̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Yasir Suleiman

Male converts to Islam: landmark report examines conversion experience of British Muslims

sjr81 — Wed, 03 Feb 2016 00:01:08 +0000

Examining the conversion journeys of nearly fifty British men of all ages, ethnicities and faiths, Narratives of Conversion to Islam in Britain: Male perspectives, allows an unprecedented examination of the challenges and concerns facing converts to Islam in the UK today.

̽��ֱ��landmark report, produced by Cambridge’s Centre of Islamic Studies, captures the isolation and dislocation felt by many new converts, and the sense of being a ‘minority within a minority’ as they adjust to life as a follower of one of the most maligned and misunderstood faiths in the UK.

With converts drawn from white, black and South Asian backgrounds from across the UK, Cambridge assembled nearly 50 British males over the course of the 18-month project in an attempt to understand and record the experiences of British male converts to Islam. ̽��ֱ��converts were from a diverse range of geographical and socio-economic backgrounds.

̽��ֱ��Male perspectives report follows Cambridge’s hugely successful report into female conversion in 2013 (http://bit.ly/1lNy3tW) which has been downloaded more than 150,000 times from the Centre of Islamic Studies’ website and attracted widespread media coverage.

Speaking under Chatham House Rules, the converts gathered together in Cambridge over three weekends to record their responses to a wide-ranging list of themes, questions and provocations.

Among the key findings to emerge from the Male perspectives project were:

There is often targeting of converts by the British Security Services to work as informants
White converts lose their white privilege on conversion
Conversion to Islam in prison is usually driven by a desire to instil discipline into a prisoner’s life. But upon release, Muslims find little support from their families or Muslim communities, increasing the risk of reoffending
Converts live in a liminal space: cut off from their families and friends and only tenuously integrated within heritage Muslim communities.
Recognition that women converts experience worse hardships through wearing the hijab and other religious dress
There are many routes to Islam: love and marriage; friendship; conviction and rational choice; music, arts, architecture and pondering the beauty of the universe

Shahla Awad Suleiman, Teaching and Outreach Associate at the Centre of Islamic Studies, and Project Manager of the report, said: “Narratives of Conversion sets out the contours of the relationship between converts and heritage Muslims, warts and all, and builds on the findings of our hugely successful work with female converts.

“Allowing our male converts to set the agenda and speak frankly and openly about the very real issues they have to face and wrestle with has given us – and anyone who reads the report – real insight into the challenges facing 21st century converts to Islam.”

Professor Yasir Suleiman, Director of Cambridge’s Centre of Islamic Studies, said: “In the West, conversion to Islam has been tarnished by claims of extremism (violent and non-violent), radicalisation, and, sadly, terrorism. It has also fallen victim to the general apathy towards faith in largely secular societies causing those who convert to be described by some as not only eccentrics, misfits, outcasts and rebels, but also as renegades, traitors or enemies of a fifth column who have turned their back on their original culture(s).

“Converts can be made to feel outsiders from the lives they have left behind and as new members of the faith they have embraced upon conversion. This report reveals that conversion to Islam is as much a matter of the head as it is for the heart and soul.

“What this report also illuminates is the importance of convert-specific organisations. There is not enough support for the convert community as things stand. But by sharing their experiences frankly and honestly, this diverse group of converts revealed a profound sense of their pride in both Islam and their British heritage, despite the often negative portrayal of converts in the mainstream press.”

Other topics discussed in the report include the mixed response of heritage Muslims to converts, homosexuality and polygyny.

Although the symposium and reports were conducted under conditions of anonymity (quotes are not attributed within the report), several of the converts have agreed to speak on the record about their conversion experiences.

Abdul Maalik Tailor, who converted to Islam from Hinduism, and now runs Islamic-themed tours of London, suffered considerably after converting.

“A number of things happened to me when I embraced Islam twenty years ago,” he said. “It was a very challenging time and an experience I won’t forget about. I suffered physical and emotional abuse from my family. It was a very testing time.

