[Music]
the dean show greetings of Peace welcome
to the dean show I'm Eddie your host and
this week on The Dean show we're going
to be talking about a fascinating story
about a young man who at a young age was
going to the church with his grandmother
and then he became a staunch atheist
joined the military had this blind
hatred of Islam now he's on the dean
show let's hear what he has to say we'll
be right back this is the dean
this is the
the this is
the this is the this is
the
the this is
the this is the this is the
[Music]
asalam peace be with you Ali camarada
how are you
brother I'm doing good
alhamdulillah all right now before I
when I opened the show I talked about
you formerly being in the military white
American had really a um was a staunch
atheist then a born again Christian is
this pretty much how it
happened the steps yeah
yeah throughout High School I became an
atheist and later on a Christian again
before um researching Islam after 911
yes let's start from when you're Grandma
used to take you to church let's start
from those those days okay well when I
was a little kid uh my grandma was the
most religious person in the family she
used to take me to church um almost
every Sunday uh she was Lutheran I went
to the Bible study on Wednesdays and
basically spent my Summers you know in
Christian groups and bible studies and
things like that
yeah
so yeah so around how old were you at
that
time this was ever since I was little
for as far as I can remember until later
when I got to about like Middle School
age or so that's when I really didn't go
to those events as much going into high
school so how do you go from Grandma
taking you to the church to becoming not
only an atheist really a staunch a
atheist as you
mentioned um I mean I was raised I knew
I had a lot of knowledge of it um you
know I went to through all the Motions
as a kid but at the high school age I
stopped going to church as much um and
then mostly it was during like biology
classes um a lot of the teachers even
though religion is not supposed to be
spoken about in school a lot of times
when they're talking about stuff like
Evolution and whatnot you know this the
teachers they're authority figures for
kids so you know sometimes they
interject their atheist belief during
the high school years and I actually had
a lot of conversations with two specific
teachers and they really convinced me of
their way so when I was maybe about 14
or 15 or so I made a decision that you
know atheism is the truth that it's
based on science and everybody else is
just crazy nut jobs to believe anything
else and you know I've basically made my
mind up that in order to be religious
you have to turn your mind off and from
there on I basically was very against
religion for a few years so you totally
at that point left religion
altogether yeah I mean I had taken maybe
one or two years before becoming aist
where I wasn't really practicing as a
Christian um and then when I became an
atheist I real I my basic Outlook was
that everybody who believes in religion
they must be you know not able to think
or they must not know science or
something along those lines now how
grandma what grandma have to say about
this after you told
her that you made this
decision I didn't really have any
discussions with her about that you know
it was my grandma but you know it was
mostly something that I talked with
people my own age about I was wasn't um
pushing that on anybody at the time it
was just something that I mostly
believed strongly myself from there you
went out to join the military tell us
about
this um yeah I joined the military early
when I was 17 um right after my birthday
I did the early enrollment um which
means that you get to do half the
training you got to finish high school
and then go back for the other half um I
signed up you know I got the they were
going to pay for the college um I had no
problem with the Army I I thought it
would be a good experience good for um
career path good for paying for college
obviously and other things but also
because I felt like it was a good move
responsibility wise and um after joining
the military that's when I went to basic
training when I was 17 this was all
before I was Muslim now so and this was
you went to you joined the military was
this before 911 or after
911 this was actually the year of 911
but in March that year so uh it was
right after I turned 17 before 9911 so
was was the was the the hostilities that
we see towards Islam and Muslims was it
anywhere near where it is today back
then um I grew up in a mediumsized city
and Erie Pennsylvania has about a
million people but I never met a Muslim
my whole life growing up uh we didn't we
don't have many
International like races or anything not
many immigrants because it's a smaller
City in the military I mean I can't
remember the word Islam or Muslims
coming up before 9/11 even in the
military um it was basically a non-issue
nobody knew about it nobody talked about
it it didn't come up as much in the
media um and then even in basic training
that first year when I was 17 I went
