Additionally, the complex and intimate nature of the connection between religious revivalism, exclusion and the city (AlSayyad and Massoumi 2011) was especially evident in the exposure of second- and third-generation African-Caribbean respondents to the concept of Tawheed as part of living within a rich urban culture. For example, Saffa described that she first encountered Islam while watching Jesus of Nazareth at school, and one of her Muslim classmates told her that Jesus was a Prophet of Islam too. Prior to this, Saffa was completely unaware of the connection between Christianity and Islam and thought of the latter as “an alien religion”. A few years later, after gaining a thorough understanding of the Tawheed of Allah’s Lordship, Saffa accepted Islam. She felt able to atone for her sins, as converting to Salafism resolved the feelings of self-loathing, shame and guilt she suffered as a result of her previous lifestyle.
For Jamila, too, Islam was “just a religion for Asian people” until she met an old schoolmate from a similar African-Caribbean background who had recently converted to Islam. For Akila and Rahima, local Muslim taxi drivers were among the first to give them da‘wa to Islam—with Akila being gifted a prayer mat and a copy of the Qur’an from her regular taxi driver. Likewise, for Akila, learning the Tawheed of Allah’s names and attributes at a lecture delivered by one of the du’āt in Birmingham helped clarify her doubts about the Trinity and taught her how to develop a new connection with God:
I could accept that God was the Creator, but not that [Jesus] was the Son of God.
Akila’s conversion experience typifies how the lack of “institutional and social pressure” coercing individuals to remain committed to a faith contributes to a person’s “liberty to follow a quest for personal meaning”, emphasising the strength of their allegiance to an RRM and the endurance that might result from a conversion that is “a matter of choice” (Hunt 2003:11-12). It also reveals some of the ways in which Salafism has been able to replace traditional Christianity which, according to Hunt, has failed to fulfil the “universal functions of religion” by providing “answers to the ultimate questions which have plagued humanity from time immemorial: the purpose to life, suffering, and the possibility of existence after death” (Hunt 2003:11-12):
What drew me to Islam was loneliness, but now that gap is filled. It was Allah that was missing. I want to be a Muslim for the rest of my life, not because my life was strange before because I had a routine and normality, but I didn’t have ‘purpose’, I didn’t have Allah. That makes all the difference, because it’s the purpose of our creation—to know that this world is not everything, that there’s more to come. You base your faith upon knowledge. The ‘proofs’ strengthen your faith, and that keeps you going. (Akila)
Similarly, learning about the Tawheed of Ruboobiyyah (Lordship) of Allah from her brother, who had converted to Islam and Salafism before her, was the decisive factor in Malika’s conversion to Salafism:
When he spoke about the Ruboobiyyah of Allah I broke down in tears. I knew everything I was looking for was in Islam… I started to feel peace and ‘certainty’ in the heart. Allah has made everything easy since then. I feel serenity like never before, because it was nowhere to be found … I always worried about money, trying to please others and not myself. Now I’m pleasing the Creator, by accepting His message and following His way.
It was enough for me to know that this [knowledge] is certainty. (Malika)
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