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| Terror Networks |
| Why European women are turning to Islam |
| 2005-12-27 |
| By Peter Ford | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor PARIS – Mary Fallot looks as unlike a terrorist suspect as one could possibly imagine: a petite and demure white Frenchwoman chatting with friends on a cell-phone, indistinguishable from any other young woman in the café where she sits sipping coffee. And that is exactly why European antiterrorist authorities have their eyes on thousands like her across the continent. Ms. Fallot is a recent convert to Islam. In the eyes of the police, that makes her potentially dangerous. The death of Muriel Degauque, a Belgian convert who blew herself up in a suicide attack on US troops in Iraq last month, has drawn fresh attention to the rising number of Islamic converts in Europe, most of them women. "The phenomenon is booming, and it worries us," the head of the French domestic intelligence agency, Pascal Mailhos, told the Paris-based newspaper Le Monde in a recent interview. "But we must absolutely avoid lumping everyone together." The difficulty, security experts explain, is that while the police may be alert to possible threats from young men of Middle Eastern origin, they are more relaxed about white European women. Terrorists can use converts who "have added operational benefits in very tight security situations" where they might not attract attention, says Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the Swedish National Defense College in Stockholm. Ms. Fallot, who converted to Islam three years ago after asking herself spiritual questions to which she found no answers in her childhood Catholicism, says she finds the suspicion her new religion attracts "wounding." "For me," she adds, "Islam is a message of love, of tolerance and peace." It is a message that appeals to more and more Europeans as curiosity about Islam has grown since 9/11, say both Muslim and non-Muslim researchers. Although there are no precise figures, observers who monitor Europe's Muslim population estimate that several thousand men and women convert each year. Only a fraction of converts are attracted to radical strands of Islam, they point out, and even fewer are drawn into violence. A handful have been convicted of terrorist offenses, such as Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber" and American John Walker Lindh, who was captured in Afghanistan. Admittedly patchy research suggests that more women than men convert, experts say, but that - contrary to popular perception - only a minority do so in order to marry Muslim men. "That used to be the most common way, but recently more [women] are coming out of conviction," says Haifa Jawad, who teaches at Birmingham University in Britain. Though non-Muslim men must convert in order to marry a Muslim woman, she points out, the opposite is not true. Fallot laughs when she is asked whether her love life had anything to do with her decision. "When I told my colleagues at work that I had converted, their first reaction was to ask whether I had a Muslim boyfriend," she recalls. "They couldn't believe I had done it of my own free will." In fact, she explains, she liked the way "Islam demands a closeness to God. Islam is simpler, more rigorous, and it's easier because it is explicit. I was looking for a framework; man needs rules and behavior to follow. Christianity did not give me the same reference points." Those reasons reflect many female converts' thinking, say experts who have studied the phenomenon. "A lot of women are reacting to the moral uncertainties of Western society," says Dr. Jawad. "They like the sense of belonging and caring and sharing that Islam offers." Others are attracted by "a certain idea of womanhood and manhood that Islam offers," suggests Karin van Nieuwkerk, who has studied Dutch women converts. "There is more space for family and motherhood in Islam, and women are not sex objects." At the same time, argues Sarah Joseph, an English convert who founded "Emel," a Muslim lifestyle magazine, "the idea that all women converts are looking for a nice cocooned lifestyle away from the excesses of Western feminism is not exactly accurate." Some converts give their decision a political meaning, says Stefano Allievi, a professor at Padua University in Italy. "Islam offers a spiritualization of politics, the idea of a sacred order," he says. "But that is a very masculine way to understand the world" and rarely appeals to women, he adds. After making their decision, some converts take things slowly, adopting Muslim customs bit by bit: Fallot, for example, does not yet feel ready to wear a head scarf, though she is wearing longer and looser clothes than she used to. Others jump right in, eager for the exoticism of a new religion, and become much more pious than fellow mosque-goers who were born into Islam. Such converts, taking an absolutist approach, appear to be the ones most easily led into extremism. The early stages of a convert's discovery of Islam "can be quite a sensitive time," says Batool al-Toma, who runs the "New Muslims" program at the Islamic Foundation in Leicester, England. "You are not confident of your knowledge, you are a newcomer, and you could be prey to a lot of different people either acting individually or as members of an organization," Ms. Al-Toma explains. A few converts feel "such a huge desire to fit in and be accepted that they are ready to do just about anything," she says. "New converts feel they have to prove themselves," adds Dr. Ranstorp. "Those who seek more extreme ways of proving themselves can become extraordinarily easy prey to manipulation." At the same time, says al-Toma, converts seeking respite in Islam from a troubled past - such as Degauque, who had reportedly drifted in and out of drugs and jobs before converting to Islam - might be persuaded that such an "ultimate action" as a suicide bomb attack offered an opportunity for salvation and forgiveness. "The saddest conclusion" al-Toma draws from Degauque's death in Iraq is that "a woman who set out on the road to inner peace became a victim of people who set out to use and abuse her." |
| Posted by:john |
| #20 "Why European women are turning to Islam" L-o-s-e-r-s, that's why. I-d-i-o-t-s works, too. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-12-27 22:50 |
