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Conversion to Islam

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Conversion to Islam is adopting Islam as a religion or faith. People who have converted to the religion often refer to themselves as "reverts." Conversion requires a formal statement of the shahādah, the credo of Islam, whereby the prospective convert must state that "there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah." Proselytism of the faith is referred to as "dawah," and missionary efforts have been promoted since the dawn of the religion in the 7th century. Statistics relating to the amount of converts to Islam are scarce and often unreliable.

Opaque water, gold, and ink on paper. An illustration of a veiled man in the center converts to Islam.
Umar converts to Islam, depicted in an Iranian illustrated folio, c. 19th century.

Terminology

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Converts to Islam may be referred to as "converts," "reverts," or "new Muslims." Many people who have converted to Islam prefer to call themselves "reverts," in reference to a hadith that says that all people are Muslims at birth, but only come to "leave" the faith due to the environment they are raised in.[1][2] The belief in the innate condition of Islam in all people is referred to as "fitra."[3]

Requirements

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Converting to Islam requires one to declare the shahādah, the Muslim profession of faith ("there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah", Classical Arabic: أَشْهَدُ أَن لا إِلٰهَ إلَّا الله و أَشْهَدُ أَنَ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُول الله)[4][5]

In Islam, circumcision (khitan) is considered a sunnah custom that is not mentioned in the Quran but is mentioned in hadith.[6][7][8] The majority of clerical opinions holds that circumcision is not required upon entering the Muslim faith.[6][7]

Islamic missionary activities

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Dawah (Arabic: دعوة, lit. 'invitation', Arabic: [ˈdæʕwæh]) is the act of inviting or calling people to embrace Islam. In Islamic theology, the purpose of da‘wah is to invite people, Muslims and non-Muslims, to understand the worship of God as expressed in the Qur'an and the sunnah of Muhammad and to inform them about Muhammad.[9]

Dawah as the "Call towards God" is the means by which Muhammad began spreading the message of the Quran to mankind. After Muhammad, his followers and the Muslim community assumed responsibility for it.[10] They convey the message of the Qur'an by providing information on why and how the Qur'an preaches monotheism.[11]

Muhammad saw Islam as the true religion and mission of all earlier prophets. He believed that their call had been limited to their own people but that his was universal. His mission as the final prophet was to repeat to the whole world this call and invitation (Dawah) to Islam. Muhammad wrote to various non-Muslim rulers, inviting them to convert.[12]

Conversion rate

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Counting the number of converts to a religion is difficult, because some national censuses ask people about their religion, but they do not ask if they have converted to their present faith, and, in some countries, legal and social consequences make conversion difficult, such as the death sentence for leaving Islam in some Muslim countries.[13][14][15][16][17] Statistical data on conversion to and from Islam are scarce.[18] An expert on Islamic law, M. Cherif Bassiouni, states "The Quran contains a provision that says ‘he who has embraced Islam and then abandons it will receive punishment in hell after Judgment Day'."[19][20] According to a study published in 2011 by Pew Research, what little information is available suggests that religious conversion has no net impact on the global Muslim population as the number of people who convert to Islam is roughly similar to those who leave Islam.[18] According to another study published on 2015 by Pew research center, Islam is expected to experience a modest gain of 3.22 million adherents through religious conversion between 2010 and 2050, although this modest impact will make Islam, compared with other religions, the second largest religion in terms of net gains through religious conversion after religiously unaffiliated, which is expected to have the largest net gains through religious conversion.[21]

According to The New York Times, an estimated 25% of American Muslims are converts.[22] In Britain, around 6,000 people convert to Islam per year and, according to a June 2000 article in the British Muslims Monthly Survey, the majority of new Muslim converts in Britain were women.[23] According to The Huffington Post, "Though exact numbers are difficult to tally, observers estimate that as many as 20,000 Americans convert to Islam annually."[24]

According to Pew Research, the number of U.S. converts to Islam is roughly equal to the number of U.S. Muslims who leave the religion, unlike other religions, in which the number of those leaving is greater than the number of converts.[25] 77% of new converts to Islam are from Christianity, whereas 19% were from non-religion. [25]

According to Guinness, approximately 12.5 million more people converted to Islam than people converted to Christianity between 1990 and 2000.[26]

Despite this, Islam remains, on the global level, the second religion with the second largest number of net converts into the religion, with about 420,000 more people converting to Islam than leaving Islam between 2015 and 2020.[27] This number being surpassed by the number of people (7,570,000) switching from "religious" to "unaffiliated".[28]

