Jermaine Jackson’s Faith Journey

Started with Bahraini Children

Michael Jackson’s brother : “the public announcement of my conversion

to Islam in Saudi Arabia surprised my family members in America”

The Jackson family was renowned for singing and music ; Jackson the father founded a successful pop group from among his children. “The Jackson Five” was in the beginning one of the most successful pop groups in the U.S.A. It became renowned in the 1970’s and achieved worldwide fame. It went from one success to another and was the top pop group in America. Its records were the best selling ones all over the world at that time. These gifted singers grew older ; the paths  of their singing and musical career drew them apart ; each one of them formed his own group ; but the family as a whole remained closely connected with singing and music.

In the midst of such musical environment, Jermaine Jackson, brother of world-famous star Michael Jackson, grew up. Jermaine belongs to an artistic family whose renown and influence on the course of the American pop music is known to everyone. Growing up and being brought up in this artistic environment has had a lasting impact on the course of his life up to the present.

Jermaine Jackson embarked on his faith journey, which led him to embrace Islam, during a tour he conducted to some Middle-Eastern countries, along with his elder sister. There he learnt the truth of Islam from the mouths of children. Jermaine Jackson said : “During my visit to some Middle-Eastern countries in 1989 in the company of my elder sister, I stayed in Bahrain where a lot of people welcomed us. Once, I happened to chitchat with children in Manama ;  among their innocent queries was inquiring about my religion, I replied :‘I am a Christian’. In turn I asked them about their religion. They answered in one voice, ‘Islam’. They were very proud of belonging to this religion and started talking about it. I asked them more questions about it, and each one of them started talking about Islam in a manner that amazed me. For these children, whom I liked, were very proud of their religion and talked about it with great pleasure.”

Jermaine Jackson related in detail the story of his conversion to Islam in an interview published by the London based Arabic magazine “Al-Majallah” in its issue N° 966 : “After coming back from Bahrain and talking to those children about Islam, I was sure that I would become Muslim. I told my friend Qunber Ali about this feeling that I had for some time and revealed to him my desire to learn more about Islam. We both went to Saudi Arabia so that I could learn more and more about Islam. There I announced my conversion to Islam”.

As Jermaine Jackson loved his family and singing and music since his early youth, he thought that he would not give up singing. On the contrary, he had a mission of a new type. Instead of giving up art, he started to feel, through his conversion to Islam, a new impetus to be more productive in his career as an artist, wishing to benefit from his popularity and from the thousands of his fans by fulfilling a new mission.

Jermaine Jackson continued talking about the beginning of his faith journey that led him to embrace Islam stating : “I went with my friend Ali Qunber to Riyadh so as to know more about the Islamic religion. From there I went to Jeddah. A generous Saudi family accompanied me to Makkah for the performance of `Umrah after I had embraced Islam.” Jackson said that after his conversion to Islam, he really felt as if he were truly born anew.

He said : “I had many queries whose answers I was looking for, particularly the questions related to Christianity and Jesus, and I found ready and satisfactory answers for all these queries when I embraced Islam. I was perplexed as a Christian who grew up in a religious family, for I was always confused by the fact that the Bible was written by ordinary people. It always came to my mind that they were human beings ; each one of them would preserve his own interests and those of his community in what he was writing. The Holy Qur’an, on the contrary, is the Book of Allah, Who has preserved it over the years and for many generations : “We have, without doubt, sent down the Message ; and We will assuredly guard it (from corruption)”. (Surat Al-Hijr, Verse 9). In Saudi Arabia I found very good cassettes, released by the former British pop-singer and the present Muslim preacher Yusuf Islam, in which there is a debate about Islam and Christianity and I learnt a lot from this.”

Jackson refers to the American media bad campaign against Islam and Muslims, commenting : “What astonishes me is that ordinary Americans believe this propaganda as they are ignorant of the true nature and tolerance of Islam. What is astonishing, too, is that despite the existence of a big similarity between Islam and Christianity in many aspects, the denigration of Islam is far greater.”

Jackson said : “The hostile propaganda in America against Islam and Muslims has not been limited only to the various media, for Hollywood -the cinema industry capital- tries in the films it produces to portray Muslims as terrorists, killers, and evil-doers. I knew from my experience before and after my conversion to Islam that people should not believe the films produced by Hollywood which denigrate Islam and Muslims. This distortion upsets every Muslim and makes him wish he were capable of changing this image with the true image of Islam : the Islam of civilisation and enlightenment, the Islam of tolerance and fraternity.”

Jackson continued : “Islam has solved all my problems so I have become a man without problems. I have undergone a tremendous change from within, for I have given up drinking alcohol altogether and discarded all the prohibited things in compliance with he commandments of my new religion. There was much fear that I would influence the other members of the Jackson family and persuade them to embrace Islam, a dirty-tricks campaign was launched against me. I was accused of being an anti-Semite and of being incapable of coexisting with others as a result of my conversion to Islam. This is completely nonsense, for Islam is a religion which calls its followers to coexist with the others in peace and security.”

As to his family members’ reaction to his conversion to Islam, Jermaine Jackson said : “My mother had already heard the news of my conversion to Islam through the media before my return to America from Saudi Arabia where I announced my conversion to Islam and performed the `Umra in Makkah. My mother is a religious woman committed to her religion, so when I returned home, she asked me whether I was fully sure of the choice I had made. My answer was that Islam was the choice I really desired.”

As to his brothers’ and sisters’ reaction, Jermaine Jackson said : “My decision to embrace Islam was unexpected by my family members. This is why they were surprised by it as a result of their notions of Islam and Muslims which they learnt through the media, notions such as polygamy. Americans never understand the wisdom of allowing polygamy despite the fact that promiscuity and adultery are widespread in the American society, whereas Islam allows a man to have more than one wife as long as he can provide for them, in order to avoid the problems of divorce and adultery.”

Jermaine Jackson continued : “Muslim men in the Arab World love their wives and children ; the woman among them is respected and honoured, but many Americans do not understand this. I really admire the way children are brought up in Islamic societies.”

Jermaine Jackson said that he usually read only the Holy Qur’an in spite of the fact that he had a lot of Islamic books, but he felt that all these books drew on the Holy Qur’an, hence his determination to always read Allah’s Book.