Susan Carland: Asking What She Truly Believed
Susan Carland remembered her church with affection. When she later told the story of her conversion, she made a point of describing a happy religious upbringing and people who had treated her well. Yet at seventeen she began asking whether she believed because she was convinced, or because she had been brought up to believe.
The question led her to explore other religions. Islam was not initially an interest, but she kept encountering it. Reading its own texts, beyond media images and the behaviour of particular Muslims, changed her understanding. In her conversation with Andrew Leigh, she explained that its teachings first made sense to her intellectually; the spiritual attachment developed afterwards.
The decision took time. She embraced Islam at nineteen, before September 2001. Worry about family and friends was part of her hesitation. When she told her mother, her mother hugged her and cried. Affection and fear existed together, and both women needed patience to find their way through the change.
Carland began wearing a headscarf almost immediately. There were difficult conversations, and some friendships ended. Looking back, she also recognised her own youthful sharpness. Her mother needed to understand her choice, while she needed to become gentler in explaining it. In the later interview, she described their relationship as good again.
She also clarified that she became Muslim before her relationship with her husband. Marriage had followed a decision she had already made for herself. She wanted her choice to be understood through her own search, rather than through an explanation that overlooked her agency.
She described prayer to Andrew Leigh as a recurring check on her moral direction, while acknowledging that busyness could make observance mechanical and require renewed attention.
ABC’s 2011 profile identified her as a co-founder of Victoria’s convert support service, alongside her youth work.
By her 2018 SBS interview, her research on Muslim women challenging sexism had become the book Fighting Hislam.
Her journey did not end with the decision she told her mother. It continued through a family relationship that needed maturity, a religious practice whose place in her life she described, and work with others. In her account, gratitude toward those who had cared for her remained alongside the conviction that led her to choose differently.
Sources
- Andrew Leigh — Susan Carland on Islam and authenticity
- ABC — The Interview: Muslim Susan Carland
- SBS — Susan Carland reflects on growing up
Photo: Grace Anne Bobadilla / Unsplash.