In 2010, the Pew Forum found "that statistical data for Muslim conversions is scarce and as per their little available information, there is no substantial net gain or loss of Muslims due to religious conversion. It also stated that "the number of people who embrace Islam and the number of those who leave Islam are roughly equal. Thus, this report excludes religious conversion as a direct factor from the projection of Muslim population growth."[29] People switching their religions will likely have no effect on the growth of the Muslim population,[30] as the number of people who convert to Islam is roughly similar to those who leave Islam.[31] Another study found that the number of people who will leave Islam is 9,400,000 and the number of converts to Islam is 12,620,000 so the net gain to Islam through conversion should be 3 million between 2010 and 2050, mostly from Sub Saharan Africa (2.9 million).[21]

According to a 2017 Pew Research Center survey, between 2010 and 2015 "an estimated 213 million babies were born to Muslim mothers and roughly 61 million Muslims died, meaning that the natural increase in the Muslim population – i.e., the number of births minus the number of deaths – was 152 million over this period",[32] and it added small net gains through religious conversion into Islam (420,000). According to a 2017 Pew Research Center survey, by 2060 Muslims will remain the second world's largest religion; and if current trends continue, the number of Muslims will reach 2.9 billion (or 31.1%).[32]

It was reported in 2013 that around 5,000 British people convert to Islam every year, with most of them being women.[33] According to an earlier 2001 census, surveys found that there was an increase of 60,000 conversions to Islam in the United Kingdom.[34] Many converts to Islam said that they suffered from hostility from their families.[34] According to a report by CNN, "Islam has drawn converts from all walks of life, most notably African-Americans".[35] Studies estimated about 30,000 converting to Islam annually in the United States.[36] According to The New York Times, an estimated 25% of American Muslims are converts,[37] these converts are mostly African American.[38] According to The Huffington Post, "observers estimate that as many as 20,000 Americans convert to Islam annually.", most of them are women and African-Americans.[39] Experts say that conversions to Islam have doubled in the past 25 years in France, among the six million Muslims in France, about 100,000 are converts.[40] On the other hand, according to Pew Research, the number of American converts to Islam is roughly equal to the number of American Muslims who leave Islam and this is unlike other religions in the United States where the number of those who leave these religions is greater than the number of those who convert to it,[41] and most people who leave Islam become unaffiliated. According to the same study, ex-Muslims were more likely to be Christians compared to ex-Hindus or ex-Jews.[41]

According to the religious forecast for 2050 by Pew Research Center, between 2010 and 2050 modest net gains through religious conversion are expected for Muslims (3 million)[42] and most of the net gains through religious conversion for Muslims found in the Sub Saharan Africa (2.9 million).[21]

The Israel–Hamas war launched in 2023 after the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel and a large amount of content on the social media platform TikTok in support of Palestine also led to a high amount of conversion to Islam among Generation Z in the Western World.[by how much?] According to Lorenzo Vidino, the high conversion rate to Islam among Generation Z is done out of spite for the establishment, Western values, and capitalism, with many converts picking and choosing from different extreme beliefs that when taken as a whole are incompatible with each other. [43][44]

