Hello, Brother: Why Kiwis are converting to Islam

Following the Christchurch mosque attacks, Kiwis are more interested than ever in the Muslim world. But what about those who had already converted? Greer Berry talks to a man who says he's the only Māori Muslim in Manawatū about why he converted to the religion.

Colin was in the car with his daughter when he knew he had to tell her.

She had come to pick him up to go somewhere, but instead, he asked if they could swing by the mosque on Cook St in Palmerston North.

It was March 15, a day etched in all Kiwis' memories, especially those in Christchurch.

Overcome with emotion, Colin decided now was the time he had to come clean.

"On the way there I said: 'I've got to tell you something,'" the 59-year-old remembers, becoming upset at his recollections.

For the first time, Colin revealed to those closest to him that he had converted to Islam the year before.

"She was good, but she was upset because I hadn't told her."

He's a private person and it was a private journey for him, so he had never felt the need to tell others about his decision.

Colin was also worried about what others would say or think, about being judged and misunderstood. It's something he still worries about.

On this day, the terrorist attack had changed that. He felt like he needed to share his newfound faith with his three children, "just in case".

"It was hard, but the Muslim community is strong. It was because of that that I thought: 'I've got to tell my kids'.

"I know the kids, no matter what I do, will support me," he says.

"Now they know, it's really good, they're really supportive."

Colin's road to conversion is one many others have found themselves on.

He was going through a hard time and was looking for a sense of belonging and contentment, and in Islam, he found that.

The religion is the fastest-growing faith in the world.

There aren't official figures on the number of people in New Zealand converting, but anecdotally, mosques around the country are reporting an increase in those attending prayers and interested in finding out more about the religion.

Following the Christchurch attacks, a Wellington mosque was reporting three to five people a day converting, and other mosques similarly reported running out of printed material aimed at educating others about Islam.

The Manawatū Muslims Association is trying to establish a group to arrange a database of new converts, something to keep track of the faith's latest followers.

Friday prayers at the mosque have swelled following the Christchurch attacks.

Association president Riyaz Rehman says there's a sense of people wanting to come together more, to bond over their shared faith, to feel safe and a strength in numbers.

Those numbers were replicated during the religious holiday known as Eid, where Muslims come together to break their fast following the holy month of Ramadan. 

"We need more space. We had 1500 people from around the region," he says.

Association member Zulfiqar Butt says the idea about grouping together potential new converts is so that they can band together to support each other in their newfound faith.

Butt has been buoyed by the upsurge in interest in Islam and says he hopes anyone who wants to know more will visit.

"There is certainly an increase," he says, from all backgrounds, with their own stories to tell.

"Even yesterday we were approached by a transgender person, wondering if they were welcome. And I said: 'Of course, you are very welcome'."

And he arranged one of the association's members to show them around and support them.  

Colin says he's noticed a few new converts over the past few months.

"They're trying to get a convert group together so we can all meet up now and then, talk about the hassles and troubles we've had and how we can get through them."

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Celebrating Islam in predominantly Catholic Mexico - BBC News

Mohamed Salah really and honestly inspired me

Mohamed Salah really and honestly inspired me. I’m a Nottingham Forest season-ticket holder, I can be myself but because I made the declaration of faith I’m a Muslim. I’m still me and that’s what I took from Mohamed Salah. I’d love to meet him, just to shake his hand and say “Cheers” or “Shukran”.


I don’t think my mates quite believe that I’m a Muslim because I’ve not really changed. I just think my heart is better. I’m really trying to change on match days. Normally it’s pub, put a bet on, then after the game back to the pub and realise you’ve lost a lot of money. It’s hard when you’re used to such a culture and it’s part of football for a lot of people.

I’m embarrassed to say this but my opinions on Islam used to be that the religion, the culture and the people were backward; that they didn’t integrate and wanted to take over. I always looked at Muslims like the elephant in the room. I had a hatred of Muslims.

When I was in sixth form it was a period where I think I needed someone to blame for my misfortunes. Unfortunately Muslims got the brunt of it and I quickly discovered right-wing media pages. They sort of groomed me by sending me long propaganda pieces and suchlike.

