By Adil James, MMNS

The PAA just held an election which was won by President-elect Akhtar, who discussed with TMO his plans for the future of the organization.

PAA is a Michigan-based community organization with, he says, approximately 1,100 voting and dues-paying members.  They maintain an office but no full time staff, and coordinate mostly entertainment activities through the year, largely celebrating important days for Pakistan such as Pakistan Day.

Dr. Akhtar hopes to (1) create a volunteer-staffed medical clinic to serve PAA members at no cost, (2) to engage the youth in a youth wing of PAA, and (3) to provide increasing scholarships to high school graduates.

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Muslim, Jewish doctors unite to help the needy in Detroit and elsewhere

DETROIT,MI–In cooperation with the World Jewish Congress (WJC) and the Islamic Society of North America, the New York-based Foundation for Ethnic Understanding (FFEU) has held the third edition of the Weekend of Twinning of mosques and synagogues. This year’s events involved more than 200 mosques, synagogues, communal and student groups in over 20 countries world-wide. Muslim and Jewish students and young leadership groups were invited to form partnerships and joint programs together, with the goal of building communication ties, reconciliation and cooperation between the two religions.

“I am proud to see so many join in on the Weekend of Twinning rather than joining in the chorus of unacceptance choosing instead to confront Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and bigotry head-on,” FFEU President and WJC Vice-President Rabbi Marc Schneier told the Israeli newspaper ‘Haaretz’, adding that the event “has time and time again shown us that Jews and Muslims can not only live together peacefully as neighbors, but also partner together to build a better community at large.”

As part of the project in Detroit health care professionals saw about 120 people, and about a quarter needed treatment or follow-up visits.

The fair marks the second collaboration of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan and the Jewish Community Relations Council. Muslims last Christmas Day joined Jews for Mitzvah Day, their largest annual day of volunteering.

Vermont interfaith group hopes to work with Muslims

BURLINGTON,VT–The Vermont Interfaith Action group is seeking partnerships with faiths including Muslims. The group’s director has already spoken to a Muslim student group and hopes to stengthen the relationship.
Participating congregations each form a small working group of members who work with the director on specific issues and help mobilize their broader community for meetings and action. Each organization also makes a financial contribution to support the nonprofit, adding up to about 10 percent to 15 percent of the total $115,000 annual operating budget, which is mostly grant- and foundation supported.

“Although we have different faiths,” VIA board President Virginia Munkelwitz said, “we come together on values.”

For more information on Vermont Interfaith Action, call 651-8889 or go to viavt.org.

Michigan’s only Mexican halal restaurant attracts all

DEARBORN, MI–Enthusiasts of Mexican who want to follow the Islamic dietary rules often find it hard to satisfy their taste buds due to the lack of halal restaunts catering to their needs. But as North America’s Muslim grows  followed by the diversity in tastes businesses are capitalizing on this niche. Fuedo Grill which opened earlier this year in the city of Dearborn is an example of the growing trend. It has successfully showed how with some effort Mexican cuisine can be adapted to halal rules.

The restaurant overcomes the prohibition on pork by replacing it with beef or chicken. The owner told the Metro Times that he uses a chicken-based chorizo using vinegar, cumin and a paste of dried Mexican peppers. The taste of the substitute is so good that he says it has “fooled many Mexicans.”

It is probably for this reason that despite Fuedo Grill not serving any of the prohibited items it continues to be as popular among non-Muslims as among Muslims.
With the rise in the number of Hispanic-American Muslims it is expected that a new trend of halal Mexican restaurants will catch on. The Hispanic American population is anywhere from 70,000 to 200,000 according to some reports.

Kentucky mosque granted permission

MAYFIELD,KY–The Mayfield, Kentucky city zoning board gave full approval to a Somali group looking to use a vacant storefront as a Muslim mosque.The board originally approved the mosque on August 10.

After public outcry, they reversed the decision on August 24.Weeks later the ACLU got involved and they’ve been meeting with the board off and on.We’ll give you the full story tonight at five.

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By Parvez Fatteh, Founder of http://sportingummah.com, sports@muslimobserver.com

File:  Ramy Ashour (front) plays Amr Shabana (both Egyptian) in November 2009 at the World Open tournament in Kuwait.

World number one squash player Ramy Ashour solidified his ranking with a victory in the Kuwait Open today. Ashour defeated his Egyptian compatriot Amr Shabana today in a tightly contested affair. Ramy rebounded from a first set loss to win the next three sets, including 11-1 in the fourth. Ashour leveled the all-time series with Shabana at two matches each. This was the fourth year in a row that these two countrymen faced each other in the finals of this tournament.

