Women Converts to Islam: Why the interest?
Christian Science Monitor has an interesting piece on women converts to Islam. Given the fascination people have about women and Islam (some of it founded, some of it not), the author goes a step or two beyond the stereotypes and lets a convert offer her perspective. The interest in women converts is not new, but given the extremely unfortunate episode of a woman convert blowing herself up, the fascination is renewed. But there is an irony in this fascination: why are people perplexed with women becoming interested in Islam? Why does gender take the discussion away from a more generic "human" spiritual pursuit? If a woman makes a spiritual choice, are we to believe that there's something else involved, something associated with gender, as if women have "other" needs with all matters, including the spiritual realm? What happened to liberal sensitivity?
posted by fromclay at 12/27/2005 04:31:00 PM
1 Comments:
Hey FC, good to see you back on the blog.
I shared your appreciation for the CSM article. Out of curiosity, I googled the French convert's name to see if she had any other story with respect to Islam. While I didn't find any other references, I did see her and the CSM article listed on a LOT of anti-Muslim blogs, and defamed in painfully malevolent terms. It seems that bigots will revel in their bigotry.
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