The Koran is not permitted to be in any other language but Arabic.
…And until Vatican II, the Roman Catholic Mass was recited only in Latin. Which still had little bearing on the universality of the Catholic faith :). I think you’re misunderstanding the meaning of “universal” in this context. That Arabic is in essence the liturgical language of Islam doesn’t make it an ethnic faith - It would be non-universal only if it confined conversion to Arabs ( or some other circumscribed group ). In fact, as I mentioned, many early Muslims did regard Islam as an ethnic faith, but this notion had largely died out by the time of ( and indeed was in part the impetus behind ) the Abbasid coup in 749 C.E…
- Tamerlane
Dogface: Are you aware that the majority, the vast majority even, of Muslims are not Arab?
Are people forgetting John Walker Lindh THAT quickly?
I know people taking courses on Islam who are reading the Quran, or parts of it, and they’re definitely not reading it in Arabic.
Marley: What those people are reading is an interpretation of the Qu’ran, not the Qu’ran itself. By definition, only the tome penned in Arabic is the Qu’ran.
Right, lots of points to address here, but I’ll try to stick to the OP…
First of all, conversion to Islam is not restricted to any one ethnicity, race, nationality or colour. “White” people can convert if they wish. The actual act of conversion is very simple - first of all, you must be mentally competent (ie not insane, retarded, etc). Secondly, you must convert of your own free will - conversions are not acceptable in performed under force or coercion. Finally - you must sincerely believe that there is only one god (called “Allah” in Arabic) and that Mohammad was his Prophet. If these prerequisites are met, all you need to do is to go to your local mosque and find an imam and a couple of witnesses.
You then sit down with them, and will be asked to recite the “Sha-haadah”. This is a declaration of your belief, and consists of a single sentence - “I testify that there is no god but Allah, and I testify that Mohammad is the Prophet/Messenger of Allah”.
As soon as you have finished reciting these words, you are a Muslim - it’s that simple. You don’t need to change your name if you don’t want to, although some people do to reflect the fact that they’ve started a new life. As far as I know, there is no formal process for this, other than asking people to address you by your new name (although I suppose there’s paperwork involved if you want to change your name legally).
Once you have recited the Sha-haadah, you then perform a ritual bath to symbolically purify yourself of past life and past sin. A new convert to Islam is considered sinless, so you literally have a clean slate from which to start your new life.
That’s it as far as conversion goes. The next step is usually a prayer, and if you do not already know how to perform the five daily prayers, you will be taught how. From then on, it’s “simply” a matter of living your life according to the tenets of Islam. While there are many new things for converts to try and take in, regular and consistent prayer is usually regarded s the most important. Everything else comes gradually.
II hope that’s answered the OP, but if you have any further questions, feel free to ask (or email me if you prefer)
I should also probably point that Islam does not have what is commonly understood as an ordained clergy. “Imam” is the name given to those who typically lead communal prayers by dint of age or level of knowledge. They can be community leaders, or simply the oldest/most knowledgeable person in the room when performing communal prayers.
“Sheikh” is the name commonly given to scholars of Islam. These are people who have made a serious study of the Quran, the Hadeeth, the Sharia, and all aspects of Islamic canon and jurisprudence.
By virtue of their knowledge, they are the ones that people typically turn to with questions. Some of the most respected Sheikhs are those who have founded entire schools of thought, and some have many followers.
However, Imams and Sheikhs are not priests, and Islam has no Priesthood. This is because Islam teaches that there should be no intercession between a Muslim and God. You always have a direct link to God through prayer and supplication, and only God can forgive your sins, so going to confession is out.
Similarly, there is no Pope, no holy vows of celibacy, no ordination. Anyone is free to teach their interpretation of the Quran, but unless you’ve got some serious learnin’ under your belt and can display a depth of knowledge, everyone else is equally free to dismiss your views out of hand.
This is HennaDancer, not Martin ibn Martin. Some quick answers-
Arabs aren’t Caucasian, they’re Semitic.
Yu need not be circumcised as an adult if you convert. Our sons were born post-conversion in my husband’s case and neither of them are circumcised and neither will be unless they want to. Yikes.
Islam will take anyone. The Qur’an states that there should be no difference between the various races and colors, so any form of racism is un-Islamic.
There are no Muslim ‘clerics’ as such. Each Muslim is direct to God with no intermediary. There are “imams” or teachers, who run the masjids, or mosques. There are scholars who issue their opinions on interpreting various suras, or verses of the Qur’an. These are the famous ‘fatwas’. They are opinions only and are nonbinding. If you want to get into Shi’a, you have Ayatollahs, but they are definitely not Qur’anic and Shi’a is a whole 'nother ball of wax.
The reason there are so many black Muslims in the US is twofold, IMHO. The first is that the Nation of Islam got a fairly large following pulling stuff out of its ass and calling it Islam. The big enticement was equality, if not superiority. When one of the major leaders actually decided to start finding out about the religion he had created, he actually converted to Islam and discovered that the equality he sought was there all along. He was powerfully moved and started trying to get people to be actual Muslims instead of NOI. There’s a local masjid here that used to be NOI but converted. it’s mostly black. It’s in the heart of a major city, so everything around it is black or Hispanic. But my husband (the white guy) and several middle-eastern types are welcomed as brothers, almost literally.
The second reason for so much black conversion is that many people have realized that an appreciable portion of imported black slaves were Muslim. If you go back to your roots, and some of those roots are slaves, you have Muslim ancestry. Since the vast majority of blacks in the US are Christian, going Muslim is a far smaller leap with a far larger support base than trying to figure out what tribal religion you should be part of. Also, Islam is nearly unchanged from when it was written, to the slave times, to now, so it’s that much closer to the ancestors.
The reason you aren’t supposed to marry outside the People of the Book is that the other person may force you to convert. If there is no coersion to convert, there is not problem with it.
The tax on non-Muslims was not, as many people think, a way to oppress non-Muslims (or was not conceived as such). It was a tax in lieu of military service in many cases, and one of the military’s job was to protect the people whose lands the Muslim rulers lived in from religious oppression.
The name change thing (so far as I can tell) is part of the NOI legacy. Since the name you have now is the one your White Devil Slave Master gave you, you change it to reflect your new identity as your True Race and Self.
Some stuff off the top of my head. Some actually has to do with the OP, wooh-hoo! I’m going to subscribe this thread to my husband so he can come in and correct where I’ve goofed.
HennaDancer
Actually, nobody is REALLY Caucasian; there’s a StraightDope column on the subject. 
Same sort of goes for Semites - Semitic refers to a language family, not a group of people. It’s a big mess.
That would be the remarkable Malcolm X. 
Shi’as kind of have a clergy. We argue that this is based on principles and statements from the Qur’an and Hazrat Muhammad (sa). As a matter of fact, according to Shi’as the concept of the imamate is a central tenet of belief, along with believing in God, the Qur’an, Hazrat Muhammad (sa), etc. In the case of sects (in the academic sense of the term) like the Ismailis, that there is a clergy is very evident. Concerning the Agha Khani Ismailis, from what I have read, all the local religious leaders are chosen by Mowlana Hazir Imam. From what I remember, the Da’i Mutlaq of the Bohra Ismailis also chooses the local religious leaders of each jamaat or congregation. But we’ll leave the debate of clergy or no clergy to continue between embattled clerics and critics.
Please also remember that the word “imam” has two connotations - the leader of prayer in Sunni vocabulary, and the leader of a congregation (in some cases ordained or appointed by a higher clerical authority) in Sh’ia vocabulary. Also, things become more complicated when one realized that there are various connotations of “imam” among Shi’as, mainly the local imam versus the Imam-e-Zaman (the Imam of the Age, who’s the supreme leader of the Muslim world).
The NOI is amusing, in my opinion. Many Muslims are, however, not amused. For many, NOI soils the name of Islam, while for others is causes much confusion on the part of non-Muslims.
By universal religion, I suppose what is meant is a religion for the whole world. Jews believe Judaism is for the Jews, not revealed for all the world to accept or reject. Hinduism is the same way. Christianity and Islam are both universal religions - all of humanity must accept or reject the so-called true faith.
As far as the Qur’an is concerned, it is believed that each letter, punctuation mark, etc., is directly revealed by God and is sacred and unalterable. (The same belief is held by Orthodox Jews. Fundamentalist Christians also believe each letter of the Bible is inspired, but what they seem to miss is that Jews and Muslims consider the text in its original language, whereas the vast majority of fundamentalist Christians wouldn’t be able to tell Greek from Hebrew.) As such, it must be considered in its original language. Besides, typically more emphasis is placed on reading the Qur’an rather than understanding it.
WRS
Marley23 - good point.
HennaDancer - excellent point, which is seldom known. This is why I use “anti-Jew” or “anti-Judaism” rather than “anti-Semitic” or “anti-Semitism.” Most anti-Jews have nothing against Arabs (and many anti-Jews are, in fact, Arabs), and so cannot be called anti-Semites, to be accurate.
WRS
Actually, I think at least the indigenous inhabitants of the Caucasus get to call themselves Caucasian. There are several dozen ethnic groups who fall in this category, although the origin of and relationships between most of the languages they speak is rather murky in many cases.
A few links for you (there’s LOTS more where this came from):
http://www.kafkas.org.tr/english/kultur/diledebiyat.html
http://www.geocities.com/Eureka/Enterprises/2493/circbibliog.html
http://www.geocities.com/Eureka/Enterprises/2493/cauclink.html
No, in this case she is referring to Warith Deen Muhammed :).
As Marley correctly noted Semitic isn’t a “race” but a linguistic group. What “race” various semitic-speaking peoples have been assigned to over the years ( all such classifications being crapola IMHO, but that’s a different topic ) varies depending on author - But the earliest 3 and 5 race divisions considered them “caucasian”, i.e. white, which is why I brought it up. I’m always curious when folks differentiate between Arab and white, when many Arabs are pretty darn white ( some are pretty dark, as well ). My comment was meant ironically - noting that the “scientific racialists” that first came up with the idea of pigeon-holing people into racial categories frequently lumped the Arabs in with whites, yet many modern folk do not ;).
And of Eva Luna correctly notes there are REAL caucasians - both geographic and linguistic in definition.
HennaDancer - I’d probably dispute that many Muslims in the U.S. today trace their current faith back to that of imported slaves. Maybe a few. While many Muslim slaves were brought in, it seems that by and large their faith ( which needless to say was discriminated against ) did not survive multiple generations. However the idea of Islam as the possible/probable religion of their ancestors was undoubtedly a selling point for some when they did convert.
- Tamerlane
They are not reading the Koran. They are reading a mere interpretation of the Koran, not the real Koran. The real Koran is only permitted to be in Arabic.
I quite agree. This whole “faith of Africa” thing is just more propaganda. Christianity in Africa is actually older than is Islam at all–and I’m not just talking about Egypt.
Someone else posted that earlier - seems like just a loophole to me. Doesn’t make much difference since you can, therefore, read it in whatever language you choose.
Tamerlane, the comment would apply to both of them, would it not?
Tamerlane’s comment on black Muslims tracing their heritage to Islam reminded me of something I learned in a college course on slavery in America.
Although it is likely that some slaves that came over to the New World were Muslim, most likely most were not. The powerful states in Africa, of which not a few were Muslim, were instrumental in establishing and maintaining slave trade networks. It was simply a rule of existence then and there - enslave or be enslaved.
The influx of African slaves is why we have pockets of Vodoun in the Americas, notably Haiti and Louisiana. The slaves’ original religion was some sort of animism.
Of course, it’s much easier to practice Islam, especially in this day and age, than it is to practice animism.
WRS
When Queen Noor of Jordan was the American Lisa Halaby, she learned to speak Arabic, studied the Koran, converted to Islam when she married King Hussein.
So I am assuming anyone can convert.
To be technical, no one is supposed to read the Qur’an. It’s supposed to be recited. It’s written down simply so everyone recites the same thing.
WRS