Women & Islam: The Rise and Rise of the Convert in Britain

The Independent (6th November 2011) reports on a new study by Swansea University for Faith Matters called "A Minority Within a Minority" which reports on reverts to Islam in the UK:

"As Muslims celebrate the start of the religious holiday of Eid today and hundreds of thousands from around the world converge on Mecca for the haj, it emerged that of the 5,200 Britons who converted to Islam last year, more than half are white and 75 per cent of them women.


In the past 10 years some 100,000 British people have converted to Islam, of whom some three-quarters are women, according to the latest statistics. This is a significant increase on the 60,000 Britons in the previous decade, according to researchers based at Swansea University.

Kevin Brice, author of the Swansea study A Minority Within a Minority, said to be the most comprehensive study of British Muslim converts, added: "White Muslim converts are caught between two increasingly distant camps. Their best relationships remain with other converts, because of their shared experiences, while there is very little difference between the quality of their relationship with other Muslims or non-Muslims.


"My research also found converts came in two types: some are converts of convenience, who adopt the religion because of a life situation such as meeting a Muslim man, although the religion has little discernible impact on their day-to-day lives. For others it is a conversion of conviction where they feel a calling and embrace the religion robustly.

"That's not to say the two are mutually exclusive – sometimes converts start out on their religious path through convenience and become converts of conviction later on."

You can read the full article and same case studies about the experiences of some reverts here.
The original research report can be found here (PDF).

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IERA Research on Perception of Muslims and Islam

The Islamic Education and Research Academy (IERA) has published research on non-Muslim perceptions of Islam and Muslims. Researched and written by Hamza Andreas Tzortzis, Dr. Iman Khalaf & Sadia Salam, the summary of the research highlights facts such as:

5% described Islamic dawah material as quite positive and very positive.
71% had never come into contact with any dawah material.
70% did not change their perceptions about Islam after coming into contact with dawah material. 14% slightly worsened or significantly worsened.
76% had never spoken to a Muslim about Islam.
63% had no change in their perception after interacting with a Muslim. 13% had perceptions that significantly worsened or slightly worsened.
62% preferred not to receive any information about religion.
27% had negative perceptions regarding Muslims
75% believed Islam and Muslims had provided a negative contribution to society
32% believed that Muslims are a major cause of community tension
2% responded positively concerning perceptions about Islamic law
76% did not agree to the statement that Muslims positively engage in society
36% did not know who the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon
him) was
61% did not respond positively when asked about the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)
71% of all participants did not agree that the media is negatively biased towards Islam and Muslims
63% did not disagree to the statement that “Muslims are terrorists”
70% did not disagree with the statement “Muslims preach hatred”
94% did not disagree with the statement “Islam oppresses women”
86% did not disagree with the statement “Islam is outdated”
72% did not agree with the statement “Muslims are law abiding”
85% did not disagree with the statement “Islam is irrational”
71% did not agree with the statement “Muslims are peaceful”
73% did not disagree with the statement “Islam cannot positively contribute to modern society”

You can read the full research paper here

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