Hebrew media: Gaza has led to the conversion of many young people in the West to Islam.
The Hebrew-language analytical news site Mekomit admitted in a detailed report on this matter that although more than a million American citizens have converted to Islam since 2001, this process has accelerated after the events of October 7 (Operation Al-Aqsa Storm and the Israeli regime’s invasion of the Gaza Strip), while we see this phenomenon in other countries from Australia to France, and many young people emphasize that the resistance of the people of Gaza has convinced them to convert to Islam.
The report, prepared by Ilad Ben-David, continues:
Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza following the October 7 attacks, public discourse in the West has changed fundamentally. One of the most prominent trends has been the increase in criticism of Israel’s actions and accusations of war crimes in Gaza.
This trend has been particularly prominent among influential Islamic organizations and their spokespeople in the West, who have strongly condemned Israel.
The media outlet admits in another part of the report: One of the most striking phenomena in this regard is the empathy of non-Muslim youth in the West with the suffering of the people of Gaza. This has also led to a sense of solidarity with Islam as a religion that represents the Palestinians, and many Western youth have found their way to Islam through personal and spiritual search.
The phenomenon of Islamization in the West, which was the result of collective shock, emerged more than twenty years ago, after the September 11 attacks. Alongside the sharp rise in Islamophobia, reports at the time suggested that tens of thousands of Americans were converting to Islam in order to understand the religion beyond the media’s portrayal. Many of them emphasized the gap between the “negative” Islam portrayed in the media and the “positive” Islam they had discovered for themselves.
At the same time, the Muslim community in the United States began to strengthen its presence and promote Islam as a religion of social justice. Islamic preachers, activists, and organizations presented Islam as a religion of peace, emphasized their American identity, and made the United States a base for the most prominent Islamic voices in the West to fight injustice, human rights violations, and oppression of Muslims.