Even though I had these horrible ideas of Islam, I would never say them to a Muslim. At this point I didn’t know any Muslims. My degree in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Leeds changed everything.

We had to do a dissertation and I wanted to do something a bit different. I remember my dyslexia tutor telling me: “What about Mohamed Salah’s song?” I was aware of it and I thought it was fantastic but I hadn’t considered it in those terms.

I finally got the question: “Mohamed Salah, a gift from Allah. Is the performance of Mohamed Salah igniting a conversation that combats Islamapobia within the media and political spheres?”

The Liverpool fans’ song – to the tune of Dodgy’s hit Good Enough – includes the line “If he scores another few then I’ll be Muslim too”, and I literally took that to heart.

I was a typical white-boy student who went to a different city, would get absolutely hammered and lived the student life. My degree was the first time I learned about Islam in an academic way.

University gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of students from Saudi Arabia. I thought they were evil people who carried swords but they’re the nicest people I’ve met. The conceptions I had about Arab countries completely dissolved.

Mohamed Salah was the first Muslim I could relate to. It’s the way he lives his life, how he talks to people. The other week he posed for a picture with a Liverpool fan who suffered a broken nose chasing after him. I know some other footballers would do that but you expect it now from Salah.

At university I interviewed Egyptian students and when they found out my research was about “Mohamed Salah, a gift from Allah” – which is also another Liverpool song – they would talk to me for hours about how great he is and what he’s done for their country. One million Egyptians spoiled their ballots and voted for him to be president last year.

One of the Egyptians I talked to told me that Salah encompasses what being a Muslim is, following Islam correctly. He believed that Salah is making people love Muslims again.

That really resonated with me. When Salah scores I think he’s scoring for the faith. When he won the Champions League I said to my friend that was a victory for Islam. After each of his goals Salah practises the sujood (prostration) and exposes a very Islamic symbol to the world. How many people watch the Premier League every week? Millions globally.

Salah showed me that you can be normal and a Muslim, if that’s the right phrase. You can be yourself. He’s a great player and is respected by the football community and his politics, his religion, don’t matter – and to me that’s what football can do.

When people read the Quran, or read about Islam, they see something different that is not always portrayed in the media. I’m new to the Islamic community and I’m still learning. It is hard. It’s a lifestyle change.

What would I say to the Ben of old? I’d give him a smack, to be honest, and I’d say: ‘How dare you think like that about a people that are so diverse. You need to start talking to people. You need to start asking the questions.’ We live in a multicultural, multifaith, multinational society.

Last season Chelsea fans were singing “Salah is a bomber”. That’s the first time on my social media that I had a right go. I was livid because I’m for football banter but you know when things are just not true.

Now, I’d say to Muslim kids: ‘Don’t be afraid to go to a football match.’ I think that’s an issue we have to look at from both sides. I was afraid of being segregated. I don’t want to lose my mates because I look at them as brothers to me. Now I’ve got a fifth of the world’s population as brothers and sisters.

The community has to branch out, play football, go to football. It’s up to us to realise that we’re in this together. And the best spokesman for that could be Mohamed Salah.

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Bangladesh admits its workers returning home after sexual abuse in Saudi Arabia

Bangladesh’s Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment department has admitted for the first time last Thursday that its female workers are being called back to the country from Saudi Arabia because of the growing reports of physical and sexual abuse coming out of the Gulf kingdom. According to the new government report, Bangladesh is now admitting that a worrying number of Bangladeshi female workers are being abused in Saudi Arabia, with some serious cases of rape, food deprivation, and psychological and physical torture.

Not only are workers being called back to their home country, but this new reports notes down mainly 11 reasons why Bangladeshi female workers, many if not most who work as maids or domestic workers, also ran away from their employers in Saudi Arabia. These reasons include non-payment of salaries, physical abuse, deprivation of food, and denial of sick leave. At least 35% of the returnees had left because of sexual abuse.

