How many people embrace islam

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Share this link:. Besheer Mohamed is a senior researcher focusing on religion at Pew Research Center. Elizabeth Podrebarac Sciupac is a former senior researcher focusing on religion research at Pew Research Center.

Facts are more important than ever. Earlier this month, for example, it was reported that two converts to Islam who used the noms de guerre Abu Bakr and Mansoor Ahmed were killed in a CIA drone strike in an area of Pakistan with a strong al-Qa'ida presence.

Catherine Heseltine, a year-old convert to Islam, made history earlier this year when she became the first female convert to be elected the head of a British Muslim organisation — the Muslim Public Affairs Committee.

Overall, though, I think conversions arouse more curiosity than hostility. Islam is one of the easiest religions to convert to. Technically, all a person needs to do is recite the Shahada, the formal declaration of faith, which states: "There is no God but Allah and Mohamed is his Prophet.

Hana Tajima converted to Islam when she was Frustrated by the lack of variety in Islamic clothing for converts she founded Maysaa, a fashion house that designs western-inspired clothing that conforms to hijab. My family aren't particularly religious.

I was interested in religion, but very disinterested in how it related to my life. I grew up in rural Devon where my Japanese father was the ethnic diversity of the village.

It wasn't until I studied at college that I met people who weren't of the exact same background, into Jeff Buckley, underground hip-hop, drinking, and getting high. I met and became friends with a few Muslims in college, and was slightly affronted and curious at their lack of wanting to go out to clubs or socialise in that sense. I think it was just the shock of it, like, how can you not want to go out, in this day and age. I was pretty popular, had good friends, boyfriends, I had everything I was supposed to have, but still I felt like 'is that it?

There were things that drew me to Islam in particular, it wasn't like I was reaching for whatever was there. The fact that the Qur'an is the same now as it ever was means there's always a reference point. The issues of women's rights were shockingly contemporary.

The more I read, the more I found myself agreeing with the ideas behind it and I could see why Islam coloured the lives of my Muslim friends. It made sense, really, I didn't and still don't want to be Muslim, but there came a point where I couldn't say that I wasn't Muslim. I knew they'd be happy as long as I was happy, and they could see that it was an incredibly positive thing. My friends went one of two ways, met with a lack of any reaction and lost to the social scene, or interested and supportive.

More the former, less the latter. Denise Horsley lives in North London. She converted to Islam last year and is planning to marry her Muslim boyfriend next year. A lot of people ask whether I converted because of him but actually he had nothing to do with it. I was interested in his faith but I went on my own journey to discover more about religion. Before I went to prayers for the first time I remember sitting in my car frantically looking up how to pray on my Blackberry.

I was so sure people would know straight away that I wasn't a Muslim but if they did no-one seemed to care. One day I decided there and then to take my shahada. I walked down to the reception and said I was ready to convert, it was as simple as that. I think they were just pleased to see me happy and caring about something so passionately. Islam to me seemed to be a natural extension of Christianity. The Qur'an is filled with information about Jesus, Mary, the angels and the Torah.

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Delhi pollution: Schools shut for a week, construction barred, govt employees to work from home. Fiyaz Mughal, director of Faith Matters, admitted that coming up with a reliable estimate of the number of converts to Islam was notoriously difficult.

Inayat Bunglawala, founder of Muslims4UK, which promotes active Muslim engagement in British society, said the figures were "not implausible". He said: "It would mean that around one in Britons is a convert to the faith," he said.

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