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| More New Yorkers Turn to Islam Post 9/11 |
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| SuperHiMY |
| 01/30/05 at 19:32:16 |
| More New Yorkers Turn to Islam Post 9/11 by Emily Mahlman Email: emilymahlman (nospam) hotmail.com (verified) 28 Jan 2005 http://nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/140137/index.php In a time of negative media coverage of Islam and increased distrust of Muslims, mosques in New York City report more converts now than before the Sept. 11 attacks. But life is not easy for these new Muslims. “I pray now as a Muslim.” Lorena Uddin sat in a satellite center of the Islamic Cultural Center at 1 Riverside Drive. She wore a long khaki skirt that grazed the floor; a pink and white striped button-down shirt and a headscarf the color of ballet slippers. She converted to marry a Muslim who later left her. She said she thought about returning to the Christian faith of her youth, but she said Allah would not let her. “I prayed and Allah sent me a sign. God is testing me.” Uddin said her faith is stronger now. Uddin is apparently one of the growing number of people to covert to Islam since Sept. 11 -- according to mosques in New York City. In a time of negative media coverage of the religion and increased distrust of Muslims, mosques in New York City report more converts now than before the attacks. The Islamic Cultural Center of New York claims to have three times as many converts now. But life is not easy for these new Muslims. A recent survey by the Council on American-Islamic Relations found that one in four Americans hold a negative stereotype of Muslims. Almost one-third respond with a negative image when they hear the world “Muslim.” Uddin, 27, was raised in Paraguay and came to New York 10 years ago. She became Muslim on the day of her wedding two years ago. She said she was not interested in Islam at all before she converted. She said she too was wary of the religion because all she knew about it was what she saw on television. Uddin and other new Muslims, like Eryn Curfman and Giselle Antione, do not call it conversion, but reversion. Muslims believe that everyone is born Muslim. “It’s a return to acknowledging faith,” Curfman said. Her black abaya and hijab covered her head and fell to the floor leaving only her pale face visible. Curfman, who was raised Protestant, was a reporter for the Idaho Statesman in Sept. 2001. After the attacks she said Islam was everywhere: on television, radio and newspapers. There were no Muslims where she lived in Boise, and the religion was equated to Satan by local churches. She began reading international news and history books on Islam. “How can you write stories about it if you don’t know anything about it?” she said. She moved to New York, attended journalism school, and said she felt an “immediate connection” when she met her first Muslim. “I didn’t stop asking questions.” She said she studied Islam for eight months before her shahadah, the ceremony signifying conversion, on Thanksgiving Day 2003 in New York. Islam gave her a sense of liberation she said, one of many reasons she converted. Giselle Antione, cited the “stress on equality of all human beings” as the reason for her conversion. She was raised Christian in Syracuse and was encouraged to learn about other religions. She said she was skeptical of media portrayals of Islam after Sept. 11 and studied Islam on her own while attending Columbia University. She said the first day she stepped foot inside a mosque was the day of her shahadah, one year ago. Imam Sheik Omar is the religious leader at the Islamic Cultural Center, 1711 Third Ave. He said he has heard stories like Curfman’s and Antione’s. Sheik Omar said a great number of people began reading about Islam after Sept. 11 to understand what they heard on the news. “In just a few days after 9/11 the Islamic book stores sold out of their literature,” he said. He said Sept. 11 “opened a door of curiosity into Islam.” No one knows if there are more Muslims now than before Sept. 11. There are no reliable statistics on Muslim conversion rates in the last three years. There is only anecdotal evidence that comes directly from mosques. Peter Awn, professor of religion at Columbia University, said he was “somewhat suspicious of these claims.” He said even if data is developed on Muslim conversions in the last three years “there is no sufficient, reliable, retrospective data on conversion to Islam with which to compare” it to. Richard Bulliet, a history professor at Columbia, said there may be a parallel process of assimilation going on since Sept. 11. He hypothesized that there might be “cultural Muslims rediscovering religious roots in response to recent events.” Lorena Uddin attends classes for new Muslims at the Islamic Cultural Center. The teacher, Imam Shamsi Ali, said his students are new to Islam, not rediscovering religious roots. He said before Sept. 11 he had five students; on one recent Saturday there were 20. In the middle of Ali’s morning Arabic lesson an old man’s chants called the class to prayer. Muslims pray five times a day. When they perform the Islamic ritual prayer, salaat, they praise Allah as good and merciful. They seek refuge from Satan and confirm their belief that Allah is the only god. Uddin walked, barefoot, to the bathroom to wash her hands, arms, feet and mouth. She walked past a large group of men who waited in a large room to pray. In the back of the room a door led to the much smaller room where women pray. The women stood shoulder to shoulder, a sign of equality according to Ali, their lips moved as they prayed silently. Uddin was the first to kneel and place her forehead on the cherry-red carpet’s yellow designs that resemble the outlines of Persian buildings. A few moments later she sat up on her heels. Each of the women moved through the positions at their own pace. Uddin, the youngest of the four women, moved fastest. She stood after a few seconds and began the cycle again. The room was silent. The women gazed forward, east towards Mecca, at the barren white wall that separated them from the men. Life in post-Sept. 11 New York has not been easy for these new Muslims. Curfman says she received strange looks from people she passed on the street. “It’s almost like I was walking around with purple hair,” she said. Once, while walking with her head covered, Uddin entered a building where a man was holding the door open with a plastic cord. She said as she passed through the doorway the man whipped her with the cord. She turned to him and said, “Excuse me, I am not a dog.” He then muttered something under his breath. Giselle Antione said everyday is difficult. She said she was screamed at and interrogated while walking down the street. These experiences challenged her to “make sure that I know that what I believe in is right.” She said the hardest part is that she found something that makes her “really happy. And yet that same thing makes so many other people very uncomfortable and very unhappy.” “It’s hard to leave my room some days,” she said. |
| Re: More New Yorkers Turn to Islam Post 9/11 |
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| Kathy |
| 01/30/05 at 19:56:41 |
| [slm] This doesn't surprise me. This past year, in our little city about 3 hours away from NYC, we have had alot of reverts. I think it is the first time I have had to put out a request for donations of prayer rugs, scarves and other revert material! Does anyone know a cheap place I can get instructional Prayer tapes, ones with the 5 dailey pryers from Fajr- Isha? Or better yet, make one, I can copy? |
| Re: More New Yorkers Turn to Islam Post 9/11 |
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| Laila_Y_A |
| 01/31/05 at 01:05:09 |
| Kathy~ Years ago I got this set of cassette tapes and book- they are a big help still, and I have had them since around 1993 ::)! I found this site- link to the page- and price is good- they can take turns reading and listening. Hope this helps. http://store.yahoo.com/talkislam/b3475.html :-) Laila |
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