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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Converts: Gender difference |
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| Anonymous |
| 03/03/02 at 22:55:05 |
| Assalaam alaikum everyone, As many of you already know, the trend in conversions into the fold of Islam has increased dramatically since 9/11. And just as before, subhanAllah, most of these converts are female (a slap in the face for those who think Islam is oppressive towards women, walhamdulillah). So my question is, what is holding back more males from converting in the same numbers (I don't know the exact numbers)? My guess is that the treatment of women in the West is far inferior to how Islam views women (not how some Muslims treat women; Islam and Muslims are two different things, the former being perfect and the latter not). But other than that, what? And how can we get more males interested in Islam? Peace |
| NS |
| Re: Converts: Gender difference |
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| Abu_Hamza |
| 03/04/02 at 01:27:43 |
| [slm] My running theory on why more women accept Islam in this country than men ... ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) The charm of the beards and the kufis! :P |
| Re: Converts: Gender difference |
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| SisterHania |
| 03/04/02 at 05:54:29 |
My theory: Sisters are more welcoming to the women who want to learn more about Islam ;D The charm, warmth, kindness, friendliness and selflessness of the Sisters contributes to a womans decison to revert ;D |
| Re: Converts: Gender difference |
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| Laboogie |
| 03/04/02 at 08:10:45 |
| [slm] [quote] My running theory on why more women accept Islam in this country than men ... The charm of the beards and the kufis! [/quote] LOL LOL LOL :-/ :D :-/ :D Sounds pretty good but NOT actually I think its the thobs with the tims ;) Anyways what I noticed with the converison of women is that a good number are introduce by brohter who they are in a 'relationship' which is 'interesting' I believe...and whats even more interesting is that the women become practicing muslimahs to the full extent and sometimes that reflects on the brother and sometimes it doesnt :( But I just think that women know whats good for them and they arent as hard headed as men, they dont have this ego thing like men do :-/...I know Im going to get attacked b/c of that...but the truth hurts doesnt it brothers ;) |
| Re: Converts: Gender difference |
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| Abdullah |
| 03/04/02 at 15:18:14 |
| asalaamu alaikum That's funny, up here in Canada we usually get brothers reverting to Islam... almost 6 off the top of my head since the last little while. Actually I have NEVER met a sister-revert. Come to think of it, I've only even met a revert like thrice before. Do you guys think there's an actual reason for this, or can it be just a coincidence and the Will of Allah Subhana? asalamu alaikum. abdullah,. |
| Re: Converts: Gender difference |
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| nouha |
| 03/04/02 at 17:24:22 |
| [slm] i think the reason is becuase there are more women on earth (where else ;) ) than men. we know that one of the last signs of teh day of judgement is that there will be fifty women to one man in the worlds population. last i heard there were now five women to one man, pretty freaky huh? [wlm] nouha:) |
| Re: Converts: Gender difference |
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| BroHanif |
| 03/04/02 at 18:40:06 |
| Membership has its benefits, Islam allows four women to one man. Nah I think its that women feel they have more to gain rather than men, in a world where women whereever they are are deemed as sex tools, not treated professionally and whole hosts of other problems, Islam I seriously feel gives them a way out. Just mee thoughts. |
| Re: Converts: Gender difference |
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| Marcie |
| 03/04/02 at 19:22:32 |
| [color=Teal] [slm] [quote]Anyways what I noticed with the converison of women is that a good number are introduce by brohter who they are in a 'relationship' which is 'interesting' I believe...and whats even more interesting is that the women become practicing muslimahs to the full extent and sometimes that reflects on the brother and sometimes it doesnt [/quote] I definitely agree with Uhkti Laboogie. I have known some sisters, who came across Islam on their own, but the majority are in a "relationship" with a brother or married to one. Subhana Allah some of my friends have reverted and have even gotten their husbands to become practicing Muslims again. Subhana Allah in our area there are also brothers reverting so that they can get married. To be honest none of BroHanif's reasons influenced me at all. It was more the spiritual aspects and my relationship with Allah [swt] that helped me to find my way to Islam al hamdu lillah. Many times the benefits for women that we talk about in Islam are not obvious, because Muslims do not live up to the standards that have been established by Islam. :( [wlm] Marcie :-) [/color] |
| 03/04/02 at 19:30:36 |
| Marcie |
| Re: Converts: Gender difference |
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| Laboogie |
| 03/04/02 at 20:39:29 |
| [slm] [quote]Uhkti Laboogie[/quote] ummm, what does that mean 'uhkti'??? But it all comes down to women being smarter then men ;D jk |
| Re: Converts: Gender difference |
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| Yasin |
| 03/04/02 at 23:06:17 |
| ' uhkti'(UKHTI)= :-) in arabic ThE-YaSkA |
| Re: Converts: Gender difference |
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| momineqbal |
| 03/05/02 at 02:22:53 |
| [slm], First of all I would like to get the data on more sisters converting than brothers verified. The CAIR report last year mentioned more brothers as far as I can remember. It will also be interesting to see demographic distribution of muslims reverting. Black muslims, hispanic muslims, white/cauacasian muslims/asian muslims etc. I think it might show different trends in each of the categories. I think I would expect more women in some categories but not all. Wassalam Eqbal |
| Converts: Gender difference |
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| Leslie |
| 03/08/02 at 11:13:10 |