Just last month, over 100 Bangladeshi maids returned home to Bangladesh after serious abuse from their employers in Saudi Arabia, while over the course of this year Bangladesh saw over 900 female workers flee Saudi Arabia. Last year, the number was more than 1,500 female workers who returned back to Bangladesh after suffering abuse.

Bangladesh first signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia in 2015 in regards to sending female workers to work as maids, after other countries like Indonesia stopped sending workers due to the continued reports of physical and sexual abuse in Saudi Arabia. Since 2015, 234, 831 Bangladeshi female workers have moved to Saudi Arabia to work as maids and domestic workers. Since 2015, however, there have been growing reports of Saudi’s continued abuse towards its foreign domestic workers, with many forced to seek protection within the kingdom if their passports were confiscated, or fleeing the country after escaping their employers.

In a shocking report by Middle East Eye, it was revealed in 2018 that Bangladesh was forced to set up numerous safe houses across Saudi Arabia to help protect the hundreds of Bangladeshi women who faced sexual and physical abuse and torture from their employers, many of whom are forced to run away from their employers and remain highly traumatized.

Rothna Begum, who works as the senior women’s rights researchers at Human Rights Watch, states the cases of Bangladeshi maids and female workers being abused are unfortunately commonplace inside Saudi Arabia, with a shocking 90-95% of cases showing the domestic worker has had their passport confiscated by their employers, essentially binding them in forced servitude. Speaking to The Independent, Begum states:

They face excessively long shifts of 15 to 21 hours with no days off at all. They might be locked inside the house or compound. They may be deprived of food or given spoiled food – the leftover bits of food on a plate. They are subject to psychological abuse in the form of verbal abuse such as shouting and insults. There is also physical abuse such as the pulling of ears, being burnt with hot water, and then there is sexual abuse which ranges from verbal to being touched, attempted rape, and actual rape.”

Female workers in Saudi Arabia are subject to highly controversial punishments, which includes the ability to be charged for moral crimes by Saudi officials. Being raped by their employers often results in maids and domestic workers, many of whom come from Bangladesh, to be subject to punishment for having sex outside of marriage. Fleeing from their homes can also constitute as a crime, in a country that seemingly has very little in terms of protection for international migrants. Begum explains:

I have documented many cases across the Gulf where men have come into the woman’s room and have either tried to rape them or actually raped them. Women have talked about being sold to another employer and not being paid salaries or having their wages delayed. The range of abuses can amount to forced labour or sometimes even slavery where the employer refuses to pay them and says things like ‘I bought you’.”

As the reports of abuses towards its domestic workers and migrants continue, Saudi Arabia must be held accountable for these crimes. Bangladesh has of yet not stopped the flow of workers into Saudi Arabia, however as the numbers of Bangladeshi female workers returning home continues to grow, scarred and abused from horrifying conditions from within Saudi Arabia, it must be taken into serious consideration whether or not punishable human rights abuses are being committed on a wide scale from within the kingdom.

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His mosque was attacked. His answer was love. | Gamal Fouda | TEDxChristchurch

The imam who died fighting racism in South Africa

Two momentous events occurred in Cape Town in South Africa on 29 September 1969.

The first was a huge funeral march - some 40,000 people carried the coffin of Imam Abdullah Haron for about 10km (six miles) to his final resting place in Mowbray Muslim Cemetery.

And at night a rare and massive earthquake shook the earth.

For many who attended the funeral these two events are indelibly connected - they say the death of the pioneering 45-year-old South African imam was so painful and so shocking.

Imam Haron died in a police cell on 27 September, after 123 days of solitary confinement and daily interrogations about his involvement in the struggle against the racist system of apartheid, which ended in 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela as South Africa's first black president.

Imam Haron was the first cleric of any faith to die in custody under the apartheid regime. His death signalled that even men of God were not safe from an increasingly repressive, white-supremacist state.

His death caused global outrage, and he became the first Muslim to be commemorated at the famous St Paul's Cathedral in London.

The security police said he died after falling down a flight of stairs.

They said the two broken ribs and 27 bruises on Imam Haron's body had nothing to do with them, despite their notoriety for using torture and beatings.

