Author: Arutz Sheva
Publication: Israel National News
Date: February 26, 2004
According to a report by IslamOnLine,
an Islamic website, 14,000 of England's 'elite' have already converted
to Islam, with more on the way.
The report cites 'the first authoritative
study of the phenomenon' carried out by the Sunday Times on February 22,
reporting that "some of Britain's top landowners, celebrities and the offspring
of senior establishment figures" have converted to Islam in recent years.
The Times study was carried out
by Yahya (formerly Jonathan) Birt, himself a Muslim convert, who is the
son of Lord Birt, the former director-general of the BBC. He used a breakdown
of the latest census figures to conclude that there is a major migration
from Christianity to Islam taking place in England, with 14,200 converts
to date.
Birt is quoted as arguing that an
inspirational figure similar to the American Muslim convert Malcolm X,
would first have to emerge before the next stage - a mass conversion among
Britons - were to happen. "You need great transitional figures to translate
something alien (like Islam) into the vernacular," Birt was quoted by the
Times as saying. Professor Birt received his doctorate at Oxford University
on young British Muslims.
Emma Clark, the great-granddaughter
of a British prime minister also converted to Islam.
Emma, whose ancestor Prime Minister
Herbert Asquith, took Britain into the First World War, commented on her
conversion saying, "We're all the rage, I hope it's not a passing fashion."
According to the Times report, many
converts have been inspired by the writings of Charles Le Gai Eaton, a
former Foreign Office diplomat. "I have received letters from people who
are put off by the wishy-washy standards of contemporary Christianity and
they are looking for a religion which does not compromise too much with
the modern world," said Eaton, author of Islam and the Destiny of Man.