that summer which was just a few months
before 911 um most of the time they were
talking about communism and Russia and
the history we had with that and then
Vietnam War and you know those are
mainly the enemies they would talk about
before 9/11 so Muslims never really came
up now you talk about in your story that
you you ended up uh having like most
people just this blind hate of Islam
what what do you mean you just had a
blind hate of Islam what does that mean
I came back from the basic training
because I did the early entrance program
I did half of the normal 16 weeks I did
8 weeks I came back um I was playing
football from my high school at the time
and uh when I returned it was about two
weeks before school started and 911
happened about the week after that so I
just got back from basic training maybe
about three weeks later um you know
basic training you spend eight weeks
with the military you wake up in the
barracks you sleep in the barracks you
polish your boots every night you have a
half hour to write letters the rest of
the day is completely you know you're
into the system of this military way of
thinking uh you have the community like
the Brotherhood of the military stuff
like that and three of my friends also
had done the early entrance so in the
early entrance program I had three
friends in my same grade two of them
were also on the football team with me
so we all came back from basic training
and three week later the 911 happens and
being new in the Army we were also
thinking like maybe we're going to get
deployed because you know something
happened maybe we're going to have to go
Iraq or I don't know they weren't
discussing Iraq mostly Afghanistan back
then but after this 911 happened
especially being in the military I had
this feeling like us versus them and
these people attacked us and everything
on the media of course is going to be
one way so I was overcome mostly by the
media and by the US versus them
mentality and you know it was basically
like a fight type of attitude and I had
the blind hatred because I saw them as
the enemy and that's the way they were
always made out to
be so now you come back from the
military and how was your perception so
did it you you go from being a born-
again Christian you I'm sorry you go
from going to church with your
grandmother then you end up becoming a
St staunched atheist you join the
military and somewhere in there you end
up becoming a born again Christian
actually um at the time that I joined
the military I was a little bit I was
starting to question some of the atheist
presumptions you know the assumptions
they make about this is against religion
this is with religion and I had some
questions in my mind a few doubts when I
join the military actually every Sunday
you have the choice and in basic
training you can't go to you know I
don't know if they changed it but you
can't go to Juma or anything Sunday is
the only religious day and in the
military you can basically stay back
with the drill sergeants and clean or
can go to the church so even the
atheists went to church during the basic
training and they mostly fell asleep in
the back but I went every Sunday for
church um some of the things that were
said were a little bit um inspiring at
the time I took a Bible with me and
started reading it every day and then
even when I got home before 9911 I
started reading a lot and that's the
time where I got very back involved with
Christianity maybe a month before 911 2
months and I was born again at that time
uh I went through the process I was born
again overcome with the spirit of Christ
all those stuff they you to talk about
but at that time I really became a
practicing Christian again after reading
about the religion and everything and
that happened after the military all
right let's hold off right there we're
going to take a break and we'll right
back with more to hear about this
incredible story here on the dean show
don't go anywhere Islamic
terrorism misconception Muslims are
terrorists this is by far the biggest
misconception of Islam given unfairly by
stere typing in the Public Image that
the media gives has anyone else noticed
how when a specific group of people
attack another group of people it is
labeled as a hate crime but when a
Muslim opens fire on anybody it is
quickly regarded as terrorism many
political dictators and officials or
extremist groups use the name of Islam
as a strategy to Garner followers and
attention when many of their practices
go against the true basis of Islam the
media has also portrayed Islam as a cult
or a club where if you join you become a
terrorist and that is now part of your
genda however all over the world people
practice Islam in the true form and use
it as a way of life there are many
verses in the Quran that go against the
idea of terrorism some of these verses
include fight the way of Allah those
that fight you but do not transgress
limits for God does not love
transgressors this basically means do
not fight except in self-defense and
even in doing so do not go beyond
