Religion/Maryam Jameelah

A Jewish Girl Who Converted to Islam
In the early 1960s, Margaret Marcus converted to Islam and became Maryam Jameelah, and wrote a good deal about her reasons. I've just read some of her writings on the web. It is interesting background material in understanding conservative Islam in the context of Western modernism.

She was born to a Jewish family in New York, and seems to have always been a conservative, sensitive, religious person. She was deeply offended by secularism, and what she perceived as racist, nationalist, tribal Zionism. She found the other descendants of Abraham, the Arabs, followed the right prophet, and a truly religious path to salvation.


 * Interview with Maryam Jameelah (formerly Margaret Marcus), summarizing her conversion and beliefs:: "In Islam, my quest for absolute values was satisfied. In Islam I found all that was true, good and beautiful and that which gives meaning and direction to human life (and death); while in other religions, the Truth is deformed, distorted, restricted and fragmentary."


 * Correspondence between Maulana Maududi and Maryam Jameelah: Maulana Maududi was founder of one of the "leading Islamic revivalist movements," the Jamaat-e-Islami.

An Open Letter to Her Parents


 * This one is the hardest for me to read. She properly pegs problems with modernism and secularism, but she also says, "Since the Holy Qur'an is divine revelation, it cannot and will never be changed. Because it is perfect, it cannot be improved, revised or reformed. Since Muhammad, upon whom be peace, is the final Prophet, his guidance can never be superseded by any other. The Qur'an and Sunnah are addressed to all peoples, in every country of the West as well as the East. Since it is relevant for all times, in all places, it can never become obsolete or out-of-date."


 * Maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but I place my ultimate faith in people, not holy books. Still, Jameelah is obviously intelligent, caring,and passionate, and I respect her and her right to her beliefs.

I didn't find another collection of her essays, "Islam Versus the West" on the web. But the gist, from http://members.tripod.com/msa_msu/lib-l.htm:


 * In this collection of essays, Maryam makes a brilliant analysis of the folly and futility of compromising the principles and spiritual values of Islam in a vain attempt to prove their compatibility with the material aspirations and drive or aggrandizement that set apart the spirit of modern West. This book looks at several western authors and philosophers and presents in-depth critiques of their beliefs. She argues that Islamic society can flourish and contribute its own in a technocratic civilization without having to sacrifice the inner principles of its being.