Hasan Zillur Rahim
Lauren Booth’s spiritual journey to Islam
Lauren Booth accepting a plaque for her service to Palestine from ICNA. Photo: Hasan Zillur Rahim
Many of us speak of Lauren Booth, a recent Muslim convert, as the sister-in-law of Tony Blair, the former prime minister of Great Britain. They do her injustice. She has carved out a career as a fearless broadcaster and journalist on behalf of the oppressed and the down-trodden. In fact, it would be more appropriate to identify Mr. Blair as the brother-in-law of Lauren Booth. Given his role in the Iraq war, such identification could even help Mr. Blair salvage some of his dwindling reputation.
Islamic Circle of North America (http://www.icna.org) recently honoured Lauren Booth for her humanitarian work in Palestine. Held in Santa Clara, California, the theme of ICNA’s Annual Supporters’ Dinner was: “Living Islam, Serving Humanity.”
As the keynote speaker, Lauren Booth spoke of her acceptance of Islam in words that were stirring and inspiring. I have listened to her story on YouTube but hearing it in person was an unforgettable experience.
“I am a new arrival to Islam,” she began. “I became a Muslim a year ago. Tonight I will tell you about my spiritual journey.”
Lauren was a Western journalist at odds with her values. In her willing servitude to God, she found in Islam a peace she had not known before. “This peace has not left me since, and Insha Allah, it never will.”
She grew up in East London, a child of the ‘70s. The family was poor. Sometimes even basic necessities were scarce. Her father was a lapsed Catholic. Secularism overtook his faith. He was a good man who unfortunately found solace in drinks. Her mother was a superstitious Christian. Not a churchgoer, she surrounded herself with religious icons to keep evil at bay.
When she was about seven, Lauren would pray every night, “Please God, let mummy and daddy be nice to me tomorrow!” Kids understand early that there is someone larger than parents. Instinctively, she would turn to this transcendent being for comfort.
As a teenager, however, she lost it. “I stopped praying. I exulted in the cult of the self. I acted like I had won the lottery of life. My dad tried to instil some good values in me. When I felt particularly full of myself, he would try to steer me in the right direction by asking: ‘What will you do with the rest of your life?’”
By the time she was in her ‘20s, she felt like the mistress of the universe. “I was drinking. I was taking drama lessons. I felt lucky and proud. I didn’t need religion. I believed what Nietzsche said: God is dead and we killed him.”
In her school, there were only three Muslim girls. She noticed two things about them: They were terrific at math and science, and they did not date boys.
After 9/11, Lauren was convinced that Muslims were out to slit the throats of every non-Muslim. She grew afraid of them. She believed everything the media said about them.
In 2004, she had a bit of an awakening. She became concerned about her lifestyle and the materialistic lives of people around her. It dawned on her that perhaps the West “enjoyed wars because wars distracted us from the emptiness inside us.”
She noted that the sale of the Quran had shot up in the USA and UK after 9/11. People were curious. They wanted to know more about Islam. Was it really true that Muslims were waiting to silently kill them, motivated by commands in their holy book? They wanted to find out the truth on their own.
“Somehow, I became interested in the Palestinian issue. In 2005, I went to Ramallah in the West Bank to interview Mahmoud Abbas. I got cold feet on my flight to Tel Aviv. I was scared of Arabs. When the plane landed, I secretly hoped that the Israelis would send me back.”
It didn’t work out that way. From the airport she took a taxi to Ramallah, still gripped by fear. Next day, as she rode the elevator to Abbas’ office with fierce-looking, bearded bodyguards toting guns, she wondered if she, a white lady, was destined for a beheading!
“I spent five days in the West Bank. I never experienced such hospitality! This instant and unquestioning generosity toward a stranger was something new to me. Palestinian women greeted me with open arms as if they had known me all my life. “Welcome!” they said, hugging me. “We will protect you if there is any attack here.”
Her fear was seeping away.
But she was not on the road to Islam. “I was still drinking. I revelled in my Western ideas of freedom and selfishness.” Deep down, she cared only about herself, a solipsist.
In 2008, she went to Gaza as part of the “Free Gaza” movement. That was a turning point. She was in a group of 46 who were travelling in two boats. Only three were Muslims. It was a deliberate decision to include few Muslims because “we white Westerners from Europe and America wanted to show the world that we too cared about the plight of the Gazans.”
