Swede Went to Turkey to Know about Islam, and Converted

Young Australians Now Converting to Islam

Pastor Converts to Islam with 480-member Congregation in Rwanda

UMMID.COM: Kigali (Rwanda): In one of the largest reversion cases of Christians to Islam, a Rwandan pastor and his entire 480-member congregation have reverted to Islam, as the world fastest growing religion expands its presence in the African continent.

Salim Mikdad, a former pastor, reverted to Islam after being convinced into it by Muslim scholars, Nigeria Watch reported.

Later on, he managed to convince his entire 480-member congregation to take a similar decision on August 25. » | Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Canadians Converting to Islam: A Rocky, Complex Road, New Study Finds

OTTAWA CITIZEN: Canadian converts to Islam risk social and religious isolation because of rejection by their families and disinterest from inhospitable mosque communities, a new groundbreaking study is revealing.

“Converts are disconnected from mosque communities usually because they are from a different ethnic background,” said Australian researcher Dr. Scott Flower during a weekend Ottawa workshop on conversion.

Mosques are initially warm and welcoming to converts because conversion is one of their duties, he said.

But the welcome can quickly wear out.

“Most mosques are Pakistani, Turkish, Saudi or whatever, and converts are not being accepted into those communities,” he said. “So they are outsiders. If they are not connecting to the mosque and they lose their families, they are doubly isolated.” » | Chris Cobb, Ottawa Citizen | Friday, July 26, 2015

Russia Sees a Threat in Its Converts to Islam

THE NEW YORK TIMES: ERZURUM, Turkey — As a teenager in St. Petersburg, Maksim Baidak hung out with neo-Nazis and right-wing nationalists, but the Russian security services mostly left him alone.

It was not until he abandoned white-Slavic supremacy and instead found God — as a convert to Islam and leader of a group of ethnic Russian Muslims — that he came under near-constant surveillance and was often forced into cars at gunpoint by security agents.

Then, one morning in 2013, masked commandos from a special counter-extremism unit busted into his apartment and arrested him. For two days, he was interrogated, at times with a black hood over his head — “tortured,” he said, by choking, electric shock and death threats.

“I was arrested like a terrorist,” said Mr. Baidak, 28, who now lives in Erzurum, a university town in northeast Turkey, where he fled after a judge released him for lack of any criminal charges. “Look at me, I am a journalist. I am a blogger,” he said. “I am a political activist, pro-democratic oriented, Sufi-oriented, but I was arrested like — I don’t know — bin Laden.”

While nations across Europe are grappling with the relatively recent peril of homegrown Islamic terrorists, Russia has long lived in fear of a jihadist uprising within its own borders, particularly in the Caucasus, where it fought two brutal wars to suppress Muslim separatists. » | David M. Herszenhorn | Wednesday, July 1, 2015

More Norwegians Convert to Islam

NEWSinENGLISH.no: Youthful rebellion and, paradoxically, a perceived need for stronger rules in Norway’s liberal society are believed to be behind a recent rise in the number of Norwegians converting to Islam. “I think we need stronger rules,” one young Norwegian convert told newspaper Aftenposten on Monday.

No one knows for certain how many “ethnic Norwegians” have converted to Islam, according to Aftenposten, but researchers believe their numbers have increased from around 500 at the end of the 1990s to around 3,000 today. That’s still a tiny percentage of the Norwegian population, but the growth rate is significant, as is the perceived reason behind it: “Converting to Islam is perhaps the most extreme form of youthful rebellion today,” Anne Sofie Roald, a professor in religion, told Aftenposten, which launched a series of reports over the weekend about Islam in Norway. Islam, Roald noted, is a religion that can require a lifestyle for converts that’s “extremely different from the life they’ve lived earlier.” » | Nina Berglund | Monday, June 08, 2015

Former Guantanamo Bay Detainee Weds Muslim Convert in Uruguay

Adel bin Muhammad El Ouerghi with his wife Samira
(formerly Roma), a Uruguayan who converted to Islam
four months ago.

THE GUARDIAN: Adel bin Muhammad El Ouerghi, a 50-year-old Tunisian, married Roma Blanco, a 24-year-old Uruguayan

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Adel bin Muhammad El Ouerghi looked out his apartment window Friday and smiled as he showed off his wedding ring to a handful of cheering onlookers below.

The 50-year-old Tunisian married Roma Blanco, a 24-year-old Uruguayan who converted to Islam. The union was the first of two weddings being organized by men resettled in the South American country.

“Adel is humble, respectful, nice and very gentlemanly,” Blanco said. “He is everything that a woman can expect from a man.”

Blanco added she liked her husband’s sincerity, and how he treated her 5-year-old son from a previous relationship.

