Every weekend, an unassuming stand is set up outside the GPO in Dublin. On the folding table are a number of leaflets and publications; around it is wrapped a polythene banner that reads in large letters: "ISLAM". Behind it is a man, Miftah, who has manned the stand every Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the past three years, telling anybody who is interested about his religion. "When we first arrived people were a bit sceptical," he says. "This is a Catholic country, people didn't think you could have something else. Now, I think people are a bit more open." Miftah is tall with a friendly manner and a characteristic callus on his forehead – a mark which comes from touching it to the ground in prayer over many years.

This is a politically charged time for Irish people to take up Islam. In the past 12 months, France and Belgium have outlawed the burqa – the full-face covering veil mainly worn in Afghanistan and areas of Pakistan – in public places, and Switzerland banned the construction of minarets. Polls suggest Geert Wilders, who campaigns against the "Islamisation" of the Netherlands and is currently on trial for hate speech, is the country's most popular politician. Yet mosques across Ireland report a steady trickle of Irish people choosing to become Muslim. Imams run regular introductory classes – visitors to Miftah's stand are directed to a Tuesday night meeting in Portobello which, he says, is well attended. The most recent CSO data (from 2006) shows just under 10,000 Irish citizens who are Muslim.

New Muslims, like anyone who comes to the religion later in life, are known as 'reverts' – the idea being that they have not converted to something new, but returned to a more natural faith. Here four reverts, old and new, tell their stories.

Charlotte Morshed

A mother of six from Bandon in Co Cork, Charlotte has been a Muslim for 25 years

"I was a very good Catholic. I went to see the pope, I went to mass every morning of Lent. Religion was a huge thing to me. But I wasn't getting what I wanted from it. There were things in it that confused me. You know, you get 'On the day of judgement, Jesus will sit on God's right-hand side'. Well, if Jesus is God, how can he sit on God's right hand side? You ask these questions. And Islam gave me those answers.

I've had it said, 'Oh, you turned away from your God'. And I didn't. I still believe in the same God. I just pray to him differently. And I feel my connection to him is more direct now. I don't have to go through a priest, or anyone.

My husband was from Bangladesh and after meeting him I got more interested in Islam. When I'd known him for almost to three years, when I was 17, we went to his country, and we decided to get married. And you don't have to be a Muslim to marry a Muslim man, but it was asked – would I like to take my Shahada? And I thought yes, I will do this.

Initially, I didn't tell my family and friends. Back then, it was a big thing to marry a foreigner, so that was a big enough shock to them. So I didn't say a whole lot. I thought I had to allow them time to adjust to the fact that I'd done this crazy thing.

After my husband died two years ago, they were all waiting for me to go back. From both the Irish and the Muslim side. And I was like, 'To what?' I'm 25 years a Muslim, I was only 17 years a Catholic. This is my life.

His death showed to me that religion does not have to be a barrier between us. The people who turned up at the mosque, Muslim and non-Muslim – there were hundreds – it was just mind-blowing.

And all the women – my aunts, my cousins, people from the children's school and my walking group – turned up in hijab. They were told they didn't need to wear it, but they said, 'We want to'. And that told me religion doesn't have to be what we make it. We can all be together.

I don't go out without my head covered. I would wear baseball caps or hats. But hijab is a difficult one – it's probably the hardest thing for me. But my daughter has started wearing it this year, completely of her own accord, and she's had no problem. I remember it was the 14 of December when she walked in with the hijab on. She was going in to her new school. I was worried – she would be the first girl to wear it at Bandon Grammar School.

And I just watched her getting out of the car. And her confidence, and the way she just strode off – I wouldn't have the confidence to walk out in the hijab like that. And I just cried and cried, because I thought, my husband would be so proud. To think that we've raised such a confident person."

Abbie Goodman

Also know as Amina, Abbie (23) is a student in Belfast. She became a Muslim six months ago

"I'm at Queens University doing a PhD. And there was a group of us who got the opportunity to go to Malaysia for a month on a student programme. I didn't even really know that Malaysia was a Muslim country until I got there. But it was just such an amazing experience hearing the adhan [the call to prayer]. I was just – wow. And one guy in our group was a Malay guy, who was Muslim, and I started asking him questions, all about Islam. And we got invited to his family's house, and I was asking them questions. Obviously in the west all you hear about is terrorism, and wives getting locked away and beaten up. But their kindness, and the generosity, and the peacefulness – that portrayal of Islam was something I had never seen. Seeing it in practice just stirred something in my heart which made me say, this is completely right. This is what I've been missing all these years.

So as soon as I came back from Malaysia, I went straight to the Belfast Islamic Centre and said, right, I need to know more about this. I went to classes for about a month, then I took my shahada and became Muslim six months ago, and I haven't looked back since. If you know something is right in your heart, you shouldn't worry about what other people think. My family have been sceptical, obviously – but also really supportive.

When I first walked into the university office wearing hijab, I was the most scared I've ever been in my entire life. I thought, Oh my God, they're all going to treat me like rubbish. And actually, I don't know why I was even worrying. It was just a case of 'Oh, this person looks different'. They were all asking 'So you've changed your religion?' and so on. And it lasted for all of about two days, and that was it.

