RIYADH, 21 May — Of the 942 people from 19 countries who embraced Islam here in the Kingdom last year, 709 did so after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Some 80 percent of the converts were Filipinos.
Minister of Islamic Affairs Saleh Al-Sheikh revealed these figures to Arab News yesterday. He added that Riyadh Governor Prince Salman will inaugurate an Islamic Dawa Exhibition on June 5 at the Riyadh Exhibition Center. The show will run until June 14.
Referring to the surge in conversions in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, Nouf ibn Nasser Al-Qarain, director of the cooperative office for call and guidance in Al-Batha, said a total of 7,300 non-Muslims had embraced Islam since 1989, when the cooperative call and guidance office was established.
However, the rate of conversions peaked in the eight months following Sept. 11.
The reason, he explained, was that international focus shifted to Islam when the identity of those involved in the attacks became known.
Many people as a consequence wanted to find out more about Islam, and a book on “Tauhid”, or the oneness of God, by Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abdulwahab, impressed them the most.
The theme of the forthcoming exhibition will be the use of new information technology in promoting Islam.
An estimated 200,000 visitors are expected to attend the event, the first of its kind in Riyadh, following the success of previous Islamic exhibitions that attracted 150,000 and 170,000 visitors respectively in Dammam and Jeddah during the last two years.
The exhibition will feature modern techniques of Islamic Dawa — such as the use of Internet, electronic signboards, mobile phones, cassettes and pamphlets — in reaching out to non-Muslims.
They can also visit a special website in English, www.cocg.org.
Of the thousands who have visited the site, some have already embraced Islam, while others are planning to do so. The call office has also placed on the Internet over 80 books on Islam in the English language.
Three days (June 10-12) have been set apart for women, who can gain admission to the exhibition from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
One of the major highlights of the exhibition will be prizes for participants in various Islamic competitions, ranging from cars and mobile phones to books and cassettes. There will be lectures in different languages for non-Muslims.
They include Urdu (June 6, 5-10 p.m.), Tamil (June 7), Bengali (June 8), Bahasa Indonesia (June 9), lectures for women in English (June 10-12), Malayalam (June 13), and Tagalog (June 14).
