In Australia Islam defies the slow loss of faith...
SUSANNAH MORAN From: The Australian June 22, 2012 12:00AM AUSTRALIANS are losing their faith with religion, census figures reveal, with close to 4.8 million people saying they have no affiliation. For those who do believe, the greatest growth is among followers of Islam, with the number of Muslims up 40 per cent since the 2006 census. The figures confirm the long-term trend in declining religious affiliation and the fall in Christian faiths. In 1911, 96 per cent of people identified themselves as Christian. In 1976, 89 per cent did so. Thirty-five years later, that figure has fallen to 61 per cent. The number of non-believers continues to rise, with 22 per cent of Australians saying they have “no...
Number of Muslims in the U.S. doubles in last decade...
BY MEGHAN NEAL / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Thursday, May 3, 2012, 12:49 PM A new survey reveals the dramatically changing face of religion in America, with the number of Muslims in the U.S. soaring 67% in the decade since the 9/11 attacks. Data released Tuesday from the 2010 U.S. Religion Census shows Islam was the fastest growing religion in America in the last 10 years, with 2.6 million living in the U.S. today, up from 1 million in 2000. Mormonism too saw remarkable growth, with a 45% increase in adherents. It added nearly 2 million members since 2000, bringing their number in the U.S. to 6.1 million. “Both of these groups entered more than 200 counties that...
I’m Muslim, I’m English, and I’m a Westerner...
Monday, 30 April 2012 00:00 I think it’s hard for Muslims if you are brought up within a Pakistani tradition, Arab tradition or Indonesian tradition, you are used to having your faith and your culture interwoven. But actually they are distinct things: Islam is a faith and a culture is a culture. Cultures change and evolve, but faith has its permanence; things which are rooted within. And I think it’s very difficult to imagine when you don’t express it that you can have that faith expressed within a different culture, particularly a culture you are not necessarily used to seeing as a Muslim culture. So, I’m an English woman, I’m a Westerner, and I’m a Muslim. They are...
Holocaust survivor finds haven as Muslim in Israel...
For more than five decades, Leila Jabarin hid her secret from her Muslim children and grandchildren — that she was a JewishHolocaust survivor born in Auschwitz concentration camp. Although her family knew she was a Jewish convert, none of them knew of her brutal past. It was only in the past week that Jabarin, who was born Helen Brashatsky, finally sat down and told them the story of how she was born inside Auschwitz, the most notorious symbol of Nazi Germany’s wartime campaign of genocide against Europe’s Jews. In an interview with AFP to mark Holocaust Memorial Day which begins at sundown on Wednesday, Jabarin, now 70, chuckles as she talks about what to call her. Her Muslim name is Leila, but in this Arab town...
Why women convert to Islam
QMI AGENCY FIRST POSTED: SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2012 11:09 AM EST A landmark project exploring why women convert to Islam wraps up at England’s prestigious University of Cambridge this weekend. Organizers say that one of the main reasons for hosting Narratives of Conversion to Islam in Britain is “a general sense of frustration” with the media’s “one-dimensional portrayals of female conversion.” They say that these focus on women who marry into the faith, and suggest that they do so at the expense of their independence and liberty. “Judging by what the media tends to write about Islam, you would expect liberal-minded, intellectually-engaged women from non-Muslim backgrounds to give it a wide berth,”...
Liam Neeson may convert to Islam: Actor says he’s considered ‘becoming a Muslim’...
Liam Neeson may have found a new faith during his time filming in Istanbul. The Irish actor admitted to the U.K.’s Sun newspaper that he is considering giving up his Catholic beliefs in order to become a Muslim. Neeson, 59, went on to explain that Islamic prayer “got into his spirit” when he spent time in the Turkish city working on the action-thriller “Taken 2.” “The call to prayer happens five times a day, and for the first week, it drives you crazy, and then it just gets into your spirit, and it’s the most beautiful, beautiful thing,” he told the newspaper. “There are 4,000 mosques in the city,” he added. “Some are just stunning, and it really makes...
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