The group was the first in 41 years to sail into Gaza from outside. Children swam out into the ocean to meet them. “It was like D-Day in Paris!”
Lauren knew something inside her was changing. God was charting a course for her. Planning to stay for a few days, she ended up staying a month because the Israelis and the Egyptians blockaded her group in Gaza.
“I remember crying one day because I had just spoken to my daughter. I had not seen my children for a month. Then an elderly Palestinian woman came and sat by me, a stranger. ‘I am so sorry,’ she said. ‘I can see you miss your children.’”
Then she told me her story. She used to live in the West Bank. One day she had to travel to Gaza for a day. At the checkpoint, the Israelis let her in. When she tried to return to the West Bank, the Israelis tore up her papers, threw her into the back of a van and dumped her in Gaza.
“She hadn’t seen her husband and her two sons for four years! And here she was, trying to console me and crying with me! How can you even begin to describe such empathy?”
“I began to love Arabs for their hospitality, empathy and the grace of their faith in the face of cruelty. I became what you might call an Arabaphile. But I was still not interested in Islam.”
It was the month of Ramadan. A family in the refugee camp invited her to share iftar with them. Sixteen of them were packed into a hovel. But the smile with which they greeted her made her feel as if she was entering a palace.
But when she sat down to eat, she became angry with the Muslim God. “These people have so little to eat, yet their God demands that they fast as well! He must be a cruel God indeed!”
When she asked her hosts why they insisted on fasting in such wretched conditions, they told her they loved Allah and His prophet more than anything else in the world. Since Allah asked Muslims to fast, they obeyed His command with gratitude. Lauren saw enormous love and acceptance in their eyes. Something stirred inside her. “If this is Islam, I told myself, I want it. I want to be a part of this generosity, this empathy. I will join this faith with all my heart.”
Still, she had ways to go.
Returning to London and resuming her reporting work, she came in contact with Somali and Eritrean cab drivers. Their passion about Islam overwhelmed her. They told her the most beautiful stories about the prophet, about how he taught that paradise lay beneath the feet of mothers, that the mother was the most venerable person on earth, far more than the father.
The stories moved her to tears. They were in stark contrast to what she saw in her own society. She knew of no one in her circle – not a single English man or woman – who was looking after his or her family. Children showed no sympathy toward their aging parents or grandparents. Their attitude was: Send them off to homes and let them fend for themselves.
Yet these humble cab drives worked 18-20 shifts so they could send money back home to take care of their extended families. Their love for their parents, spouses and children were palpable.
It all came together for her when she went to Iran to report for Press TV. At a mosque in Qom, she suddenly found herself crying. She used to think she was so smart and clever, yet realised in a moment of blinding clarity that narcissism led to nowhere. All negative feelings drained away from her. “I said from the heart, ‘O Allah, Thank you!’ A shot of pure emotional joy coursed through my veins. That night, I slept on the floor of the mosque. I was anxious. Where was I heading? What lay ahead for me?”
Next morning when she woke up for Fajr, all her anxiety had vanished. She had experienced an intense, unbidden spiritual awakening. The mysterious had become manifest. “I became a Muslim.”
* * *
I had a chance to talk with Lauren Booth afterwards. I told her that her story reminded me of the spiritual journey of the great Muslim scholar Muhammad Asad (http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0995/9509045.htm), as described in his monumental autobiography, The Road to Mecca.
Sister Booth was pleasantly surprised. “That was the first book a Muslim brother gave me after I embraced Islam,” she said. She felt a shock of recognition when she read it. “If you change the title of the book and the name of the author, it reflects my own spiritual journey!”
We Muslims born into Islam often take our faith for granted. Deadening habits blind us to its beauty. Secularists have no sense of the sacred. Pharaonic oppressors perpetuate injustice. Extremists debase the faith’s message of mercy and compassion through violence.
Muslims like Lauren Booth who accept Islam through the odyssey of their own hearts remind us of what it truly means to be a Muslim.
————————————————–
Hasan Zillur Rahim is a technologist and educator working in Silicon Valley, California.
Indeed we Muslims who are born into Islam often take our faith for granted.
From Christmas 2010 whenever I had opportunity to visit the local mosque for my Jumma prayer, I kept seeing a gentleman who looked to me someone I knew very closely over many years and yet, the absurdity of it was so high that I kept telling myself; this is impossible, this man cannot be in a mosque, it must be someone else.
