Amal Al-Sibai Saudi Gazette More than 5,000 people in Britain convert to Islam on average each year, most of them women. Academic studies in the United Kingdom have shown that, contrary to popular belief, these conversions are not driven mostly by marriage; most converts are attracted by the values of Islam. Two years ago, Lauren Booth announced her conversion to Islam. Lauren Booth is a British broadcaster, journalist, and human rights activist. She is the half-sister of Cherie Blair, wife of the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. She is currently penning her eagerly awaited autobiography ‘Journey to Islam'. In her writings, Lauren Booth tells how she embraced Islam and how one day she realized that she was a member of the Muslim Ummah, and no longer a spectator from the outside. Back in 2005, she set off on her first trip to Palestine. “So, as I flew towards the Middle East, my mind was full of the usual 10pm buzzwords: radical extremists, fanatics, forced marriages, suicide bombers and jihad. Not much of a travel brochure. My very first experience, though, could hardly have been more positive,” she wrote in her article ‘Why I Love Islam' in the Daily Mail. She relates that she will never forget the acts of generosity of the Palestinian women. The warmth of spirit, generosity, hospitality, and kindness she experienced there are never mentioned in what we read and see in the news. Gradually, Booth's pull towards Muslims and Islam became stronger. “Over the course of the next three years I made numerous journeys to the occupied lands which were once historic Palestine. At first I went on assignments; as time went by, I started travelling in solidarity with charities and pro-Palestinian groups,” wrote Booth. “Gradually I found expressions such as ‘Mashallah!' and ‘Al Hamdillilah!' creeping into my everyday speech. Far from being nervous of Muslim groups, I started looking forward to meeting them. It was an opportunity to be with people of intelligence, wit and, above all else, kindness and generosity,” she stated. In addition to her growing role as a humanitarian activist, something else was changing. “The more time I spent in the Middle East, the more I asked to be taken into mosques. Just for touristy reasons, I told myself. In fact I found them fascinating. I knew then I was no longer a tourist in Islam but a traveler inside the Ummah, the community of Islam that links all believers.” “At first I wanted the feeling to go and for several reasons. Was I ready to convert? What on earth would friends and family think? Was I ready to moderate my behavior in many ways?” were questions she asked herself. Growing up, having suffered from the detrimental effects and violence that alcohol addiction creates in households, Booth had no hesitation in giving up alcohol to become a Muslim. Due to the hurtful memories that her father's alcoholism had left, she welcomed the elimination of alcohol from her life. While visiting a mosque, she was overtaken by a powerful feeling, a firm conviction that she was Muslim. When she returned to London, Lauren Booth wholeheartedly pronounced the shahadah. In her later writings, Lauren Booth shares how that initial ecstatic feeling of joy slowly, over time wears, and a tiny pebble of disappointment begins to appear. She made it clear that it is not disappointment in Islam; the religion is perfect. Rather, it is a disappointment in the Muslims who do not understand their religion and do not practice it correctly. Some of her Muslim friends had pre-warned her that she should remain steadfast in her newly-found faith even when disappointment begins to inch its way into her heart. In her article ‘Down to Earth with a Bump' in On Islam, an online magazine Booth mentioned how in Palestinian homes she learned about love, patience, generosity, how to host guests, how to bring up children, and how to be a good human being. “I waited for the change (that all my born Muslim friends warned me) was certain to happen. One morning, in February this year I woke up to find that it had arrived. Suddenly, not everyone around me was shiny, amazing. Everywhere I looked Muslims were bragging, lying, gossiping, drinking alcohol, stealing, flirting and every other sin, major and minor,” wrote Booth. The time that she first opened her eyes to the faults of the people around her closely coincided with the time when she started faltering in her acts of worship. She wrote: “We, ourselves, start to fail more and more in our ‘ibadah' (worship), in our speech, in our deeds. From those glorious first days and months when we are immersed in learning Islam, where constant ‘dhikr' (Islamic Meditation) creates something like an invisible force-shield, around the believer who practices. It keeps us in check, protects us from harm.” “Oh how we fill our waking hours with the Qur'an, reading books on Hadith and downloading inspirational lectures by people of knowledge, like Shaykh Hamza Yusuf. A person who accepts Islam wholly and completely, cannot be late for prayer. It is unthinkable. Clutching a sheet of paper or a donated book, the newbies nervously, cautiously, hearts swelling with love, work the way through ‘Salat' (prayer). They will painstakingly mouth each alien vowel, respecting every sacred syllable. How the grateful, saved heart cries towards Allah, The Merciful, who has cleared away all our previous sins. Love is everywhere, peace is possible, faith is all. As I say, then we begin to falter. You know how it goes. First you drag your feet a little to the prayer mat. A week later, barely noticed, all your prayers are last minute and rushed. Soon after that ‘Fajr' (dawn prayer) is done ‘before going to work' not pre dawn. And here we all are together at last in our weakened, stumbling, frail, version of faith.” Running into Muslims who do not follow the teachings of Islam was a hefty blow to her, but regardless of the flaws of certain individuals, she still felt immensely blessed to be a part of the Muslim Ummah. “Compared to the world outside the Ummah; great sections of our community are and always will be, inshaAllah, amazing. Whole villages are known in far flung places to be beacons of hope to the traveller and seeker of knowledge. Whilst in every city in every nation on every continent, humble servants of The One, quietly support friends, neighbours, and strangers as best they can, even if it means personal hardship. {They (the true believers) give food, out of love for Allah, to the poor, the orphan and the slave, saying: We feed you only for Allah's pleasure - we desire from you neither reward nor thanks.} (76:8-9) Coming from the cold, hard, materialistic, half drunken, non Muslim world, I can tell you that thanks to the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (peace upon him) you are already a kinder person than you otherwise would be. How quickly sisters jump to one another's aid where children are concerned for example. I never had the kind of support I now have, outside the Ummah. How quickly we rally together to help a family if a member falls ill and times are hard. Did I see this so routinely outside? Not at all.” She concluded her article with a question that all Muslims should ask themselves: “Have we already become one of ‘those' Muslims - more likely to put others off this complete way of life, than be an example of its high principles?” she asked. Does our code of conduct truly reflect and represent the teachings laid down for us in Islam?
