Letters | 18 October 2012

Testing faith

Sir: I can sympathise with Melissa Kite’s concern over her friend’s apparently unconsidered marital conversion (‘Till faith do us part’, 13 October), but I wonder whether her panic at the idea of thousands of secular or nominal Christians converting for love is justified. Yes, it is easy to become a Muslim, while an adult wishing to convert to Christianity or Judaism must demonstrate knowledge and commitment before full acceptance into the new faith community. Sometimes those who convert too hastily or when under pressure come to regret it later. But Islam does not require Christian or Jewish women — as ‘People of the Book’ — to convert if they wish to marry a Muslim, and a good number of conversions to a partner’s faith occur after marriage, suggesting that it happens after examining the beliefs and trying out the way of life. Those of us who are in mixed marriages and who work among interfaith couples find that although some people are fairly secular before they meet a partner of another faith, the encounter stimulates and challenges their own beliefs and values in a way they would never have guessed it would.