New Converts to Islam

Almost Two Sydney Women a Week Are Converting to Islam

THE TELEGRAPH (AUSTRALIA): MORE THAN 100 people - most of them women - are converting to Islam in Sydney each year, and ­experts warn some new converts are more likely to adopt extremist elements of the religion.

Such radicalism was highlighted by the death last week in Syria of former Queensland Anglican schoolgirl turned Muslim jihadist Amira Karroum, 22, who is believed to have been killed by rebel fighters in Aleppo alongside her US-born husband Yusuf Ali.

Ms Karroum had adopted an extremist form of the faith, praising terrorist Osama bin Laden and supporting the ­violent Muslim riots in Sydney in 2012.

The pair were based in Granville before travelling to Syria to fight in December.

Another Granville man, Caner Temel, 22, has been named as the latest Australian victim of the civil war in Syria.

The Australian New Muslim Association estimates two-thirds of the converts they see each year are female, with more than 60 per cent converting because of their husbands or partners.

Julia Moukhallalati was just 18 when she swapped her Orthodox Christian upbringing for the mosques of western Sydney. » | Ben McClellan | Saturday, January 18, 2014