See also

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Notes

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References

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  1. ^ Ahmed, Sameera; Amer, Mona M., eds. (2013-06-17). Counseling Muslims: Handbook of Mental Health Issues and Interventions (1st ed.). Routledge. p. 229. doi:10.4324/9780203893814. ISBN 978-0-203-89381-4.
  2. ^ Zebiri, Kate (2014-10-01). British Muslim Converts: Choosing Alternative Lives. Simon and Schuster. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-78074-486-5.
  3. ^ Sealy, Thomas (2021-09-02). "British converts to Islam: continuity, change, and religiosity in religious identity". Journal of Contemporary Religion. 36 (3): 430. doi:10.1080/13537903.2021.1965746. hdl:1983/62fa240b-d3b9-4247-8e8f-c11e9f9c2f26. ISSN 1353-7903.
  4. ^ Bennett, Clinton, ed. (2015) [2013]. "Glossary". The Bloomsbury Companion to Islamic Studies (1st ed.). New York and London: Bloomsbury Academic. p. 330. ISBN 9781441138125. OCLC 777652885. Archived from the original on 2023-04-12. Retrieved 2022-12-17. Aqidah – translates as "creed". Technically, the Shahadah (first pillar) is the only obligatory statement of faith in Islam; however, over time a list of six items evolved, the essentials of faith (Iman Mufassal), namely: belief in God, in God's angels, scriptures, messengers, day of judgment, and God's power.
  5. ^ "Becoming a Muslim: A Step-by-Step Guide - How To Become Muslim". 2018-11-17. Retrieved 2024-11-26.
  6. ^ a b Kueny, Kathryn (2004). "Abraham's Test: Islamic Male Circumcision as Anti/Ante-Covenantal Practice". In Reeves, John C. (ed.). Bible and Qurʼān: Essays in Scriptural Intertextuality. Symposium Series (Society of Biblical Literature). Vol. 24. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. pp. 161–173. ISBN 90-04-12726-7. ISSN 1569-3627. Archived from the original on 2023-04-12. Retrieved 2022-12-17.
  7. ^ a b Wensinck, A. J. (2012) [1986]. "K̲h̲itān". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. J.; Lewis, B.; Heinrichs, W. P.; Pellat, Ch. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Vol. 5. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. pp. 20–22. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_4296. ISBN 978-90-04-07819-2. Archived from the original on 2023-04-12. Retrieved 2022-12-17.
  8. ^ Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh, Sami A. (1994). "To Mutilate in the Name of Jehovah or Allah: Legitimization of Male and Female Circumcision". Medicine and Law. 13 (7–8). World Association for Medical Law: 575–622. PMID 7731348.; Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh, Sami A. (1995). "Islamic Law and the Issue of Male and Female Circumcision". Third World Legal Studies. 13. Valparaiso University School of Law: 73–101. Archived from the original on 12 November 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  9. ^ "Da‘wah produces converts to Islam, which in turn [increases] the size of the Muslim Ummah [community of Muslims]."
  10. ^ See entry for da‘wah in the Encyclopaedia of Islam.
  11. ^ See, for example, Qur'an ayat (verses) 6:19 and 16:36.
  12. ^ [Sookhdeo Patrick, and Murray, Douglas. 2014. Dawa: The Islamic Strategy for Reshaping the Modern World. Isaac Publishing.]
  13. ^ "The Future of World Religions p.182" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 April 2015. This analysis of religious switching draws on surveys in 19 countries where Muslims constitute a majority of the population. Generally, however, there are few reports of people disaffiliating from Islam in these countries. One reason for this may be the social and legal repercussions associated with disaffiliation in many Muslim-majority countries, up to and including the death penalty for apostasy. It is possible that, in the future, these societies could allow greater freedom for religious disaffiliation. The demographic projections in this report do not seek to predict the likelihood of such changes in political and social dynamics, or to model what the consequences might be.
  14. ^ "The Future of the Global Muslim Population". 27 January 2011. Archived from the original on 15 November 2020. Retrieved 17 December 2022. There are numerous reasons why reliable data on conversions are hard to come by. Some national censuses ask people about their religion, but they do not directly ask whether people have converted to their present faiths. A few cross-national surveys do contain questions about religious switching, but, even in those surveys, it is difficult to assess whether more people leave Islam than enter the faith. In some countries, legal and social consequences make conversion difficult, and survey respondents may be reluctant to speak honestly about the topic. Additionally, for many Muslims, Islam is not just a religion but an ethnic or cultural identity that does not depend on whether a person actively practices the faith. This means that even nonpracticing or secular Muslims may still consider themselves, and be viewed by their neighbors, as Muslims.
  15. ^ Laws Criminalizing Apostasy Archived 11 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine Library of Congress (2014)
  16. ^ Apostasy Archived 4 September 2014 at the Wayback Machine Oxford Islamic Studies Online, Oxford University Press (2012)
  17. ^ "The countries where apostasy is punishable by death". indy100. 7 May 2017. Archived from the original on 22 February 2017. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  18. ^ a b "The Future of the Global Muslim Population". 27 January 2011. Archived from the original on 15 November 2020. Retrieved 17 December 2022. there is no substantial net gain or loss in the number of Muslims through conversion, globally; the number of people who become Muslims through conversion seems to be roughly equal to the number of Muslims who leave the faith