| [slm] [quote author=Abdullah aka Anik link=board=bro;num=1015214105;start=0#4 date=03/04/02 at 15:18:14] That's funny, up here in Canada we usually get brothers reverting to Islam... almost 6 off the top of my head since the last little while. Actually I have NEVER met a sister-revert. Come to think of it, I've only even met a revert like thrice before. Do you guys think there's an actual reason for this, or can it be just a coincidence and the Will of Allah Subhana? [/quote] Br. Abdullah, you do know of at least one female Canadian revert -- me! (although we have never actually seen each other). We live in the same city. I think your comment is not entirely sound because you are extrapolating from your own experience ("I have NEVER met a sister-revert."), and forming a general rule from it. In truth, I could say the same thing, but I would have to switch the brothers and sisters around to say that I have NEVER met a brother-revert. This doesn't mean that they don't exist. I believe that it is only proper that these are our experiences -- you would naturally speak with and be friendly with the men, while I would with the women. If you had met more revert-sisters, it could be cause for concern. :o ;) I know many women who have converted/reverted to Islam; some of us are more diligent about trying to live Islamically than others, but we are here and proud to be Muslim. Based on my own experiences, however, I am unable to say that there are more female converts than male, since I really don't know how many of either sex take their shahada. The problem when trying to gather such data is how do we know that we're collecting a representative sample? If we go to the mosque on a Friday and poll everyone present about whether or not they converted to Islam, this would give inaccurate information even if we were able to poll every mosque in the world. This is because many women do not attend the congregational prayer on Fridays (unfortunately, some men don't either. :( ) Asking the imam about this doesn't help that much either, since many of the women don't speak with the imam, or the mosque is set up so that dialogue between the sisters and the imam is difficult, since the only was to approach the imam is for the sister to push her way through a mob of men, and be rebuked for entering the men's section. If she wishes to speak with the imam, though, she has no other choice, because he doesn't approach the sisters at all, and she doesn't have any male family members who can approach him to say that she would like to see him. (I am speaking only of my own experiences, I am sure that others do have more positive stories to tell.) Where I live, most of the mosques are not woman friendly. I'm really not sure how the statistics are collected, or how they are expected to be accurate. I also don't know where one would go to collect a sample in which more converts are female than male. (Any suggestions, anyone?) Because of this, I suspect that the idea that more women convert to Islam than men may be more of a legend than fact, allahu 'alam. Perhaps the rate of coversion is even the same for both groups; I really don't know. ----------------- As for the original question posted by br. Anonymous, "how can we get more males interested in Islam?" I can't answer this question directly, but I can say that as Muslims, we should always strive to provide a good example for everyone, and when we are asked about Muslim practices, we should always be patient and explain the ideas behind our practices (for instance, why we don't drink alcohol) rather than say that it is only because our religion tells us to behave in a certain way. By explaining reasons, we will increase the questioner's understanding of Islam even if in a very small way. When we don't, we stress differences that do not allow anyone to understand anything at all. I know that the responses that people gave me to my questions about Islam had a very great effect on my decision to become Muslim. If they had not been open to explaining things to me, I would have been left in my ignorance even after having spoken with them. They were very patient with me and allowed me to complain about situations that I believed were unjust and unfair before showing me that while many of the practices I was complaining about do exist, Islam teaches us to do something else. What is important is that these people allowed me to finish what I was saying so that they could address each of my concerns in turn without making me feel that my concerns were somehow unjustified or that I was wrong. One very important thing to remember in any da'wah effort, is never to suggest that what the person to whom you are speaking believes is wrong. Give him or her the freedom to evaluate the situation on his or her own after you have provided a reasonable alternative to his or her current beliefs. This is why I do not believe that many of the pamphlets that Muslims hand out are effective -- they tend not to explain differences, but merely state that a certain belief is wrong and support this claim through quotes from the Qur'an. Such arguments may be convincing to a Muslim, because they confirm firmly held beliefs, but how does a devout Christian react when a piece of paper tells him that Jesus (a.s.) was a prophet, but not God? This person already has a preconceived idea that the Qur'an is false, so why would he take any evidence quoted from it seriously, especially when the ayahs quoted refute his own beliefs? Such pamphlets only end up in the trash. It is better, in my opinion, to offer dialogue and discussion to anyone who is interested in asking questions about Islam, than to speak about the truth of Islam at this stage. . It is also important to tailor your discussion of Islam to the needs of each person -- concentrate on the problems that he or she thinks are important. Always remember that in order to have people listen to you, you must be willing to listen to them I am proof that this strategy can work. [wlm] Leslie P.S. May God allow your da'wah efforts to succeed. |
| Re: Converts: Gender difference |
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| Iboo |
| 03/08/02 at 15:24:52 |
| does anyone have any even remote statistical proof that the number of reverts since 9-11 has gone up or is it just something your assuming? I ask because ive been searching for any kind of proof and couldnt find it. [wlm] |
| Re: Converts: Gender difference |
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| bhaloo |
| 03/08/02 at 15:44:49 |
| [slm] At the Eid prayer the sheikh mentioned that the number had been going up by a factor of 4 since sept. 11. |
| Re: Converts: Gender difference |
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| EdisonShi |
| 03/14/02 at 22:44:16 |
| Most of the reverts I know (and I am one) learned about Islam while incarcerated and they are all males. I only know one Muslimah and I have been a Muslim since 1999. It's hard to talk to them at my Mas-Jid and as a caucasion I'm not easily recognisable in my community. It's interesting to hear that many, or most, reverts are female. I would have thought the opposite is true. |
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