defense another verse States if they
seek peace then you seek peace which
means do not attack people for no reason
or kill innocent people there is nowhere
in Islam whether it be in the Quran or
the teachings of Muhammad that promotes
the killing of innocent
people please subscribe to the dean show
follow us on our official Facebook and
Twitter pages in The Links below please
also help support the dean show by
making a donation in the link
[Music]
below back here on the dean show and
we're talking to a gentleman Ali who
went from going to church with your
grandmother to becoming a staunch
atheist joining the military and then
becoming a born again Christian that's
where we left off left off please
continue from here so you're born again
Christian now what ha what what happens
in your life
now yeah I was born again Christian
while I was in the military um and like
I said that was the first half of my
training um part of the early entrance
program was I did have training but you
have to have a high school diploma or
GED so I went back to my senior year of
high school um maybe three weeks before
9/11 happened I came back from the
military
um after 911 happened uh you know the
normal media craze and also being in the
military and seeing them as an enemy um
I had the blind hatred you know there
was in my mind every Muslim was an Arab
they were backwards these Stone AG
people uh they blew up our buildings you
know attacked us and everything you know
it's the whole US versus them mentality
um you know for maybe a good two three
months you know there would be jokes and
family gatherings you know friends would
make you know different jokes about
Muslims and you know now that you think
back on it you know it's basically a
modern day of racism we never say
something about black people
or we feel but at that environment at
the time everybody hated Muslims so it
was kind of going with the flow but also
I internalized as well hating these
other people that would attack us um you
know for maybe about the next two three
months that's all it was just blind
hatred I didn't know anything about
Islam but I hated it despite having no
knowledge talk to talk to us about this
class project that you had that it was
an easy a an easy pass if you did it and
what was it
on yeah actually um being my senior year
I only needed a few credits so I took a
few of those easy classes you know that
you don't have to do anything in and the
it was a drafting class you know Cad and
doing different stuff and we had a
project um that was due after Christmas
uh if you make a board game and the
teacher said that if you make a board
game using the drafting techniques if
it's an original idea you get an
automatic a for the class even if you
don't show up so uh everybody wanted to
put a little effort in it and he said if
it was a unique idea that he's never
seen before I would get an automatic a
and everybody would so being after 911 I
decided to make a concept that I'm going
to Killam Bin Laden you know you roll
dice eventually you fly to Afghanistan
you land on a square you pick up a
weapon you land on another square you
pick up something it was like a board
game and the whole plot was to kill
Osama bin L I finished this before um
Christmas break and it was due
afterwards so I decided to take it home
with me I was going to draw some
graphics on it you know some extra
images to make the board game good U
because acing the board game meant an
easy second half of the year and
actually that's when I was going to I
looked up some pictures I forgot what a
turban looked like and one of the
squares you landed on was to light AMA
Bin Laden's turban on fire and that was
the way of killing him um so I wanted to
look up an image and draw it on the game
board as an illustration and that's
actually when I jumped on Google started
typing in turbin and one of the first
sites they came across was the Islam
guy.com the brief Illustrated guide to
Islam and um I remember one paragraph
specifically it may have been the first
or the second but it said that Islam
believes in the prophets like Adam and
Noah and Abraham and lot and Moses and
Jesus and that blew me back because all
I ever heard is that these people
believe that the more disbelievers they
kill before they die the better they're
in heaven you know the 72 virgins and
everything um so reading that they
believe in the prophets was shocking to
me I had a blind hatred but no knowledge
um so once I saw that I realized you
know I hate these people but I don't
even really know what I'm hating I mean
how can you truly hate something if you
don't know it and then combined with my
new my being born again for about the
last maybe five six months at the time I
also asked myself how can I truly be
call myself a Christian if that's the
only religion I ever even knew anything
about and I was confident in
Christianity I said you know I'm going
to know more about these Muslims because
they're bad people but I want to
understand them but also you know
Christianity is the truth so no matter
what I read I'm still going to be a
