Record numbers embrace Muslim faith.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.independen...im-faith-2175178.html

/// "Converts who become extremists or terrorists are, of course, a legitimate story," said Mr Mughal. "But my worry is that the saturation of such stories risks equating all Muslim converts with being some sort of problem when the vast majority are not". ///

What is Fiyaz Mughal, director of Faith Matters actually suggesting that all such stories should be somehow less saturated in some way?

How does he suggest that this can be done?

[jno]

he seems to be hinting that the media are following an anti-Islamic agenda by talking about Muslims only when they're terrorists. Surely this can't be true!

[emmie]

as you read down it says it's a guestimate, so there are no known figures, and if people are converting, perhaps it's to do with the faith of the partner, husband, i honestly don't know. Why would anyone convert should be the question, in fact i wonder how many Muslims are going away from their faith and either adopting another or indeed none at all.

[sandyRoe]

Islam seems to offer guidance and certainty in an uncertain world. If people decide that is the path for them it should be a matter for nobody else.

[jno]

the converts speak of the peace and happiness they discover in their new religion. This can only be a good thing. There are too many unhappy people in Britain; you see them fighting outside pubs or ranting on websites.

[anotheoldgit]

sandyRoe

/// Islam seems to offer guidance and certainty in an uncertain world. ///

Yes seems to work that way in the Middle East.

Guidance : Attack your fellow Muslims.

Certainty : It's is a certainty that things won't get any better.

[Gromit]

Paid attendance at English football matches is over 17 million annually. Yet the slightest of trouble gets saturation coverage. People are left with the impression that the hooligans still rule the terraces when in fact they are a very miniscule number of people.

Same with Islam. A distorted impression is given that radicalised muslims are the norm rather than exceedingly rare.

Mr Mughal was warning not to be fooled, but some prefer to believe all muslims are a danger because it confirms their xenophobia.

[emmie]

jno, whilst patently ignoring those Muslims killing each other in many parts of the world. If it's so peace loving why do they do this, kill innocents, men, women, and children, kidnap and mutilate infidels, that's people like you and me, or indeed anyone who doesn't toe the line, adhere to the strictures of the Qu'ran. Mutilate women in their hundreds of thousands, female genital mutilation isn't something imagined, they are mostly the ones who do these things. You can counteract with other religions who put upon their people, like Catholicism, but i reckon anyone converting because they think it's all peace and light needs their head examining.

[pdq1]

As mentioned above the rise could be due to partners. I have 2 family members who prefer Asians to whites. When asked about it they say the white boys are too boring. Also many coloured boys see white girls as trophies and as stated many times in the press white girls are 'easy meat' when it comes to sexual affairs.

[emmie]

you don't have to be xenophobic, watch the news, any day of the week, Muslims in all parts of the world, one tribe against the other, killing each other. I agree that the western alliances didn't have to interfere in the lives of Iraqi, Afghani, Libyan peoples, better off letting them alone, i hope our troops come out of these places sooner than later.

[naomi24]

Firstly, bearing in mind the ambiguous content of the report, I think the headline is extremely misleading.

Fiyaz Mughal, director of Faith Matters, said, //………People are interested in finding out what Islam is all about and when they do that they go in different directions. Most shrug their shoulders and return to their lives but some will inevitably end up liking what they discover and will convert.//

This reminds me of the hippie generation that, in the 1970s, fashionably embraced other eastern faiths. If you look hard enough you’ll find a few that still cling to those philosophies and to that lifestyle, but just as that was a ‘fad’ for most, I strongly suspect that, similarly, Islam is at the moment, the latest ‘fad’ for most.

[Gromit]

Muslims in all parts of the world are NOT killing each other, only in a small number of countries. And it is no coincidence that those few countries descending into something resembling civil war are the very same ones WE were supposed to be sorting out.

This is the sort of distorted over exaggeration that Mr Mughal warns us about. There are over 50 countries were the majority of the population are muslim, but you judge the entire faith on Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.

[emmie]

The followers of Islam are spread across the globe, not just the Middle East.
Why should we be sorting out anything, it was not, should not it be our responsibility. And if you think they weren't killing each other before we dropped in, then think again.

[emmie]

One instance

http://en.wikipedia.o...Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War

[naomi24]

Gromit, looking at the co-called Arab Springs that have 'sprung' up, I don't think it's entirely accurate to limit your observations only to "those that WE are are supposed to be sorting out."

[sandyRoe]

Is this 'killing each other' solely an Islamic thing?
WW1, WW2. How easily we forget.

[emmie]

this is an Arab Spring that the political parties in these countries should be sorting, let us leave them to it. They will get democracy or not, we should play no part.

[jno]

em, did you read the link? Did any of those converts say "I wanted to become a Muslim so I could go out and kill other Muslims"?

People have been killing each other for a very long time - Muslims, Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, Israelites, atheists and more. I don't know why you think it's worthy of note only when Muslims do it.

[sandyRoe]

A secular, democratic, government in Iran was toppled by a combination of US and UK interests.
http://en.wikipedia.o..._Iranian_coup_d'état

Many people from the Middle East might pray that the West would leave them alone.

[emmie]

I was referring to now, not 100 years ago. This is the trouble with people they will make comparisons when there is no comparison to make.
Islam back then had not made inroads into western society in the way it has today. We have gone off the point of the thread, why some choose to embrace Islam. I don't know, but i do know that it isn't all that peace loving, if it were there would no bombings, killings in Africa, Indonesia, Middle East, Britain, USA, and so on.

[Gromit]

naomi24

The Middle East and North Africa was largely ruled by unelected dictators. The West, but mostly the US were happy to support the Dictators in Tunisia, Bahrain, Egypt, Libya etc. I don't think our hands are entirely clean when it comes to meddling in other countries, which may be why they tend to distrust us.