Every time I saw the gentleman, I thought I will ask but did not dare. After about 3/4 such encounters, I told my wife but she also found it difficult to believe. Only last Tuesday when after we both had our usual quarterly routine check up in our local clinic with our GP Dr. P. Bhattachaariya, I collected enough courage to say to him: Doctor, in the past few months, I see a person in our mosque who resembles exactly like you.
Dr. Bhattachaariya smiled and politely said to me Dr. Husain; you are right, that has been me.
I quite agree that non-Muslims like my own GP Dr. Bhattachaariya who I knew for more than three decades, who accepted Islam ‘through the odyssey of their own hearts’ remind us of what it truly means to be a Muslim.
I would like to thank Dr. Hasan Rahim for this wonderful article on Lauren Booth.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Dr. Rahim: Islam shines in the apt to know the ultimate truth! Good Job Professor!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Dear Sister Lauren Booth, (if she happens to read this )
I as a muslim born in a moderate family found a very strong flavour of ones journey of a full life time in a nut shell.
Be welcome to such a wonderful form of soceity and not a religion.
Maybe there lies more to just accepting this magnificient form of belief. Do ! what you find right to the proposal your heart feels .
Sister , please pray for the lady who has been so kind to you and the family in the regugee camp .The true essence of Islam is when you are put to test when little is yours, better is when nothing is there. Rich are put to a bigger test to answer what they do with it.
Best of luck
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Dr: Rahim: A touching tale in spiritual manifestation. Sister Lauren Booth, found the “Faith of Enlightenment”. The beauty of Islam cherishes the inner core of the heart towards One Allah and the beloved Muhammad (puh) teachings highlighting, the point of excellence in moderation. Islam negates secularism, because the binding spirit of right in truth is missing in secularism.(Secularism is a seventeenth Century archaic notation, to those and for those, who are half way from their belief in God and caved out to be free, but not free-just as a radarless ship finds no anchor in any port of destination. Good job Professor! May Almighty Allah bless sister Lauren Booth, and her blighted search to the path of Islam.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
“Brother” H.Z.Rahim got excited with his “convert sister” Lauren Booth. H.Z. Rahim’s amazing observation: “In fact, it would be more appropriate to identify Mr. Blair as the brother-in-law of Lauren Booth.”
The fact is that Lauren Booth achieved “fame and prominence” before she became the “sister”.
However, your narration was wonderful.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Thank you Dr. Rahim for presenting such a beautiful story of human transformation. Lauren Booth’s personal journey to accepting Islam would come as a surprise to many in the West, especially here in the U.S, who are used to hearing pre-packaged notion about position of women in Islam, most of which are distortion, cultural stereotypes, and deliberate misinformation.
All Muslims, whether by birth or conversion, can learn a lot from Ms. Booth’s experience.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Every year thousands of people also find themselves embracing Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism etc. I have met many Muslims who have left their faith. Perhaps stories of their spiritual awakening would also enlighten us about the mystery of spiritual journey.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
That’s very true! We must hear different accounts, taste varied experiences, read different biographies – for our and humanity’s growth. Agnosticism, Atheism, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hindu philosophy, Humanism, Islam, Jainism, Jewish faith, Rationalism, Sikhism, Tao – all have contributed and have their own beauty. Why can’t we all be one?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
A lovely story.
How would Muslims feel if such a story was told of a Muslim converting to another faith?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I think the Muslims are very liberal and will see the fellow as part of them. Just like the word of Allah that says ‘ no compulsion in religion’
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Yes, if we all practice that philosophy of “no compulsion in religion” and leave it to “O you who believe”, while assuring equal civic and political rights world-wide to the non-believers who don’t agree to my way – that would be perfect.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
It’s someone’s personal spritual journey. It can’t be generalised accross the board.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Sometimes anecdotal evidences are more valid even though they may not be an issue of generelisation.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Lovely account of Godliness. However, I have seen such purity in people of other faiths and secularists also. Secularists also have a sense of the sacred in their own way – that is why they are secularists just as Ms. Lauren Booth chose Islam.
