Letters | 18 October 2012

Testing faith

Sir: I can sympathise with Melissa Kite’s concern over her friend’s apparently unconsidered marital conversion (‘Till faith do us part’, 13 October), but I wonder whether her panic at the idea of thousands of secular or nominal Christians converting for love is justified. Yes, it is easy to become a Muslim, while an adult wishing to convert to Christianity or Judaism must demonstrate knowledge and commitment before full acceptance into the new faith community. Sometimes those who convert too hastily or when under pressure come to regret it later. But Islam does not require Christian or Jewish women — as ‘People of the Book’ — to convert if they wish to marry a Muslim, and a good number of conversions to a partner’s faith occur after marriage, suggesting that it happens after examining the beliefs and trying out the way of life. Those of us who are in mixed marriages and who work among interfaith couples find that although some people are fairly secular before they meet a partner of another faith, the encounter stimulates and challenges their own beliefs and values in a way they would never have guessed it would. We grow in faith when our old certainties are stripped away.

Rosalind Birtwistle

Bedford

Yellow peril

Sir: It was odd, as you say in your leading article (13 October), that the mood at the Conservative party conference should have been upbeat, given the national gloom. Coalition seems to create an impression of steadiness — yet that very steadiness might result in a third party enjoying unauthorised power and opportunity for a decade. Indifference among the electorate will probably reduce the chance of clear election outcomes either way, and May 2010’s result will no longer be an aberration, but the status quo. A party with only 30 or 40 seats will fully control the balance of power, and government appointments, and with five years’ experience behind them, they will drive a much harder bargain next time to make sure that they get what they want from their towering partner.