It seems weak to me to say, "Well, if you don't feel comfortable letting people know that you have faith in Allah, it is OK, as long as you have faith".... I know no one has said that they can just copy kufr activitiy, but isn't being ashamed or afraid to recognize Allah as first place in your life, making Allah something less than first place in your life?
To me it cheapens the value of faith to say: "It's enough for me and God to know about my faith. No one else needs to know, because I'm afraid of what might happend if they did."
I translate that to be: "No one else needs to know, because I lack faith to believe God will given me the protection I need to live openly for him."
Having lived through what you are talking about, I refer you to the post that came up today of my conversion story (
Discover Islam/Stories of Muslim Reverts! Post yours here!) I can't speak for others, but the transition to becoming a Muslim from being a Christian in the "Bible Belt" USA was not an easy one.
I converted at the age of 21 and immediately told my family. As expected, my family was not very accepting of my decision and could not understand why I would "reject Jesus as my Saviour". My relations with my family instantly became more distant. Parental ties are difficult ones to "loosen", particularly when one is financially dependent upon them.
Another difficulty was the rigors of Islamic worship and learning a new language. Christian (Baptist/Church of Christ) worship was relatively easy - I would go to church on Sunday sing some uplifting/emotionally inspiring songs, partake of "the Lord's Supper", listen to a sermon and pray along with someone else. As a Muslim, I had to learn a completely different means of praying in a language (Arabic) that I had no prior knowledge of. The prayer was much more ritualistic than I had ever encountered with prerequisite specific bodily washings, facing a specific direction, reciting previously memorized portions of the Quran, and performing prescribed physical actions of bowing and prostrating. To top it off, I had to perform this ritual prayer 5 times a day. The fasting during the day for a month was also more rigorous than any fasting that I had done previously.
You may call it prejudice (or perhaps it is the group survival instinct), but my opinion is that people are more comfortable with people who are more similar to them (race, nationality, national subgroup, education level, economic background, etc). I personally had major difficulty in being the only Caucasian American in a double row of 50 or so Muslims praying synchronously. I remember my Muslim brothers being kind and patient as I learned, but still they were different in significant ways from the people I grew up with.
Even as early as 1981, Islam was associated in the media with "terrorist" acts, particularly in Palestine & Iran hostage crisis. Sincere Christians are generally not violent people and abhore associating with them. Subconciously, I also did not want to be associated with people, as the media constantly reminded me, who did these acts.
It took me until the age of 41, which was 20 years after converting, that I was able to overcome all of these difficulties and make the final commitment to practice Islam. Perhaps, it was that my fear of Allah's eternal punishment overcame my worldly fears. I know that you did not mean it in a bad way, but, yes, each new convert in the West must overcome a certain amount of fear to openly practice Islam today.
Allah has willed that I have consistently (though imperfectly) practiced Islam since June 2001. Yes, I had to overcome the fear of being a social outcast, the fear of losing my job or not getting promoted, the fear of my marriage to a Christian breaking up, and the fear of being sent to prison (Patriot Act). I basically decided that regardless of the cost, I was going to practice the religion that I believed to be the Truth.
The point of this lengthy discussion is that if one chooses to keep his conversion private until his faith is strong enough to accept the rejection of his family and the other consequences of "going public" then I would encourage him/her to do so. The transformation to becoming a Muslim is not instataneous any more than a caterpiller becoming a butterfly is, but the process is certainly worth it and I would not want to compromise the end result.
I understand your point, but I would encourage patience and tolerance towards converts/reverts.
. Surely it will encourage Muslim women to wear veil . Also , his Life returns song on a Quranic verse is really good. 
truth & let the king killed him & made Sarah (ra ) a widow ?