The imam's family say they do not accept "that lie", and are demanding a fresh inquest to mark 50 years of his death.

Backing the campaign is visual artist Haroon Gunn-Salie - who is named in honour of the imam and has made several art works memorialising his life and death.

Gunn-Salie's latest work, Crying for Justice, is an installation in the grounds of the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town - a symbolic burial ground of 118 unmarked graves, one for each of the people who he says died in detention during apartheid, including Imam Haron.

They were all held without trial - and the police said they fell down stairs, slipped in showers, or took it upon themselves to jump out of windows.

No-one has ever been held responsible for any of those deaths in detention,and it's a sore, open wound for the families.

When finished, viewed from the castle ramparts, the graves Gunn-Salie has dug will spell out the word: Justice?

"The artwork is as much as a cry to the heavens as a cry to the courts," says Gunn-Salie.

"It's a public statement asking, quite literally, to unbury the past, to dig up the files, to dig up the evidence, and bring closure to the families."

Sadly, his 93-year-old widow Galiema Haron died on Sunday, exactly 50 years after her husband's funeral, without achieving closure.

In a tribute to her, governing African National Congress MP Faiez Jacobs said: "Widowed by what appeared to have been a deliberate killing, she raised her children alone, always wondering how her beloved husband had died.

"If the apartheid rulers thought they could kill her spirit, they were wrong. She stood tall, defiant and principled."

Imam Haron was one of the youngest imams in South Africa - only 32 when he was appointed in 1955 to lead the congregation at the Stegmann Road Mosque in Cape Town.

He was a pioneer in Cape Town's mostly conservative mixed-race Muslim community.

Imam's Haron's widow, Galiema, was left to care for their children, including Fatiema
He introduced adult education classes, discussion groups where the topics were chosen by young people and encouraged women to take part. And he invited children to sit at the front of the mosque, rather the back, and to lead prayers.

He also invited people from outside the Muslim community - including trade unionists and liberal politicians - to come and talk to the young people about what was happening in South Africa.

"He didn't fit the pattern of the Muslim clergy which was quite ritualistic," says Aneez Salie, a journalist, former member of the ANC's armed wing and father of the artist Gunn-Salie.

"He was very progressive, away ahead of his time," Mr Salie, who at 13 attended the imam's funeral, told the BBC.

Fatiema Haron-Masoet - the youngest of Imam Haron's three children - was almost six when her father died.

"He had a gentle soul, he was very kind and loving and extremely emotionally accommodating," she told the BBC.

The imam's son Muhammed Haron, now a theology professor in Botswana, was 12 when his father died.

He remembers his father as a deeply spiritual man who had fasted twice a week since he was a teenager - and that wherever he went he wore a black kafiya, the traditional Arabic scarf, or fez.

"That is his identity - a theological man, a man from the Muslim tradition."

But he was also a "socialite" and "a man larger than life" - well-dressed, suave, with a sweet tooth, and a passion for rugby, cricket and the cinema.

The imam had his own projector - and Muhammed remembers groups of the imam's friends gathering at the family home where his father would screen films "often beyond midnight on a Friday and Saturday".

The imam was a huge fan of the fictional spy James Bond. Perhaps with a twinkle in his eye, he named his home Golden Eye - after the sprawling Jamaican estate of Ian Fleming, the creator of 007.

Golden Eye, a double-storey house, had a huge balcony - and the railings were designed as musical notes.

"Music was not totally approved of theologically by the conservatives," Muhammed says.

"But my father was theologically able to skirt around some of these issues that may have been considered taboo."

"He had a wider vision of things rather than a narrow notion," Muhammed explains.

What was apartheid?

• Introduced in 1948 by the Afrikaner-led National Party government
• Black people regarded as inferior
• No vote for black people in national election
• Races segregated in all aspects of life
• Prevented black people from owning land in much of South Africa
• Reserved most skilled jobs for white people
• Scrapped in 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela as first black president

Imam Haron's willingness to forge alliances with people of other races, as well as with Christians and communists, made him a particular threat to an increasingly brutal regime desperate to divide and rule.