“Well, for me the whole week for me was very tough,” Ashour told www.squashsite.co.uk afterwards, “as I played a lot of strong players which I had to be solid in front of, otherwise I wouldn’t have made it to the final – and these matches give you experience and a lot of confidence in your body and mind. Tonight’s match was different as I had to push myself for another day against a four times World Open champion, which makes it very special to have a win over him. He is a great player.”

Shabana was full of compliments for Ashour as well, “After the third, I let go mentally just a bit, and Ramy ate me alive. This guy is unbelievable, you let go for a second, and he eats you alive.”
The next big tournament for these and other luminaries of international squash will be later this month in Qatar.

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With the Formula One championship likely to go down to the wire, all eyes are on the finale at Yas Marina

By M. Satya Narayan, Senior Reporter

Abu Dhabi : It’s hard to believe that it is time for yet another Formula 1 spectacle which starts under bright sunlight, finishes in twilight and then is followed by a starry party through the night. Hoardings all over the UAE ask, ‘Where will you be on November 14, 2010?’ — and that precisely is the day when, once again Yas Island will come alive as champion drivers battle it out for the season-ending race of the Formula 1 championship.

The Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is one of the biggest international sporting events in the UAE. The inaugural edition wowed the motorsport fraternity and the sporting world with one of the most unique championship races ever.

Every driver, who stayed at the Yas Marina Hotel, had a birds-eye view of the challenging circuit from their bedrooms, and later became part of history as the first-ever day-night race exceeded all expectations.

Skepticism

The event’s success was savored that much more as mere months before last November’s event, many in the motorsport world were sceptical about Abu Dhabi being ready for the event.

But for an emirate, which has in just a handful of years emerged as a major sporting destination with the European Tour’s Abu Dhabi Golf Championship, the Capitala Tennis Championship which attracts six of the world’s top ten players, the Fifa Club World Cup, the Red Bull Air Race and the Formula One championship, the challenge was smoothly overcome.

Abu Dhabi’s success was reflected in the two awards the event claimed at the FIA gala a month later. The Race Promoters’ Trophy was picked up by Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for the state-of-the-art Yas Marina circuit in a stunning setting and for organizing the first-ever twilight race.

The twilight concept and the spectacular setting of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix also proved popular with television viewers across the world and helped Abu Dhabi scoop the Television Trophy.

While accolades poured in from all sections of the motor racing and sporting world, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, the first champion of the first-ever day-night race said, “Really enjoyable race. It is a challenging circuit. Starting at day, finishing at night is special. We have a dark tear-off and the moment you rip it off it is like someone has switched on the light, so it is quite unique. I think it cannot be much better.”

Topping last year

But Abu Dhabi will now aim to make the November 14, 2010 event better than the first. And with the drivers’ championship likely to go to the wire, the Yas Marina Circuit looks set to add another glorious chapter to the Formula 1 story.

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AP

U.S. President Barack Obama waves before his departure at Halim Perdanakusuma airport in Jakarta November 10, 2010. Obama said on Wednesday much more needs to be done to repair frayed U.S. relations with the Muslim world in an acknowledgement of the difficulties in eradicating “years of mistrust.”   REUTERS/Supri

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — From the most Muslim nation on earth, President Barack Obama is reaching out to the Islamic world, declaring that efforts to build trust and peace are showing promise but are still clearly “incomplete.”

Obama on Wednesday delivered one of the most personal and potentially consequential speeches of his presidency, reflecting on his own years of upbringing in Indonesia and giving an update on America’s “new beginning” with Muslims that he promised last year in Cairo.

At the same time, the path to lasting peace in the Middle East was hardly looking smoother. A reminder of that difficult road was waiting for Obama when he landed here Tuesday on a steamy afternoon in southeast Asia. Israel’s decision to build more apartments in east Jerusalem, a disputed territory claimed by Palestinians, had already earned a rebuke from American diplomats before a tired, traveling president weighed in himself.

“This kind of activity is never helpful when it come to peace negotiations,” Obama said when questioned at a news conference alongside Indonesia’s president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. “I’m concerned that we’re not seeing each side make the extra effort involved to get a breakthrough. … Each of these incremental steps can end up breaking down trust.”
Heavily invested and eager for Mideast stability, Obama insisted: “We’re going to keep on working on it.”

Obama’s criticism came during a cherished, fleeting and twice-delayed homecoming in Indonesia. He canceled plans to come earlier this year because of domestic troubles, and now he’s dodging a big cloud of volcanic ash.

India’s most volatile volcano, Mount Merapi, has erupted with deadly force for days. The White House determined Air Force One could fly in as scheduled to Jakarta but that Obama should shorten his stay given the flow of airborne ash. That meant Obama would be in Indonesia for just 19 hours, still long enough to visit a famous mosque and deliver his speech.
The president, who is Christian, is eager to hold up Indonesia as a model: an overwhelmingly Muslim nation where other religions are respected freely and an evolving democracy is gaining strength despite a legacy of corruption.

