COMPLAINTS OF
CONVERTS
While Islam attracts an
increasing number of converts in the West there is a
correspondingly high attrition rate - that is, many converts
give up on Islam and regret that they converted. This is
because their experience of Islam was not a happy one. They
enter the faith with enthusiasm but soon this wanes and they
become disillusioned. Often they become completely
disengaged or even hostile to Islam, so bad is their
experience of Muslims and of Muslim life.
There are a number of common complaints from converts. These
complaints provide a valuable critique of what is going
wrong in contemporary Islam in the West.
The following are some of
the most common complaints to be heard if one bothers to
talk to converts:
*Muslim names
Some converts complain that taking a
Muslim name alienates them from family and friends. One day
they are "Mike" and the next day they are "Abdul". They are
subject to ridicule; no one takes them seriously; their
friends and family think they have joined a cult. Just
because they convert to Islam does not mean they want to
renounce their entire identity and social persona. Nor do
they want to be cut off from their parents and
family.
*Attire
Converts complain that Muslim attire can
be alienating. They feel pressured to adopt Muslim clothing
and a Muslim appearance. Men are made to feel they must grow
beards. Women are made to feel they must wear hijab.
Converts usually want to wear standard Western clothing and
are alienated by the idea of a "Muslim uniform". Moreover,
they find it off-putting to go to mosque and find all the
"brothers" dressed in medieval Arabic attire - hennaed
beards, leather socks, turbans. As one convert complained:
"Just because I became a Muslim doesn't mean I want to look
like a member of the Taliban!" And converts don't want to be
the only person in the room who doesn't look like a member
of the Taliban. The "Muslim uniform" raises ridicule or
suspician.
*Zealots
Converts complain that they are often
targets for zealots. These zealots pester them, ear-bash
them, call at their homes, or their places of work, and want
to convince the convert of some narrow view of Muslim
orthodoxy. The convert becomes alienated.
Zealots and fanatics create
aversion to religion, which is sinful.
*Islamic Causes
Converts complain that their submission
to Islam is not necessarily a vote for various so-called
'Islamic causes'. They are joining a religion, not a
political lobby group. They are pressured to go to protest
rallies and fundraisers for a whole host of so-called
'Muslim causes'. Often they are not political people and
have no desire to become activists. Often they have their
own views on various world conflicts and such views may not
align to the supposedly official "Muslim view". Just because
someone converts to Islam does not mean they are vitally
concerned about events in Sudan, or Palestine, or Iran, or
Iraq, or anywhere else. Converts resent being pressured into
subscribing to Muslim political campaigns and causes.
*Arab jargon
Converts are often flooded with Arab
jargon and so become alienated from Muslim discourse. Many
Muslims pepper their sentences with "inshallah" and
"al-hamdulilah" and "mashallah" every second word to the
point that it is hard to follow the thread of their speech.
Converts feel pressured to adopt these artificial pieties
every time they want to say something. They feel pressured
to "speak the lingo." As well, large numbers of keywords are
in Arabic. Muslims speak of "zuhr salat" instead of "noon
prayer". There is an unnecessarily profuse Islamo-jargon
that converts must deal with. Converts don't want to be
swamped with Islamo-babble.
*Segregation of the
Sexes
Converts complain that they find
segregation of the sexes difficult to adjust to and often
find it silly or counter-social. As Westerners they are
quite accustomed to talking to members of the opposite sex -
without any sexual temptations involved - but Islamic life
(as it is enforced by externalists) assumes that men and
women cannot mix without falling into sin and promiscuity.
They may be good reasons to segregate prayer, but social and
family events - even weddings - are often segregated. 'Why
can't I sit with my wife?' complains the convert. Muslims
often take prudishness to an extreme. This alienates
converts.
*Religious hatred
Converts often have family and friends
who are Christians, Jews or members of other faiths. Upon
converting to Islam they are told they must shun such people
and fear being "polluted" by other religions. As Westerners,
they are quite capable of accepting people of other faiths
without the danger of being "polluted" or of "straying." The
idea that new Muslims must only mix with Muslims and must
shun people of other faiths is alienating to
converts.
*Muslim chauvanism
Converts are very often subject to
chauvanistic attitudes from lifelong Muslims who assume that
converts know nothing about Islam and never will; only those
born and raised as Muslims have a valid opinion. The
opinions of converts are dismissed or belittled. They are
constantly being told their mistakes, are patronized and
treated as second-class Muslims.
*Ethnic
exclusionism
As Westerners, converts do not fit into
any of the ethnic camps that tend to form in Western Islamic
communities. As one convert said, "I went to the Turkish
mosque, the Albanian mosque, the Iraqi mosque and the
Indonesian mosque, and didn't feel at home in any of them!"
Converts regularly complain of isolation. They have no
mentors, no contacts.
*Externalism
Large numbers of Western converts come to
Islam through Sufism and the Sufi tradition. When they join
the Muslim community, however, they find that Muslims are
either ignorant of or hostile to Sufism and that mainstream
Islam is dominated by shallow externalists who think the
religion is about the enforcement of rules and regulations.
Such converts begin by seeking the deep treasures of the
Muslim faith but are soon alienated by externalist, legalist
Islam. Often converts have a better and broader sense of the
treasures of classical Islam than born-and-bred Muslims.
Before converting they read Rumi, Hafiz, Ibn Arabi. The
externalists have never even heard these names.
These are all legitimate
complaints and raise matters that contemporary Western Islam
must address. Failure to do so will mean that Islam will not
prosper in the West beyond one or two generations and will
remain stranded and isolated within ethnic enclaves. The
tragedy of this would be that the West needs Islam - men and
women in the West are seeking solutions to their spiritual
dilemmas. This is why the number of converts is growing. But
Islam still fails them.