Emerging Islam Downunder

As the Muslim community in Australia faces its toughest scrutiny, hundreds of men and women like Mashalla Fogg are turning their backs on Christianity either by marriage or conversion.

A Saturday Daily Telegraph investigation over seven weeks has found that just one Muslim association in Lakemba has overseen almost 500 conversions of non-Middle Eastern people in just three years.

Two-thirds are women? Choosing to don the veil for Allah.

They have helped propel the rapid growth in our Muslim population, up from 200,885 at the 1996 census to 281,578 today.

While this 40 per cent increase comes largely from immigration, it is also due to women such as single mother of three Mashalla Fogg.

Her long search for peace ended when she converted along with her three children.

The softly spoken nurse packed up her children and left the Hunter Valley two years ago to move to Lakemba. Now she wears the the hijab and abayah and smiles as she describes the joy Islam has given her and her children once known as Blade, Kayla and Jessica and now called Bilal, Amatullah and Yassmine.

"My mother is C of E and my father Catholic so I grew up exposed to both religions, but Islam is the first that has given me all the answers I have sought for such a long time," the 31-year-old said.

"Christianity never added up and Islam just did."

Yassmine, 10, began wearing the hijab a week before her mother and said she was odd one out at school when not wearing it.

For the past seven weeks The Saturday Daily Telegraph has been investigating why so many young Australians are turning to Islam when it is the most feared and scrutinized faith in the world.

Most new Muslims come from Christian backgrounds and have been ostracized by their families, while others fear to identify publicly for fear of being labeled terrorists.

Said Kanawati from the Australian New Muslim Association who runs the introduction to Islam classes said new converts were introduced by school friends, work colleagues and neighbors.

The Qantas engineer and father of three said average Australians had little understanding of Islam and he believes Muslims can never fully integrate into this society.

"We can watch the rugby, but not in a pub surrounded by alcohol and we can go to the beach but our women cannot wear bikinis," he said.

Islam is the fastest-growing religion with estimates of about 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide.

Source: The Daily Telegraph