Former rugby player Yusuf "Jowa" Abrahams - one of the imam's students - remembers how the imam tried to raise consciousness in the Muslim community about the injustices of apartheid, especially for those most hit by apartheid's cruel and racist laws: black South Africans.

"He said to us we need to break down racial barriers and work towards the future," Mr Abrahams told the BBC.

The imam practised what he preached, regularly visiting black communities in townships such as Langa, Gugulethu and Nyanga, where he became fondly known as mfundisi, or priest.

As well as being an imam, Haron also worked as a salesperson for the confectionary company Wilson Rowntree. This job meant he could legally move in and out of the townships - even after the apartheid regime restricted people's movements and segregated South Africa along racial lines with laws like the Group Areas Act.

In a public meeting held at Cape Town's Drill Hall in May 1961, the imam condemned that law as "inhumane, barbaric and un-Islamic". Four years later, like millions of other South Africans, the imam and his family were forced out of their own home.

Most other imams were too scared to speak out - or they were indifferent, content to be left alone to worship in peace, believing that it was not their duty to stand up to a repressive government.

But Imam Haron believed otherwise, and he started taking part in clandestine anti-apartheid operations.

He deliberately kept the details of what exactly he was involved in a secret from his wife and his congregation - in order to protect them.

Mr Abrahams believes the imam "died with his secrets".

However, he is known to have developed close ties with the then banned ANC and Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), both of which were waging an armed struggle, and the Black Sash - a non-violent legal and welfare movement of volunteer white women.

In 1966 and at the end of 1968, the imam went on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. He also secretly travelled to Egypt to meet political exiles and the World Islamic Council.

And he went to London, where his oldest daughter Shamela was studying. There he also met Canon John Collins of St Paul's Cathedral, an Anglican priest who was raising money for the destitute families of political activists who had been killed, detained, or forced into exile.

The imam and the priest struck up a deep friendship and Abdullah Haron agreed to smuggle in and distribute money on his return to South Africa.

But by the time of his return to South Africa in 1969, the imam knew he was in danger. On 28 May 1969 he was picked up by the apartheid police and four months later he was dead.

At the imam's funeral, Victor Wessels, a teacher and Marxist, said: "He died not only for the Muslims. He died for his cause - the cause of the oppressed people."

A few days later, on 6 October 1969, Imam Haron was commemorated in St Paul's Cathedral. His friend, Canon Collins, spoke of him as a martyr, signalling the deep respect the imam commanded across religious and racial lines.

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Hajar: The legacy of our Black mother and one of Islam’s most important women

Hājar was a Black woman of Nubian descent who was formerly a slave. She is the wife of Ibrahīm (Abraham) and gave birth to Isma’il (Ishmael), peace be upon them both.

One of the most powerful narratives of her life is when Ibrahīm is commanded by God to leave her and Isma’il alone in the desert. It is important to note that Ibrahīm prayed to God for offspring for almost 86 years of his life. In being blessed with Isma’il through Hājar, he was not only grateful to God but also began envisioning his life as a father – someone who could watch his son grow and develop under his mentorship and love.

Through His Divine Wisdom, God the All-Mighty soon reminds Ibrahīm who the True Possessor of all Bounties is by directing him to leave both his child, who was only an infant at this time, and his wife in an uncultivated valley, far from any human support or natural sustenance.

Upon the three of them reaching this barren land, Ibrahīm turns around and begins to walk away. He is shedding tears, but is unable to turn back when his wife asks why he is leaving them. Some scholars believe that Ibrahīm knew that if he turned back to respond to Hājar, he would have seen her and his child’s state and would have lost all willpower to submit to God’s Decree. Internally, he knew God would look over his family, but the immediate reality likely had him convinced that Hājar and Isma’il, alone in this desert, may actually die.

When Hājar realizes Ibrahīm is acting on God’s Decree, the Decree of the Source of all Mercy, she says: “then God will not let us go.” She and Isma’il are left with nothing but a leather jug full of water and a bag of dates.