He will revisit themes of his famous 2009 Cairo speech, one in which he called for mutual respect: from the United States for Muslims in a post-Sept. 11 world, and also from Muslims for the United States for its diversity and compassion. That speech also essentially set up an Obama scorecard on Iraq, Iran and efforts to combat Islamic extremists.

Obama is also giving substantial attention to the new partnerships his government has reached with Indonesia’s. And he is talking freely about his time here, from age 6 to 10, when he was running around as a boy named Barry.

The personal touches began coming out as Obama, looking weary on his fourth day in Asia, reflected Tuesday on how Jakarta has changed since he lived here. His only real look came during a couple of motorcade rides.

“I feel great affection for the people here,” Obama said. “And obviously I have a sister who’s half Indonesian. My mother lived and worked here for a long time. And so the sights and the sounds and the memories all feel very familiar.”

The president drew smiles from the gathered dignitaries by speaking a little Indonesian at times.

“We have been waiting for so long,” said Yudhoyono to Obama at a press event shoved inside by rain.

The two presidents touted a deal that will have both countries cooperating on energy, education, the environment and many other subjects. More broadly, Indonesia offers the United States one more strategic, democratic voice in a continent of emerging powers and lucrative markets, while U.S. support can help Indonesia’s own economy and regional security.

Both leaders pushed back on the thesis that Obama’s efforts aim, at least in part, to counter China’s rise. Obama insisted he wanted China to grow and prosper, and he said that “we’re not interested in containing that process.” Yudhoyono said he didn’t think of one power counterbalancing another, but he added that there must be an “equilibrium” in the region.

Obama also pointedly noted that the global economy is out of whack, saying, “We have seen some countries run up very big surpluses and intervening significantly in the currency markets to maintain their advantage.” The U.S. contends China’s undervalued currency gives Beijing an unfair trade boost in the selling of its goods.

The president’s stop in Indonesia came after he spent three days in India — the most attention any foreign country has received from him. Obama leaves Wednesday night for global economic meetings in South Korea, and then more in Japan.

Obama credited his own outreach effort as he described the joint efforts of the United States and Indonesia, saying they were “direct results of my call in Cairo for a new beginning between the United States and Muslim communities.”

Overall, he said progress has been mixed.

“Or efforts have been earnest, sustained,” he said. “We don’t expect that we are going to completely eliminate some of the misunderstandings and mistrust that have developed … but we do think that we’re on the right path.”

Indonesians all over this country of more than 17,000 islands gathered around television sets in their houses, coffee shops and office buildings as Obama’s plane touched down. He was to deliver his speech at the University of Indonesia to an indoor crowd of about 6,000 people. An outdoor event was ruled out by concern over weather and the expected overwhelming crowd.

___

Associated Press writers Erica Werner, Niniek Karmini, Robin McDowell and Sarah DiLorenzo contributed to this story.

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Egg — a structure which the females of certain animal species lay as a means of reproduction, it contains a fertilized zygote and nutrition in the form of yolk for the developing offspring, sometimes contains other substances (e.g., the white of a hen’s egg), sometimes surrounded by a protective outer shell.

Animal reproductive body consisting of an ovum or embryo together with nutritive and protective envelopes; especially the thin-shelled reproductive body laid by e.g. female birds.

Oval reproductive body of a fowl (especially a hen) used as food. Otherwise known as the ovum. Otherwise, externally, an egg can be deposited by parents which soon develop into offspring. Some domesticated birds do not lay eggs.

East Indian history indicates that wild fowl were domesticated as early as 3200 B.C. Egyptian and Chinese records show that fowl were laying eggs for man in 1400 B.C. Europe has had domesticated hens since 600 B.C. There is some evidence of native fowl in the Americas before Columbus’ arrival. However, it is believed that on his second trip in 1493, Columbus’ ships carried to the New World the first of the chickens related to those now in egg production. These strains originated in Asia.

Most people of the world eat the egg of the chicken, Gallus domesticas. Nearly 200 breeds and varieties of chickens have been established worldwide. Only a few breeds are economically important as egg producers. Most laying hens in the U.S. are Single-Comb White Leghorns.

Eggs are all-natural and packed with a number of nutrients. One egg has 13 essential vitamins and minerals in varying amounts, high-quality protein, unsaturated fats and antioxidants, all for 70 calories.

Eggs’ nutrients can help you with weight management, muscle strength, eye health, brain function and having a healthy pregnancy. Particularly important for aiding healthy brain function and pregnancy is choline (pronounced KOH-leen), which is amply present in eggs.