Christian I'm still going to reaffirm uh
my faith so that's when I started
reading and that was basically the first
day of Christmas vacation so I had no
school for a week or two and I just
started reading basically non-stop for a
week or two and that was my first
exposure to Islam I never met a Muslim I
I didn't even know they believed in the
prophets and then that was basically
from zero I started reading tell us
about Joseph you mentioned a retired
20year veteran in who was in the Navy he
was also a Muslim that you hooked up
with tell us about this
experience okay yeah from the where I
left off the part of reading you know
basically um I started reading a couple
days before Christmas or around
Christmas I end up becoming Muslim after
one week because I really I dedicate
myself to reading 10 12 even 14 hours a
day from waking to sleeping and I became
Muslim after learning about it U but
after that I didn't tell anybody I told
some people online um I mean some of the
support groups that are around now even
like Facebook stuff like that wasn't
available back then so I kept Islam to
myself um I emailed an MSA and got an
email back that hey there's not really
an MSA it was just two of us and we
graduated um but I have a couple friends
you can talk to and he was one of the
guys I ended up finding through AOL
instant messenger and he was working for
care down in Washington DC at the time
about a 7h hour drive away from me and I
remember mentioning to him I was
military he was mil military and we both
converted and he said so how's your
Muslim Community I was like what do you
mean I haven't met a Muslim yet and
actually the brother M May reward him
you know instantly he was like what you
didn't meet a Muslim you need to meet a
Muslim so he actually drove up seven
hours to meet me we ate some Chinese
food together um gave me a couple things
and another brother from New Jersey
actually mailed me some stuff from an
Islamic bookstore website and then after
meeting him he said hey I got work in
the morning I got go so I only saw him
for an hour but M brother drove to see
me and that gave me a good impression of
Brotherhood early on because at the time
I still hadn't told any of my family and
friends that I was Muslim they actually
found out about four months later you
still keeping contact with uh
Joseph yeah I see him online now we're
in different countries and stuff but I
still contact them as much as we can
we're both kind of busy but you know
over Facebook and chatting I see them
you want to give him the salams before
we go to break to Joseph that was the
actually the first Muslim white American
who accepted Isam go
ahead this this one this salam's for you
Joseph if you're out there from our
brother Ali all right we're going to be
right back uh with more of this
wonderful story here on the dean show
don't go anywhere please subscribe to
the dean show follow us on our official
Facebook and Twitter pages in The Links
below please also help support the dean
show by making a donation in the link
[Music]
below back here on the dean show and we
left off with Jo coming to see you right
and then so before that you you already
had accepted you accepted that there's
nothing worthy of worship except the
creator of the heavens and the Earth the
same God that Jesus worshiped uh Moses
Abraham you weren't doing anything
different you even have a beard now I
mean I mean this is uh a part of Islam
but some people tuning in a lot of the
not yet Muslims they heard you say Osama
Bin Laden and they've heard 911 they see
you with a big beard Muslim I mean
that's like a formula for disaster for
some people what do you have to say when
people you know they have these uh
negative uh perceptions of Islam due to
the negative propaganda what do you say
to them um I mean I I can bear witness
myself that I was in the military I was
you know I didn't convert to be a
terrorist or anything like that I had a
healthy hate for you know anybody that
would kill innocent lives um after
becoming Muslim I've met plenty of
ex-military you know actually I have yet
to meet a single terrorist actually you
know I've become Muslim I've practicing
religion I go to 10 20 30 different mids
since I've been Muslim you know too many
to count I have yet to meet a terrorist
so uh you know anybody tries to say oh
yeah you have thousands of terrorists
you know there's two billion Muslims
what is that you know like it's like a
decimal point five Z and then a 1% you
know it's something that definitely uh
people perceive it to be something
that's common but it's not you know even
the FBI said only 6% of terrorists are
actually Muslims so as much as the news
Hypes it up it's not much really I
haven't met one and Islam's never taught
me to blow anything up so Islam's never
taught you to blow anything up uh but
it's taught you how to live a good right
righteous wholesome life let's talk
about that the purity of Islam uh Islam
is definitely the Islam I was
yeah go
ahead yeah after converting to Islam I
was a little bit afraid to tell my
family my friends there was a lot of
