There was considerable fuss and noise and Islamic triumphalism in 2014 when a certain researcher from the University of Aberystwyth (U.K.) called Warren Dockter supposedly came across a letter written by Winston Churchill’s future sister-in-law, Lady Gwendeline Bertie [1] in August 1907 (she married Winston’s brother Jack on 4 August 1908) in which she pleads with Winston not to convert to Islam. The headline in an article in the London Daily Newspaper, The Independent, published on 28 December 2014, claims, “Sir Winston Churchill’s family begged him not to convert to Islam, letter reveals. He might have been a staunch protector of the British Empire, but the British Prime Minister had a love of the Orient and Islam.”
Practically every single claim in that headline is misleading or false. First, it was not his “family” collectively that pleaded with Churchill not to convert; “family begged him not to convert” conjures up an image of several members of the Churchill family at the breakfast table, looking overwrought, on their knees, and panicked wondering what they were to do with that irresponsible child, Winston. But in fact it was one solitary person, who was not even a member of his family, though soon to be Churchill’s sister-in-law, Lady Gwendeline [sic], who misread a particular situation and came to the absurd and rather fantastic conclusion that Churchill might convert to Islam. Second, what “love of the Orient”? Churchill had no knowledge whatsoever of the Orient let alone “Islam”. He had been in India as a young subaltern between 3 October 1896 and August 1898. He spent 22 months in all in India: the longest period outside Britain. Churchill wrote to his mother on 4 August 1896 about his views on India: “…but my dear Mamma you cannot think how I would like to sail in a few days to scenes of adventure and excitement- to places where I could gain experience and derive advantage -rather than to the tedious land of India [emphasis added] where I shall be equally out of the pleasures of peace and the chances of war. The future is to me utterly unattractive. I look upon going to India with this unfortunate regiment…as useless and unprofitable exile” [emphasis added].[2]
After India, Churchill clearly longed to return to civilisation: “I am looking forward immensely, “he wrote to his mother, “to seeing civilisation again after the barbarous squalor of this country.”[3] “Barbarous squalor”: no romanticization of the Orient here.
Churchill had never been East of Calcutta. He did eventually travel to North Africa: Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco (Casablanca and Marrakech), Egypt (Cairo), The Sudan, but also East Africa, South Africa, Mozambique, Teheran, and the Middle East (Jerusalem). How do you concoct a “love of the Orient” out of these journeys (many to Africa), made after Lady Gwendeline’s letter, of short durations and many necessitated by political exigencies? Churchill did not know a single oriental language, even in India he failed to master any colloquial dialects.
Love of Islam? Churchill did not even know the difference between Sunni and Shia. If you have followed my account of Churchill’s devastatingly negative views of Islam so far, you will know immediately how far-fetched such a claim is. Here are some of Churchill’s most cherished beliefs which are totally unacceptable to a Muslim:
- He despised Islam’s treatment of women.
- He loved alcohol: here are some of his many pronouncements on the joys of alcohol:
- “Whatever else they may say of me as a soldier, at least nobody can say I have ever failed to display a meet and proper appreciation of the virtues of alcohol”. [4]
- “I need a little more to drink. You see, I have a war to fight and I need fortitude for the battle. And there is one favour I hope will do for me. I hope you will come to my defence if someday, someone should claim that I am a teetotaller.”[5]
- “I could not live without Champagne. In victory I deserve it. In defeat I need it.”[6]
- Churchill told a journalist on 20 December 1945 that “he had got very drunk” at a dinner at the French Embassy the previous night, adding with a chuckle, “drunker than usual.”[7]
- According to at least three biographers of Churchill, he was an atheist or at least a freethinker: Paul Johnson[8], Geoffrey Best[9], and even Warren Dockter himself said,[10] “Churchill never seriously considered converting. He was more or less an atheist by this time anyway.” [11][Emphasis added]. (If what Docker says is true, what is the point of the article?) Atheism is totally unacceptable under Islam, and apostasy is punishable by death, under Islamic Law atheism is a greater sin than murder. [12]
- Churchill believed in democracy where power resides with the people; under Islam sovereignty belongs to God and God alone.