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Physical sighting:  Yanabi.com has announced that except in a few places the new crescent was not visible until Sunday therefore they argue that Monday is the first day of Dhul Hijjah, and ‘Arafat (fasting) on the ninth of Dhul Hijjah is Tuesday November 16th, and ‘Eid is Wednesday November 16th.

http://www.yanabi.com/forum/Topic398360.aspx

Saudi Arabia:  The Fiqh Council of North America reports (and many other online sources also report, including fatwa-online and other Muslim sites) that the hajj authorities (“High Judiciary Council (HJC) of Saudi Arabia”) have determined that Sunday November 8th was the first day of Dhul Hijjah 1431, and that Arafat will be Monday the 14th, and ‘Eid Tuesday November 15th. 

Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA / ISNA):  The Fiqh Council of North America’s decision regarding ‘Eidul Adha is to follow the Saudi announcement regarding ‘Eidul Adha because ‘Eidul Adha and the performance of Hajj are connected and the Saudi government makes official pronouncements about when Hajj begins.  FCNA therefore determines Dhul Hijjah began Sunday November 7th, and that ‘Eidul Adha will be Tuesday November 16th. 

(We apologize—on Tuesday November 9th we corrected this last paragraph. We originally said FCNA’s ‘Eid would be “Wednesday November 16th” – we should have said “Tuesday November 16th”)

http://www.isna.net/events/Special-Announcement/Eid-ul-Adha-Announcement.aspx

http://www.fiqhcouncil.org/

The ‘ulama say the first ten days of Dhul Hijjah are a very blessed time for worship!

Salaam aleikum!

By Eve Ahmed

Changing values: Camilla Leyland, 32, pictured in Western and Muslim dress, converted to Islam in her mid-20s for ‘intellectual and feminist reasons’

Tony Blair’s sister-in-law announced her conversion to Islam last weekend. Journalist Lauren Booth embraced the faith after what she describes as a ‘holy experience’ in Iran.

She is just one of a growing number of modern British career women to do so. Here, writer EVE AHMED, who was raised as a Muslim before rejecting the faith, explores the reasons why.

Much of my childhood was spent trying to escape Islam.

Born in London to an English mother and a Pakistani Muslim father, I was brought up to follow my father’s faith without question.

But, privately, I hated it. The minute I left home for university at the age of 18, I abandoned it altogether.

As far as I was concerned, being a Muslim meant hearing the word ‘No’ over and over again.

Girls from my background were barred from so many of the things my English friends took for granted. Indeed, it seemed to me that almost anything fun was haram, or forbidden, to girls like me.

There were so many random, petty rules. No whistling. No chewing of gum. No riding bikes. No watching Top Of The Pops. No wearing make-up or clothes which revealed the shape of the body.

No eating in the street or putting my hands in my pockets. No cutting my hair or painting my nails. No asking questions or answering back. No keeping dogs as pets, (they were unclean).

And, of course, no sitting next to men, shaking their hands or even making eye contact with them.

These ground rules were imposed by my father and I, therefore, assumed they must be an integral part of being a good Muslim.

Small wonder, then, that as soon as I was old enough to exert my independence, I rejected the whole package and turned my back on Islam. After all, what modern, liberated British woman would choose to live such a life?

Well, quite a lot, it turns out, including Islam’s latest surprise convert, Tony Blair’s sister-in-law Lauren Booth. And after my own break with my past, I’ve followed with fascination the growing trend of Western women choosing to convert to Islam.

Broadcaster and journalist Booth, 43, says she now wears a hijab head covering whenever she leaves home, prays five times a day and visits her local mosque ‘when I can’.

She decided to become a Muslim six weeks ago after visiting the shrine of Fatima al-Masumeh in the city of Qom, and says: ‘It was a Tuesday evening, and I sat down and felt this shot of spiritual morphine, just absolute bliss and joy.’

Before her awakening in Iran, she had been ‘sympathetic’ to Islam and has spent considerable time working in Palestine. ‘I was always impressed with the strength and comfort it gave,’ she says.

How, I wondered, could women be drawn to a religion which I felt had kept me in such a lowly, submissive place? How could their experiences of Islam be so very different to mine?

According to Kevin Brice from Swansea University, who has specialised in studying white conversion to Islam, these women are part of an intriguing trend.

He explains: ‘They seek spirituality, a higher meaning, and tend to be deep thinkers. The other type of women who turn to Islam are what I call “converts of convenience”. They’ll assume the trappings of the religion to please their Muslim husband and his family, but won’t necessarily attend mosque, pray or fast.’

I spoke to a diverse selection of white Western converts in a bid to re-examine the faith I had rejected.

Women like Kristiane Backer, 43, a London-based former MTV presenter who had led the kind of liberal Western-style life that I yearned for as a teenager, yet who turned her back on it and embraced Islam instead. Her reason? The ‘anything goes’ permissive society that I coveted had proved to be a superficial void.