negative stigma um this despite the
peaceful teachings despite the good way
of life and morals of Islam there was
still a stigma you know the it was you
know it was worse than anything else you
could tell your family hey I became
Muslim so maybe for about four months
you know I I was learning the religion
slowly at the time you know I didn't
know I remember eating some pork a
couple weeks after becoming Muslim and a
Muslim online saying hey what' you do
you're not allowed to do that so you
know I learned over time bit by bit um
but finally when I told my family you
know I wasn't eating pork and they asked
why and it came out said hey I'm Muslim
so you know there was a tough one or two
months even my parents you know they
said this is just a phase uh when you go
back to the military this coming summer
you know you're going to come back to
normal they thought it was you know like
a teenager going through a phase um then
after going to the military you know I
definitely had some run-ins with people
since I declared my religion is Islam on
my dog tags and everything uh that was
the first summer after 911 so there was
a lot of people who voluntarily joined
the army just to fight Muslims and here
I was the only Muslim in the basic
training unit and uh it was definitely
you know an experience um but you know
people ask that all the time even I had
a drill seargeant asked me when we get
out on the battlefield which way is your
gun going to point you know are you the
enemy or are you one of our actual
soldiers you know so a lot of people had
this stigma so I mean the perception is
that being a Muslim instantly makes you
the enemy like I talked about before the
US versus them mentality so in the
military even though I was wearing the
uniform even though I was you know
standing in line next to them some
people perceived as the enemy and um you
know like I said this was months after
911 so some of it was to be expected uh
after getting back from the military you
know family friends a lot of them cut me
off uh they thought like okay it's not a
phase um still again the 911 stigma
floating around um I ended up having to
leave my home City at that time and move
in with a there was a Muslim brother I
met through Joseph uh somebody else and
I moved down to Virginia and one of the
best things I did as a new Muslim even
though that was maybe nine months after
becoming Muslim was I moved in with a
roommate um a very good Pakistani
brother named Salman and I I moved from
Erie which had no Muslims basically to
Virginia which had you know many mids in
the DC area and one of the best things
was able to go to a Masjid meet an Imam
be involved in a community so as a new
Muslim being involved in in Act AC of
community was one of the things that
really allowed me to start learning my
religion and that's when I started
growing the beard and learning that this
these certain things are obligated by
Allah and I I grew My Religion by being
part of a community and going to classes
and that was probably one of the best
things I feel um before that you know I
did feel alone but alhamdulillah Allah
was always with me when I went through
the military and other things but if I
have one advice to like new Muslims is
that definitely trying to be involved in
the community makes a big difference
because N9 months alone was very hard
but as soon as you have a community with
you you know you feel that you're no
longer alone yes you always have Allah
but having for a new Muslim there's a
lot to learn there's a lot to understand
and sometimes having the support is
veryu very crucial we're going to talk
about I got two more points and because
we're almost out of time we're going to
talk about faith chat in a second after
this last question so what was it about
Islam that had you go against all the
odds that had you finally accept it
the main thing really um like I said
when I first read about Islam I was
trying to reaffirm my Christian faith
throughout the whole thing I was reading
just to understand the enemy basically
um but part of it I read early Christian
history I'm thinking like the Muslims
claim that Muhammad is a prophet that
came after Jesus they believe in Jesus
so I read the early Christian history
what happened after Jesus how the Bible
came to be you know 3 four centuries
later and I actually read the story of s
Al Pary at one point um he was a
Christian scholar from Persia and you
know
his even his uh brother priests and
stuff said that you know the message of
Jesus Is Lost um there's going to be a
new Prophet that will come and revive it
and we know even in the Old Testament
that when the message of a prophet would
fade a new Prophet would come to revive
the message um you know it wasn't
something that was illogical or anything
so the early Christian history combined
with the fact that what the Muslims were
speaking in teaching just made perfect
sense uh I found it to be the truth
nothing else I didn't care about are
Muslims terrorists at that point at one
point I just felt you know this is the
truth and I I ended up telling myself at