“For myself and other brown converts, it always goes back to the issue of partition between India and Pakistan and Bangladesh. My relatives thought I had become brainwashed. I was basically given an ultimatum: give up the religion or get out. I was 18 at the time. And I had to leave after being beaten up.

“A year later my father passed away and there was an expectation that I had to fulfil all the Hindu rituals as I was the only son. I had to say, ‘I can’t do it’, which was a challenge; I would have preferred to have a lot more support from the Muslim community at that time.”

Click images to enlarge

Another participant, Adrian (Jamal) Heath, said: “I always joke with people that it’s a bit like ‘coming out’ and I’ve discovered a lot of people who concealed this until the later stages. I was exposed as a Muslim to friends and family inadvertently and my parents took it hard. They didn't come to my wedding. I was also subject to some ridicule at work, which I now look back on as completely unacceptable in the modern world. I was ridiculed for my prayer times and to my face by people who had education and should have known better.

“As a white man in modern Britain, I’d never come across the feeling of being in a minority before and that actually quite shocked me.”

Another theme that provoked widespread discussion was the media portrayal of Muslims.

Convert Warren (Raiyyan) Clementson said: “Generally speaking, when I see converts on TV, they have been radicalised or involved in extremist activity. So for me personally, it’s a double whammy. Firstly, the negative portrayal of Muslims as a whole and within that, a sub-context of the convert community being portrayed in a radical light, or that they’re most susceptible to ideologies of violence. Being a convert myself, and having met so many other converts, this is a fallacy.”

Abdul Maalik Tailor questioned why there seemed to be such a propensity for negativity in the portrayals of both Islam and converts to the religion.

“You find a number of stories that concentrate on radicalisation. If there are successful Muslim converts who have contributed to society and to Britain, they won’t get highlighted by the media. Why do the media have a set agenda to try and demonise us?”

Shahla Awad Suleiman added: “By pulling together these narratives of conversion we have dealt with topics of enormous importance, not just to Muslims, but British society at large.

“There is now a need for more work on the friends and families of converts, heritage Muslims’ views and reception of converts, the children of converts, and more work on conversion to Islam in Britain away from the security prism.”

̽��ֱ��report Narratives of Conversion to Islam in Britain: Male Perspectives can be downloaded from the Centre of Islamic Studies.

̽��ֱ��experiences of British male converts to Islam have been captured in a unique report launched today by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

I was basically given an ultimatum: give up the religion or get out.

Abdul Maalik Tailor

Louise Walsh

Uthman Ibrahim-Morrison at prayer in Norwich, 2016

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Cambridge in Qatar

sjr81 — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 00:01:55 +0000

̽��ֱ��exploration of the Middle East and Gulf region will range from the importance of the Indian Ocean as a medieval trade route, via European Union relations with Gulf states, to the significance of modern social media in the Arab Awakening.

Director Professor Yasir Suleiman is leading a team of 13 academics and PhD students from Cambridge and Bosnia-Herzegovina to Doha for the latest of the Centre‘s ‘Cambridge in…’ series. Sharjah, Morocco and China have all been visited in previous years.

Dr Roxane Farmanfarmaian (Department of Politics and International Studies) will examine Tunisia’s changing media and political landscape, focussing particularly on the post-revolution use of social media by young people and its impact on constitution-building, party politics, and policy construction.

̽��ֱ��notion that the ancient and early medieval Indian Ocean was effectively the ‘silk road of the sea’ will be examined by David Abulafia, drawing on both new archaeological evidence and reinterpreted classical sources such as the Periplous of the Erythraean Sea, describing the routes linking Roman Egypt to India. These channels served not only as means by which goods were traded, but also as important cultural networks, and their study is helping our understanding of the economic role of both the Gulf and the Red Sea in antiquity and the Middle Ages.

Although slave trading in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea had a long history, and continued for many decades after abolition in Britain, there appears to be little awareness about its extent amongst Arab societies today. Despite the lack of contemporary written material, Stuart Laing (Master of Corpus Christi College) will attempt to piece together the stories of Arab slave traders and owners.
EU foreign and security policies have been sorely tested over the past decade, particularly given the shifting nature of America interests, with the result that Europe appears to have little strategic idea about what its policies towards the Gulf should be. Geoffrey Edwards will make his way through the paradoxes and nuances of Euro-Gulf relations, exploring differing models of integration and cooperation.

