A new documentary, So You Want To Be A Muslim, directed by Hoda Elatawi, premiered on documentary Channel, with streaming available on CBC Gem starting October 23.

The film highlights the spiritual journeys of five North Americans who have converted to Islam, exploring the challenges and rewards of their transitions in a Western society that often views their decisions with skepticism.

Elatawi’s feature-length documentary chronicles the diverse experiences of these converts—three Canadians and an American couple—over a span of eight years.

Delayed in part by the COVID-19 pandemic, the film presents an intimate exploration of how adopting Islam has reshaped the lives, identities, and relationships of its subjects.

A Journey of Faith & Identity

One of the featured individuals, Barbara, was a promising musician and aspiring Anglican minister in her early 20s when she converted to Islam after marrying a Muslim man.

Despite the eventual breakdown of her marriage, her faith journey took her in unexpected directions, ultimately leading her to a fulfilling new role as a chaplain in the Canadian Armed Forces.

Stephanie, a Millennial and francophone Acadian from New Brunswick now living in Ottawa, embraced Islam and adopted the hijab.

However, she continues to embrace parts of her pre-conversion life, including occasional social drinking and LGBTQ+ activism, particularly in support of her two gay fathers.

Rima, born in South Africa and raised in a culturally Jewish family, found her new Islamic identity in sharp contrast with the prejudice and Islamophobia she faced from her own relatives.

Her conversion to Islam brought her face to face with the biases within her family, complicating her rich sense of identity.

Johnae and her husband Eli, an African American couple from Puerto Rico now residing in the Bronx, also converted to Islam.

The pair live more conservatively than they did in their younger years, but their reversion to Islam has deepened their relationship with each other and their faith.

Breaking Stereotypes

The documentary reveals the complexities of living as a Muslim convert in the West. The individuals often feel torn between two worlds, struggling to find acceptance within their communities while also facing Islamophobia and misconceptions from the broader society.

Through their diverse stories, the film underscores the universal quest for meaning and belonging.

Director Hoda Elatawi hopes So You Want To Be A Muslim will serve as a tool to challenge widespread stereotypes about Islam.

“With words like ‘extremist’, ‘jihadist’, and ‘terrorist’ plaguing mainstream dialogue when the subject of Islam and Muslims come up,” Elatawi explains, “I hope the deeply personal stories revealed by the diverse group of people in my film will help break stereotypes and challenge preconceived notions about Islam.”

Produced by GAPC Entertainment, So You Want To Be A Muslim is supported by the Canada Media Fund, Ontario Creates, and several other cultural institutions. Elatawi aims to bridge the gap between Muslims and non-Muslims by focusing on the shared humanity and struggles revealed through the lens of these personal, transformative journeys.

Source: About Islam

During her fieldwork, Rogozen-Soltar interviewed and socialized with Murabitun women who identified both as recent converts as well as long-established members of the community. Regardless of the length of time that they have identified as Muslim, her research participants referred to themselves as converts. In these interviews, she found that both their approaches to individual conversion and the larger movement to spread Islam throughout Spain adopted different temporal understandings. The Murabitun women often used the phrase “poco a poco,” which means “little by little,” to describe the process of individual conversion. Poco a poco indicates a “patient, measured approach” for anyone undertaking personal religious transformation. For example, one might introduce Muslim ritual into one’s life before “officializing” her conversion by reciting the Shahada. Despite being gradual, these personal religious transformations are total. As explained by one participant, “One cannot become a new person overnight, but conversion does entail ultimately becoming a new person.”

However, Rogozen-Soltar observed that for the Spanish Murabitun, the goal of conversion takes place in national and global identity as well as within individuals. The same participants who advocated gradual conversion for individuals spoke of a more urgent need to convert contemporary Spain, which was often signified by references to restoring al-Andalus, or medieval Muslim Spain. This impulse speaks to the millenarian goals of the Murabitun culture, calling for a level of political and social activism that manifests in many ways throughout the community. One of the methods of returning to al-Andalus includes eschewing modern capitalism by engaging in barter or minting and using Islamic dinars as an alternative to official national currencies whenever possible. Through these methods, Rogozen-Soltar suggests, an individual’s conversion becomes apart of a larger, more radical spiritual project.

Following Rogozen-Soltar’s lecture, moderator Professor Adam Seligman (Religion, Boston University) and respondent Janet McIntosh (Anthropology, Brandeis University) contributed to the engaging discussion by asking how a millenarian movement might try to recreate the past while reframing the future and how gender might have affected the understandings of the temporal aspects of conversion. The forum provided those in attendance with an opportunity to reflect on the role of religious conversion and the many ways it develops in the life of individuals as well as their community.

Source: The Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies