Post by maruf on Oct 12, 2005 12:06:26 GMT -5
For Muslim converts, Ramadan offers a chance to gather with others of Islamic faith
Muslim holy month helps make newcomers feel less like outsiders
Monday, October 10, 2005
By Jacqueline Shoyeb, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
www.post-gazette.com/pg/05283/585675.stm
Lake Fong, Post-Gazette
Chantal Blake, 22, a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh and a convert to Islam, chats with a friend after a weekly congregational prayer service at the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh in Oakland.
Click photo for larger image.
As the sun's final rays faded into a purple glow last Wednesday night, the corner of Bigelow Boulevard and Parkman Avenue came alive as men and women wearing colorful head scarves poured into the Oakland mosque.
They traded Arabic greetings of peace and praise to God as they entered the brick building for prayer.
Chantal Blake of Friendship stood in a circle with other young women in head scarves wearing loose robes that hid their shape or casual jeans.
It's Ramadan, the Muslim holy month spent in fasting and worship. Mrs. Blake and others gathered at the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh mosque to wait for the sun to dip below the horizon, signaling the time to break their daylong fast from food and drink, and then pray.
But unlike most of the Muslims there, the 22-year-old New York City native was not born into the faith. She's a convert, and this is her third Ramadan.
Among the estimated billion Muslims worldwide celebrating the second week of Ramadan are a growing number of converts like Mrs. Blake, or, as most prefer to be called, reverts because they feel they are reverting back to the faith they lost after being born into a non-Muslim family or society.
In the United States, an estimated 20,000 people convert to Islam each year, according to a 2001 study on mosques by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Locally, the number has been growing quickly in the greater Pittsburgh area, which has an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 Muslims, said Yusuf Ali, president of the Islamic Council of Greater Pittsburgh.
While there are no records indicating how many mosque attendees are converts, Mr. Ali said they have seen an influx since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorism attacks.
"It made people become interested, and they began to seek out knowledge about Islam and began to look into the religion," he said.
But once they convert, new believers face a host of issues, primarily acceptance from their families and friends who don't understand how they can choose a religion that people wrongly link to terrorism because of extremists who twist the faith. How can they embrace a "foreign religion" like Islam?
That's how Mrs. Blake felt when her older brother announced he was Muslim in 2000.
At first Mrs. Blake's Christian family thought it was a phase. But when he began to pray and dress differently and speak of his new life and faith, their relationship began to unravel.
She and her brother, who now lives in West Africa, would argue over their different faiths, each trying to make the other see which one was right.
"I was very much against it because I didn't understand it," Mrs. Blake said. "All I knew was that it was breaking up this relationship with my brother."
She eventually decided to research Islam, to learn more about the religion that took her brother. In her quest, she also explored other religions, such as Judaism, Hinduism and Ethiopian Orthodox.
"I was in this faith-filled bubble, this buffet of sorts I could pick from," she said.
Over time, she saw that what she valued most in each religion was found in Islam; it was the doctrine that made the most sense to her.
She converted in 2003 but didn't tell most of her Christian friends.
For her first Ramadan, a time considered holy for Muslims because it was when the Quran was first revealed, she was alone. She didn't speak of her new conversion unless someone asked.
Her mother was in denial and refused to talk about her decision. Her only connection to other Muslims was through her brother and a Muslim college friend.
Samia Malik, education director for the Harrisburg chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has heard similar struggles before.
"Most of the time they're stronger than us [born into the faith]," she said. "We don't know what it means to be shunned by parents, to not be talked to by brothers and sisters. Something very strong has to be there to go through that."
By the next Ramadan, Mrs. Blake had joined with the Muslim community for support.
Eman AbdulAllah of Canonsburg is a new convert who is still battling the family problems since she converted in March.
Her siblings stopped speaking to her, and her mother refuses to acknowledge her decision. The most difficult moment came the day she wore her hijab, or head scarf, home.
"I thought my father would get a gun and shoot me," she said. "When you wear the hijab, it's a statement that says, 'I'm Muslim, and I'm not going to change.' "
Now married to a Muslim, Mrs. Blake still notices people staring at her loose clothing and the long black scarf that covers her thick mound of hair.
Even within her community, she said, she encounters stereotypes and generalizations from other Muslims.
But Mrs. Blake is using this month of Ramadan to challenge herself and increase her belief as a new Muslim.
"I appreciate all of my experiences, but I feel really strongly that I am on the path and that I am found," she said. "I have tons of room to grow as a Muslim."
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(Jacqueline Shoyeb can be reached at jshoyeb@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983.)