She said she converted to Islam four months ago and planned to take the name Samira. She and El Ouerghi met a month ago at a mosque. Blanco wore a light purple scarf and a violet jacket with gold-colored lacing. She also had henna designs on her hands, customary for Muslim women for the marriage ceremony. » | Associated Press | Friday, June 05, 2015

The New Face of Sweden! Swedish Convert Yahya Reading Quran in Arabic

ISIS Presents Conversion to Islam of Christian Captured in Syria

THE JERUSALEM POST: Unconvincing ISIS video shows Assyrian captive converting to Islam » | Ariel Cohen | Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Related »

ISIS-held Assyrian Hostage Converts to Islam

Sargon David converts to Islam after two months of detention
by ISIS militants in northeastern Syria.

ARA NEWS: Dohuk, Kurdistan Region – The Media Center of the Islamic State group (IS/ISIS) in “al-Barakah state” (in reference to Hasakah, northeastern Syria) released Monday a videotape showing the Islamization of an Assyrian hostage held by the group.

Sargon David, an Assyrian man from Tel Temit in northeastern Syria, who had been held hostage by the group since the militants stormed the Assyrian villages in the area.

David appeared in the video uttering the Islamic Shahada in a sign of conversion to Islam. He was then named by the group’s militants as Abu Omar.

The IS group addressed the Christian community in Syria in the video message saying that many of the Assyrian residents in the countryside of Tel Temir have converted to Islam “and received the caliphate’s blessing”. » | ARA News | Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Young Canadian’s Conversion to Radical Islam Leaves Family Devastated

THE STAR: A father has given up hope of changing his son, who has become a cheerleader for the Islamic State terrorists and has landed himself on the radar of CSIS.

His father thinks he’s lost. His brother holds out hope. But no one in Harun Abdurahman’s family knows how to turn around the young Canadian man who has become an unapologetic supporter of the Islamic State terrorist group.

Born in Ontario to a Christian family steeped in military tradition, the Manitoba resident told the Star in an earlier interview that he believed last fall’s terror attacks on Parliament Hill and in Quebec were “justified” retribution for Canadian military aggression against ISIS.

“I think a lot of Canadians need to wake up and understand that we’re doing this and worse to other people in other countries,” said Abdurahman, who agreed to be identified only by an online pseudonym that he has adopted.

He spoke about his convictions, his belief that all Muslims should emigrate to Syria and Iraq, where the Islamic State has declared a caliphate governed by Sharia law and of learning that he was under investigation by Canadian spies who saw him as a potential threat to national security.

But this turn of events has also had a devastating impact on Abdurahman’s family. Beginning last December, Canadian Security Intelligence Service agents interviewed his ex-girlfriend and older brother in Ontario as well as his father, who is a serving member of the Royal Canadian Air Force in Alberta. The agents carried with them a thick file on the young man.

This week, however, the spy agency told family members they had intensified their investigation. » | Allan Woods | Quebec Bureau | Sunday, March 08, 2015

Depressing! The Number of Britons Choosing Islam Doubled in the Past Decade

WORLD BULLETIN: Inter-faith think report survey shows approximately 5,200 converts to Islam across Britain

The number of Britons choosing to become Muslims has nearly doubled in the past decade, with one of the most comprehensive attempts to estimate how many people have embraced Islam, according to news source the Independent.

While previous estimates placed the number of Muslim converts between 14,000 and 25,000 an inter-faith think tank estimates the real figures could be as high as 100,000 with nearly 5,000 converts each year nationally. » | World Bulletin | News Desk | Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Dumb Is as Dumb Does! Converts to Islam Increase after French Attack

WORLD BULLETIN: Imams in France have reported an increase in conversions to Islam with a growing number of people coming to take their testimony of faith in comparison to same time last year.

According to a news article in 5pillarsuk.com, the number of people accepting Islam in France has increased significantly after the Charlie Hebdo attacks, with imams reporting a growing number of people coming to take the Shahada at mosques.

“It makes me want to go to Islam and to show everyone that this is not what Islam is about,” a young Muslim convert to Islam was quoted by RTL Radio a week ago.

According to the radio station, the Great Mosque of Paris issued 40 reversion certificates to Islam.

At the same period last year, the mosque gave certificates to 22 only, almost 50 percent of this year’s conversion rate.

Percentage of converts to Islam in Strasbourg and Aubervilliers was also high, scoring around 30% increase.

Lyon also followed the same trend with an increase of 20%. » | World Bulletin | News Desk | Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Why Are They Converting to Islam?

BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS: The Islamic conversion phenomenon includes thousands in Europe, the USA, Australia and even Israel. A small number of converts goes one step further – quite a large step – and joins the Jihad in Syria and Iraq. What make them do it?

One of the things that worries the West is the fact that hundreds and maybe even thousands of young Europeans are converting to Islam, and some of them are joining terror groups and ISIS and returning to promote Jihad against the society in which they were born, raised and educated. The security problem posed by these young people is a serious one, because if they hide their cultural identity, it is extremely difficult for Western security forces to identify them and their evil intentions. This article will attempt to clarify the reasons that impel these young people to convert to Islam and join terrorist organizations.

