Revert or Convert??

Al-hamdu-lillah, having been attracted gradually
to Islam over the last few years, I recently
embraced Islam officially by becoming a Muslim.

Now, do I call myself a Revert or a Convert??
Good question!

More and more the term revert is used and the
logic is that Islam is the natural religion for any
person to have as any baby is by definition pure
and innocent and "born upon the fitrah" so, in
effect, we are all born as Muslims although many
"opt out" by embracing other belief systems, or
are forcibly "opted out" by parents who follow
another religion, and some grow up to become
declared atheists.
By this definition, anyone choosing in later life to
consciously adopt Islam should be called a revert
because that person, whether aware of it or not,
has been there before and is returning home,
so to speak.

A convert, on the other hand, is someone who
chooses to adopt a belief system which he or
she has never had before, for example a non-
Christian deciding to become a Christian, and
therefore converts from whatever that person
was before and to Christianity.

All well and good, but it is confusing for most
people, especially non-Muslims, to understand
how someone who has only now technically
become a Muslim can be referred to as a revert,
for the simple reason that it implies going back
to something they do not know you ever were,
or could have been, as a baby exercises no
freedom of action in such matters.

Everyday English is full of words starting with re
which all imply going back, either to a former
state or to a former point -
return, retrieve, revolve, resume, rearrange
reappear, reconsider reaction etc,
I am sure you get my drift, as they say.

So what to do?
Well, for the time being, in order to minimise
confusion for non-Muslims that I come into
contact with (and this is a kind of dawah if you
look at it the right way!), I shall therefore refer
to myself as a convert to Islam, and I hope that
all my Brothers and Sisters in the deen will
forgive me!

And, by the way, should anyone ask me:
Are you a Sunni or a Shia?
I shall answer: >>> I am a Muslim!