As mentioned elsewhere...

I know a man who converted to Islam and only later met and married a Muslim. As a child he went to Sunday School and attended a C of E school and was always very spiritual. At some point, and I imagine after a great deal of thought, he chose to become a Muslim whilst the rest of his family remain Christians. He is a doctor now working towards becoming a Consultant Psychiatrist and will have delved deeply before making this decision.

Islam and Christianity are actually very close indeed- much closer than many other world religions.

Islam seems 'foreign' to many Brits because, until recently, there were very few Muslims in Britain.

Just how religions have spread throughout the world jingle

The "indigenous people" of the UK would hardly have been Christian either. What has indigenous peoples got to do with it?

"Christianity came here from the Middle East". Who would have known it.

I can understand people turning to Buddhism. It comes across as a peaceful religion.

The west shipped out Christian missionaries to the middle and Far East . The indigenous people of Australia, New Zealand, America, Cananda etc were not Christian . Many British people are turning to Buddhism

Christianity came here from the Middle East

Yes.

The three faiths come from the same root.

Judaism has been a part of this country for centuries.

i haven't thought about it vq. I suppose we are more used to Jewish people being spread out across the world.

Do you consider Judaism to be a Middle Eastern religion too?

I think so too. I don't see what's confusing about it being considered so.

Oh, I think it will always be associated with the Middle East rather than the western world. Surely?

I converted to Catholicism although I was born a Protestant. It upset some of my family who couldn't understand why I did it. As with all religions it was to do with belief in the teachings.

I'm confused by the idea of it being a 'foreign seeming faith'. From what I've read and the courses I've been on the teachings of the Q'ran make a lot of sense. It tells Muslims to live in peace with Jews and Christians unless they are attacked and not to harm the innocent.

Basically it's the same message in Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Love God/Yahweh/Allah (what's in a name) and be nice to each other. Most of the differences are not important i.e. I eat bacon but a Muslim or Jew wouldn't. Clothing rules simply call for modesty and judging by the clothes I saw some men and women in today that maybe wouldn't be a bad thing for everyone to consider. Face covering is a man made rule not a Q'ran teaching.

I read that a lot of young black men who go to prison for one thing or another are converted there. When they're at their most vulnerable.

Well, I suppose it's because we have been a Christian country for so many years. Islam does seem to belong to the East. To more hot blooded peoples perhaps? ()

Why is Islam – an Abrahamic religion from the Middle East – such a foreign seeming faith but Christianity – an Abrahamic religion from the Middle East – not? The two faiths have much in common, with Judaism completing the triad.

Leaving aside people who convert because they marry, I think Islam has a lot of attractive elements for people looking for a meaning and guidance in life. Sound family values and clear and unconfusing definitions of good and bad. Many people don't want ambiguity. Islam in Europe doesn't carry the baggage that Christianity does. If you just look at GN you'll see how many people have been put off Christianity by one or more of the Christians they encountered earlier in life or by what they have read in the press or by what they know about the history. I think there are two roads to conversion to any religion, one is a sudden or gradual realisation that this is the true faith and the other is meeting or knowing a person or people whose behaviour and way of life present a convincing argument. Not mutually exclusive.

Yes. I think it must be the need to belong. Wonder why not the Christian faith. The 'low' churches are usually very welcoming. Are they falling short somehow?

I don't know much about the Islamic faith but I expect young people who convert to it may have similar reasons as those who convert to Christian fundamentalism.
Feeling of belonging, feeling of being guided and protected by God.
I have met some very strong Christian women who were nevertheless very keen on the idea of men being the leaders in the Christian faith. I think they saw that as part of God's plan to care for them.

My parents colluded with my maternal grandmother to have my grandfather converted on his death bed when he wasn't compos mentis so he could receive the last sacrament,s in spite of knowing that he had never expressed any wish to become a Catholic. Bad relatives behaving like the spawn on Mother Theresa

I have threatened to do the same to my husband on the grounds that his mother had a rosary tucked away somewhere merely returning him to the fold!

Some people are 'searchers' imo, looking for a path that helps them manage the difficulties that life presents us all with, gives a sense of certainty. The Muslim faith, so far as I understand it, accepts that God has a path for each of us, that our lives are in God's hands. That doesn't seem too different to the way in which some Christian's believe.

A friend's brother has gone through almost every faith known and is currently a Muslim. This is probably in part due to the fact he works with a lot of Muslim men and he himself is vulnerable in some ways, to persuasion. His family are of course worried, but when he was ill recently young men from his Mosque were incredibly supportive and kind to him and his parents.

A poster on another thread recently mentioned the 60's and the way in which many idealistic young people were drawn into cults. It may have been annodomini, apologies if it wasn't. One of our close friends told us recently that he'd been involved in a cult when in his late teens. He'd been out of control, using drugs etc and was drawn in by their street people. He had a period of real stability and faith before he finally left a few years later. His involvement enabled him to get his life back on track.

Another friend now in his 70's joined the Temperance Society when in his teens. it seems funny now, but filled a gap in his life at that time (now he'd say anyone for another beer?)

My grandmother took it upon herself to become a catholic sometime after marrying my grandfather, he didn't ask he to, he came from a very catholic country but paid lip service to it. My grandmother, being the convert was bloody awful particularly in her dotage always going off on pilgrimages to Lourdes and Fatima (Portugal) or where ever The Virgin Mary had popped up in the form of a statue spouting tears Her front room was covered in tat from these excursions or memorabilia if you were being kind. She also had masses of photographs of all of us her grandchildren making our first communion, my male cousins in France wore something akin to a monk's habit for this. Then she had another load of us when we were confirmed. I think most of us have "lapsed" now, not sure she ever knew that!

I appreciate the marrying in reason. I was thinking of young people who become converts. Yes. Perhaps they have Muslim mates and want to belong with them.

It's understandable to adopt or convert to the religion of your spouse, especially if pressure is brought to bear by family.

What's harder to understand is why so many young British people are being won over to the Muslim faith. Perhaps it's to gain a feeling of 'belonging', of knowing their place in the world...

I did see an interview with a young white British woman who had converted to the Muslim faith who said that she liked the fact that women are subjugated to men!