ISIM Newsletter 11 ISIM, Citation ISIM,. (2002). ISIM Newsletter 11. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/11967 Version: Not Applicable (or Unknown) License: Leiden University Non-exclusive license Downloaded https://hdl.handle.net/1887/11967 from: Circulation 8,000 December 2002 4 0 p a g e s N e w s l e t t e r 11 postal address t e l e p h o n e e - m a i l P.O. Box 11 0 8 9 +31(0)71 527 79 05 i n f o @ i s i m . n l 2301 EB Leiden f a x h o m e p a g e The Netherlands +31(0)71 527 79 06 h t t p : / / w w w . i s i m . n l 9 2 2 2 7 3 3 Isa Blumi Aki Nawaz Lara Deeb Joel Beinin Indoctrinating Albanians: Fun Da Mental: Radical Music, Women's Islamic Community Neo-Conservatives Threaten Dynamics of Islamic Aid Political Protest Service in Beirut Academic Freedom The visibility of converts to Islam in the media has re- cently undergone an exponential increase Ð mainly in the United States. There was the case of Jonny Walker, labelled 'Jonny the Taliban', born into the wasp upper class, who was apprehended as m u j a h i d Converts and the in Afghanistan. Then there was José Padilla, the would-be terrorist who was seized in an airport loaded with explosives. Finally, John Allen Williams came on the scene. Of Jamaican ancestry, born in Louisiana, this former American soldier in the Gulf Making of War became the serial killer that terrorized Washing- ton in October 2002 by killing 13 people in cold b l o o d . These three tales have nothing in common, apart from the fact that all three protagonists are converts to Islam. E u r o p e a n I s l a m ertheless, literature on the matter remains have influenced certain conversions are ment in at least three fields. They offer legit- STEFANO ALLIEVI rather scarce, especially when compared to those of traditionalist authors such as René imation in the eyes of society: a function ful- that of the so-called 'new religious move- Guénon, Fritjof Schuon, and Titus Burck- filled especially by the intellectuals who ments', some of which have a smaller mem- hardt, all of whom became Muslims. have converted. They are present also in the bership compared to converts to Islam. Sufism is, however, a specific way to enter academic milieu, for instance among the The highest number of conversions to Islam, or rather a special facet of it, and orientalists, and they contribute to produc- Islam is brought about by a cause that has leads to embracing Islam through the role ing the image of Islam and its contents. The little to do with the search for spirituality, of the t u r u q, not often connected to the converts also provide confirmation for the namely marriage (following the Islamic 'Islam of the mosques'. benefit of the migrant community, especial- rules, a non-Muslim male cannot marry a For many converts the background of ly those with a weaker sense of identity: Muslim woman without converting). Such a conversion is political, both (even extreme) their s h a h a d a, when enunciated in an Islam- reason for conversion may contradict the right and left: Islam, the religion of praxis ic centre, or in publications, are a 'proof' of principle of freedom of religion and of con- that does not distinguish by principle be- the superiority of Islam and a confirmation science as it developed in the West, but is tween the 'city of men' and the 'city of God' of the rightness of their faith for those immi- normally lived without special problems by but rather willingly superimposes them, grants who are often less integrated and people who, often, are hardly religious, and seems to constitute an ideal way to 'spiritu- less well-educated. Finally, they comprise are consequently little disturbed by this alize' a militant commitment that previously an element of g u a r a n t e e: a convert is a citi- c h o i c e . These conversions have generally was only social or political. It is not merely zen Ð and a militant or an Islamic leader as a no great impact on the lives of the individu- by chance that we find these converts in the citizen can not be expelled, or surrendered, als and of the couples, and often not even leadership and in the intermediate centres to this or that native Islamic country. on that of their offspring. As a matter of fact, of the Islamic associations in Europe, in the If that is the present situation in several conversion under these circumstances is a mosques, and in promoting political initia- European countries, in spite of s i g n i f i c a n t means to reach another aim (marriage), not tives such as requests to be recognized by variations of weight and importance be- an end in itself. the state. In short, they are closely in touch tween the one and the other (which ought However, other trajectories to conversion, with the Islam of the immigrants. to be analysed individually), the potential which, like the previous ones, can be called situation, the possible evolution of the func- 'relational', even if far less numerous, are the F u n c t i o n s tion of the converts, is not the same. Indeed, ones that have the greatest impact: on the A distinction can be made between the some of the present functions served by the lives of the individuals, but also on that of actual and potential functions of converts Ð converts are transitory: for instance, they fill the Islamic communities in Europe. In the with the aim of trying to understand the dy- a gap in terms of leadership and cultural list can be included the 'discovery' of Islam namic and evolutionary aspect of the elaboration because of the lack of immi- through meeting Muslim believers, while as process. One can speak of a function of cul- grants capable of doing so. However, they a tourist or on a business trip to Muslim tural mediation, of linguistic translation, could be substituted by a new leadership, countries, or through meeting an immigrant and of interpretation, in a broad cognitive which may come from abroad but will more in Europe and eventually falling in love with sense. In practice, the following acquire likely be produced within the second and Former British These three tales of converts to Islam also him or her (it is the case of several mixed great importance: the contribution in terms third generations of immigrants, something pop star Cat have in common that they all deeply affect- couples, even when the conversion is not of social know-how; the pooling of a net- that is currently happening in several Euro- Stevens, now ed the American imagery and brought compulsory, as in the case of a non-Muslim work of relationships (including the politi- pean countries. Yusuf Islam. about a reawakening, or even the discovery woman marrying a Muslim man). cal, institutional, and religious ones), which Nevertheless, the lasting importance of of an interest in the Islam of converts, which A different model of conversion is that of already exist and which can be developed the converts must be emphasized, mainly in until recently Ð with few exceptions Ð was the 'rational' conversions. Here we can refer further; the peculiar intellectual function the institutional interface and in the ' p o w e r mainly considered to be a phenomenon to the intellectual conversions, 'cold' so to that is shown through the capacity to medi- games', which are linked to the national or limited to the black Muslims movement of speak, which are due to the reading, even ate and to produce culture both within the regional representation of Islam, particular- Elijah Muhammad and nowadays of Louis by chance, of the Qur'an, for all sorts of rea- community (books and reviews, but also ly with respect to the host society and its in- Farrakhan (of whom John Allen had been a sons and in the most diverse situations: ei- testimonies and sermons) and, chiefly, out- stitutions: a role that the passage of genera- follower), and consequently almost thought ther received as a gift, as happened to one side of it through the contribution made to tion among the Muslim communities will of as an 'ethnic' oddity. of the most well-known European converts, the formation of the image of Islam (confer- not be able to cancel in the short term, even In Europe, attention paid to conversion to former pop singer Cat Stevens, who became ences, public relations, and on a larger scale though one might hypothesize that the Islam has begun to gather momentum in Yusuf Islam, or because it was found in the the simple explanation of personal behav- overestimation of their role in cultural and the last years and has opened up to research prison library. Others became acquainted iours like wearing the h i j a b: as one of our in- organizational leadership that is now attrib- into the role of some Sufi groups, trajecto- with Islam through books of Islamic mysti- terviewees stated, 'I am a walking symbol'). uted to the converts Ð very visible in some ries of the feminine conversions, and the cism, notably Sufism, which have attracted a In a more general sense, the converts con- countries, namely those where immigration role of converts in Muslim associations.