Daniel Streich once a devout Christian and who was a member of the The Swiss People’s Party, noted for their anti-Islam and anti-Minaret stance, converted to Islam over two years ago but kept his conversion secret. The story was picked up by Pakistan’s “The Nation” newspaper but weaved fact with fiction, which seems to be typical Pakistani journalism, either they over-embellish the truth or they have a slap-dash and lazy approach to journalism. A generalisation? Perhaps, but as someone from Pakistani extraction, having been exposed to The Daily Jang, Nawa-e-Waqt, the Daily Millat and other variant pakora wrappers including The Nation, I have read, time and again, crazy and made up stories passing for “news” that just prey on people’s ignorance.

Anyway, back to the story at hand, Illume Magazine’s Jason Hamza van Boom is presenting a more rigorously established account of the MP’s conversion which you can read here: Swiss Politician’s Conversion Sparks Rumors, his original piece was publised in Tikkun Magazine Online.

The question has to be asked is why are some Muslim prone to exaggerate and in some cases make up stories about conversions (Neil Armstrong anyone?)?