Yvonne Ridley, white native Londoner, journalist, captive in a foreign land, left for dead by her govt, the United Kingdom – and now a Muslim woman.
Here is her story.
London, UK. One of the most Islamophobic cities in the world. Bear the name “Muhammad” on your passport, and you’re as good as a suspect whenever you pass through immigration. Wear the hijab, and you’re despised by your fellow Londoners. So how is it that Yvonne Ridley, a native white Londoner, came to embrace Islam?
Ridley before her conversion to Islam -
Ms Yvonne Ridley worked as a journalist. Prior to the invasion of Afghanistan, when the Taliban was the govt, Ms Ridley did what any over-zealous journalist would do. Get into the pre-war zone to cover the news for your employer.
Going under cover (literally) in Afghanistan was easy. After all, don’t all Afghan women cover themselves from head to toe? Who was to know that under the burka was a white native Londoner with a camera to capture all the pre-action and action of the impending invasion of Afghanistan?
As it turned out, fate had it that she was caught. This was near the end of the year 2001. US, UK and other warmongering nations were about to invade Afghanistan. So when Ms Ridley was caught, the Taliban suspected her to be a spy. Death by execution was staring at her in the eye.
Her employer tried to save her. But the UK govt wanted her dead. The reason was political. If the Taliban executed her for spying, it would be the perfect platform for the UK govt to get its citizens to support the invasion of Afghanistan.
Yes, “ask not what your country will do for you, because it would do nothing for you” – John Fxxx Kena-ditch.
Silly UK govt wanted her dead so badly, they didn’t even hide it. That caused the Taliban to suspect Ms Ridley was speaking the truth that she was just a journalist.
A deal between the Taliban and Ms Ridley was then made. The Taliban decided to let her go, much to the disappointment of the UK govt (under Phony Tony the BLiar), on condition that she read the Quran on her return to London.
Upon her return, she read the Quran as promised – and did one better than the deal she made in Afghanistan. She converted to Islam.
Here is her story as reported by the BBC. Note the subtle jibe at Islam the BBC makes. London is after all an Islamophobic city, if you remember.
Yvonne Ridley: From captive to convert
If you were being interrogated by the Taleban as a suspected US spy, it might be hard to imagine a happy ending.
But for journalist Yvonne Ridley, the ordeal in Afghanistan led her to convert to a religion she says is “the biggest and best family in the world”.
The formerly hard-drinking Sunday school teacher became a Muslim after reading the Koran on her release.
She now describes radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri as “quite sweet really” and says the Taleban have suffered an unfair press.
Working as a reporter for the Sunday Express in September 2001, Ridley was smuggled from Pakistan across the Afghan border.
But her cover was blown when she fell off her donkey in front of a Taleban soldier near Jalalabad, revealing a banned camera underneath her robes.
Her first thought as the furious young man came running towards her?
“Wow – you’re gorgeous,” she says.
“He had those amazing green eyes that are peculiar to that region of Afghanistan and a beard with a life of its own.
“But fear quickly took over. I did see him again on my way to Pakistan after my release and he waved at me from his car.”
Ridley was interrogated for 10 days without being allowed a phone call, and missed her daughter Daisy’s ninth birthday.
Of the Taleban, Ridley says: “I couldn’t support what they did or believed in, but they were demonised beyond recognition, because you can’t drop bombs on nice people.”
It has been suggested the 46-year-old is a victim of Stockholm Syndrome, in which hostages take the side of the hostage-takers.
For those who are unfamiliar, the “Stockholm Syndrome” is an unproven theory where the victim defends the captor due to some “unexplained emotional ties that blossomed over the kidnap period”, like for example a female captive falls in love with her male captor. Yep, just like in the movies.
BBC (and many Londoners) just couldn’t believe that Yvonne, horror of horrors, converted to Islam. To many Islamophobes, Islam oppresses women and Ms Ridley, a hardened white native Londoner allows herself to be oppressed? So they attribute it to the Stockholm Syndrome in denial.
But she says: “I was horrible to my captors. I spat at them and was rude and refused to eat. It wasn’t until I was freed that I became interested in Islam.”‘Flappy knickers’
Indeed, the Taleban deputy foreign minister was called in when Ridley refused to take her underwear down from the prison washing line, which was in view of soldier’s quarters.
“He said, ‘Look, if they see those things they will have impure thoughts’.”
“Afghanistan was about to be bombed by the richest country in the world and all they were concerned about was my big, flappy, black knickers.
See the jibe from BBC I told you about earlier? Yep, article is supposedly about Yvonne’s amazing conversion and BBC talks about some flappy knickers?