- Churchill was, like his father, Lord Randolph, a fervent philosemite, that is a lover of Jews. As Andrew Roberts put it, “he was a lifelong philo-semite”[13], and went on to explain his liking stemmed from his father, who was friendly with Nathaniel Meyer, 1st Baron Rothschild, Sir Felix Simon and Sir Ernest Cassel. F. Foster, Sir Randolph’s political biographer adds to this list of his friends, who were mainly bankers and philanthropists: Baron de Hirsch, Lionel Cohen, J. Wertheimer, and H.L. Bischoffsheim.
Under Islam, all Jews are cursed and will be punished for ever.
Every single day, five times a day, every pious Muslim recites the Fatiha, the Koran’s opening chapter, where in verse 7, we are told, according to a canonical hadith, that the words, al-maghdud alyahim, i.e. those who earned Allah’s anger refer to the Jews. “Forgetting the Divine Dispensation, the Jews transgressed Allah’s commandments and flouted the prophets, and even slew them [Sura (Chapter of the Koran) III, al-Imran, verse 181]. Therefore many punishments fell upon on them [Sura II, Baqara or Heifer, verse 61]; some of them were turned into apes for desecrating the sabbath (Sura II, verse 65; Sura VII, verse 166)…The believers [Muslims] will find that they [the Jews] are their fiercest enemies (Sura V, verse 82)…Therefore, after they had rejected many friendly overtures (Sura II verse 59; Sura V verse 81), it was decided that they must be fought against, made tributaries, and compelled to pay the poll-tax, as a mark of their humiliation (Sura IX, verse 29…The Jews extended their hatred of the Prophet to all Muslims… They became, in a way, the incarnation of evil.”[14]
As Professor Camilla Adang said, “Islamic polemics against Judaism and its adherents is a phenomenon as old as Islam itself, and the Quran is its very first source”.[15]
- Churchill was equally a Zionist.[16] In a speech given in Jerusalem, on 29 March 1921, Churchill told his Jewish audience, “Personally my heart is full of sympathy for Zionism. This sympathy has existed for a long time, since twelve years ago. I believe that the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine will be a blessing to the whole world, a blessing to the Jewish race scattered all over the world, and a blessing to Great Britain.”[17]
All Muslims are anti-zionists. In a memorandum given to Churchill in March 1921, “The Arabs sought to prove ‘that Palestine belongs to the Arabs, and that the Balfour Declaration is a gross injustice.’”[18]
Warren Dockter writes that “As Churchill entered the Liberal Party and the most progressive phase of his career, his fascination with the Orient (and to some degree, with Islam) grew. He often spent time with Wilfrid S. Blunt, the political radical, Arabist, and poet, who by 1905 had become ‘the avatar for anti-imperial causes’ and an active force for the regeneration of Islam.’ Churchill and Blunt even dressed up in Arab clothes, a tradition they carried on into the twilight of their friendship. Churchill’s curious fascination with Islamic culture even became obvious to others around him. He received a letter from his long-time friend and soon-to-be sister-in-law, Lady Gwendoline [sic][19] Bertie, who implored him not to convert to Islam:
‘Please don’t be converted to Islam; I have noticed in your disposition a tendency to orientalism, pasha-like tendencies I really have; you are not cross my writing this, so if you come in 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.’ ”[20]
Actually Gwendeline Theresa Mary Towneley-Bertie [1885-1941], finishes her letter very casually with “I am just off to the manoeuvres on the Downs, where what Punch calls the flower of the British Cavalry [are] mounting dashing chargers.” [21] On the following day 28 August 1907, Lady Gwendeline Bertie wrote a much longer letter to Winston Churchill where there is absolutely no mention of her putative worries. On 7 September 1907, Lady Gwendeline wrote again to Winston with no signs of panic about his supposed impending conversion.[22]
This article is the epilogue of Ibn Warraq’s new book on Churchill and Islam. The quote given by Hugh Fitzgerald forms the Frontispiece to the book, and within the book itself there is a careful examination of the quote and why it is so important.
