I have a question about the late King of Pop. Did he really convert to Islam in the past year or so? I have no objection, mind you. Everyone should be free to join or leave every religion and I respect his right to choose.
The reason I ask this is that searches on the web seem mostly to turn up marginal Muslim web sites or sensationlist British tabloids that hedge their reports with “is reported to have embraced Islam”. I can’t seem to find anything confirming or denying it. Most people say they never hear of this conversion. There are also reports that he did so because he was being sued by a Muslim sheik. Does anyone have anything reliable?
I have a question about the late King of Pop. Did he really convert to Islam in the past year or so? I have no objection, mind you. Everyone should be free to join or leave every religion and I respect his right to choose.
The reason I ask this is that searches on the web seem mostly to turn up marginal Muslim web sites or sensationlist British tabloids that hedge their reports with “is reported to have embraced Islam”. I can’t seem to find anything confirming or denying it in the Wikipedia article about him. A search of the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times turns up nothing about it. Most people say they never hear of this conversion. There are also reports that he did so because he was being sued by a Muslim sheik. Does anyone have anything reliable?
I have no inside information, but it’s at least possible. IIRC, he fled to Dubai or one of the Emirates after the whole scandal with the kids, someplace he could lay low for a while. It’s possible that he was converted while there.
Or it could be a bs rumor, like at least half of the rumors that have swirled around him for the last 30 years.
His brother, Jermaine Jackson, converted to Islam in 1989. The Telegraph reported in November 2008 that Michael wen through the shahada (Muslim declaration of belief) to convert to Islam. He’d been hanging out with a songwriter and a producer who’d converted. Jackson was reportedly “feeling down”, they told him how happy they were and an imam was summoned to the friend’s house.
So while he went through that declaration, I’ve read nothing that substantially corroborates the report or indicates he actually continued to live life as a Muslim. He was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness.
I just answered this question over in the Cafe. The Telegraph reported in November 2008, that while hanigng out with a songwriter and a producer (both of whom had converted to Islam), they were chatting about their faith. They claimed Jackson was “feeling down” and had shown quite an interest in Islam when they were explaining how it had enriched their lives. An imam was called to the one guy’s house (I don’t know if it was the producer or songwriter) and Jackson went through the shahada (Muslim declaration of belief).
I have seen nothing else to corroborate this report, which sounds kind of like a spur-of-the-moment thing (but who knows, Jermaine converted back in 1989, and was much more public about it, and may have been much more of an influence). So he may have made his declaration of faith and then that was it, or it may be an embellished tale.
He was raised a Jehovah’s Witness nothing official ever announce any conversion, AFAIK.
ETA: I suspect it was an embellished tale, or perhaps Jackson was more like back in college when my buddy decided to become a vegetarian, because he was profoundly adopting a new way of life, and was eating hotdogs again by the end of the week.
I wondered about that when Jermaine read his prepared statement yesterday.
At the end, he says something along the lines of: “and Allah be with you always” but I couldn’t quite make it out.
So what we do in a situation like this is to rewind a bit using the DVR function and hit the mute button on the remote. This allows the closed caption to kick in and the words then came up as “our love be with you always” though it still sounds closer to “Allah”.
I could poke around a bit to find the written transcript of what Jermaine said but if it’s just from ear witnesses on the scene, I suppose you could get both versions.
Yes, but when my father died, people said all sorts of variations of: “He’s with God now.” “The Lord has called him home.” and so on, yet my father was pretty much an atheist.
Those kind of sentiments tend to say more about the speaker’s beliefs than those of the deceased.