The turning point for Kristiane came when she met and briefly dated the former Pakistani cricketer and Muslim Imran Khan in 1992 during the height of her career. He took her to Pakistan where she says she was immediately touched by spirituality and the warmth of the people.

Kristiane says: ‘Though our relationship didn’t last, I began to study the Muslim faith and eventually converted. Because of the nature of my job, I’d been out interviewing rock stars, travelling all over the world and following every trend, yet I’d felt empty inside. Now, at last, I had contentment because Islam had given me a purpose in life.’

‘In the West, we are stressed for superficial reasons, like what clothes to wear. In Islam, everyone looks to a higher goal. Everything is done to please God. It was a completely different value system.

‘In the West, we are stressed for superficial reasons, like what clothes to wear. In Islam, everyone looks to a higher goal. Everything is done to please God’

‘Despite my lifestyle, I felt empty inside and realised how liberating it was to be a Muslim. To follow only one god makes life purer. You are not chasing every fad.

‘I grew up in Germany in a not very religious Protestant family. I drank and I partied, but I realised that we need to behave well now so we have a good after-life. We are responsible for our own actions.’

For a significant amount of women, their first contact with Islam comes from dating a Muslim boyfriend. Lynne Ali, 31, from Dagenham in Essex, freely admits to having been ‘a typical white hard-partying teenager’.

She says: ‘I would go out and get drunk with friends, wear tight and revealing clothing and date boys.

‘I also worked part-time as a DJ, so I was really into the club scene. I used to pray a bit as a Christian, but I used God as a sort of doctor, to fix things in my life. If anyone asked, I would’ve said that, generally, I was happy living life in the fast lane.’

But when she met her boyfriend, Zahid, at university, something dramatic happened.

She says: ‘His sister started talking to me about Islam, and it was as if everything in my life fitted into place. I think, underneath it all, I must have been searching for something, and I wasn’t feeling fulfilled by my hard-drinking party lifestyle.’

Lynne converted aged 19. ‘From that day, I started wearing the hijab,’ she explains, ‘and I now never show my hair in public. At home, I’ll dress in normal Western clothes in front of my husband, but never out of the house.’

With a recent YouGov survey concluding that more than half the British public believe Islam to be a negative influence that encourages extremism, the repression of women and inequality, one might ask why any of them would choose such a direction for themselves.

Yet statistics suggest Islamic conversion is not a mere flash in the pan but a significant development. Islam is, after all, the world’s fastest growing religion, and white adopters are an important part of that story.

‘Evidence suggests that the ratio of Western women converts to male could be as high as 2:1,’ says Kevin Brice.

Moreover, he says, often these female ¬converts are eager to display the visible signs of their faith — in particular the hijab — whereas many Muslim girls brought up in the faith choose not to.

‘Perhaps as a result of these actions, which tend to draw attention, white Muslims often report greater amounts of discrimination against them than do born Muslims,’ adds Brice, which is what happened to Kristiane Backer.

She says: ‘In Germany, there is Islamophobia. I lost my job when I converted. There was a Press campaign against me with insinuations about all Muslims supporting terrorists — I was vilified. Now, I am a presenter on NBC Europe. 

Ex-MTV Presenter Kristiane Backer with Mick Jagger in the late Eighties.

‘I call myself a European Muslim, which is different to the ‘born’ Muslim. I was married to one, a Moroccan, but it didn’t work because he placed restrictions on me because of how he’d been brought up. As a European Muslim, I question everything — I don’t accept blindly.

‘But what I love is the hospitality and the warmth of the Muslim community. London is the best place in Europe for Muslims, there is wonderful Islamic culture here and I am very happy.’

For some converts, Islam represents a celebration of old-fashioned family values.

‘Some are drawn to the sense of belonging and of community — values which have eroded in the West,’ says Haifaa Jawad, a senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham, who has studied the white conversion phenomenon.

Escape route: Former DJ Lynne Ali is happy to pray five times a day.	Liberating: Kristiane Backer says being a Muslim makes her life purer.

‘Many people, from all walks of life, mourn the loss in today’s society of traditional respect for the elderly and for women, for example. These are values which are enshrined in the Koran, which Muslims have to live by,’ adds Brice.

It is values like these which drew Camilla Leyland, 32, a yoga teacher who lives in Cornwall, to Islam. A single mother to daughter, Inaya, two, she converted in her mid-20s for ‘intellectual and feminist reasons’.

She explains: ‘I know people will be surprised to hear the words “feminism” and “Islam” in the same breath, but in fact, the teachings of the Koran give equality to women, and at the time the religion was born, the teachings went against the grain of a misogynistic society.

‘The big mistake people make is by confusing culture with religion. Yes, there are Muslim cultures which do not allow women individual freedom, yet when I was growing up, I felt more oppressed by Western society.’