I'm half Italian, and when I wear the hijab I look Arabic. So people come up to me and start talking in Arabic – and I have to stop them and say 'Sorry, I have no idea what you're saying'. Most western people don't tend to talk to me – they think I'm foreign.

I love my hijab, it's so much part of me. It's my accessory which I can colour-code everything with, and I can get ones which have gorgeous patterns on. Anybody who says the hijab is boring, and people look really dull – it's a total lie. It's part of your personality, it's your individuality.

When I first started I was like, five prayers a day? How am I going to fit that in? But it gives you so much peace. I'm quite lucky, the Belfast Islamic Centre is about five minutes from my workplace, so I go there to pray. Or if I'm in the office, I just use a classroom or something. But occasionally if you're out shopping or something and it's prayer time, I just go into a changing room and pray there. It's the perfect place to pray, because you have no one disturbing you. They don't know you're not trying on clothes."

Sharon McKibbin

Sharon (31) is unemployed and lives in Belfast. She has been a Muslim for five years

"I was searching for something. I met a girl who was a Baha'i, and went to a couple of meetings with her. But I didn't agree with that. But I've travelled quite a bit, and I was in some Arab countries – in Syria, and then in the Maldives. And I was seeing how the culture was, and how they looked out for each other. I thought that was really nice.

So when I came back home I went to the Islamic Centre, and asked when the women got together. And they said Saturday.

And it's been every single Saturday for five years, alhamdulillah [thank God]. Five years in March. Every time I went to the mosque, I found myself smiling, from ear to ear. I was coming out thinking, this is right.

I've just started learning Arabic. Last night was my second week. I know how to pray in Arabic, and I know certain words – there's parts of the Koran I would know in Arabic, but not to read, but inshallah [God willing] that will come. My friend said, 'this ramadan you read the Koran from start to finish in English, inshallah next year you'll be able to do it in Arabic'. Or the year after maybe.

None of my family are Muslim, and the community isn't a Muslim community. So you do get a feeling of, what are people going to say? At first, I got all the jokes – 'Oh, are you going to rob a bank?' People saying 'Let your hair breathe', things like that.

My uncle, for about two-and-a-half years he asked me, Do you want a bacon sandwich? Do you want a bacon sandwich? I bet you'd love a bacon sandwich... But it's nothing too bad. You just have to put it in perspective and think – I'm not doing it for them, I'm doing it for myself and for Allah. Actually my mum now, she'll even tuck in my hair, fixing my scarf without me even having said anything.

With strangers, a lot of people don't understand. Some people have gone, I thought you were a nun'. And when I moved into my house, I was talking to my next-door neighbour, and they thought we worshipped Buddha. I'm white and I got called a Pakistani, but that was just kids. Alhamdulillah, I haven't been verbally abused or anything.

People from all walks of life are coming to Islam, but the majority of Belfast people in the mosque are from Catholic backgrounds although there are ones with Protestant backgrounds like myself.

And it's not somebody standing in the middle of the street saying 'Come on to the mosque'. There are no leaflets handed out. Something is just opening people's hearts and then they're coming.

One girl was looking after children, and she had to learn a little bit about different religions because of anti-discrimination laws. She came across Islam that way, and then converted.

One girl told me a guy became Muslim because he was in a helicopter above Mecca, taking an aerial photograph of the mosque, and that changed him. There's always new people coming. I'll go to the mosque, and maybe next week there'll be someone new."

Colm Gillis

Also known as Esaa, Colm (32) is a physics student in Cork city. He became a Muslim eight years ago

"I went to mass as a child. My mum would have been Catholic, she would have prayed a lot. But I was over in America in 2001, and I read a book by Malcolm X. I found that he had a very powerful, sharp insight into things. And then I read the Koran. I came back to Cork in April 2002, and about two months later I decided to take the plunge. So I got a number from the phone book, and I rang up somebody who brought me to the mosque in Cork, and I talked to the imam.

"At the time I was taking drugs a lot, and I suppose I was a bit degenerate, you know? Dishevelled and all this sort of stuff. The imam actually told me later that he thought I was joking. But I was serious in my heart about becoming Muslim. All you have to do really is you take a shower – you purify yourself – and you make what's called the witness. The Shahada in Arabic. You just say, I believe that there is no God except Allah and Mohammed is his messenger, and that's it.

"I feel very peaceful since I became Muslim. When I say a prayer, or even when I just think about the meaning of life, I feel tranquillity. Just a sense of feeling more mellow. It's being patient with your lot. I think stress is caused when people are very impatient – they're not getting on in life. Patience is about looking at what you have, and not what you don't have. It's mentioned so many times in the Koran, about being patient.

"You do limit yourself a little bit. I'm not drinking anymore, I'm not smoking hashish anymore. I socialise, but there's not a lot of places to socialise in Ireland outside the pub, you know? People expect you to follow their way – if they go to the pub, you should go to the pub.

"A lot of people think you have to change your name to Arabic when you become Muslim. And I thought this too, so I changed my name to Esaa – because I had Iosa in my Irish name. But I found out later that that isn't true. So I've kept Colm, but because in the mosque people are so used to calling me Esaa, it just stuck. But if I'd known that I didn't have to change my name, I wouldn't have. I love being Irish, and I'm very proud of being Irish. I love Celtic designs and all that. I've called my children Irish names, and I want my kids to grow up and know their culture and their heritage."