Proselytism of the faith is referred to as "dawah," and missionary efforts have been promoted since the dawn of the religion in the 7th century.
"[3] Converting to Islam requires one to declare the shahādah, the Muslim profession of faith ("there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah", Classical Arabic: أَشْهَدُ أَن لا إِلٰهَ إلَّا الله و أَشْهَدُ أَنَ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُول الله)[4][5] In Islam, circumcision (khitan) is considered a sunnah custom that is not mentioned in the Quran but is mentioned in hadith.
[6][7][8] The majority of clerical opinions holds that circumcision is not required upon entering the Muslim faith.
[9] Dawah as the "Call towards God" is the means by which Muhammad began spreading the message of the Quran to mankind.
His mission as the final prophet was to repeat to the whole world this call and invitation (Dawah) to Islam.
[12] Counting the number of converts to a religion is difficult, because some national censuses ask people about their religion, but they do not ask if they have converted to their present faith, and, in some countries, legal and social consequences make conversion difficult, such as the death sentence for leaving Islam in some Muslim countries.
[23] According to The Huffington Post, "Though exact numbers are difficult to tally, observers estimate that as many as 20,000 Americans convert to Islam annually.
Thus, this report excludes religious conversion as a direct factor from the projection of Muslim population growth.
[33] According to an earlier 2001 census, surveys found that there was an increase of 60,000 conversions to Islam in the United Kingdom.
[34] According to a report by CNN, "Islam has drawn converts from all walks of life, most notably African-Americans".