Madam, - Kathy Sheridan's very interesting article on Islam (Weekend Review, November 27th) suggests many recent African-American converts to Islam are descended from slaves who were forcibly converted from that faith. But the vast majority of slaves transported to North and South America from the 16th to the 19th centuries were adherents of traditional African religions, not of Islam.
The current belief that Islam is more authentically African than other religions is strengthened by Western unawareness of the Arab slave traders who raided east and central Africa for centuries, until stopped by the European colonial powers late in the 19th century.
Christianity, not Islam, is the world's fastest growing religion and, by 2050, approximately 34 per cent of the world's population will be Christian. The rapid decline in European Christianity blinds many of us to growth elsewhere. - Yours, etc.,
FERGUS O'DONOGHUE, SJ, Editor, Studies, Dublin 2