Britain's Elites Converting to Islam
Hakim Harrari | 04.03.2004 03:28 | Culture
According to a report by IslamOnLine, an Islamic website, 14,000 of England’s ‘elite’ have already converted to Islam, with more on the way.
Britain's Elites Converting to Islam
According to a report by IslamOnLine, an Islamic website, 14,000 of England’s ‘elite’ have already converted to Islam, with more on the way.
The report cites ‘the first authoritative study of the phenomenon’ carried out by the Sunday Times on February 22, reporting that “some of Britain’s top landowners, celebrities and the offspring of senior establishment figures” have converted to Islam in recent years.
The Times study was carried out by Yahya (formerly Jonathan) Birt, himself a Muslim convert, who is the son of Lord Birt, the former director-general of the BBC. He used a breakdown of the latest census figures to conclude that there is a major migration from Christianity to Islam taking place in England, with 14,200 converts to date.
Birt is quoted as arguing that an inspirational figure similar to the American Muslim convert Malcolm X, would first have to emerge before the next stage – a mass conversion among Britons – were to happen. “You need great transitional figures to translate something alien (like Islam) into the vernacular,” Birt was quoted by the Times as saying. Professor Birt received his doctorate at Oxford University on young British Muslims.
Emma Clark, the great-granddaughter of a British prime minister also converted to Islam.
Emma, whose ancestor Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, took Britain into the First World War, commented on her conversion saying, “We’re all the rage, I hope it’s not a passing fashion.”
According to the Times report, many converts have been inspired by the writings of Charles Le Gai Eaton, a former Foreign Office diplomat. “I have received letters from people who are put off by the wishy-washy standards of contemporary Christianity and they are looking for a religion which does not compromise too much with the modern world,” said Eaton, author of Islam and the Destiny of Man.
According to a report by IslamOnLine, an Islamic website, 14,000 of England’s ‘elite’ have already converted to Islam, with more on the way.
The report cites ‘the first authoritative study of the phenomenon’ carried out by the Sunday Times on February 22, reporting that “some of Britain’s top landowners, celebrities and the offspring of senior establishment figures” have converted to Islam in recent years.
The Times study was carried out by Yahya (formerly Jonathan) Birt, himself a Muslim convert, who is the son of Lord Birt, the former director-general of the BBC. He used a breakdown of the latest census figures to conclude that there is a major migration from Christianity to Islam taking place in England, with 14,200 converts to date.
Birt is quoted as arguing that an inspirational figure similar to the American Muslim convert Malcolm X, would first have to emerge before the next stage – a mass conversion among Britons – were to happen. “You need great transitional figures to translate something alien (like Islam) into the vernacular,” Birt was quoted by the Times as saying. Professor Birt received his doctorate at Oxford University on young British Muslims.
Emma Clark, the great-granddaughter of a British prime minister also converted to Islam.
Emma, whose ancestor Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, took Britain into the First World War, commented on her conversion saying, “We’re all the rage, I hope it’s not a passing fashion.”
According to the Times report, many converts have been inspired by the writings of Charles Le Gai Eaton, a former Foreign Office diplomat. “I have received letters from people who are put off by the wishy-washy standards of contemporary Christianity and they are looking for a religion which does not compromise too much with the modern world,” said Eaton, author of Islam and the Destiny of Man.
Hakim Harrari
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