Growing Number of Americans Switching to Imported Faiths

BY TARA DOOLEY

In retrospect, Carole Sturm traces her conversion to Islam to a prayer she uttered as a 15-year-old in a Roman Catholic church. It was the appeal of a spiritual teen-ager, raised in the church; the plea of a young woman who believed in God but struggled with the Catholic mysteries of faith and forgiveness.

"I said, `God, show me what this means or show me something else,' " Sturm, now 34, said, recalling an afternoon nearly 20 years ago in Tulsa, Okla. "After that, I figured I was going to hell. I mean, I was 15." It took about five years, but God answered her prayer and showed her Islam, Sturm said. "It was a slow dawning," said the Arlington, Texas, resident and computer systems analyst for Sabre Group based in Fort Worth. "It wasn't like I woke up one night and said, `This is it.' "

In converting to Islam, Sturm joined a growing number of Americans who switch to faiths that have been imported to the predominantly Christian United States. National Islamic groups estimate that there are more than 6 million Muslims in the United States, placing the religion's membership ahead of several of the nation's mainline denominations. There is no formal or elaborate conversion ritual to the faith. Someone who becomes Muslim must simply declare a belief in one God and recognize Mohammed as a messenger of God, Sturm said. But like Christianity, attracting converts is important in the religion, especially as Muslims choose to live in non-Islamic states, said Yvonne Haddad, a professor of Islamic history at Georgetown University.

For Cherie Lyle, the decision to convert to Islam from the Seventh-day Adventist Church was prompted in part by the assortment of races and ethnicities she encountered during Friday afternoon prayers at a mosque on Center Street in Arlington. "I saw this sea of Muslims that ranged from the blackest black to the whitest white, and what came to me was `This is what heaven must be like,' " Lyle said. Lyle's journey to Islam began when she happened on a television show about the five pillars, or basic tenets, of Islam: a declaration of faith in the absolute oneness of God, prayers five times a day, gifts to charity, fasting during the month of Ramadan and a pilgrimage to Mecca. Lyle, who had taught Sunday school in her church, said readings of the Koran offered a believable way to understand God and an account of how to live as a Muslim.

The Christian Bible -- and especially the writings of the Apostle Paul – had confounded her with what she considered contradictions. "I had studied very deeply, but I always felt that the hard questions went unanswered," said Lyle, who is trained as a lawyer but now teaches at Al-Hedayah Academy, an Islamic school in Fort Worth. Although Sturm said that Islam once seemed a foreign faith to her, it became increasingly familiar as she pursued a degree in finance from the University of Oklahoma and met students from Islamic countries who shared their knowledge, including the man she eventually married, Shazhad Khan. For Sturm, reading the Koran answered her questions of faith in a logical manner. In addition to an emphasis on personal responsibility, teachings on the importance of the family and morality also appealed to her, she said. Although the teachings of Islam may feel instinctively right to Sturm, following all of the customs is not always easy.

Both Lyle and Sturm said they have struggled -- to different degrees -- with the Islamic requirement that women cover their hair. Once she made a declaration of faith, Lyle, 43, immediately took to wearing long, concealing clothing and to covering her hair. But after she broke the custom for her sister's wedding, returning to the covering became more difficult.

Now, she sometimes does not cover her hair for business meetings, she said. Similarly, Sturm does not cover her hair at work, where she often deals with Sabre's clients -- although she emphasizes that the company offers a good working environment for Muslims. Despite their difficulties with dress requirements, Lyle and Sturm underscore that the decision about what to cover and when is a woman's to make. Both women object to critics who say Islam is oppressive to women. Examples of extreme restrictions on women's freedom to work or even walk unaccompanied outside in some Islamic countries are cultural or political impositions on Islam, they said.

In fact, both say that Islam offers women reign over their money and names. Requirements of modest dress are for both men and women, and nothing prohibits sun dresses at home, Sturm said. "They are just and fair rules," Sturm said. "People don't understand that. Really, there is a big misconception that so many things are forbidden."

(source: http://www.sltrib.com/09111999/religion/22815.htm)