Why ARE so many modern British career women converting to Islam?

Daily Mail ^ | 10/28/2010

[SeekAndFind]

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.

[Suz in AZ]

Now that womanhood, modesty and strong men have been decimated by the feminist movement, maybe they crave what they’ve lost and believe this is where they’ll find it.

[dowcaet]

Miss Leyland converted to Islam because that religion is so tolerant of independent, liberated women like herself. Yeah, OK you dingbat. She converted to Islam because like so many other leftists she’s messed up upstairs. This is why we can’t deal with the left. They’re all crazed, mentally challenged idiots!

[Buckeye McFrog]

Come for the enforced sobriety, stay for the genital mutilation.

[GodAndCountryFirst]

This is, in some cases, a reaction of the degenerate feminism in the West.

But, in many, many cases, we find liberals converting to Islam in large numbers as a way to express their disdain for Christianity and the free-market values that are the bedrock of the U.S. way of life.

Lots of people still don’t realize that many top DemoRATS have converted, including Hillary and Bill Clinton. It started in the late 70s when Jimmy Carter was introduced to Islam - and later converted - by Yassar Arafat. Harry Reid is also a secret muzzy.

[matt1234]

50 Shades of Islam

[Junk Silver]

“More like there is no Christian alternative visible to them in their circle of friends and aquaintances.”

There is no Christian alternative visible to them anywhere.

I’ve read that women in London have begun wearing headscarves when out and about, in effect posing as Muslims, just to avoid the taunting and abuse that Muslim immigrants heap on non-Muslim women. I think this intimidation might also have something to do with these conversions.

It ends up being easier to just submit, which is what Islam is ultimately all about.

[GladesGuru]

Actually, it is irrelivant, immaterial, and not germaine.

Arguably, a female converting to Islam is suicidal, and that is an individual matter.

Or, it can be seen as acting out her ‘inner masochist’ - as in “beat me, Beat Me”.

The female purchasers of Fifty Shades Of Grey are my cases in point.

[momtothree]

“.. maybe they crave what they’ve lost..”

I agree. There is a lot of societal pressure on women to look a certain way/act a certain way etc.. even if it goes against what they truly believe. That being said, I also think there is a certain “exotic” factor to it. It is so on the “fringe”. In short, it is so “radical”. I think they feel so “enlightened” and “above the regular women”. Whatever the reason(s), it is false. IMHO.

[jettester]

I think there is another reason and it goes to the whole “50 Shades” issue: some women like/fantasize/encourage the idea of being dominated by a “romantic hero” in their perceived boring, drab lives. I know of quite a few women who fell “in love” with the good looks, large bank accounts and/or the desire to “mother” some who come here for school or business. I would liken it to a “stealth seduction” process that could inevitably end up with the women entwined by their heart strings - or fallopian tubes, to someone they ultimately don’t really know. It would not be the first time an enemy conquers a foe in the bedroom as well as the battlefield.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Camilla Leyland, 32, pictured in Western and Muslim dress, converted to Islam in her mid-20s for 'intellectual and feminist reasons'"

Some observations:

1. Islam - particularly its core text, the Koran - has not been subjected to the intellectual scrutiny that the Christian Bible has. For over a hundred years, scholars have picked the Bible apart, analyzing it linguistically, discerning layers of development, etc., so that for many people it has lost much of its sacred character, viewed as the work of man rather than the word of God.

2. Islam is intellectually simpler than Christianity, i.e., it posits God, his prophet, and a moral code. Christianity, however, posits a Triune God and the doctrine of salvation by the sacrificial death of Jesus, both of which are ideas that many people sincerely cannot grasp. Much of Christianity is also preoccupied with dubious "end times" speculation that is unsettling and unproductive. Islam also has its "end times" aspect, but that seems much less urgent to most Muslims.

3. It is increasingly obvious that modern, secular society has become literally nihilistic, believing that life as a cruel accident, that all values are subjective, and even that notions of male and female are mere social constructs. The human spirit abhors a void, and modern society is a spiritual void.

4. "Separation of church and state" only works when most of the public - especially the ruling class - are active believers, and allow religious values a significant place in the public square. When the elite lose their faith, religion is pushed to the margins, becomes totally privatized, and no longer has a tangible presence in the wider culture. Thus the nihilism of the elite becomes palpable and oppressive. Secularists try to fill that void through idealizing politics, the state, and/or entertainment, but it doesn't work for most people. It is seen by perceptive people as shallow and dangerous.

[Leaning Right]

All creatures desire structure.

Bingo! Today's Church of England is wishy-washy. The government is wishy-washy, and so are most of the royals.

I suppose that some misguided people see islam as the only strong institution remaining in Britain. And that makes it attractive.

And there is one more thing to consider. Many folks naturally want to be associated with a winner. And there is no doubt that islam is advancing world-wide. It is, as of now, winning.

[NTHockey]

There will always be the deluded among us. My drill instructors at Parris Island repeatedly said that there was always 10% that never got the word. Proof positive in the pictures.

[tbw2]

In the science fiction book “In Conquest Born”, one of the leaders is quoted as saying that when your culture does not meet one of the physical or emotional needs of its people, they will be seduced by the first culture that does.
Western women who want to be valued as mothers and protected by men, in a feminist milleau that says work overtime and kids are a burden, are being attracted to the far extreme foreign faith of Islam because housewives and stay at home moms have no respect or value in modern popular culture.

[knittnmom]

And her smile disappeared.

[5th MEB]

OH’ OH; I know, I know.
SO THEY CAN GET AHEAD.

[tbw2]

You want to be a stay at home wife and mother, modern feminists don’t tolerate that if you’re Christian or atheist, but it is tolerated if you’re Muslim.

[Mears]

It’s an attention getter,no more,no less.....and it seems to be working.

.

[PGalt]

The fight for freedom/individual right, where allies are nowhere to be found in the muck and mire of collectivism, is much tougher than submission to slavery, especially an all-encompassing, all-protective, allah-forgiving slavery.

[Steve_Seattle]

Feminism is very confused and ambivalent about sexuality. On one hand, it is libertine and promiscuous, on the other hand it is prudish and anti-sex and anti-male and even anti-gender.

I would imagine this creates a struggle in the soul, and for some women the solution is to abandon the libertine side of the equation - which is spiritually dead and psychologically destructive - in favor of the prudish, submissive side.

The idea that women's primary role is domestic and that modesty is a supreme value is hardly foreign to most of historical Christianity. Conservatives who tout women's lib as a sign of Western superiority and Islamic backwardness are being a bit disingenuous.

[philled]

Self-loathing?