Yearly conversions to Islam have doubled in France over the past 25 years, Bernard Godard, an official in charge of religious issues at the French Interior Ministry, said.
Quoting a New York Times report, he said that about 100,000 of an estimated six million Muslims in France are thought to be converts, compared with 50,000 in 1986.
Muslim associations say that the number could be as high as 200,000.
France, which has a population of about 65 million, defines itself as secular and has no official statistics broken down by race or creed.
“The conversion phenomenon is significant and impressive, particularly since 2000. The nature of conversions has changed. Conversions to marry have long been common enough in France, but a growing number of young people are now seen as converting to be better socially integrated in neighbourhood where Islam is dominant,” the report said.
The spacious and elegant modern Sahaba Mosque in Créteil, built in 2008 in the heart of a middle-class suburb of southeast Paris, is known as “The Mosque of the converts.’
According to Abderrahmane Ghoul, the Imam of the Marseille Mosque and President of the local branch of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, about 150 Muslim conversion ceremonies are performed every year.
He said that numerous young former Roman Catholics attend Friday prayer.
“Conversions have increased at an incredible pace in Marseille in the last three years,” Mr Ghoul said.
He signed about 130 conversion certificates in 2012.
Ramadan observed
In some predominantly Muslim areas, even non-Muslims observe Ramadan, the Muslim Holy Month that requires fasting during the day, because they like “the group effect, the festive side of it,” Samir Amghar, a sociologist and an expert on radical Islam in Europe said.
He said that Islam provides more structure and discipline than other religions.
It is a way to refuse modernism, get back to a society with more family values and a clearer distinction between men and women.
“Islam has a peaceful effect on the converts,” Mr Amghar said.
Hassen Chalghoumi, the moderate Imam of Drancy, another suburb near Paris, said that conversions have also been propelled by France’s official secularism, which according to him, breeds spiritual emptiness.
“Secularism has become antireligious. Therefore, it has created an opposite phenomenon. It has allowed people to discover Islam. Many experts note the influence of celebrity converts, particularly soccer players,” he said.
Celebrity converts
Nicolas Anelka, who played for the French national football team and whose parents came from Martinique, changed his name to Abdul Salam Bilal Anelka when he converted to Islam in 2004.
Franck Ribéry, a popular player from northern France, converted to Islam in 2006 to marry a Muslim woman, Wahiba, and took the name Bilal Yusuf Mohammed.
According to the New York Times report, many Muslims in France, however, say that they regularly face prejudice by the government.
They also consider a 2010 law banning the full-face veil (burqa) from public spaces and the growing concern with conversions as reflections of French intolerance.
Paris has declared that any woman (French or foreigner) who wears a niqab or burqa in public will be fined 150 Euros (NZ$230) and that those who force women to wear such covers will face a much larger fine and a prison sentence of up to two years.
Source: Rocket Science, Newsletter of Mt Albert Islamic Centre, Auckland
