A Scottish Pilgrimage

Auryn Cox, BBC Scotland News, Lady Evelyn Cobbold - why are Muslim pilgrims visiting her Scottish grave?, 15 June 2022 "They've travelled from Edinburgh, Liverpool, Leicester and beyond to honour Lady Evelyn Cobbold - thought to be the first British-born Muslim woman to make the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca."

EastEnders

MyLondon, Islam storylines in EastEnders 'a step in the right direction we wouldn't have seen 5 years ago', 7 Dec 2021

"Speaking to MyLondon, MCB spokesperson Yasmine Adam said that despite the representation of Muslims in the area of fiction sometimes alluding to “well-worn tropes”, Bobby Beale’s conversion story has been “generally positive”.

I don't watch EastEnders myself, but thought this was interesting.

Abdalqadir as-Sufi

Ian Dallas or Abdalqadir as-Sufi the founder of the Murabitoon in UK has passed away. Quite a significant moment for Muslims in UK especially for converts. pic.twitter.com/COaSRPSLNA

— Tam Hussein (@tamhussein) August 1, 2021

Anthony Joshua

Independent, Anthony Joshua credits role of Islam in his life ahead of Andy Ruiz rematch victory

'Narratives of Conversion to Islam in Britain'

HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies (Cambridge), Narratives of Conversion to Islam in Britain: Male Perspectives "Narratives of Conversion to Islam in Britain: Male Perspectives brought together forty-six male Muslim converts to discuss aspects of their conversions to Islam, to reflect on their journeys
and experiences and to produce a report to inform Muslims and non-Muslims about the topic."

"Britain’s jails facing ‘growing problem’ of forced conversion to Islam, officers warn"

Independent, Britain’s jails facing ‘growing problem’ of forced conversion to Islam, officers warn, 20 Oct 2013

'Former Territorial Army male soldier, 28, becomes Britain’s first transgender Muslim woman and is now MARRIED'

Daily Mail, Former Territorial Army male soldier, 28, becomes Britain’s first transgender Muslim woman and is now MARRIED, 13 Sep 2013 "A former trained soldier has swapped her Territorial Army beret for a veil and become Britain's first transgender Muslim woman."

Female converts to Islam considered in new study

Times Higher, Female converts to Islam considered in new study, 27 May 2013

Converts

Economist, Changing my religion "Proselytising has little do with it. A handful of Muslim groups hand out tracts in the street. But most are more concerned with issuing press releases condemning extremism than wooing converts, says Leon Moosavi, an expert on Islamic conversions at Liverpool University."

Court case

Guardian, Muslim convert from BBC documentary pleads guilty to terrorism charges, "Richard Dart, 29, admitted plotting a terror attack in Royal Wootton Bassett after receiving training at camps in Pakistan."

Also see Brendan Hughes, WalesOnline, Court hears of Cardiff family's extensive links with terrorism, Mar 15 2013 "Jahangir Alom, who admitted getting involved in terrorism, is the husband of Cardiff woman Ruksana Begum, whose brothers plotted to blow up the London Stock Exchange.

 "Begum was jailed in December for a year at the Old Bailey for having al Qaida terrorist material in her mobile phone."

'Convert's' story

Mail Online, 'Islam is about real love, not just lust': The party girl who's embraced a new life as a Muslim convert Daily Mail 'story' on converts, with reference to Faith Matters' report published earlier this year (pdf report here)

Convert's extremist views were aired in stepbrother's BBC documentary

Telegraph, Convert's extremist views were aired in stepbrother's BBC documentary "Three years ago film maker Robb Leech was reading a newspaper article about the radical Islamic preacher Anjem Choudary, when he spotted his stepbrother, Richard Dart’s name."

Also see Telegraph, White Muslim one of six arrested over ‘terror plot'

Tony Blair's sister-in-law converts to Islam

The Independent, Tony Blair's sister-in-law converts to Islam, 25 Oct 2010: "Tony Blair's sister-in-law, Lauren Booth, has become the latest in a long line of Western Islamic converts. From Chris Eubank to Jermaine Jackson to Alexander Litvinenko, she joins an eclectic list, yet she is markedly different from most of its names, for one key reason – she is female." Booth is a presenter on PressTV.

Timothy Winter profile

The Independent, Timothy Winter: Britain's most influential Muslim - and it was all down to a peach, 20 Aug 2010 "The hitherto unnoticed Mr Winter, who has an office in Cambridge University's Divinity Faculty, where he is the Shaykh Zayed Lecturer of Islamic Studies, has been listed ahead of the presidents of Iran and Egypt, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, and the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Mahmoud Abbas. "Strange bedfellows," he concedes."

The 2010 listing can be found here to download: Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre

Young. British. Female. Muslim

Sarah Harris, Times Online, Young. British. Female. Muslim., 29 May 2010 "Thousands of young British women living in the UK decide to convert to Islam - here are some of their stories" Just found this interesting article, containing 'convert' stories.

Prisons

Alan Travis, Guardian, Muslim prisoners 'treated as potential terrorists', 8 June 2010 "The report, published today, is based on interviews with 164 Muslim prisoners in eight prisons and young offender institutions, combined with prisoner surveys and inspection reports over the past three years. The number of Muslims in prison in England and Wales has soared in recent years from 2,513, or 5% of the prison population, in 1994 to 6,571 or 8% in 2004 and to 10,300, more than 12%, on the latest figures."

Also see:

Observer, Belmarsh inmates plotted to behead guard on video, 6 June 2010

'Converts' profiled

John-Paul Flintoff, Times Online, A funny thing happened on the way to the mosque, 23 May 2010 "An increasing number of Britons are converting to Islam. Mosques are open to the public, so it is possible simply to wander in and try the religion for size?" Rather long article, with some interesting anecdotes.

X-factored

Mehdi Hasan, New Statesman, Islam can do without Simon Cowell, 2 Apr 2010 "So will Simon become Suleiman? "Don't convert to Islam, Simon. Don't do it," says the right-wing US pundit Debbie Schlussel on her blog. For once, I can't help but agree. What do Muslims gain from the conversion of Cowell? New tunes? It frustrates me how my co-religionists get so excited at the prospect of people converting to Islam, especially celebrities. Last year, I was inundated with emails claiming Michael Jackson had been on the verge of a deathbed conversion to Islam. Heaven forbid." Opinion piece

'Conversions' to Islam in UK

Richard Reddie, Guardian, Face to faith: We should understand, not fear, the rise in black conversions to Islam, 12 Dec 09 "As a young man growing up in Bradford, I occasionally had the misfortune to sit through church sermons where the visiting preacher warned the virtually all-white congregation of the spiritual and social threat posed by the city's Muslim population. As one of the few black faces in the congregation, I could never relate to this message, which fused the religious with the "racial" to engender fear."

Birmingham 'convert'

Sunday Mercury, Row after Islam cleric converts schoolboy on Birmingham street, 26 Jun 09 "The incident was filmed during a demonstration by Choudary’s Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jama’ah group in Birmingham city centre earlier this month." Plenty of coverage on this elsewhere.