UK film on U.S. Muslim converts resurfaces on Web

[sonz]

A two-years-old British documentary, called “Turning Muslim in Texas”, has resurfaced again on the Internet, attracting hundreds of viewers who are interested to know the stories of White Texans who grew up Christians but converted to Islam, according to an article on TMCnet.

The 2003 documentary shows Texan Muslims praying in Arabic, attending a Dallas-area mosque, and Hijab-clad Muslim women.

The film, shot by two British women, was aired on Channel Four, one of the UK’s main local channels, in January 2004. But more viewers saw it when a Muslim organization posted it last February on the Web site TurnToIslam.com.

"Basically, I wanted to look into what developments there were in the Muslim community in Texas," said Emily Smith, the film's co-creator. "I was looking for something a bit different that would challenge stereotypes and perceptions."

Smith also said that choosing Texas as a location for the documentary doesn’t mean that it was outpacing other American states in Muslim growth. "I think it's probably that there is a gradual rise in the Muslim population, and that any rise in Texas reflects that," she said.

Muqtedar Khan, a political science professor at the University of Delaware and author of several books on Islam, said the filmmakers gave a “very smart spin to the general story of conversions to Islam" by focusing on white Texans who grew up Christian.

Among those in the 23-minute film are Eric and Karen Meek, a married couple from Lewisville.

"Islam is everything I wanted Christianity to be," Meek, a transportation broker says in the documentary. "It's got such a magical attraction to it. It's a way of life that chooses to worship an unseen God through a process of daily living."

Meek, who also gives speeches on Islam to church, school and civic groups, said that he and other Muslim converts are pleased with the film because it shows the lives of ordinary Americans who have thoughtfully chosen the Islamic religion.

The documentary doesn’t provide any statistics on how many Texans have converted to Islam. But it asserts that there are 400,000 Muslims in Texas, and that Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the United States, with estimates of the country's Muslim population ranging from fewer than 2 million to more than 8 million.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations estimates that white Americans make up more than 1.5 percent of attendees at U.S. mosques. A spokesman said that nine people, classified as "Caucasian Americans", converted to Islam at the Dallas Central Mosque in 2005.

“I meet a lot of new Muslims, either Caucasians or African-Americans," said David Hultsch of Caddo Mills in East Texas, another star of the British documentary who converted to Islam while in the Air Force. "Probably one of the largest-growing groups is actually Hispanic-Americans."

AlJazeera

[catmando]

I don't quite see how Meeks's Islam is different from his Christianity. They both have unseen gods and both religions exhort their followers to practice their precepts every day, so I don't any difference there. Am I missing something??

[Idris]

If you look at Islam and Christianity from the outside (media) they seem the same like you said, but study Islamic history, law and religious practice you will find out that they are like chalk and cheese if you understand me.