She talks of the pressure on women to act like men by drinking and having casual sex. ‘There was no real meaning to it all. In Islam, if you begin a relationship, that is a commitment of intent.’

Growing up in Southampton — her father was the director of Southampton Institute of Education and her mother a home economics teacher — Camilla’s interest in Islam began at school.

She went to university and later took a Masters degree in Middle East Studies. But it was while living and working in Syria that she had a spiritual epiphany. Reflecting on what she’d read in the Koran, she realised she wanted to convert.

Her decision was met with bemusement by friends and family.

‘People found it so hard to believe that an educated, middle-class white woman would choose to become Muslim,’ she says.

While Camilla’s faith remains strong, she no longer wears the hijab in public. But several of the women I spoke to said strict Islamic dress was something they found empowering and liberating. 

Lynne Ali remembers the night this hit home for her. ‘I went to an old friend’s 21st birthday party in a bar,’ she reveals. ‘I walked in, wearing my hijab and modest clothing, and saw how everyone else had so much flesh on display. They were drunk, slurring their words and dancing provocatively.

‘For the first time, I could see my former life with an outsider’s eyes, and I knew I could never go back to that.

‘I am so grateful I found my escape route. This is the real me — I am happy to pray five times a day and take classes at the mosque. I am no longer a slave to a broken society and its expectations.’

Kristiane Backer, who has written a book on her own spiritual journey, called From MTV To Mecca, believes the new breed of modern, independent Muslims can band together to show the world that Islam is not the faith I grew up in — one that stamps on the rights of women.

She says: ‘I know women born Muslims who became disillusioned and rebelled against it. When you dig deeper, it’s not the faith they turned against, but the culture.

‘Rules like marrying within the same sect or caste and education being less important for girls, as they should get married anyway —– where does it say that in the Koran? It doesn’t.

‘Many young Muslims have abandoned the “fire and brimstone” version they were born into have re-discovered a more spiritual and intellectual approach, that’s free from the cultural dogmas of the older generation. That’s how I intend to spend my life, showing the world the beauty of the true Islam.’

While I don’t agree with their sentiments, I admire and respect the women I interviewed for this piece.

They were all bright and educated, and have thought long and hard before choosing to convert to Islam — and now feel passionately about their adopted religion. Good luck to them. And good luck to Lauren Booth. But it’s that word that sums up the difference between their experience and mine — choice.

Perhaps if I’d felt in control rather than controlled, if I’d felt empowered rather than stifled, I would still be practising the religion I was born into, and would not carry the burden of guilt that I do about rejecting my father’s faith.

Daily Mail

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Converted Journalist Lauren Booth explains

By Lauren Booth

LAUREN Booth, a broadcaster, journalist and sister-in-law of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, defiantly explains her conversion to Islam.

“It is the most peculiar journey of my life. The carriage is warm and my fellow passengers unexpectedly welcoming. We are progressing ¬rapidly and without delay. Rain, snow, rail unions, these things make no difference to the forward rush.

Yet I have no idea how I came to be on board nor, stranger still, quite where the train is heading, apart from this: the destination, wherever it might be, is the most important place I can imagine.

I know this all seems gloriously far-fetched, but really it is how I feel about my conversion, announced last week, to Islam.

Although the means and ¬mechanisms that brought me to this point remain mysterious, the decision will determine every aspect of my life to come as firmly as the twin rails beneath that exhilarating express.

Asked for a simple explanation of how I, an English hack journalist, a ¬single working mother, signed up to the Western media’s least-favorite religion, I suppose I would point to an intensely spiritual experience in an Iranian mosque just over a month ago.

But it makes more sense to go back to January 2005, when I arrived alone in the West Bank to cover the elections there for The Mail on Sunday. It is safe to say that before that visit I had never spent any time with Arabs, or Muslims.

The whole experience was a shock, but not for the reasons I might have expected. So much of what we know about this part of the world and the people who follow Mohammed the Prophet is based on -disturbing – some would say biased – news bulletins.

So, as I flew towards the Middle East, my mind was full of the usual 10pm buzz¬words: radical extremists, fanatics, forced marriages, suicide bombers and jihad. Not much of a travel brochure.

My very first experience, though, could hardly have been more positive. I had arrived on the West Bank without a coat, as the Israeli airport authorities had kept my suitcase.

Walking around the centre of Ramallah, I was shivering, whereupon an old lady grabbed my hand.

Talking rapidly in Arabic, she took me into a house on a side street. Was I being kidnapped by a rather elderly terrorist? For several confusing minutes I watched her going through her daughter’s wardrobe until she pulled out a coat, a hat and a scarf.

I was then taken back to the street where I had been walking, given a kiss and sent warmly on my way. There had been not a single comprehensible word exchanged between us.

