Woman learns Welsh language to translate Islamic texts

Laura Jones says she wants to be a part of efforts to get the Quran translated into Welsh

A Muslim woman has said that one of the reasons she learned to speak Welsh was so she could translate Islamic texts.

Laura Jones, from Cardiff, said she wants her Muslim faith to be a part of conversations in Welsh.

Despite being translated into hundreds of languages, there is no full Welsh translation of the Quran.

She said with more Muslims now speaking Welsh, it is a good time to translate more Islamic texts.

"Because I'm Muslim I want to try to bring Islam into the Welsh language," she told BBC Radio Cymru.

She had studied Welsh at school for GCSE's, but said she only became a confident Welsh speaker as an adult in 2016.

"One reason was to improve my career, to improve my job opportunities," she said.

"But the other reason was, I wanted to translate Islamic things into Welsh."

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She said she tries to express her Muslim faith with other Welsh speakers and on the radio.

"But it was another thing to translate things like passages from the Quran, or the sayings of the prophet Muhammad into Welsh as well," she said.

Worshippers at Cardiff mosque during Ramadan in 2019

When she was working for the Muslim Council of Wales, she said she started to do some translations.

"Because there is no full translation of the Quran in Welsh," she said.

"This was the thing I wanted to be a part of."

'More Muslims speaking Welsh'

Laura has trained as a Muslim chaplain and researched people's experiences during Ramadan for a postgraduate MA degree from Cardiff University, where she studied the role of Islam in contemporary Britain.

She is now studying for a doctorate at Cardiff University, researching people's experiences during Ramadan.

In a paper on the history of Muslims in Wales, she said the links to Islam go back to the 8th Century when King Offa had a gold coin minted with an Islamic inscription.

Laura said in the past there may not have been enough Welsh-speaking Muslims in Wales to warrant a Quran translation, but that is changing.

"I think now, a lot more Muslims speak Welsh, go to a Welsh school or things like this, so I think this is a good time to do work like this," she said.