The sources for this article are recordings made by the converts themselves, and the words they used, written here, are for the most part unedited direct quotations.

Many of the converts are convinced that Islam is a religion of peace, love, affection and friendship, based on the generous hospitality and warm welcome they receive from the Moslem friends in their new social milieu. In many instances, a young person born into an individualistic, cold and alienating society finds that Muslim society provides – at college, university or community center – a warm embrace, a good word, encouragement and help, things that are lacking in the society from which he stems. The phenomenon is most striking in the case of those who grew up in dysfunctional families or divorced homes, whose parents are alcoholics, drug addicts, violent and abusive, or parents who take advantage of their offspring and did not give their children a suitable emotional framework and model for building a normative, productive life.

The convert sees his step as a mature one based on the right of an individual to determine his own religious and cultural identity, even if the family and society he is abandoning disagree. Sometimes converting to Islam is a form of parental rebellion. Often, the convert is spurned by his family and surrounding society for his decision, but the hostility felt towards Islam by his former environment actually results in his having more confidence in the need for his conversion. Anything said against conversion to Islam is interpreted as unjustified racism and baseless Islamophobia.

The Islamic convert is told by Muslims that Islam respects the prophets of its mother religions, Judaism and Christianity, is in favor of faith in He Who dwells on High, believes in the Day of Judgment, in reward and punishment, good deeds and avoiding evil. He is convinced that Islam is a legitimate religion as valid as Judaism and Christianity, so if his parents are Jewish or Christian, why can’t he become Muslim? He sees a good many positive and productive Muslims who benefit their society and its economy, who have integrated into the environment in which he was raised, so why not emulate them? Most Muslims are not terrorists, so neither he nor anyone should find his joining them in the least problematic. » | Dr. Mordechai Kedar * | Sunday, February 15, 2015

* Dr. Mordechai Kedar is a senior lecturer in the Department of Arabic at Bar-Ilan University. He served in IDF Military Intelligence for 25 years, specializing in Arab political discourse, Arab mass media, Islamic groups and the Syrian domestic arena.

German Football Player Converts to Islam

MOROCCO WORLD NEWS: The player described Islam as a religion of hope and strength.

“Islam gave me strength. Pray calms my soul,” the 24-year-old said.

“I was short tempered, erratic and did not know where I belong,” he added.

Blum joined his team FC Nurnberg last year. The team plays in the German Bundesliga’s Second Division. » | Tuesday, January 27, 2015


BILD: Nürnberg-Profi 
wechselt zum Islam: Danny Blum (24) steht in einer Moschee im türkischen Belek. Er schließt die Augen, hält die Handflächen vor sich nach oben gerichtet. Er streicht sich die Hände durchs Gesicht, über den Oberkörper, dann kniet er nieder. Danny Blum betet. » | Montag, 26. Januar 2015

The Number of Britons Choosing Islam Doubled in the Past Decade

WORLD BULLETIN: Inter-faith think report survey shows approximately 5,200 converts to Islam across Britain

The number of Britons choosing to become Muslims has nearly doubled in the past decade, with one of the most comprehensive attempts to estimate how many people have embraced Islam, according to news source the Independent.

While previous estimates placed the number of Muslim converts between 14,000 and 25,000 an inter-faith think tank estimates the real figures could be as high as 100,000 with nearly 5,000 converts each year nationally. » | World Bulletin/News Desk | Saturday, December 13, 2014

Latinos Converting to Islam for Identity, Structure

VOICE OF AMERICA: MIAMI— Latinos are one of the fastest growing groups in the Muslim religion.

According to the organization whyIslam.org, about 6 percent of American Muslims are Latino.

And according to Latino American Dawah Organization (LADO), a group that promotes Latino conversions, a little more than half of new converts are female.

Greisa Torres arrived in Miami four years ago from Cuba.

While she felt at home in the Florida city, where two out of the three residents are Hispanic, Torres says she lost her identity in the move and found it in the Prophet Muhammad. » | Carolyn Presutti | Saturday, October 18, 2014

OJ Simpson Converts to Islam

TVNZ: O.J. Simpson is set to convert to Islam. The former American footballer and movie star has been imprisoned in Nevada since 2008 on charges of kidnapping and armed robbery in relation to an armed robbery that took place at the Palace Station hotel-and-casino in Las Vegas in which sports memorabilia was taken.

After seeing his appeal for a re-trial quashed last and being informed in July 2013 he will serve at least another four years, Simpson has embraced the religion in a bid to change his life.

A source told National Enquirer magazine: "O.J. really thought that he was going to be successful in a bid for a new trial and eventually be released from prison.

"But now he's not eligible for parole until late 2017, which has angered him."

The disgraced 67-year-old star has become interested in the religion through his friendship with former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, who was imprisoned in the early 1990s and is a devout Muslim. » | Thursday, August 28, 2014

Latino Converts to Islam

George Galloway Is a Muslim Now