It was an act of generosity I have never forgotten, and one which, in various guises, I have seen repeated a hundred times. Yet this warmth of spirit is so rarely represented in what we read and see in the news.

Over the course of the next three years I made numerous journeys to the occupied lands which were once historic Palestine. At first I went on ¬assignments; as time went by, I started travelling in solidarity with charities and pro-Palestinian groups.

I felt challenged by the hardships ¬suffered by Palestinians of all creeds. It is important to remember there have been Christians in the Holy Land for 2,000 years and that they too are suffering under Israel’s illegal occupation.
Gradually I found expressions such as ‘Mashallah!’ (a phrase of gratitude meaning ‘God has willed it’) and ‘Al Hamd¬illilah!’ (akin to ‘Halle¬lujah’) creeping into my everyday speech. These are exclamations of delight derived from the 100 names of God, or Allah. Far from being nervous of Muslim groups, I started looking forward to meeting them. It was an opportunity to be with people of intelligence, wit and, above all else, kindness and generosity.

I’m going to take a break here to pray for 10 minutes as it’s 1.30pm. (There are five prayers each day, the times varying throughout the year depending on the rising and setting of the sun.)

I was in no doubt that I had embarked on a change of political understanding, one in which Palestinians became families rather than terror suspects, and Muslim cities communities rather than ‘collateral damage’.

But a religious journey? This would never have occurred to me. Although I have always liked to pray and, since childhood, have enjoyed the stories of Jesus and the more ancient prophets that I had picked up at school and at the Brownies, I was brought up in a very secular household.

It was probably an appreciation of Muslim culture, in partic¬ular that of Muslim women, that first drew me towards a broader appreciation of Islam.

How strange Muslim women seem to English eyes, all covered up from head to toe, sometimes walking behind their husbands (although this is far from universally the case), with their children around their long skirts.

By contrast, professional women in Europe are happy to make the most of their appearance. I, for example, have always been proud of my lovely blonde hair and, yes, my cleavage.

It was common working practice to have this on display at all times because so much of what we sell these days has to do with our appearance.

Yet whenever I have been invited to broadcast on television, I have sat watching in wonder as the female presenters spend up to an hour on their hair and make- up, before giving the serious ¬topics under discussion less than 15 minutes’ attention. Is this liberation? I began to wonder just how much true respect girls and women get in our ‘free’ society.

In 2007 I went to Lebanon. I spent four days with female ¬university students, all of whom wore the full hijab: belted shirts over dark trousers or jeans, with no hair on show. They were charming, independent and outspoken company. They were not at all the timid, soon-to-be-forced-into-marriage girls I would have imagined from what we often read in the West.

At one point they accompanied me to interview a sheikh who was also a commander with the Hezbollah militia. I was pleasantly surprised by his attitude to the girls. As Sheikh Nabil, in turban and brown flowing robes, talked intriguingly of a prisoner swap, they started butting in.

They felt free to talk over him, to put a hand up for him to pause while they translated.

In fact, the bossiness of Muslim women is something of a joke that rings true in so many homes in the community. You want to see men under the thumb? Look at many Muslim husbands more than other kinds.

Indeed, just yesterday, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia rang me and only half-jokingly introduced himself as ‘my wife’s husband’.

Something else was changing, too. The more time I spent in the Middle East, the more I asked to be taken into mosques. Just for touristy reasons, I told myself. In fact I found them fascinating.

Free of statues and with rugs instead of pews, I saw them rather like a big sitting room where ¬children play, women feed their families pitta bread and milk and grandmothers sit and read the Koran in wheelchairs. They take their lives into their place of worship and bring their worship into their homes.

Then came the night in the Iran¬ian city of Qom, beneath the golden dome of the shrine of Fatima Mesumah (the revered ‘Learned Lady’). Like the other women pilgrims, I said Allah’s name several times while holding on to the bars of Fatima’s tomb.

When I sat down, a pulse of sheer spiritual joy shot through me. Not the joy that lifts you off the ground, but the joy that gives you complete peace and contentment. I sat for a long time. Young women gathered around me talking of the ‘amazing thing happening to you’.

I knew then I was no longer a tourist in Islam but a traveller inside the Ummah, the community of Islam that links all believers.

At first I wanted the feeling to go, and for several reasons. Was I ready to convert? What on earth would friends and family think? Was I ready to moderate my behavior in many ways?

And here’s the really strange thing. I needn’t have worried about any of these things, because somehow becoming a Muslim is really easy – although the practicalities are a very different ¬matter, of course.

For a start, Islam demands a great deal of study, yet I am mother to two children and work full-time. You are expected to read the Koran from beginning to end, plus the thoughts and findings of imams and all manner of spiritually enlightened people. Most people would spend months, if not years of study before making their declaration.