Back
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Copyright ©1997-2005 PG Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Muslim holy month helps make newcomers feel less like outsiders
Monday, October 10, 2005
By Jacqueline Shoyeb, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
www.post-gazette.com/pg/05283/585675.stm
Lake Fong, Post-Gazette
Chantal Blake, 22, a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh and a convert to Islam, chats with a friend after a weekly congregational prayer service at the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh in Oakland.
Click photo for larger image.
As the sun's final rays faded into a purple glow last Wednesday night, the corner of Bigelow Boulevard and Parkman Avenue came alive as men and women wearing colorful head scarves poured into the Oakland mosque.
They traded Arabic greetings of peace and praise to God as they entered the brick building for prayer.
Chantal Blake of Friendship stood in a circle with other young women in head scarves wearing loose robes that hid their shape or casual jeans.
It's Ramadan, the Muslim holy month spent in fasting and worship. Mrs. Blake and others gathered at the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh mosque to wait for the sun to dip below the horizon, signaling the time to break their daylong fast from food and drink, and then pray.
But unlike most of the Muslims there, the 22-year-old New York City native was not born into the faith. She's a convert, and this is her third Ramadan.
Among the estimated billion Muslims worldwide celebrating the second week of Ramadan are a growing number of converts like Mrs. Blake, or, as most prefer to be called, reverts because they feel they are reverting back to the faith they lost after being born into a non-Muslim family or society.
In the United States, an estimated 20,000 people convert to Islam each year, according to a 2001 study on mosques by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Locally, the number has been growing quickly in the greater Pittsburgh area, which has an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 Muslims, said Yusuf Ali, president of the Islamic Council of Greater Pittsburgh.
While there are no records indicating how many mosque attendees are converts, Mr. Ali said they have seen an influx since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorism attacks.
"It made people become interested, and they began to seek out knowledge about Islam and began to look into the religion," he said.
But once they convert, new believers face a host of issues, primarily acceptance from their families and friends who don't understand how they can choose a religion that people wrongly link to terrorism because of extremists who twist the faith. How can they embrace a "foreign religion" like Islam?
That's how Mrs. Blake felt when her older brother announced he was Muslim in 2000.
At first Mrs. Blake's Christian family thought it was a phase. But when he began to pray and dress differently and speak of his new life and faith, their relationship began to unravel.
She and her brother, who now lives in West Africa, would argue over their different faiths, each trying to make the other see which one was right.
"I was very much against it because I didn't understand it," Mrs. Blake said. "All I knew was that it was breaking up this relationship with my brother."
She eventually decided to research Islam, to learn more about the religion that took her brother. In her quest, she also explored other religions, such as Judaism, Hinduism and Ethiopian Orthodox.
"I was in this faith-filled bubble, this buffet of sorts I could pick from," she said.
Over time, she saw that what she valued most in each religion was found in Islam; it was the doctrine that made the most sense to her.
She converted in 2003 but didn't tell most of her Christian friends.
For her first Ramadan, a time considered holy for Muslims because it was when the Quran was first revealed, she was alone. She didn't speak of her new conversion unless someone asked.
Her mother was in denial and refused to talk about her decision. Her only connection to other Muslims was through her brother and a Muslim college friend.
Samia Malik, education director for the Harrisburg chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has heard similar struggles before.
"Most of the time they're stronger than us [born into the faith]," she said. "We don't know what it means to be shunned by parents, to not be talked to by brothers and sisters. Something very strong has to be there to go through that."
By the next Ramadan, Mrs. Blake had joined with the Muslim community for support.
Eman AbdulAllah of Canonsburg is a new convert who is still battling the family problems since she converted in March.
Her siblings stopped speaking to her, and her mother refuses to acknowledge her decision. The most difficult moment came the day she wore her hijab, or head scarf, home.
"I thought my father would get a gun and shoot me," she said. "When you wear the hijab, it's a statement that says, 'I'm Muslim, and I'm not going to change.' "
Now married to a Muslim, Mrs. Blake still notices people staring at her loose clothing and the long black scarf that covers her thick mound of hair.
Even within her community, she said, she encounters stereotypes and generalizations from other Muslims.
But Mrs. Blake is using this month of Ramadan to challenge herself and increase her belief as a new Muslim.
"I appreciate all of my experiences, but I feel really strongly that I am on the path and that I am found," she said. "I have tons of room to grow as a Muslim."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Jacqueline Shoyeb can be reached at jshoyeb@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983.)
Back
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright ©1997-2005 PG Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved.