Islam booming amongst European women...

...And that's making the anti-terrorism authorities there all kinds of uncomfortable, at least that's what this piece by the CSMonitor says. The reasons behind the surge in conversions? Well... Fallot laughs when she is asked whether her love life had anything to do with her decision. "When I told my colleagues at work that I had converted, their first reaction was to ask whether I had a Muslim boyfriend," she recalls. "They couldn't believe I had done it of my own free will." In fact, she explains, she liked the way "Islam demands a closeness to God. Islam is simpler, more rigorous, and it's easier because it is explicit. I was looking for a framework; man needs rules and behavior to follow. Christianity did not give me the same reference points." Those reasons reflect many female converts' thinking, say experts who have studied the phenomenon. "A lot of women are reacting to the moral uncertainties of Western society," says Dr. Jawad. "They like the sense of belonging and caring and sharing that Islam offers." Others are attracted by "a certain idea of womanhood and manhood that Islam offers," suggests Karin van Nieuwkerk, who has studied Dutch women converts. "There is more space for family and motherhood in Islam, and women are not sex objects." Ok..hold on a minute. Women are not sex objects in Islam? Are you kidding me? What are women but sex objects in Islam? Seriously. She needs to get married once she hits puberty, she needs to be coverd in order not to entice men, you can have 4 wives and Gawary (female slaves) and that's cool. Hell, even in Heaven men's reward is more sex with more women, while women, well, they get to be with their busbands and nobody else. Which Islam are these women converting to? Listen, I am not against them converting (or reverting for that matter) to Islam, but the reality is, a lot of the western converts are given a waterd down version of Islam at first until they convert and after that their spirtual mentors bring on the heavy stuff and by that time it's too late to go back. Your eagerness and ignorance make you a prey to a big slew of people, and this could really be trouble, because... Others jump right in, eager for the exoticism of a new religion, and become much more pious than fellow mosque-goers who were born into Islam. Such converts, taking an absolutist approach, appear to be the ones most easily led into extremism. The early stages of a convert's discovery of Islam "can be quite a sensitive time," says Batool al-Toma, who runs the "New Muslims" program at the Islamic Foundation in Leicester, England. "You are not confident of your knowledge, you are a newcomer, and you could be prey to a lot of different people either acting individually or as members of an organization," Ms. Al-Toma explains. A few converts feel "such a huge desire to fit in and be accepted that they are ready to do just about anything," she says. "New converts feel they have to prove themselves," adds Dr. Ranstorp. "Those who seek more extreme ways of proving themselves can become extraordinarily easy prey to manipulation." At the same time, says al-Toma, converts seeking respite in Islam from a troubled past - such as Degauque, who had reportedly drifted in and out of drugs and jobs before converting to Islam - might be persuaded that such an "ultimate action" as a suicide bomb attack offered an opportunity for salvation and forgiveness. Dagauque is the female belgian suicidebomber who died in Iraq, in case you didn't hear about it! "The saddest conclusion" al-Toma draws from Degauque's death in Iraq is that "a woman who set out on the road to inner peace became a victim of people who set out to use and abuse her." Indeed.