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PAS : KE ARAH PEMERINTAHAN ISLAM YANG ADIL
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Islam Attracts Converts by the Thousands, Drawn Before
and After Attacks
"I'm asked to give up my religion for my kids,"
says Angela Davis, "but I won't do it." Ms.
Davis discovered Islam this spring in an Internet
chat room. Her estranged husband did not
return the children after a visit.
ALLWIN, Mo., Oct. 20 � Since she became a Muslim
six months ago, Angela Davis has
given up many things. She stopped listening to
music, started sleeping on the floor, put
away her 100 Disney videos and traded her porcelain
doll collection for velvet posters with
verses from the Koran.
Now, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks, Ms. Davis may have to give up her
children.
After her photograph, in full veil, appeared in the
local newspaper on Sept. 30, Ms. Davis's
soon-to-be-ex- husband refused to return their
children, 5 and 2, from a weekend visit.
She has not seen them since.
"It's a test that is given to me from Allah to see
if my faith is strong enough," said Ms. Davis,
27, who discovered Islam in an Internet chat room
this spring and now teaches
pre-kindergarten at the Al-Salam Day School in this
St. Louis suburb. "I'm asked to give up
my religion for my kids, but I won't do it. On
Judgment Day, as much as I love my kids, they
won't be there with me."
Though her situation is extreme, Ms. Davis is one
of thousands of new Muslim converts
struggling with their identities amid anti-Muslim
fervor and declarations of an Islamic holy
war being broadcast on television. Already
estranged from relatives and friends, some of
whom accuse them of joining a cult, these new
Muslims face catcalls and fresh challenges
to their faith
Tim Parker for The New York Times -``Giving up the
pork and the alcohol was the easy
part,'' says Jim Hacking, a St. Louis lawyer who
studied to be a Jesuit priest before
choosing Islam.
Many say the events of Sept. 11 only confirmed
their commitment. Shannon Staloch is not
sure why, but upon hearing of the hijackings, she
immediately grabbed a book from her
backpack and recited the Arabic declaration of
belief; she made the conversion official 12
days later.
"You know how the world changed when that happened
and everyone was shaky?" Ms.
Staloch said. "I wanted something steady."
With some 6 million adherents in the United States,
Islam is said to be the nation's
fastest-growing religion, fueled by immigration,
high birth rates and widespread
conversion. One expert estimates that 25,000 people
a year become Muslims in this
country; some clerics say they have seen conversion
rates quadruple since Sept. 11.
Experts say Islam is attractive because of its
universal message � the faithful believe that
everyone is born Muslim and thus call the
transformation reversion, not conversion � and
because its teachings incorporate other traditions,
honoring Jesus Christ, the Jewish
patriarch Abraham and other Biblical figures as
prophets. Though missionary work is rare
in Islam, spreading the message is demanded by the
Koran. Conversion is as simple as
reciting one sentence � "I bear witness that there
is no deity except Allah and that
Muhammad is his messenger" � in front of witnesses,
a ceremony known as Shahadah.
"There's no class," said Khalid Yahya Blankinship,
chairman of the religion department at
Temple University. "There isn't really a formalized
requirement, you don't have to be tested."
Mr. Blankinship, who converted to Islam in 1973 and
has since witnessed 100 Shahadahs,
added: "It's very important that Islam should
spread. The idea is that one should want other
souls to be saved."
The vast majority of converts are
African-Americans, who make up about a third of
Muslims in the United States. Thousands find Allah
while in jail or in recovery from drug or
alcohol addiction. Less familiar are the lapsed
Catholics and lost Jews, often highly
educated professionals, who come to the mosque.
Many convert because they want to marry a Muslim
who demands it, a common reason for
conversions in any religion.
"I would never have changed if it wasn't for
Rania," David Nerviani, a St. Louis police
officer, said of his Egyptian-born wife, a
bartender he met on patrol. "It's probably not that
deep for me."
Others find Islam through friendships on college
campuses, research papers on world
religions or trolling the Internet.
Some just feel called. Abdullah Reda of Reston,
Va., said the news of Susan Smith, the
South Carolina woman who drowned her two sons,
brought him to Islam. A 13-year-old
California girl had an epiphany during a sunset
drive through the red rocks of Arizona.
Katie Mathews, a graduate student at Washington
University in St. Louis, who plans to
make her Shahadah on her 23rd birthday in November,
prayed for a sign and soon saw a
license plate, "4 ALLAH."
Nine years ago, Jim Hacking was in training to be a
Jesuit priest. Now, he is an admiralty
lawyer in St. Louis who has spent much of the last
month explaining Islam at interfaith
gatherings. Mr. Hacking's search began in the
12-step program Overeaters Anonymous
and intensified when he befriended an Egyptian-born
woman, Amany Ragab, at the law
review at St. Louis University. He made the
Shahadah on June 6, 1998, and proposed
marriage to her the next day. This summer, the
couple traveled to Mecca.
"The thing I've always latched to is that there's
one God, he doesn't have equals, he
doesn't need a son to come do his work," Mr.
Hacking, 31, said. "Giving up the pork and the
alcohol was the easy part � I never drank much, but
I did like bacon. The hard part, and
the part I still struggle with every day, is being
a good person, and living a good clean life."
To help with the social transition, the All Dulles
Area Muslim Society in Sterling, Va., pairs
converts with mentors. Other mosques offer seminars
in the basics of Arabic prayer. Web
sites like jews-for-allah.org and
understandingislam.tripod.com provide glossaries to
common Muslim expressions, step-by-step guides to
ritual washing, interactive games to
teach Arabic, and profiles of fellow converts,
organized alphabetically, by county of origin
and by former religion.
Perhaps the greatest challenge is maintaining
family relationships, as parents often view
conversion as a betrayal. One Web site offers a
how- to guide for telling relatives. "Do not
allow them to drag you into a conflict regarding
religion at all," it lectures.
Ms. Stolach, who teaches middle- school literacy,
said her mother had helped her shop for
hijab, the traditional Muslim head covering, but
Ms. Mathews says the main reason she has
delayed her Shahadah is that she is living with her
parents.
"My mom, she's Christian and she's very upset," Ms
Mathews said. "I told her about my
signs. She said, how do I know it's not the Devil?"
"The Koran says you have to obey your parents,
heaven is at the foot of your mother," she
added. "I have to obey God before I obey my
mother."
On Sept. 11, Ms. Davis's mother exhorted her to
remove the hijab, saying it would
endanger her grandchildren. (Ms. Davis's divorce
lawyer, and her husband, did not return
telephone calls.) Ms. Davis, who wears a
shoulder-to-ankle robe over her clothes, also
faces resistance from her older two daughters, from
a previous marriage, whom she
enrolled in an Islamic school this fall, but who
have lately said they would prefer to live with
their father.
As the afternoon call to prayer sounded from the
mosque above Ms. Davis's classroom,
the girls, white scarves around their heads,
scrambled up to the women's balcony, where
they bowed and knelt like old pros. They murmured
"bismillah" ("in the name of Allah")
before starting a game, "astaghfirullah" ("I beg
Allah for forgiveness") after a misstep. But
they say their father says their mother worships
Satan.
"I got one person saying they want me to be Muslim
and then I got my dad saying no
Muslim," said Krashanna Agers, 9. "I don't know,
I'm not grown up yet."
Source: NY Times
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