back...
Islam is always relevent
From Melbourne Age / Sydney Morning Herald
The lure of Allah
James MurrayDecember 07, 2004
CHANGING your religion is a dicey business, especially when fundamentalism - in its many guises - threatens to polarise communities and lead to violence and death. Yet being part of a world that lives in fear of more terrorist bombings and al-Qa'ida has not stopped conscientious individuals from taking the plunge from Christianity to Islam.
Peter Barnett, a former editor at Radio Australia, found his conversion to Islam was a process of osmosis. Having been a foreign correspondent in many Islamic countries, he found himself increasingly impressed by its logic and totality. He also noted the gulf between its message and the misconceptions he had harboured for many years. His conversion took place in Jakarta, where a liberal Muslim intellectual was his mentor. He asked Barnett if, as an Anglican Christian, he had studied the Bible, suggesting it was a good preparation for Islam.
On his return to Australia, Barnett's son Adam asked if anything significant had happened in Indonesia. "Well, I became a Muslim,"Barnett said matter-of-factly. It was at the time of the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing and Barnett realised he faced a basic misconception about Islam and violence. Among the bonuses of his conversion was "becoming part of an extended Islamic family -- friendship with a vast cross-section of the community in Australia and abroad". The calibre of young Muslims struck him most, "intelligent, dedicated and concerned", with no confusion between their faith and their loyalty to Australia. Barnett also recognises the contrast with "Muslims who drive you up the wall"."There's the lunatic fringe that advocates terrorism," he says. "Also elements from the Middle East who have brought their cultural hang-up sand harsh interpretations of the faith. As a Muslim, I abhor all forms of terrorism that lead to the cost of human life. Islam believes that to kill one person is as if you killed the whole of mankind. So nomatter what motivations impel someone to use terror tactics, it is completely against Islam."Despite the intense scrutiny of Islam since September 11, 2001, and the difficult times it has imposed on Australian Muslims, Barnett rejoices in the completeness of life Islam has brought him, with"order, joy and satisfaction".
Sue Carland is a Melbourne mother in her mid-20s, married to an Australian of Egyptian descent, with a one-year-old daughter. She was interested in Islam even as a teenager. Involved with her local Baptist church, she "couldn't shake a gnawing feeling of uncertainty" despite Bible study and attending services. She wanted "a sense of fulfilment, certainty and peace". She wondered whether God was to befound in only one faith or all of them. And she faced that ultimate question: "Could I ever really know God or would he-she-it remain ever elusive? But I certainly believed Islam was something I wanted to stay far away from. My superficial understanding perceived Islam and Muslims as backward, mis ogynistic, pagan, illogical and completely foreign. I had no desire to pursue Islam in the slightest."Although it confronted her in books, magazines and on television, theIslam being fed to her was often unreliable. "When I looked beyond personal prejudices, cultural manifestations, deliberate distortion and people speaking beyond their field of knowledge, I found a faith that is profoundly grounded in logic, spirituality, egalitarianism, social justice and personal connection with God," Carland says. "And the more I learned about Islam, the more it resonated within me."Expecting there would be resistance from her Anglo-Saxon family and friends, she wondered how accepting Islam would affect her futurelife. Would she get a job if she decided to wear the hijab (veil)? At 19 and in her second year at university, Carland believed Islam to be true and wanted to live as a Muslim."I couldn't deny who I felt myself to be simply to keep those close to me happy," she says. "In many ways it felt like coming out of the closet as a Muslim." Though she has never regretted her decision, family reaction was disapproving or angry and her first year after converting was arduous and often lonely. Carland believes she speaks for all the Muslims she knows when she says: "I condemn all forms of terrorism. Any sane person must think such acts atrocious, whatever ideology tries to justify it." Female terrorists should be condemned as well as men, without distinction.
As for female circumcision, which Carland has studied carefully, it seems to belong to sub-Saharan tribes and has been practised byChristians as well as Muslims. "I find it sad that Muslims should be painted with the same brush when mutilation of any sort, even of the dead, is condemned by Islam," Carland says. "Unfortunately, theWestern mind-set tends to attribute such practices as another way of condemning Islam."
(Wayne) Imran Earl is also in his mid-20s and has been a Muslim for three years. Born in Australia and brought up in western Sydney, where he met many Muslims, Earl was reared in the Serbian Orthodox Church.Yet he felt his Orthodox faith failed to answer what happened to you when you died and the principles of right and wrong. After studying Islam carefully, he found it made more sense to him. "It became a wayof life," he attests. His conversion led to a fracture in relationships. At first his parents were shocked. But now his mother is so impressed by her son'schange in all aspects of his life that she is asking questions about Islam.
Earl works with a building company, where only two others are Muslims, and his boss and his mates accept him. He met his wife through theMuslim community and rejoices in their 10-month-old daughter. It is informative that many Muslim converts derive from Christian roots, confirming the Muslim belief that the Koran and Islam are corrections of the Christian and Jewish scriptures.
Isabel Jackson is no exception. In her 40s and a Muslim for about two years, she prefers the word "revert" to "convert" because it assumes that she has been restored to the innocent life God originally intended for everyone. "I find Islam the most normal thing imaginable," she says.
Jackson had a Dominican Catholic education, which left her open to discovery, and her path to Islam began when she sought a viable code of behaviour. Studying research method with Third World and mostly Muslim women, she had developed a strong feminist stance, but found these Muslim women resistant to Western feminists trying to save them by insisting on rights that were already enshrined for them in the Koran. Post September 11, Jackson found the world more deeply aware of Islam,which led to her own investigation of the faith."I had always had faith and wondered what people meant when they said they didn't believe in God, but I was disenchanted with the church,"she says. Looking up "I" for Islam in the phone book, she rang a centre where she was introduced to Islam's core beliefs about family, women and property. She experienced a confirmation of what she had always felt intuitively. Jackson was married in her 20s -- it ended in divorce -- and she was envious of the Muslim men she saw on TV lining up in prayer. She turned for help to a female Muslim friend, who suggested: "Just say the Shahada -- 'None has the right to be worshipped but Allah, and Mohammed is the messenger of Allah."' She confesses: "I couldn't get to say it fast enough. I was relaxed and happy."Jackson also found that she could abandon her vegetarian practice of12 years when she understood the humane way halal butchering is done. Many of the things that had been part of her life in her 30s, whichIslam rejects, she found made abundant sense, like abstaining from alcohol. She also wears the hijab proudly, finding it an entree to dialogue with many people on matters of faith. If its appearance at a job interview causes irritation or comment, she knows she would not want to work with bigots anyway. Now employed as an arts officer with a local council, she has Fridays off and can go to the mosque for the prayers she finds so unifying and exhilarating.
These four converts to Islam share a heartening normality. Perhaps themost telling aspect of their conversions is the happiness of joining avibrant and growing community of Muslim believers.
James Murray is The Australian's religious affairs editor