Professor Suleiman said: “ ̽��ֱ��symposium is a unique opportunity to establish new connections between universities in Qatar and Cambridge aiming at fostering joint research projects and academic exchanges at various levels.”

Today, as part of its ongoing initiative to enable new partnerships and foster wide-ranging exchanges of knowledge and skills internationally, scholars from Cambridge’s Centre of Islamic Studies will be co-hosting a symposium at Qatar ̽��ֱ��’s College of Arts and Sciences.

̽��ֱ��symposium is a unique opportunity to establish new connections between universities in Qatar and Cambridge.

Yasir Suleiman

Qatar ̽��ֱ��

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Female conversion to Islam in Britain examined in unique research project

sjr81 — Fri, 17 May 2013 09:19:19 +0000

̽��ֱ��report, produced by the ̽��ֱ��’s Centre of Islamic Studies (CIS), in association with the New Muslims Project, Markfield, is a fascinating dissection of the conversion experience of women in Britain in the 21st Century.

̽��ֱ��first forum of its kind held in the UK, the study concludes with a series of recommendations for the convert, heritage Muslim, and wider British communities. ̽��ֱ��129-page report also outlines the social, emotional and sometimes economic costs of conversion, and the context and reasons for women converting to Islam in a society with pervasive negative stereotypes about the faith.

Project Leader and Director of CIS, Yasir Suleiman, said: “ ̽��ֱ��consistent themes flowing through the report is the need for increased levels of support for the convert community – and the converts’ own potential to be a powerful and transformative influence on both the heritage Muslim community and wider British society.
“Another of the recurring themes was the overwhelmingly negative portrayal of Muslims and Islam in the UK media and what role the convert community might have to play in helping to redress the balance.

This report seeks to dispel misapprehensions and misrepresentations of female converts to Islam.”

A key revelation of the study was the heavily disproportionate attention, bordering on obsession in some cases, given to white, female converts to Islam by both the Muslim and non-Muslim communities alike.

This is often to the detriment of African-Caribbean converts, thought to be the largest ethnic group of converts to Islam, who are often ignored and left feeling isolated by both the Muslim and non-Muslim communities.

Added Suleiman: “White converts can be regarded as ‘trophy’ Muslims and used in a tokenistic fashion by various sections of society, including the media. African-Caribbean converts remain largely invisible, uncelebrated and frequently unacknowledged. They can feel like a minority within a minority and this is something that must be addressed. I found this part of the conversion narratives hardest to bear.”

Meanwhile, the project also reveals the complex relationship between female converts and their families, ranging from exclusion, disbelief and denial - to full and open acceptance of their faith. It also brings to light responses of converts to issues of sexuality and gender including homosexuality, ‘traditional’ roles of women and transgenderism.

Project Manager Shahla Suleiman said: “Considering the stereotypical and largely negative picture Islam has in the media and society at large, and considering that quite a lot of this revolves around the position of women in Islam, we wanted to understand the seemingly paradoxical issue of why highly educated and professionally successful Western women convert to Islam.

“ ̽��ֱ��basis of conversion is faith and spirituality - but conversion is also a social phenomenon that has become political. In this sense, conversion concerns everyone alike in society.

“ ̽��ֱ��debate is just starting and we need to have more informed studies about conversion to Islam that directly address public interest and concern. ̽��ֱ��struggle for a better future relies on overcoming the politics of exclusion and absolute difference based on an ideological dislike for multiculturality, not just multiculturalism. Fear of immigration, Islam and conversion to it are a proxy for views on race, prejudice, anxiety and fear.”

̽��ֱ��converts explored the issues of women’s rights and dress etiquette at some length, with the issue of wearing the hijab and other Islamic forms of dress heavily discussed. Although all views were represented in the debate, a common approach among many coverts was the adaptation of Western style dress to accommodate Islamic concepts of modesty and decency.

