This essay was published first by New Lines Magazine on December 1, 2023.اضافة اعلان
On
October 20, 13 days after the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza, the content
creator Megan B. Rice took to TikTok to record an emotional video.
“No,
but can we talk about the Palestinian faith real quick?” Rice posted on TikTok
on Oct. 20. “Because it is unlike any I have ever seen. I have quite literally
seen videos of people who have lost everything, even their children, and they
are holding their dead children in their arms and still thanking God, still
asking God to take care of their children from there.”
In
the nearly two weeks since October 7, more than 4,000 Palestinians — many of
them children — had been killed by Israel’s ceaseless airstrikes. Facing a
shortage of fuel, food, water, and electricity, the entire Gaza Strip was
teetering on the brink of what Human Rights Watch calls “a humanitarian
catastrophe.”
That
catastrophe has galvanized many on TikTok, like Rice, whose videos previously
revolved around updates and observations about her personal life, pop culture,
and books, to publicly decry Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
Her
video received more than 1.1 million views, and hundreds of TikTok users
flocked to the comments to share their agreement.
“Facts!
I am not even Muslim and the unity of the Ummah and faith in Allah is
beautiful. I can only hope to have an ounce of that one day,” one user posted.
“This! I’m in no way a religious person now but seeing their love and faith in
Allah brings me to tears. I wish I had that in a religion,” another echoed.
The
next day, on October 21, Rice decided to listen to an audiobook of the Quran
for the first time. She posted her initial observations about it in a TikTok,
saying she was “enjoying the read” so far, and received hundreds of comments,
many from followers purporting to be Muslim offering her support and
encouragement to continue her exploration.
“No, but can we talk about the Palestinian faith real quick?” Rice posted on TikTok on Oct. 20. “Because it is unlike any I have ever seen. I have quite literally seen videos of people who have lost everything, even their children, and they are holding their dead children in their arms and still thanking God, still asking God to take care of their children from there.”
Two
days later, Rice announced she was starting a virtual World Religion Book Club
for anyone interested in reading and talking about religious texts, primarily
the Quran. Garnering even more engagement from her audience, less than three
weeks after that, on November 11, Rice took her shahada — the Muslim
declaration of faith and an official gesture of conversion to Islam — on TikTok
Live, in front of an audience of more than 8,000 people. In less than a month,
Rice had gone from irreligious to a devout Muslim, her conversion sparked
specifically by the ongoing events in Palestine. During the same period, her
followers more than tripled, from 227,400 to 832,100. (Rice now has nearly
922,000 followers).
Rice,
who has said she previously identified as having “no religion,” is just one
example of a larger trend on the social video platform: Thousands of American
Christians and Jews, inspired by the Palestinians’ strength of faith in the
face of overwhelming violence and hardship, say they are reading about Islam
for the first time to understand the origins of that faith.
Some
are so moved by their discovery that they have made the life-altering decision
to convert to Islam, bringing them a host of new admirers and, inevitably,
detractors who criticize them for perceived insincerity or opportunism, valuing
clicks over true piety. Internet celebrity is even more fickle and fleeting
than the offline variety.
Thousands of American Christians and Jews, inspired by the Palestinians’ strength of faith in the face of overwhelming violence and hardship, say they are reading about Islam for the first time to understand the origins of that faith. Some are so moved by their discovery that they’ve made the life-altering decision to convert to Islam, bringing them a host of new admirers and, inevitably, detractors who criticize them for perceived insincerity or opportunism, valuing clicks over true piety.
Although
social media is designed to be a platform for infinite experimentation with
personae and identity, abiding faith is fundamentally at odds with virality. In
the case of these TikTok converts, experts fear, that once Israel’s war in Gaza
is finished, so too will their commitment – and what will that say about what
it means to be a Muslim in modern America?
This is the abridged version of the
article, to read the full version,
click here. This article originally appeared in News Lines Magazine
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