Islamic Britain lures top people Nicholas Hellen and
Christopher Morgan

The Sunday Times - Britain

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1010553,00.html



MORE than 14,000 white Britons have converted to Islam after becoming
disillusioned with western values, according to the first authoritative
study of the phenomenon. Some of Britain's top landowners, celebrities and
the offspring of senior Establishment figures have embraced the strict
tenets of the Muslim faith.


The trend is being encouraged by Muslim leaders who are convinced that the
conversion of prominent society figures will help protect a community
stigmatised by terrorism and fundamentalism. Zaki Badawi, chairman of the
Imams and Mosques Council, said: "The community has been unfairly targeted
and these developments encourage it in a time of difficulty." Meanwhile, the
Muslim Council of Britain has co-opted Joe Ahmed-Dobson, son of Frank
Dobson, the former health secretary, to chair its regeneration committee.
The new study by Yahya (formerly Jonathan) Birt, son of Lord Birt, former
director-general of the BBC, provides the first reliable data on the
sensitive subject of the movement of Christians into Islam. He uses a
breakdown of the latest census figures to conclude that there are now 14,200
white converts in Britain. Speaking publicly for the first time about his
faith this weekend, Birt, whose doctorate at Oxford University is on young
British Muslims, argued that an
inspirational figure, similar to the American convert Malcolm X for
Afro-Caribbeans, would first have to emerge if the next stage, a mass
conversion among white Britons, were to happen. "You need great
transitional figures to translate something alien (like Islam) into the
vernacular," he said. "The image of Islam projected by political Islamic
movements is not very attractive." Initially, Birt said, he had no coherent
reasons for converting, but: "In the longer term I think it was the overall
profundity, balance and coherence and spirituality of the Muslim way of life
which convinced me." The faith has made inroads into the Establishment. It
emerged this weekend that the great-granddaughter of a British prime
minister has converted. Emma Clark, whose ancestor, the Liberal prime
minister Herbert Asquith, took Britain into the first world war, said:
"We're all the rage, I hope it's not a passing fashion." Clark, who helped
design an Islamic garden for the Prince of Wales at
Highgrove, his Gloucestershire home, is now helping create a similar
garden for a mosque in Woking, Surrey, on the site of a car park. Many
converts have been inspired by the writings of Charles Le Gai Eaton, a
former Foreign Office diplomat. Eaton, author of Islam and the Destiny of
Man, said: "I have received letters from people who are put off by the
wishy-washy standards of contemporary Christianity and they are looking for
a religion which does not compromise too much with the modern world."
Others have come to Islam through love or marriage. Kristiane Backer, a
former girlfriend of the cricketer Imran Khan, said she was introduced to
the religion through love but converted after her break-up. She has shrunk
from speaking publicly about her religion before because of fears it might
affect her work prospects. "Imran sowed the seeds, but when (the
relationship) finished (the faith) took on a momentum of its own," she said.
Backer, who is drawn to Sufi mysticism, said white
converts had to overcome prejudice both from those born into Islam and
from non-believers. "In the mosque women come up and say to me, 'You have
hair showing: you must cover up completely.' I say, 'Mind your own hair,
you're here to think about God'." She has ditched the revealing wardrobe
she had as an MTV presenter, but, equally, will not wear headscarves about
town. "I don't show any legs or cleavage, or at least not together," she
said. Some prominent converts are even more wary. The Earl of Yarborough,
40, who owns a 28,000-acre estate in Lincolnshire, declined to discuss
anything about his faith. "I have nothing to say to you," said Yarborough,
who has apparently taken the name Abdul Mateen. Muslim leaders are
harnessing modern campaigning methods to promote their faith. Groups have
sprung up on the internet publishing "trophy lists" of white converts. The
state-funded school in London founded by Yusuf Islam, formerly the singer
Cat Stevens, has turned to Premiership
footballers to provide role models. Sources close to the school say
converts including Nicolas Anelka, the Manchester City striker, and Omer
"Freddie" Kanoute, of Tottenham Hotspur, have made visits. Fresh evidence
came this weekend that Islam has received formal acceptance at the heart of
the Establishment. The Queen has approved new arrangements to allow Muslim
staff at Buckingham Palace time off to attend Friday prayers at a mosque: a
member of staff in the finance department is the first to take advantage of
it.

Assuming this article is accurate, Shuja, what on earth does it have to do with the A&P forum?




Provost

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States 1924-1929