Statistical Research Report March 2012 Statistical Report With the dawn of modern dawah efforts and the entry of high quality television, Internet and print media from the Muslim community, there has been a renaissance in the call to Islam. Muslims are now using high quality and ‘innovative’ methods to showcase the beauty of Islam to non Muslims. By the grace of Allah, much of this effort is yielding fruit and we see a growing presence of new Muslims across the world. However, there is very little support for the Muslims once they enter the fold of Islam, and as a consequence we are unfortunately seeing alarming rates of people leaving their faith. According to a study, a striking 75% of converts to Islam leave within the first 3 years of becoming a Muslim. In August of 2011, New Muslim Care was launched as a direct result of this poor retention. New Muslim Care’s objectives are to lower this through providing new Muslims the much needed support in all aspects of life. New Muslim Care is inspired by the contributions of the Ansaar of Madinah, who opened their arms to their brethren migrating from Makkah. They shared their land, wealth, family and livelihoods and ultimately gave them a chance to practice Islam freely. The Ansaar made Madinah a fertile ground for New Muslims to live Islam; they embraced them into their families, became their brothers and sisters - bonds stronger than blood relations. It was their generosity and kindness that made the lives of the Muhajirun easily adaptable to Islam. New Muslim Care is inspired from that successful model, that model created by our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. In order to establishe the program upon a foundation that understands the concerns of new Muslims, the proceeding research project was conducted. It is our belief that born Muslims have a responsibility to assist new Muslims when they enter the fold of Islam and at present this has not been adequately fulfilled. Group 1 - Perceptions • Have you ever helped a New The Survey Muslim with any of the below mentioned items, if so select the In March of 2012 New Muslim Care commissioned a ones you helped with? research project to be developed on the conditions • How many Shahadah’s have you of new Muslims. The Question Process prompty witnessed? began, with four groups of questions offered to • How many converts do you know? born Muslims and new Muslims gathering both • How many Converts have you seen the perceptions and real experiences of conversion or know about who have left Islam? aftermath. • How many times have you invited a New Muslim to your home or a party you organized? The Question Process • How many Masjids/Community Centres in your area that are easily accessible to you? Group 1 - Perceptions: General perception • Why do you think so many questions are developed to elaborate on whether Converts leave Islam? the challenges faced by new Muslims are known • Want to share any story about to born Muslims and how they have provided a Convert that you know about assistance to ease these challenges. The objective personally? is to compare these results with similar questions posed to new Muslims to determine if there is a inconsistency between perceived challenges and Group 2 - Experiences those that are directly experienced. • How did you first hear about Islam? • Through what medium has Islamic Group 2 - Experiences: Experience questions are knowledge primarily reached you? commissioned to new Muslims aiming to extract • What is the biggest problem you faced since becoming a Muslim? the authentic experience upon entering the fold • How often do you visit the Masjid of Islam. These questions will reveal the exact or other Muslims? challenges and repercussions of this new life • After becoming a Muslim have you choice as well as the areas of greatest concern. It is faced any emotional/physical also integral to observe where respondents have abuse? received initial Islamic information and where the • How close do you feel to the continuous source lies to determine the exact point Muslim community in your area? of discongruity. • When converting to Islam have you faced any negative repercussions/ Group 3 - Educational Subjects: Islamic Education feedback? is fundamental for new Muslims to explore in their first years. Questions are developed to determine Group 3 - Educational Subjects what the topics understood to be the greatest • In your opinion, how important is it interest in the first year of becoming a new Muslim to learn the following subjects are. This provides invalue insight when considering a within the first year of becoming a framework for a structured curriculum. Muslim. Aqeedah (Creed/Belief) Group 4 - Demographics: Demographics such Salah (Prayer) as age, ethnicity, and gender will be matched Quran (Arabic) with respondents. This will provide insight on the Acts of Worship makeup of the survey pool allowing New Muslim Seerah of the Prophet Care to identify regions or age groups of interest. Group 4 - Demographics • Which Geographical Area do you Challenges live in? • What is your Age? One of the anticipated challenges with the survey • What is your Ethnicity will be to ensure there is an appreciable respondent • What is your Gender base. It will be difficult to survey new Muslims on the ground due to a scattered population, thus expect learning to read the Quran in the we will expedite the survey online. However, Arabic language and Prayer as the most naturally, those in the circles of New Muslim popular responses opposed to those that Care will be self-selected into this pool. are more spiritual in nature such as Aqeedah Additionally, we expect there to be many or Seerah. out-of-country outliers whose data is less relevant to the study. Demographically we expect the respondants to be from a very close geographical To increase survey participation, the number location from our head office in Toronto, of questions will be kept short while this will Canada or at least in the North American result in less control questions that would region as we release the survey initially to raise confidence in conclusions. our own audience via our own social media outlets and local paid advertising. Our Expectations The majority of the respondents are also expected to be between the ages of 19 and Our expectation is that there will be an 25, as releasing the survey mainly through inconsistency between the perception born social media would automatically select a Muslims have on the challenged faced by younger demographic. new Muslims and those experienced. We expect a great number of the challenges would be underestimated in the minds Methodology of born Muslims. We also expect born Muslims will generally assist new Muslims • Sample of respondents: 61% were born in predominantly Islamic Education and Muslim and 39% were new Muslims. not in any other aspects, such as social • The survey was collected online to fulfillment, financial assistance, or emotional minimize selection bias on the part counselling. of the surveyor. • Demographic data was collected and cross tabulated with responses. Questions will be developed to discover whether a strong or weak connection exists between born Muslims and new 3 Questions of Interest Muslims with Islamic Community Centres and Mosques. This will control for a survey Consistency: Are the challenges faced base that lacks close proximity where new by new Muslims consistent with those Muslims often enter the fold of Islam in perceived by born Muslims? Are born or around. If the respondents lack close Muslims aware of the plight of new Muslims proximity to Islamic Community Centres or and how well do they provide assistance? Mosques we would expect less interaction between both groups. Integration: How well are new Muslims integrated? Do they continue to receive The challenges faced by new Muslims upon information from the same source of entering the fold of Islam are expected conversion? Are they connected to Islamic to be predominantly within their families Community Centres or Mosques? What are and friendships. However, we will provide the challenges faced? responses for all scenarios (education, food, family, financial etc..). We also expect that Educational Subjects: Lastly, out of the top new Muslims will respond to feeling great Educational topics, what is perceived as the neglect from the Muslim Community and most important to learn in the first year for a not attend Islamic Community Centres or new Muslim? Mosques on a regular basis. Of Educational topics new Muslims have keen interest in learning in the first year, we Group 1: Perceptions Retention Rate How many Converts have you seen or know about who have left Islam? “I know 5 - 10 “I know 10 + who have left” who have left” 6% 4% “I know 1 - 5 who have left” 30% 60% “None” Figure 1.A Out of the respondent answers showed in Figure 1.A, the results indicate that 40% knew one or more converts who left the fold of Islam, opposed to 60% who did not. Although the responses indicate a lower percentage for those who have left Islam, 10% of those respondents knew 5 + individuals each (4% knew 10 +). This is a remarkably high percentage of individuals who know others who have left Islam and indicates that the number of individuals who have remained in Islam after conversion is likely not very high. On the other hand, many of those who responded knowing 5 or more individuals could be answering as such due to access to their information via YouTube or other social media networks. The individuals may have not “known” them, but could count a few popular individuals, thus indicating over 5 in this survey. According to Figure 1.B & Figure 1.C presented on the adjacent page, the results show us that the group was mixed: some had experience with new Muslims and others did not.