Ramadan is the month when conversions to Islam break all records. Rituals of declaration of faith are held every week, in this holy month, at the Al-Koutoubia Mosque monument in Marrakech.

Islam, a religion of tolerance, peace, and love, continues to seduce and attract many foreigners in search of peace, despite its instrumentalisation and potential stigmatisation. The month of Ramadan is the ideal period during which non-Muslims ask questions about this practice and more generally about this religion which has become the centre of a media spectrum.

Indeed, Ramadan is the month when conversions to Islam break all records. Despite the ambient propaganda attempting to make people believe that Islam is a retrograde and violent religion, it is clear that more and more people are choosing to become Muslim.

In this context, our mosques receive a considerable influx of requests for conversion. The most atypical example is that of the Al-Koutoubia Mosque monument in Marrakech, where conversion ceremonies are organised almost daily in this month of piety, meditation, solidarity, fraternity, and sharing.

According to the young Wadiaa Chakir, master of ceremonies and famous reciter of the Quran during the "Tarawih" prayers (night prayers) at Al-Koutoubia, eight foreigners embraced Islam during the first twelve days of Ramadan, including a German journalist.

"At the mosque, the converts pronounce the Shahada in Arabic: 'I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is His messenger', which serves as a declaration of Muslim faith before an audience of the faithful. Subsequently, the certificates of conversion are issued to those concerned either by an Adoul or by a judge, 'Qadi Tawtiq', to officialise their conversion and allow them to live their Islam fully," he confided to the newspaper "Le Matin".

After noting that almost all the converts are European nationals, particularly French, Spanish, English, and German, Wadiaa Chakir observed that the reasons favouring these conversions are multiple, including reading the Quran, the mixing of populations, mixed marriages, the discovery of Islam in a Muslim country, and also the curiosity born from the demonisation of Islam and Muslims.

According to him, between 15 and 18 conversions are recorded each month of Ramadan at the Al-Koutoubia Mosque, which also receives more and more requests from people wishing to learn about Islam or even study it.

"All these people who have embraced Islam have changed their first name after their conversion, such as the French national who converted on the first day of Ramadan and who chose the name Adam," concludes Wadiaa.