  19. ^ Beehner, Lionel (June 6, 2007). "Religious Conversion and Sharia Law". Foreign Affairs. Council on Foreign Affairs. Retrieved October 10, 2024. The Quran contains a provision that says 'he who has embraced Islam and then abandons it will receive punishment in hell after Judgment Day," says M. Cherif Bassiouni, an expert on Islamic law at DePaul University College of Law, and therefore there is no punishment on punishment on earth. But traditional scholars, in Bassiouni's opinion, misinterpreted early practices of the Prophet Mohammed and consider apostasy a crime punishable by death. They give religious converts a grace period of up to ten days to reconsider their decision before the judgment is entered.
  20. ^ Schirrmacher, Christine (October 17, 2019). "Leaving Islam". Handbook of Leaving Religion. Brill. pp. 81–95. doi:10.1163/9789004331471_008. ISBN 978-90-04-33147-1. Retrieved October 10, 2024. Chapter 7 Leaving Islam: at the same time, while it is legally impossible to leave Islam in all Middle Eastern countries, it is considered to be a punishable crime under Sharia law, and the death penalty can be applied in a handful of countries like Saudi-Arabia or Iran. Interestingly enough, the Koran does not seem to have a clear verdict on apostasy. Muslim theologians hold different views as to whether Islam favors complete religious freedom or whether the culprit is unpunishable as long as he does not rock the boat of the community. Many Muslim theologians still hold to the death penalty.
  21. ^ a b c "Cumulative Change Due to Religious Switching, 2010–2050, p.43" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 April 2015. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  22. ^ Elliott, Andrea (30 April 2005). "Muslim Converts Face Discrimination". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 22 May 2020. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  23. ^ "British Muslims Monthly Survey for June 2000, Vol. VIII, No. 6". Women convert. Archived from the original on 2008-02-14. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  24. ^ Sacirbey, Omar (24 August 2011). "Conversion To Islam One Result Of Post-9/11 Curiosity". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 29 June 2017. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
  25. ^ a b Besheer Mohamed; Elizabeth Pobrebarac Sciupac (26 January 2018). "The share of Americans who leave Islam is offset by those who become Muslim". Pew Research Center. Archived from the original on 16 May 2019. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  26. ^ Folkard, Claire (2014-12-22). Guinness World Records 2003 - Google Books. Bantam Books. ISBN 9780553586367. Archived from the original on 2014-12-22. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  27. ^ "The Changing Global Religious Land scape". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. 2017-04-05. Archived from the original on 2022-02-18. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  28. ^ Ranks of unaffiliated are expected to grow due to religious switching. Pew Research Center. Archived from the original on 2022-03-21. Retrieved 2023-04-11.
  29. ^ "The Future of the Global Muslim Population, Related Factors: Conversion" Archived 2013-07-30 at the Wayback Machine, The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 27 January 2011
  30. ^ "Why Muslims are the world's fastest-growing religious group". Pew Research Center. 23 April 2015. Archived from the original on 20 March 2017. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
  31. ^ The Future of the Global Muslim Population (Report). Pew Research Center. 27 January 2011. Archived from the original on 24 December 2018. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  32. ^ a b "The Changing Global Religious Landscape". Pew Research Center. 5 April 2017. Archived from the original on 18 February 2022. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
  33. ^ Mistiaen, Veronique (11 October 2013). "Converting to Islam: British women on prayer, peace and prejudice". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 18 July 2018. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  34. ^ a b "Converting to Islam - the white Britons becoming Muslims". BBC News. 2011-01-04. Archived from the original on 2021-01-11. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
  35. ^ "Fast-growing Islam winning converts in Western world". CNN. Archived from the original on 15 October 2018. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  36. ^ "Why do Western Women Convert?". Standpoint. 26 April 2010. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  37. ^ Elliott, Andrea (2005-04-30). "Muslim Converts Face Discrimination (Published 2005)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2020-05-22. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  38. ^ Bagby, Ihsan; Perl, Paul M.; Froehle, Bryan T. (April 26, 2001). "The Mosque in America: A National Portrait" (PDF). Council on American-Islamic Relations. p. 21. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 6, 2016. Retrieved February 19, 2017.
  39. ^ "Conversion To Islam One Result Of Post-9/11 Curiosity". HuffPost. 2011-08-24. Archived from the original on 2021-01-11. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  40. ^ Baume, Maïa de la (2013-02-04). "More in France Are Turning to Islam, Challenging a Nation's Idea of Itself (Published 2013)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2019-06-21. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
  41. ^ a b "America's Changing Religious Landscape". Pew Research Center: Religion & Public Life. May 12, 2015. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved December 17, 2022.
  42. ^ "Projected Cumulative Change Due to Religious Switching, 2010–2050, p.11" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 April 2015. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  43. ^ "Meet the TikTok teens converting to Islam". www.spiked-online.com. Retrieved 2024-08-27.
  44. ^ Roy, Jessica (2023-12-01). "On TikTok, an Unlikely Call to Islam Emerges". New Lines Magazine. Retrieved 2024-08-27.
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