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as
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I you think Arabs make up 20% of Muslims
so you know there's not even as many
Arabs I think in the whole world as
there is Indonesian so I mean Islam's
for everyone and if you just look at the
map of the world it's every color every
crate every nationality I went through a
period of about five or six years in my
life
where basically if you to look at me you
say he's a scum of the Earth and that's
the way I was treated and that's what I
was and it was from my own
hand uh I destroyed my family I
destroyed myself I destroyed anything
that I ever care about
and I kept on going down and down and
further and further down in life until I
was at the bottom of the barrel I was
pretty much the worst people the worst
people
and you know certain things happened to
me that you know I don't want to
elaborate too much further here you know
because as a Muslim a muslim's me to
conceal these sins and I'm not too proud
of how I used to be but there come a
point where I asked God to save me from
what was going to happen to me I I going
to get killed
or certain things and I said to myself
I'm going to become I have to do it now
there's no turning back Muhammad you
know you've come to this point in your
life
where Allah has got Almighty shame you
know I must admit I did have um a lot of
the the belie belied in a lot of the
negative stereotypes about Islam such as
sort of the irrational the terrorist um
misogynist
type um attitude of Muslims and when I
found this was was not the case um that
it it it burned more interest and well
what else don't I know and the Muslims
actually tell I met like the first time
I actually had that human contact with
Islam and Muslims they were actually
some of the the finest human beings that
I'd met and it was it was quite shocking
to me
actually I was listening to a um ABC
News Radio and they
said they said that a Queensland company
had uh just marketed uh a special honey
um a medicinal honey because uh honey
has a lot of antibacterial properties
okay 2 days before that I'd been given
my first Quran all right that
afternoon um I thought to myself oh
that's interesting about the honey Etc
that afternoon I went home and I said oh
let's have a look at this Quran and I
opened it up to Surah the B and I
apologize I don't remember the verse but
the very thing I read when I got home
was and that that that blew me away I
mean wow um if I ever find I need to
cleanse my heart or you know Soo my
senses I just read the
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Quran before I came to Islam
you know what you see on the news and
and what you hear it's it's it's the
same thing that someone who's ignorant
of the religion and doesn't really pick
up a book and start reading about the
religion wouldn't have like those same
ideas you know terrorists Arabs and so
forth blah blah blah so it wasn't too
good of a view but the fact that I I
knew some
Muslims kind of balanced that out there
was a time when I was just doing some
vacation employment at Uni and
um you know there was no nowhere else to
pray so I just got up and said I need to
pray and I just prayed you know right on
the side there and after when I finished
praying they started asking about Islam
and it's an opportunity I guess to to
tell them more about Islam um initially
they'll be like you know they don't know
how to take it like because they don't
want to say anything wrong but it's a
matter of saying Ste being steadfast and
making yourself known as a Muslim so
people would ask you because I think a
lot of people are curious
just exactly what Islam is and if they
find out you're a Muslim then they'll
tend to have so far personally my
experience have all been positive so
they all been like you know just what is
Islam why do you pray etc
etc uh Islam began in Indonesia through
Tradesmen the honesty of these Tradesmen
in their business dealings and Their
Manners sort of made them stand out in
that Society
and so when
The Message of Islam came it was easy
for them to
accept uh previously Indonesians
worshiped
Idols which meant when Islam came to
them it made sense to
them and that they realize
that that Gods cannot just be carved out
of stone or wood and that God is much
greater than
that um Islam is one and that's what I
really love about Islam it you know
doesn't matter what color you are
doesn't matter what religion you come
from um it invites everybody in and it's
very different to what um the Jewish
people teach you as well so um that was
another reason why I actually came here
because um in like a sense it it sort of
makes sense because it starts from Adam
and it goes all the way to the last
prophet and that involves everyone it
involves all of the Living
God one thing that really stood out was
when um they got somebody in and it was
like a young boy and he was he was
actually reading the Quran in Arabic and
started to I started to feel it in my
heart when he was reading it in Arabic
um and to me like I don't even
understand it I was like I was actually
like wanting to cry I was actually
thinking think to stop stop it because
I'm going to cry in a second so like
that's when I knew well definitely I
feel it in my heart if I can if I can
feel this
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yeah a lot of people don't like
change but if Islam
was if Muslims live the way the prophet
s Ali wasallam lived how could anyone
not accept Islam
and this is the the most important thing
that the
Muslims hold the torch and they must you
know show the rest of the world that you
know this is how Muslims are this is how
Muslims should be one of those things
where I'd left home
early and had you know I was had a good
upbringing and I knew right from wrong
but I wanted to get a taste of life and
you know alhamdulillah Allah saved me
you know at a young age rather than
going into the bad things in life oh