[1] According to Andrew Roberts it “Bertie” is pronounced “Barty”, and she was nicknamed “Goonie”.
See Andrew Roberts, Churchill, p.122. Lady Gwendeline Bertie [1885-1941] died of cancer at the age of 56. Incidentally, Warren Dockter incorrectly spells Lady Gwendeline’s name as “Gwendoline”.
[2] Randolph S. Churchill, Winston S. Churchill, CV I Part 1 1874-1896, p. 676.
[3] Randolph S. Churchill, Winston S. Churchill, CV I Part 2 1896-1900, p.753.
[4] Richard M. Langworth, ed. Churchill by Himself, London: Ebury Press, 2008, p.536.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid., p.537.
[7] Andrew Roberts, Churchill, p.1.
[8] Paul Johnson, Churchill, p.13
[9] Geoffrey Best, Churchill and War, p.249.
[10] The Independent, published on 28 December 2014.
[11] “Sir Winston Churchill’s family begged him not to convert to Islam, letter reveals,” The Independent, Sunday 28 December 2014.
[12] Thomas Patrick Hughes, Dictionary of Islam, Delhi: Rupa & Co, 1988 [Ist Pub.1885] s.v. “Sin”, p.594.
[13] Andrew Roberts, Churchill, p.95.
[14] Moshe Perlmann, A Study of Muslim Polemics Directed Against Jews, Ph.D Thesis, cited by Andrew Bostom, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, Published by Andrew Bostom, 2020, p.iii.
[15] Andrew Bostom, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, p. xli.
[16] See in general: Martin Gilbert, Churchill & the Jews, London: Simon & Schuster, 2007, but especially p.43.
[17] Martin Gilbert, Churchill & the Jews, pp.56-57.
[18] Ibid.,p.58.
[19] Correct spelling is “Gwendeline”.
[20] Warren Dockter, Churchill and the Islamic World, London: I.B.Tauris, pp.11-12.
[21] Randolph S. Churchill, WSC, Companion Vol. II, Part 1 1901-1907, p.672.
[22] Randolph S. Churchill, WSC, Companion Vol. II, Part 1 1901-1907, pp.673-675.
rick says
I do not believe that Churchill considered becoming a Muslim. The reason given above should be enough but the deciding one for me is his drinking. He drank alcohol every day. Giving it up for any religion would cause him to steer clear of that religion. And Muslims not only cannot drink, they make sure that YOU cannot drink also. It would be a betrayal of everything he firmly believed in.
gravenimage says
Chruchill wrote critically of Islam several times. The idea that his only issue with Islam is that it would not allow him to be a lush is deeply mistaken.
Kerry Lumpkin says
Actually I served most of my 24 year agency career on the ground in Islamic lands and can recall many commercial flights from various Middle Eastern cities heading into Europe in which Muslims drank alcohol. I first saw this aboard a Lufthansa flight from Damascus to Frankfurt. The moment the seat belt sign extinguished the Arabs lined up in the aisle waiting to enter the bathrooms. They’d enter dressed as Arabs and leave dressed as Westerners. As soon as they returned to their seats they’d start ordering alcoholic beverages. When I asked about this one informed me that Allah could no longer see them outside the Middle East!
Hugh Fitzgerald says
I do not believe that the man who wrote the following brilliantly perceptive remarks about Muslims and Islam in 1899 (see The River War) cold possibly have been tempted to convert. He was surely joshing Gwendeline, or others who told her about his remark, and she took him seriously. Or perhaps it was she who was engaged in banter with her future brother-in-law, pretending to believe he could possibly become a Mohammedan.
“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property – either as a child, a wife, or a concubine – must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the faith: all know how to die but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.”
― Winston Churchill, The River War
“The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.”
― Winston Churchill, The River War
gravenimage says
Spot on, Mr. Fitzgerald.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
That was the first thing that came to mind when I saw this article. It’s almost like claiming that Hitler putatively converted to Judaism
Brian Ozzy says
I was wondering myself why that comment of Churchill’s was not mentioned in the article, which would have immediately made the claims gibberish.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Yeah, when that’s the most famous statement he’s known to have made about mohammedans
John1 says
+1
William Swiggart says
Bingo.
