LONDON: A new study has shown that the number of British people converting to Islam has almost doubled since 2001.



The study, titled “A Minority Within a Minority” and carried out by the inter-faith think-tank Faith Matters, estimates that the number of converts to Islam may have risen from about 60,000 in 2001 to up to 100,000 today. Some 5,200 people are embracing Islam each year in the UK, according to the study’s author Kevin Brice of Swansea University.



“We must stress that this is an estimate and this figure is reached based on a survey of mosques and the 2001 census figures for England and Wales and Scotland,” says Fiyaz Mughal, founder and director of Faith Matters.



This is despite the generally negative portrayal of Islam and of converts in the media. “Converts to Islam are unfortunately viewed predominantly through the lens of fear and are regarded as being connected to extremism,” says Mughal.



The study found that media representations of converts to Islam were either linked to terrorism or fundamentalism.



So why are people choosing Islam despite its vilification in the media? “I think people are more inquisitive now and want to find out more,” explains Mughal. “There is also much more contact with Muslims in urban areas.”



Peter Sanders is a well respected photographer who converted to Islam in 1971.“People are looking for something that western society is failing to provide,” he says. “Despite the fact that it is getting increasingly difficult to dissociate Islam from the political picture, more and more people seem to feel that it provides a solution for something they are looking for.”



Perhaps another surprising finding is that 62 per cent of converts are female while the average age of the convert is 27.5 years. The vast majority of these women adopted the hijab and although the majority personally disagree with the niqab they support the right of others to adopt it.



The study conducted a survey of 122 converts and asked respondents what had been the reasons for their conversion. “The spiritual aspect was more marked in the answers from the women who want an alternative to a materialistic lifestyle,” says Mughal. “For men it was more about a sense of idealism and social justice.”



Published in The Express Tribune, January 8th, 2011.