People ask me how much of the Koran I’ve read, and my answer is that I’ve only covered 100 pages or so to date, and in translation. But before anyone sneers, the verses of the Koran should be read ten lines at a time, and they should be recited, considered and, if possible, committed to memory. It’s not like OK! magazine.

This is a serious text that I am going to know for life. It would help to learn Arabic and I would like to, but that will also take time.

I have a relationship with a ¬couple of mosques in North London, and I am hoping to make a routine of going at least once a week. I would never say, by the way, whether I will take a Sunni or a Shia path. For me, there is one Islam and one Allah.

Adopting modest dress, however, is rather less troublesome than you might think. Wearing a headscarf means I’m ready to go out more quickly than before. I was blushing the first time I wore it loosely over my hair just a few weeks ago.

Luckily it was cold outside, so few people paid attention. Going out in the sunshine was more of a challenge, but this is a tolerant country and no one has looked askance so far.

A veil, by the way, is not for me, let alone something more substantial like a burka. I’m making no criticism of women who choose that level of modesty. But Islam has no expectation that I will adopt a more severe form of dress.

Predictably, some areas of the Press have had a field day with my conversion, unleashing a torrent of abuse that is not really aimed at me but a false idea of Islam. But I have ignored the more negative comments. Some people don’t understand spirituality and any discussion of it makes them frightened. It raises awkward questions about the meaning of their own lives and they lash out.

One of my concerns is professional. It is easy to get pigeonholed, particularly if I continue to wear a headscarf. In fact, based on the experience of other female converts, I’m wondering if I will be treated as though I have lost my mind.

I’ve been political all my life, and that will continue. I’ve been involved in pro-Palestinian activism for a number of years, and don’t expect to stop. Yet Britain is a more tolerant country than, say, France or Germany.

I’m well aware that there are plenty of Muslim women who have great success on television and in the Press, and wear modest but decidedly Western dress.

This is hardly a choice for me, though. I am a newcomer, still getting to grips with the basic tenets. My relationship with Islam is different. I am in no position to say that some bits of my new-found faith suit me and that some bits I’ll ignore.

There is a more profound uncertainty about the future, too. I feel changes going on in me every day – that I’m becoming a different person. I wonder where that will end up. Who will I be?

I am fortunate in that my most important relationships remain strong. The reaction from my non-Muslim friends has been more curious than hostile. “Will it change you?” they ask. “Can we still be your friend? Can we go out drinking?”

The answer to the first two of those questions is yes. The last is a big happy no.

As for my mother, I think she is happy if I’m happy. And if, coming from a background of my father’s alcoholism, I’m going to avoid the stuff, then what could be better?

Growing up in an alcoholic household with a dad who was violent, has left a great gap in my life. It is a wound that will never heal and his remarks about me are very hurtful.

We haven’t seen each other for years, so how can he know anything about me or have any valid views about my conversion? I just feel sorry for him. The rest of my family is very supportive.

My mum and I had a difficult relationship when I was growing up, but we have built bridges and she’s a great support to me and the girls.

When I told her I had converted, she did say: “Not to those nutters. I thought you said Buddhism!” But she understand now and accepts it.

And, as it happens, giving up alcohol was a breeze. In fact I can’t imagine tasting alcohol ever again. I simply don’t want to.

This is not the time for me to be thinking about relationships with men, either. I’m recovering from the breakdown of my marriage and am now going through a divorce.

So I’m not looking and am under no pressure to look.

If, when the time came, I did consider remarrying, then, in accordance with my adopted faith, the husband would need to be Muslim. I’m asked: “Will my daughters be Muslim?” I don’t know, that is up to them. You can’t change someone’s heart. But they’re certainly not hostile and their reaction to my surprising conversion was perhaps the most telling of all.

I sat in the kitchen and called them in. “Girls, I have some news for you,” I began. “I am now a Muslim.” They went into a ¬huddle, with the eldest, Alex, saying: “We have some questions, we’ll be right back.”

They made a list and returned. Alex cleared her throat. “Will you drink alcohol any more?”

Answer: No. The response – a rather worrying “Yay!”

“Will you smoke cigarettes any more?” Smoking isn’t haram (for¬bidden) but it is harmful, so I answered: “No.”

Again, this was met with puritanical approval. Their final question, though, took me aback. “‘Will you have your breasts out in public now you are a Muslim?”

What??

It seems they’d both been embarrassed by my plunging shirts and tops and had cringed on the school run at my pallid cleavage. Perhaps in hindsight I should have cringed as well.

“Now that I’m Muslim,” I said, “I will never have my breasts out in public again.”

“We love Islam!” they cheered and went off to play. And I love Islam too.”

Lauren Booth, 43, the sixth daughter of actor Tony Booth, now works for Press TV, the English-language news channel of the Islamic Republic of Iran

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