John Smith says
It’s a well known fact that Churchill absolutely detested islam, and there is no way whatsoever that he’d ever consider becoming a muslim.
gravenimage says
+1
Wellington says
Churchill was a skeptic (like me) but he understood the difference between a religion which fostered a fine ethic, as Christianity and Judaism have, versus one (e.g., Islam) which does not. Regarding this “specific” matter I have no doubt.
Derek says
Many many compliments to Ibn Waraq: one of the founders of awareness of true Islam.
I shall pray that he lives for a hundred years and continues to guide “the infidels” of the clear and apparent danger befallen upon them.
gravenimage says
Winston Churchill’s Putative Conversion to Islam (Part 1)
…………………………………………
What utter rot. Almost all of Churchill’s observatons of Islam were negative–the only thng he ever said to the contrary (sort of) is that some Muslms were nonetheless decent people
tgusa says
It is a fact that Winston said this about islam around 1899.
“Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die: but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.”
1899. He was absolutely correct except for the fact that muslims in the UK today are not brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen. Don’t think for a moment that if given the chance the brave and loyal soldiers of islam living in the UK today wouldn’t rape and murder the Queen..or King… and perhaps their entire bloodline as well.
Churchill was half American and half British so because of that he was a complicated man. No matter what his religious convictions were he never would have converted to islam.
dumbledoresarmy says
Another place where Churchill discusses Islam in absolutely scathing terms is in an earlier book, The Story of the Malakand Field Force (which recounts his experiences in India, on the northwest frontier; here the British Raj was continually coming up against fanatical mohammedan raiders).
His remarks can be found in the chapter entitled “The Theatre of War”, which functions as a backgrounder.
“… the Mahommedan religion increases, instead of lessening, the fury of intolerance. It was originally propagated by the sword, and ever since, its votaries have been subject, above the people of all other creeds, to this form of madness.
“In a moment the fruits of patient toil, the prospects of material prosperity, the fear of death itself, are flung aside.
“The more emotional Pathans are powerless to resist. All rational considerations are forgotten. Seizing their weapons they become Ghazis – as dangerous and as sensible as mad dogs; fit only to be treated as such.
“While the more generous spirits among the tribesmen become convulsed in an ecstasy of religious bloodthirstiness, poorer and more material souls derive additional impulses from the influence of others, the hopes of plunder and the joy of fighting.
“Thus whole nations are roused to arms. Thus the Turks repel their enemies, the Arabs of the Soudan break the British squares, and the rising on the Indian frontier spreads far and wide.
“In each case civilisation is confronted with militant Mahommedanism.
“The forces of progress clash with those of reaction.
“The religion of blood and war [i.e. ISLAM – DDA] is face to face with that of peace [and by religion of peace, Churchill means, Christianity; though I would also place Judaism and Buddhism under that broad rubric, in comparison with Islam! Because they do not make war their raison d’etre.]
“Luckily, the religion of peace is usually the better armed.”
END QUOTE.
I would dearly like to know when exactly somebody took that phrase ‘religion of peace’ – which Churchill uses to define Christian civilisation over against Islam, which he clearly defines as “the religion of blood and war”, and decided to reverse reality by .. applying it to ISLAM!
Was that person aware of what Churchill had written, and deliberately reversing it???
I do like that line about ‘Luckily, the religion of peace is usually the better armed”.
As we saw recently when the Israelis and the USA together in the space of a very short time transformed Iran’s nuke project into a series of great big smoking holes in the ground.. bam! Bam! bam!
And it is this awkward fact of the civlised and decent non-Muslims – notably, at present, the tiny Jewish state of Israel – being *better armed* than the rabid thugs of the Mohammedan mob – that most of the propagandised useful idiots are currently deploring!
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Why doesn’t Warren Dockter investigate whether Hitler ever contemplated converting to islam? He could well have been a caliph had he done so