Coverts explain why they looked to Islam (From thisisoxfordshire)

Coverts explain why they looked to Islam

5:00pm Tuesday 1st September 2009

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IT IS a religion that conjures up images of foreign lands, the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer from minarets towering over the people below.

To many, Islam is completely alien, a world away from the way faith is practised in the UK, with gentle hymns, bell-ringing, crosses and dog collars.

But since 1995, more than 200 people from Oxfordshire have converted to Islam, with countless more avowing their faith as Muslims through different sources.

Maryam Ramzy runs the Oxford Muslim Women’s Association — which is part of the Oxford Islamic Information Centre — and also works at Oxfordshire’s only Muslim school, Iqra School.

She was born Mary Anne Lasseter into a Church of England family. The 49-year-old played organ at the Christian chapel on the edge of her parents’ Dorset farm when she was a girl and described herself as a “believer” — but there were things about Christianity she was confused about.

When she came to Oxford Brookes University aged 18, she had her first encounter with Muslims and wanted to know more about the religion.

She said: “Certain things really impressed me, like the fact the rules are there and they don’t even consider breaking them.

“The respect for the Koran was also very impressive and the fact they were looking forward to ‘starving themselves’ for Ramadan was fascinating.”

Mrs Ramzy met her future husband, half-Iranian half-Iraqi Muslim Imam Dr Hojjat Ramzy, at Brookes, and began to learn more about the religion.

They married and had children and after her first son – Hossain, who is now 18 – was born, she decided to convert.

She said: “It was a very simple ceremony in front of witnesses with me making a declaration of faith.

“I felt a tremendous sense of relief that I was doing the right thing — and had an enormous appetite to learn.”

She said no rules or regulations were forced upon her and described Islam as having “completely transformed” her life.

Mrs Ramzy, who has five children and lives in St Omer Road, Cowley, said: “My life has become so rich. I am a very strong believer and very committed to helping other people when they come to Islam.

“I know where people are coming from when they talk about Islam not being a good deal for women, but actually the thing that hugely impressed me was the respect for women, the amount of care and support they are given, and the huge respect for mothers.”

She said she felt liberated by the Muslim dress code and did not miss any aspects of her Christian upbringing — although she still visited her parents at Christmas.

AbdarRahman Sparkes, 51, from Kidlington, was brought up as a Protestant in Manchester.

His family used to go to church every Sunday and he was brought up to be a committed Christian.

But in his teenage years, he rebelled against his upbringing.

He said: “I would describe myself as an atheist and got interested in communism and that sort of thing, then I became a bit more moderate and described myself as an agnostic.”

When he was 23, his father commited suicide, which brought Mr Starkes — then known as Glyn — back to the church.

He got a job in Saudi Arabia and then became interested in Islam.

He said: “I had no preconceived ideas or prejudices or knowledge about Islam and when I got out there I began to learn about it and I quickly realised the values that embodied Islam were very much my values.

“I started reading the Koran in English and I was extremely interested.

“On the basis of that, I decided to convert to Islam.”

Mr Starkes, a full-time father to three children aged between three and 15, said his family meant he rarely made it to mosque.

He said: “I am not in any sense an extremist and most extremists would consider me a very bad muslim, but it is important to my sense of self and my life.”

Sunday marked fhe first anniversary of Catherine Pearson’s conversion to Islam.

Brought up in a family of Mormons, it was not until she fell pregnant with a Muslim man, Aziz Boumdil, whom she met through the Internet, that she looked for faith elsewhere.

Miss Pearson, who has a son Ahmed, 14 months, said: “When I went to see the bishop of my church he told me the baby was a mistake and I should get rid of it.

“I was shocked. They seemed to be teaching one thing and doing another.”

She started learning about her partner’s faith out of respect.

Miss Pearson, 23, from Wood Farm, Oxford, said: “I decided it was the right religion for me and after making the final decision I converted.

“When I was 17, I went through a phase of drinking and I lost a lot of friends in the church. When I was pregnant, one of the girls in the church was telling everybody I was a slag.

“I was going off the rails and drinking and hanging out with the wrong group of friends and disrespecting them, but once I learned about Islam it calmed me down. I want to be an honest, genuine person who will help people and I feel I have made the right decision in joining Islam.”

She said her new-found faith had actually brought her closer to her parents and her mother had been a witness at her affirmation ceremony.

Miss Pearson said having a baby out of wedlock was seen as a sin, but it was forgiven in Islam, and that she intended to be married as soon as possible.

Khadisha Abdullah, 39, from South Oxford, spent some time at a convent school, but said her upbringing – as Sarah Miles – was otherwise free from religion.

Aged 21, she met a Muslim family in Ladbroke Grove, London.

Mrs Abdullah, who recently had her first daughter, Karima, said: “They were just really lovely.

“The woman’s name was Fatima and she was a very humble lady and she used to encourage and hope from a distance that I might embrace Islam.”

So she got reading — and said what she learned from the Koran “blew her away”.

She said: “That was why I became a Muslim, I thought I was living the wrong life and I had to turn my life around.

“We went to the mosque and I incorporated it into my life.”

Mrs Abdullah brought Islam into her life slowly, not putting on the hijab or headscarf straight away, slowly learning the arabic prayers and building up the number of times each day she said them.

She said: “I recommend it to any woman and I would recommend it to all my family.

“My life is completely different today — and it is much better.”

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