| #19 IIRC, last year or earlier this year, the RG police intelligence estimated the number of ethnic french converts to about 50 000, a decent fraction of them for a very simple reason : they had married a muslim man or wimman, and thus "had" to convert to enable the marriage in the eyes of the family. Thus, conversions to islam are quite real, and should not be underestimated, but are not that numerous in a 60+ millions country. Still, pressure from muslim in islamized areas is severe on the remaining french minority, either in peer pressure (french youths converting because islam is the only visible religion left around, they need guidance, and all their muslim pals tell them it's the One True Religion), or either through "indirect" means (for example one recent article by center right "Le Figaro" cited the case of a young "gauloise", ethnic french woman, who thought about converting to escape sexual harassment and the perpetual risk of being raped). Also, a lot of converts actually convert to salafist islam, not the "traditional" sufi version of North Africa (but "french" islam has in all effect been sold to Soddy arabia and the MB in the early 80's by the socialist gvt when it borrowed money from muslim bankers to avoid bankruptcy), but this is the same problem in the USA too I recon. Apart from theses points, everything that has been said about the "alpha males", the french war against christianity in general and Catholic church in particular, and the pussification/leftism of the french catholic hierarchy is true... not to be conspiratorial, but french church is ripe with free-masons, IIRC bishops are to be okayed by the interior minister, who is *always* a mason... and main FM lodge in France is not "traditional" deist Free-masonry, but socialist, atheist "Grand Orient", heir of the 3rd Republic "republicanism" which is violently anti-catholic and secular, to the point of being a religion itself. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2005-12-27 19:02 |
| #18 I don't want to sound sexist but I'd be curious to see what the converts look like, and if body issues and burqas are somehow involved. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2005-12-27 18:12 |
| #17 'Christianity did not give me the same reference points' UCC, are you listening? |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2005-12-27 16:07 |
| #16 Calm down guys, the number of European women converting to Islam is tiny. If it's more than the number of European-born muslim women leaving Islam I'll eat my own crap, although those women tend to keep quiet about it for obvious reasons. The solution to the problem of the radical groups is infiltration. If they start taking on white women for their operation, make sure that 30% of them are agents working for the government. I'm pretty sure the British are already doing this in a big way for men. |
| Posted by: Apostate 2005-12-27 15:29 |
| #15 "I was looking for a framework; man needs rules and behavior to follow. " Which is pr4ecisely what conservative Catholics have been saying for quite some time. the "loosey lefty" types that co-opted the church during the 1970's have had their effect on the Church. This woman is the outcome. To paraphase: A Church that stands for nothing will fall to anything. Now someone go beat the USCCB over the head repeatedly until they learn this (witha few select Bishops/Archbishops excluded). And that somone should be Pope Benedict (via his various Papal offices on Doctrine and the bishops). |
| Posted by: Oldspook 2005-12-27 15:12 |
| #14 "Islam is simpler, more rigorous, and it's easier because it is explicit." So true. If you want rules, Isslam will give it to you. They may not be the right rules, or make any sense, but you will have lots of rules. Al |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2005-12-27 15:07 |
| #13 BillH, exactly. |
| Posted by: Rafael 2005-12-27 14:53 |
| #12 Maybe France is pushing their separation of Church and state a bit too far. The sentiment in France is clearly anti-Church. What else is there to turn to if the Catholic Church is looked down upon and the state is not doing so hot itself? Islam is the new fashion. article: Christianity did not give me the same reference points. Bullshit. You just chose to ignore them. In fact, you're the type of person who keeps hopping from religion to religion looking for God knows what (pun intended), without giving anything of yourself. Unfortunately, you picked the wrong religion to hop into because there's no turning back now (unless you don't value your life). This is what happens when it becomes fashionable to attack the Catholic Church, or Christianity in general. People become lost. |
| Posted by: Rafael 2005-12-27 14:51 |
| #11 BillH, Napoleon got your point, but the Frogs and Eurabia have forgotten. |
| Posted by: Sgt. D.T. 2005-12-27 14:36 |
| #10 It's the sort of thing you can expect to happen when you try to force a totally secular society down people's throats. The European governments don't seem to realize that most people need religion and need it to be a major part of their lives. Instead try to force religion out of their lives. In Europe they've made Christianity something to be ashamed of so people will start taking the path of least resistance which is Islam the religion that's been appeased by European governments for years. It's one of things that make the Muslim religion so dangerous. |
| Posted by: BillH 2005-12-27 14:09 |
| #9 IMHO - these women are looking for the father figure to tell them what to wear, what to do, and Islam provides that, along with the requisite beatings to prove your love |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-12-27 13:34 |
| #8 "and women are not sex objects." Technically, that's correct. Muslim women are breeders, and non-Muslim women are war booty. Donkeys, however, are sex objects. Where's PETA when ya need 'em?! |
| Posted by: ST 2005-12-27 13:07 |
| #7 As Europe's slow-motion cultural suicide continues .... |
| Posted by: docob 2005-12-27 13:04 |
| #6 "and women are not sex objects." Who writes this stuff? |
| Posted by: Whinemp Unogum4891 2005-12-27 12:53 |
| #5 she's still in the honeymoon stage or her relationship with Islam. Soon they will try to radicalize her. It's not that she's Eeuropean, the point is she's French. She live in a screwed up country. No real surprise she has converted, would you be surprised if all of Berkley turned to Islam? She just sounded lost and the Catholic church was not giving her what she needed. Now she's ripe for the extremists to chip away at. |
| Posted by: 49 pan 2005-12-27 10:54 |
| #4 "The phenomenon is booming, and it worries us," [said] the head of the French domestic intelligence agency... I hope that was a problem in translation. |
| Posted by: Cleresh Gritch1333 2005-12-27 10:53 |
| #3 "The phenomenon is booming, and it worries us," Couldn't say it better myself... |
| Posted by: James 2005-12-27 10:50 |
| #2 "For me," she adds, "Islam is a message of love, of tolerance and peace." Unfortunately, there are large numbers of Islam's followers that didn't quite get that message.... |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-12-27 10:43 |
| #1 Females know who are the alpha males, and it isn't European males. |
| Posted by: ed 2005-12-27 10:22 |