Women’s rights are a highly charged political issue within Muslim communities and while participants were not unanimously supportive of feminism as defined in the West, the need to raise the status of women within Muslim communities was fully acknowledged. Attempting to realise the practise of these rights has proven more difficult to achieve. Participants were especially critical of the concept of Sharia Council/courts operating in Britain in terms of the courts’ potential to jeopardise the rights of women.

̽��ֱ��report says: ‘Converts serve to confound and challenge negative racist or clichéd narratives depicted in the media of heritage Muslims because their culture and heritage is intrinsically reflective of British culture.

‘But we also find that not all conversions are equal socially in the eyes of some members of the heritage Muslim community. ̽��ֱ��conversion of white women seems to be more socially valued than African women by some. There is also greater depth to the hijab than is thought to be the case among heritage Muslims and the non-Muslim majority in Britain. There is a distinction to be made between wearing the hijab and being worn by it. This puts the convert women in control. ̽��ֱ��hijab signals modesty, but it is not intended to hide beauty.’

A ground-breaking report examining the experiences of nearly 50 British women of all ages, ethnicities, backgrounds and faiths (or no faith) – who have all converted to Islam - was launched in London yesterday by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

Converts have the potential to be a powerful and transformative influence on both the heritage Muslim community and wider British society

Yasir Suleiman

Beth Rankin

Woman praying

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Islamic scholars head to Beijing for “Cambridge in China” conference

bjb42 — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:00:45 +0000

Researchers from Cambridge’s Centre of Islamic Studies will meet with some of their Chinese counterparts from Peking ̽��ֱ�� for the third in an ongoing series of “Cambridge In…” events, which aims to bring together the views of scholars specialising in Islam around the world.

“Cambridge in China” takes place against a diplomatic backdrop in which that country’s interest and involvement in the Middle East is growing. With China becoming a major player on the world stage, some Middle Eastern and Islamic countries are beginning to see its leadership on issues such as trade, energy and international security as a viable alternative to that of the United States.

In addition, it gives researchers an opportunity to find out more about the study of Islamic society and culture in a country that has long-standing, but often overlooked, links with the Islamic world, as well as a large and established Muslim population.

Professor Yasir Suleiman, Director of the Prince Alwaleed Centre of Islamic Studies at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “Like our own Centre, many of the Chinese researchers we will be meeting are interested in Islam less from a theological point of view than from a cultural, or socially scientific perspective.”

“At the same time, their view of the Middle East or the Islamic world is very different because of their different vantage point. Really, what we are trying to find out is whether point of view creates the object. In other words, how are these regions conceived differently in China – and why?”

Some of the papers that will be presented at the conference allude to the diplomatic resonance of understanding China’s perspective of the Islamic world. They include studies of China and the Gulf, and its impact on oil security and commerce in general. Further research will touch on the potential global reach of the Arab Spring, and the notions of trust that appear to underpin trade relationships between China and the Middle East.

̽��ֱ��overall aim of the conference is, however, simply to build a closer relationship with researchers studying Islam, in the spirit of the Islamic saying, or “hadith”, which urges Muslims to: “Seek knowledge, even if you have to go as far as China.” Peking ̽��ֱ�� itself was one of the first Chinese universities to dedicate a department to the study of Arabic and Islamic culture.

As a result, there will also be detailed studies of the language and cultural output of different parts of the Islamic world, such as Palestine and Iraq. ̽��ֱ��reception and perception of this material in China is of considerable significance. ̽��ֱ��country has had a Muslim population since the 7^th century, and even conservative estimates place its current Muslim population at upward of 20 million – a figure which dwarves that of the United Kingdom and is the 18^th largest in the world.

Further information about the Centre of Islamic Studies, including details of previous “Cambridge In…” events, can be found at https://www.cis.cam.ac.uk/

A conference exploring Chinese perspectives of the Middle East and the Islamic world, at a time when China’s interest in the region is growing, will take place in Beijing later this week.

