Atheist Winston Churchill was begged not to convert to Islam

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A newly discovered letter from 1907 reveals Winston Churchill’s family begged him not to convert to Islam.

Words contained within a newly discovered letter suggest that Winston Churchill’s family, gripped by fear for his fascination with the Islamic world, had to practically beg him not to convert to Islam. Discovered by a history research fellow at Cambridge University, Warren Dockter, the letter is said to have been written by Lady Gwendoline Bertie, Churchill’s sister-in-law to be at the time.

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“Please don’t become converted to Islam; I have noticed in your disposition a tendency to orientalize, Pasha-like tendencies, I really have,” Gwen addressed Churchill, in the letter which dates back to August 1907. “If you come into contact with Islam your conversion might be effected with greater ease than you might have supposed, call of the blood, don’t you know what I mean, do fight against it,” she added. Lady Gwendoline Bertie, who later got married to Churchill’s brother, Jack, apparently had serious concerns about the likelihood of the former Prime Minister who led Britain to victory in World War II, converting, due to his overt fondness with Islam and the culture of the Orient. However, Dr. Dockter, who assisted the London Mayor Boris Johnson on his book about Churchill, has pointed out that it is very unlikely that Churchill would convert back then, as he was an atheist at the said time.

Churchill never seriously considered converting, he was more or less an atheist by this time anyway. He did however have a fascination with Islamic culture which was common among Victorians,” Dr. Dockter told The Independent in an interview. Dockter pressed on that Churchill’s family actually never needed to raise eyebrows over the possibility of an Islamic conversion, even as the Prime Minister was not known to be particularly religious all through his adulthood.

“[Lady Gwendoline Bertie] would have been worried because Churchill  was leaving for an African tour and she would have known Churchill  had been seeing his friend, Wilfrid S. Blunt, who was a renowned  Arabist, anti-imperialist  and poet. Though he and Churchill were friends and dressed in Arabian dress at times for Blunt’s eccentric parties, they rarely agreed.”

Winston Churchill had a remarkably close association with Islam and the Islamic society in its entirety,  as he was able to have a close observation of the Islamic society during his service as an officer with the British Army in Sudan. In a letter written to Lady Lytton in 1907 Churchill wrote that he “wished he were” a Pasha, which was a rank of distinction in the Ottoman Empire.

Winston Churchill actually showed some kind of public support to the Islamic community during his time as prime Minister. This was done by earmarking £100,000 in contributions to the construction of what has become London Central Mosque in Regent’s Park, though as a means to winning the support of the Muslim community during World War II, as The Telegraph said.

The said letter which has sparked off so much discussion about Winston Churchill in British media this past week, was discovered while Dr. Dockter was carrying out research for his forthcoming book Winston Churchill and the Islamic World: Orientalism, Empire and Diplomacy in the Middle East.

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