Gai Eaton
Charles Le Gai Eaton (Hasan le Gai Eaton or Hassan Abdul Hakeem) (1 January 1921 – 26 February 2010) was born in Lausanne, Switzerland and raised as an agnostic by his parents. He received his education at Charterhouse and at King's College, Cambridge. He worked for many years as a teacher and journalist in Jamaica and Egypt. He then joined the British Diplomatic Service.
Eaton converted to Islam in 1951. He served as a consultant to the Islamic Cultural Centre in London. In 1996 he served on a committee that drafted the constitution of the Muslim Council of Britain
He was however often critical of mainstream British Muslim opinion, and felt that Muslims themselves should have sorted out Saddam Hussain. Regarding the invasion of Iraq, in an interview with emel magazine he said, "I am very torn either way and I cannot quite make up my mind what I think... He was our monster, it should have been for us to deal with him.” In the same article Eaton also called for the creation of a British Islamic identity, "it is time for the Muslims in Britain to settle down, to find their own way, to form a real community and to discover a specifically British way of living Islam... This is no curry-island.”
His books include Islam and the Destiny of Man (listed on Q News' list of "10 books to take to university"), King of the Castle, and Remembering God. Many converts to Islam in the United Kingdom have been inspired by his books, which are also expositions of Islam for Western readers, secular or believing. He also frequently contributed articles to the quarterly journal on comparative religion and traditional studies, Studies in Comparative Religion.
There is a short autobiography at Salaam Books[8]. His last book and autobiography A Bad Beginning and the Path to Islam was published by Archetype in January 2010. He is the father of Leo Eaton, a director and producer of documentary films.[10]
“Meanwhile, the question is not whether we should 'lose ourselves' - since all do so in one way or another - but where we lose ourselves: in light or in darkness, in good dreams or in nightmares, in truth or in falsehood.”
“The agnostic has a very curious notion of religion. He is convinced that a man who says 'I believe in God' should at once become perfect; if this does not happen, then the believer must be a fraud and a hypocrite. He thinks that adherence to a religion is the end of the road, whereas it is in fact only the beginning of a very long and sometimes very rough road. He looks for consistency in religious people, however aware he may be of inconsistencies in himself”
“People are not always what they say there are - or even what they think they are. There is but One who sees us objectively, and heave reason to be thankful that He is called the Merciful, the Compassionate, the Forgiving”
“The modern Westerner, persuaded that he has a right to "think for himself" and imagining that he exercises this right, is unwilling to acknowledge that his every thought has been shaped by cultural and historical influences and that his opinions fit, like pieces of jigsaw puzzle, into a pattern which has nothing random about it.”