What we are trying to find out is whether point of view creates the object. In other words, how are these regions conceived differently in China – and why?

Yasir Suleiman

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Beijing

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A shared future based on a shared past

bjb42 — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:03:08 +0000

Starting this afternoon (Wednesday, 28 March) the three-day event will deliberately address some of the major issues that have inhibited understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims, especially since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Among the topics under discussion will be the nature of Shariah Law, the wearing of the hijab, Islam’s compatibility with democracy, and allegations that Muslims are trying to “Islamize” non-Muslim countries.

̽��ֱ��participants, who include some of the leading researchers in the field of Islamic Studies from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and the US, will be asked to outline the main findings of their latest research, and consider how they can be accessibly communicated to non-academic audiences.

̽��ֱ��conference will include a media-training workshop for delegates, teaching them how to communicate their ideas through radio, television and the press. In addition a series of E-books, with contributions from everyone taking part, will be published after it has ended.

̽��ֱ��event is being organised by the British Council and the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies (CIS) at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. Organisers say that one of their main aims is to reduce a perceived gulf between academics and the public at large regarding Islam and its integration into non-Muslim societies.

A key concern is that researchers specialising in Islam have an in-depth knowledge of such issues that is not being communicated properly to society as a whole. Many people’s knowledge of Islam comes from what they read, see or hear in the media. And in many cases, the dominant media narrative is a divisive one – stressing the views and activities of a fundamentalist minority.

Professor Yasir Suleiman, Director of the CIS at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “Our main aim is to bridge the gap between academic work and public perception, which is not something that academics have always given their full attention. ̽��ֱ��more we can work with the media and other organisations to draw on the specialist knowledge that the academic world has, the more public opinion will be rooted in reliable facts.”

“Sometimes this sort of activity is seen as an apology for Islam, but nothing could be further from the truth. Our main hope is to produce information for public consumption that informs people accurately about the relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims and the nature of their co-existence, so that they can make their own judgements and decisions.”

One conference highlight will be a pre-launch discussion of the second phase of “Contextualising Islam in Britain”; a report which represents the collective thinking of a group of British Muslims who sought to answer the question: “What does it mean to live faithfully as a Muslim in Britain today?” ̽��ֱ��final report will be formally launched later this year.

More broadly, the event will touch on five key themes. These are:

Citizenship and identity: ̽��ֱ��session will examine the presiding narrative that Muslims cannot be fully integrated into western society and address accusations that some are seeking to “Islamize” the west.
Political participation: Drawing on the recent events of the Arab Spring, this will examine how far the traditional view that Islam is incompatible with democracy has been challenged, and whether it offers a set of values that in fact support democracy.
Islam, knowledge and innovation: Delegates will address the ongoing failure to acknowledge Islam’s contribution to science, culture and intellectual history in the west – and ask whether changing this picture would really make a valuable contribution to present debates.
Religion and the public space: ̽��ֱ��session will tackle the debate about the expression of religious beliefs in the public sphere in secular societies – with topics ranging from the hijab to halal food in schools – and ask how religious belief might best be articulated.
̽��ֱ��power of words and images: A “Clash of Civilizations” narrative has dominated debate about Muslim and non-Muslim communities since 9/11. This discussion will ask whether academics can contribute to a more nuanced view of the dynamics underpinning such cultural encounters.

̽��ֱ��conference is called “Acknowledging a Shared Past to Build a Shared Future; Rethinking Muslim non-Muslim Relations”. Partner organisations contributing to the event include the Woolf Institute; the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (UK); Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre for the Study of Islam in the Contemporary World, ̽��ֱ�� of Edinburgh; the Carnegie Corporation of New York; the Vodafone Foundation; the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

Further information can be found at: http://www.cis.cam.ac.uk

A conference which aims to bridge the gap between academic research on Islam and public opinion regarding Muslims in the West will take place in Cambridge this week.

We hope to inform people accurately about the relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims, so that they can make their own judgements and decisions.

Yasir Suleiman

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Cambridge

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