Regards. Thank you for a lovely article.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Dear Somnath,
Your observation is absolutely correct. Among my friends here in America are many atheists, agnostics and secularists. In their day-to-day behavior, I witness far more compassion and fellow-feeling than among some Muslims, Christians, Jews, and people of other faiths who wear their religiosity on their sleeves. My point is that those who arrive at their faiths through their own explorations often understand the essence of their faiths better than those born into them. This is true of all faiths. What we must at all cost avoid is religious chauvinism. That has been the cause of much violence.
Sincerely,
Hasan Zillur Rahim
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Thank you for your kindness in replying. I’m both delighted and relieved that I was not misunderstood.
I’d understood your point already, as I’ve been reading your articles which can come only from a pure mind. Your article would surely give much understanding and thought to spiritually inclined minds and yet restrain religious chauvinism promoted by frail human egos. Like my friends Dr. Tajuddin and Abbas Ahmad Maswood said: ”The problem of having religious faith is that the faithful naturally tends to believe that her/his religion must be at least a little bit superior to other religions.” If one could avoid that pitfall, one may indeed know God/Our Common Universal Soul through her/his chosen path.
May Allah keep you, and increase your tribe.
Regards.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
An excellent read. I would possibly not be wrong to assume that while the westerners are being captivated by the beauty of Islam and thus embracing it in droves with wide open arms, we see an altogether different scenario in Bangladesh. I recently went to Bangladesh for a short visit after living a few years in three different countries in Europe. To my utter shock, I saw how many people have started to disregard or even disparage Islam. The way the younger people specially the teens and tweens are developing an inexorable propensity towards the western ideas thanks to media is simply deplorable to say the least. I found some of their behaviour utterly hilarious!!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Many western ideas too – like secularism, separation of state and religion, scientific enquiry, economic emancipation, the courage to think outside the paradigm of god and religion, ideas of human equality irrespective of faith/religion, rationalism – have proved beneficial for the world.(Of course, even India and other parts of the world have had such streams of thought since olden times.) One may see therefore find liberation through these “western” ideas also.
The social, economic and psychological problems faced by Ms. Booth and her acquaintance with Arabs motivated her to embrace Islam. Similarly, problems and experiences faced by Muslims in their own societies are the reasons for many of them to explore alternate solutions presented by western and eastern ideas.
One can see many westerners, Israelis, Middle-East and African humans experimenting with and experiencing Buddhist, Sikh and Hindu philosophies. Egypt and Turkey have started courses in Hindu studies. The last Turkish President and his parents were very fond of Tagore’s “Geetanjali” and The Bhagavad-Geeta.
You can see “droves” of them in Hindu temple-towns in India also.
Our human egos should not from these incidents make us jump to the conclusion that “my” religion has all solutions irrespective of time, players and place in history.
Theses and Anti-Theses – seemingly different from each other – act together to bring about Syntheses in human development.
Therefore there is no harm – but indeed progress – if young and old people in Bangla Desh, India or U.K. experiment with and embrace alternate philosophies.
“THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH, YIELDING PLACE TO NEW,
LEST ONE GOOD SYSTEM SHOULD CORRUPT THE WORLD” ….Alfred, Lord Tennyson in “The Passing of King Arthur”.
Regards.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Sorry, I think that should read: “Lest one good CUSTOM should corrupt the world”. I had the good fortune to read that poem about 34 years ago, so I misquoted.
Regards.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
You also have to praise westerners and western society for their liberalism and courage to opt for/ experiment with the new and the “other”.
Propensity towards other philosophies and ways of thought are indeed inexorable. We have nothing to fear from that. A running stream will always be fresh and a still one will go bad; air in circulation will be fresh, confined air will be stale.
In ALL societies people are going for change. How else can one verify, improve, ascertain? Dictats, fatwas, our egos – nothing will stop that. We need not fear that any society or the world is getting into a mess when the young ones experiment – if we believe in God or even in ourselves.
Regards.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Here is a beautiful story of a person passionately told. Lauren Booth had read, saw, felt and experienced a new awakening and became a Muslim. She was not brain-washed into doing so. She had made a conscious choice to embrace Islam. Now it seems to her the actual path of peace and salvation is approachable.
We Muslims, by birth, all over the world in a lack of leadership, and intolerance, ignorance often fail to realise the essence and teachings of Islam. We mis-interpret and allow the wrong-doings to be exposed instead, thus continue doing ‘irreligious’ practices even at the cost of human lives.
Thank you Dr. Rahim for your touching narration and expressions. We are further enlightened!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0