When the provisions run out and thirst begins to overtake her son, Hājar runs up to the top of a hill to look for some support. After seeing nothing in the distance, she runs back down into the valley and up to the top of another hill. She goes back and forth between the tops of these two hills seven times, desperately searching for any possible soul out there who may be able to help her family.

Hājar then hears something. She runs down into the valley and through a miracle by the Source of Miracles, she sees next to her son a sudden gush of water springing up from the ground. In some narrations, it was the Angel Gabriel (peace be upon him) who struck the ground with his heel, yielding this fountain.

This source of water (Zamzam), nothing less than a Bounty from God, begins flowing incessantly and as Hājar attempts to create a pool of mud to contain it, she becomes overwhelmed by the limitless quantity. Since that day, this water has continued to flow from the ground and is now the source that quenches the thirst of millions of pilgrims from across the world. This valley would soon be where the House of God (the Ka’bah) would be built by Ibrahīm and Isma’il.

Some could argue Hājar was a mad woman for running back and forth frantically. Others can say if she truly trusted God, she would have never been worried and remained in place.

I see a woman who relied upon The Creator and in her reliance upon Him, she fully exerted all of her God-given capabilities. She was aware her Lord fully knew her struggle, recognized her efforts, and would elevate her based on her willingness and ability to act, regardless of the outcome. On the Day of Resurrection, God promises to take into account all that was done for Him, right down to what is equal to the weight of a mustard seed [21:47]. Hājar submitted to God and His Decree and in doing so, acted with a sense of optimism, knowing her striving and toiling would be fully repaid either in this life or the next.

I share all this because this life continues to judge us by the tangible, numerical value we can add. If we cannot produce something that can be displayed under ‘work experience’ or ‘achievements’, we convince ourselves it’s not worth investing in. We rewire our efforts to focus on what we can prove to people of our self-worth.

My mother Hājar reminds me of the value of investing in my faith-based principles and putting forth an effort to improve my soul by actively and secretly fighting my internal demons and difficulties. These are the struggles the world will never know of, but I will continue to battle the diseases within my heart through reflection, prayer and action to gain proximity to my Creator because He is not concerned with what I ultimately become, but rather who I consistently strive to be.

God, in His Infinite Wisdom, has immortalized the story of my mother Hājar so much so that part of my obligation in performing the Hajj (pilgrimage) requires walking in her footsteps. Every Muslim is obligated to perform the sa’ee, the journey Hājar took betwen the two hills, so that we are not only reminded of what it means to rely upon God, but also of the embodiment of a person fully exerting everything God had given her because she knew her struggle to be the best she can be for herself, her family, and Her Creator would never be lost in vain.

I also share all this because I think about the millions of black people since the beginning of time and through events like the trans-Atlantic slave trade whose stories have been forgotten, erased and buried. I think about the impact colonialism has had in wiping clean entire peoples’ histories. I think about racial minorities, the refugees, the undocumented individuals, and others whose struggles in traveling to and existing in places like this country, whose journeys in overcoming difficulty in their homelands and whose greatest sacrifices will never be known.

I do believe The Creator preserved such a powerful narrative of a Black woman who possessed no status, fame or wealth to demonstrate to humanity the noble rank a truly righteous soul, one without any material markers, has in the eyes of The Divine. I believe this is also a lesson that in the same way God retells the story of a person whom this world would have otherwise overlooked or ignored, we too have to be vigilant in expanding our consciousness of the stories that continue to be erased, particularly of oppressed communities across this world.

I think about the nearly 700 undocumented workers, so many of them being parents taken away from their kids, who were mercilessly detained this past week in Mississippi as part of the largest ICE raid in U.S history. Their struggles will likely be forgotten.

I think about the millions of Kashmiris currently under military occupation by a government that seeks to advance its own interests at the expense of human lives. They have set up civilian barricades, arrested elected officials, and cut off an entire people’s ability to communicate with the outside world along with any possibility for an autonomous state. Their struggles will likely be forgotten.

I think about the struggles I still don’t know, now keeping our beloved Hājar particularly in my mind.

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