‘Revert’ as a noun rather than a verb sounds like one of those Victorian terms that went out of fashion in the 1960s and is now considered a slur. However, this was the term that the BBC website felt was appropriate to describe people who had converted to Islam, in an article published on Friday, before hurriedly amending it on Saturday morning.
As it happens, this is the term used by some converts to Islam to describe their status within their new faith, based on the theological principle of fitra; the innate predisposition within all humans toward recognising the oneness of God. By this way of thinking, one does not become a Muslim, one ‘reverts’ to one’s true natural state.
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