“I realised the US doesn’t have to bomb the Taleban – just fly in a regiment of women waving their underwear and they will all run off.”Once she was back in the UK, Ridley turned to the Koran as part of her attempt to understand her experience.
“I was absolutely blown away by what I was reading – not one dot or squiggle had been changed in 1,400 years.
“I have joined what I consider to be the biggest and best family in the world. When we stick together we are absolutely invincible.”
What do her Church of England parents in County Durham make of her new family?
“Initially the reaction of my family and friends was one of horror, but now they can all see how much happier, healthier and fulfilled I am.
“And my mother is delighted I’ve stopped drinking.”
Praise be to the Lord of the Universe! I can tell you many converts to Islam give up drinking, womanizing, gambling etc. If there is a cure for all those vice, I can tell you Islam is it. Me? Nah, never did those things before even when I was a non-Muslim in the first place. What is there to give up?
What does Ridley feel about the place of women in Islam?“There are oppressed women in Muslim countries, but I can take you up the side streets of Tyneside and show you oppressed women there.
“Oppression is cultural, it is not Islamic. The Koran makes it crystal clear that women are equal.”
And her new Muslim dress is empowering, she says.
“How liberating is it to be judged for your mind and not the size of your bust or length of your legs.”
That one’s for all the Slutwalkers out there!
A single mother who has been married three times, she says Islam has freed her from worry over her love life.
“I no longer sit and wait by the phone for a man to ring and I haven’t been stood up for months.
“I have no man stress. For the first time since my teens I don’t have that pressure to have a boyfriend or husband.”
But there has been a phone call from at least one male admirer – north London preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri.
“He said, ‘Sister Yvonne, welcome to Islam, congratulations’.
“I explained I hadn’t yet taken my final vows and he said, ‘Don’t be pressured or pushed, the whole community is there for you if you need any help, just call one of the sisters.’
‘Straight to hellfire’
“I thought, I can’t believe it, this is the fire and brimstone cleric from Finsbury Park mosque and he is quite sweet really.
“I was just about to hang up when he said, ‘But there is just one thing I want you to remember. Tomorrow, if you have an accident and die, you will go straight to hellfire’.
“I was so scared that I carried a copy of the vows in my purse until my final conversion last June.”
And the hardest part of her new life?
“Praying five times a day. And I am still struggling to give up cigarettes.”
More about Women Converts -
In spite of all the Islamophobia that exists in London, especially how it is falsely propagated that Islam oppresses women, it is the white native women Britons who make up the biggest bulk of converts in the UK.
If Islam is that oppressive to women, and if secular western lifestyle is so liberating, why are these women giving up their liberated lifestyle to be oppressed?
How 100,000 Britons have chosen to become Muslim… and average convert is 27-year-old white woman
About 5,200 people in UK adopted faith last year alone
The number of Muslim converts in Britain has passed 100,000, fuelled by a surge in young white women adopting the Islamic faith.
The figure has almost doubled in ten years – with the average convert now a 27-year-old white woman fed up with British consumerism and immorality.
The numbers, revealed in a study by multi-faith group Faith Matters, have led to claims that the country is undergoing a process of ‘Islamification’.
Note that among these women is Ms Lauren Booth, sis-in-law of ex-PM Tony Blair. I wrote about her in this blog too – Lauren Booth, sis-in-law of Tony Blair, converts to Islam
Ms Lauren Booth, sis-in-law of Tony Blair. Pic from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1323278/Tony-Blairs-sister-law-Lauren-Booth-converts-Islam-holy-experience-Iran.html#ixzz14EdOM1V4
So if Islam is that oppressive, especially to women, and if secular lifestyle is so liberating to women, why are so many young white native Brit women giving up their freedom to be enslaved into Islam?
As someone who once believed that Islam is all about violence myself (bcos of media influence of course), this is what I can say. How about learning about Islam minus all the media and societal bias?
That’s all you need to do. You will understand why these women (and many other converts) come to Islam after you compare it to the so called developed first world practices like usury, justification of economic gain through oppression, financial greed etc.
Finally, about myself -
Well, that’s how Yvonne Ridley came to Islam. For me, it was a less turbulent journey but a longer one. It took me 15 years from the time I was first interested in Islam to my actual conversion. My interest started at 9 years old. Converted at 24. Met wife at 25. Married at 26.
So why did it take 15 years for me to convert? One of the reasons was the media and societal bias against Islam. I was doing fine practising Islam as a non-Muslim. One of my thoughts was that if I was doing fine practising Islam (like praying 5 times a day and fasting one month a year) as a non-Muslim, why the need to convert?
Or so I thought. Until I realised that no one lives alone doing things others don’t do. Here’s my story – How I came to Islam