one point that while I'm reading these
articles on Islam I'm convinced already
so when am I going to become a Muslim
you know and for maybe one day I was
thinking like no I can't be Muslim I'm
white but you know eventually it was
just kind of a gradual process reading
and learning I realized this the truth
and then I accepted
that last last thing I want to talk
about we have uh 30 seconds left tell us
about the new Muslim Academy and also
where people can hook up with you at
Faith chat.com yeah actually one of my
first teachers in Virginia YF IDR he uh
runs the new Muslim Academy it's one of
the best online resources for after the
shahada um before the shahada when
you're not a Muslim yet faith chat.com
we have a live team and some articles
and we try to spread the message of
Islam to those who don't know it yet
just like I did at one point so if
anyone has any questions now maybe that
person is a blind hater but they like
what we have to say they're really
inquisitive now they want to learn more
they can hook up with you at Faith
chat.com
yes okay thank you so much for being
with us brother it was a pleasure peace
be with you asalam
alaikum thank you Ali for being with us
here on the dean show what an incredible
story don't forget new Muslim
academy.com and if you want to hook up
with him faith chat.com I get fascinated
every time I hear individual come on and
share their story because there are so
many people without a doubt Islam is
something rational logical and if you
look into it if you put this blind
hatred this racism this animosity that
you might have that's really based on a
false fear but like he did he really
looked into Islam he looked at the
evidence of it it's pure message of
monotheism it's called to do good to
live a righteous life doesn't call you
to blow yourself up or anybody doesn't
call you to terrorism and all this other
all these other things that are
associated with it and with all the
negative propaganda it's still continues
to be the fastest growing way of life in
the world why is that why is that you
got to ask yourself so you learn that
you know once he saw the similarities he
saw the Islam submission to the will of
the Creator not the creation that he saw
cause Muslims to believe in Moses
Abraham Jesus the last and final M of
pro Muhammad peace be upon him and you
can put it all together from the
beginning that they didn't come with
different religions they all came with
the same simple message the same way of
life life that you submit yourself
entirely to the one who created you you
don't worship a man a woman a stick a
stone a bone no Jesus peace be upon him
who we love and rever he never it's a
lie if you've been taught that you've
been brought up to believe that he's God
a literal Son of God this is a blatant
lie he never why is it a lie Eddie
because Jesus never ever called people
to
worship himself he was sent by God with
a message from God calling the people to
worship God don't make it out to be
something that isn't and don't put words
in his mouth because Jesus peace be upon
him he was subordinate to God he
worshiped God he prayed to God he ate
food and went to the bathroom he wasn't
God and he wasn't a literal Son of God
he was a mighty messenger of God and if
you can understand because this is the
crossroads this is where we go to the
right and other people they end up going
in a Direction that's not based on any
proof or evidence just blind following
and this gentleman here who was with us
he wasn't about to do any blind
following he looked at all the evidence
he scrutinized it and he saw that Islam
provided Islam remember it just an
Arabic word that means submission to the
will of God and Jesus he didn't speak
English he spoke Aramaic which is a
sister language to Arabic and he called
on Allah the Creator God Almighty Allah
so look too much to mention in this
short amount of time but Islam is simply
a way of life that calls you to have a
relationship a loving relationship with
the one who created you the one who made
you the one you're going to return back
to so call on the
one the one who will never let you down
and we believe he's the most just and
loving and he wouldn't leave you without
guidance if you ask so ask the one who
made you for guidance and continue to
tune into the dean show this life is
short you got to figure it out what's
the purpose of life what's the meaning
of life why have I been created why am I
here just to accumulate a lot of wealth
and Money Party and die no there's more
to life think about it think about it
follow us subscribe to the de show and
as you can see I get really excited
talking about Islam because it makes
sense it really makes sense and it'll
make sense to you if you just look into
it put this blind hatred animosity where
you picked up maybe through the media
Fox News or many of these other outlets
and tune in to the dean show every week
so you can learn more you can be
enlightened that's right and a whole new
world will open up we'll see you next
time inshallah God willing until then
peace be with you