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585 embrace Islam

It was the month of conversions. In a recap of previous years, this holy month of Ramadan saw at least 10 people converting to Islam everyday.

As many as 585 people converted to Islam at both the Department of Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities (DIACA) in Dubai and at the government-run Dar Al Ber Society (DABS), basically due to the spiritual elevation, as well as the tolerant and merciful teachings of Islam.

Huda Alkaabi, Head of New Muslims Section - DIACA, told Khaleej Times that Ramadan 2012 saw 285 new Muslims, as compared to 233 last Ramadan in 2011.

“Those are part of 1,558 who converted to Islam this year so far against 2,347 converted in 2011.”

“The DIACA saw 17,704 new Muslims from 75 nationalities — some 65 per cent are women — in the period spanning 1996 to 2011,” she added.

While Dubai is seeing a rise in the number of people converting to Islam year after year, more people, including Muslims and non-Muslims, approach the DIACA to enquire about Islam.

“We have distributed around 1,500 books to non-Muslims this Ramadan, which has been seeing a continuous surge in the number of people enquiring about Islam.”

Early this August, the DIACA launched the Mohammed bin Rashid Centre for Islamic Culture in the Al Barsha area that mainly seeks to serve the new Muslims.

Meanwhile, 300 people of different nationalities converted to Islam on the 30-day of the ninth Arabic month at the Islamic Information Centre of DABS.

“This comes to an average of 10 new Muslims every day,” said Rashid Aljunaibi, Director of the Centre in Bur Dubai.

ahmedshaaban@khaleejtimes.com