Before
[Music]
I came to Islam, my life was really kind
of focused on drink, drugs, having fun.
The whole kind of purpose of life was
just to have fun, have a laugh, and it's
just a way of kind of making your life
bearable until you die. I tended to kind
of be in a kind of heavy metal crowd
hanging around a lot of people with
similar interests um which weren't
always the best company to keep. My
first experience of seeing Muslims was
the 9/11 attacks. Um I remember I was
quite young at the time and I wasn't
completely aware of what was going on.
Uh, in fact, I ran to one of my friends
after seeing the news report and I told
him that the tourists had declared war
in America because um I I'd never heard
of terrorists before. Uh, as the war was
unfolding and I was seeing more and more
about the war in Afghanistan, I started
understanding that these people were
Muslims and that the Muslims were create
doing these horrible atrocities across
the world. So from that kind of media
bombardment, I started getting a strong
hatred for Muslims. um so much. In fact,
uh I tried to join the army three times
with with the goal of wanting to to go
over there and kill as many as these
people as as I could to do my bit for
the country to make it a bit safer for
my family as this I thought they were
kind of the big evil of the world. Um I
started hearing a bit more about Islam.
It was the last time I was applying for
the army. I came across this radio
station. And it was at a time when I was
listening to conspiracy theory radio and
things like this and this uh it was a
radio station from the American
government called terror talk and it was
talking about the life of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam and it's it
it just didn't sound right to me that
people would follow him from all these
evil things they were saying about him.
So I started to question
what Muslims believed at that time. I
was on a spiritual search anyway. Um
At the time I was looking into Norse
mythology and paganism and one of my
friends turned to me and said before you
decide on this paganism thing have a
look around a bit more. So I came across
Muslims on the internet. I think one of
the first people I saw on the internet
was Baba Ali and he was he broke the
stereotype of Muslims for me. I was
surprised that there was this guy who
was funny and he was very laidback. he
wasn't with a big beard shouting, you
know, kill the kafir and, you know, all
this kind of stuff. And then I
eventually picked up the Quran from my
college. Uh, when I had it, I actually
thought I was picking up a like a
terrorist handbook. And I was a bit
worried that MI5 were going to come
after me as soon as they saw me uh take
it out of the library. But as soon as I
started reading the book, it just it it
hit me immediately.
And I couldn't stop reading it. It just
it sank deep into my heart. And as as I
kept continuing through through the
different suras, I remember reading
about uh people in the fire having
boiling water to drink, something
burning their throats. And as I could
read this and I was living this awful
life, I could feel my throat burning and
I could feel kind of how real this thing
was and how I had to change. The first
day I went to the mosque, um I spent all
day there reading and my mom called me
in the evening and asked me where had I
been all day and I said I was at a
mosque. She's like, "What? No, no, no,
no, no. You you can't be at a mosque.
You're a Christian. Christians don't go
to mosques." She was very, very shocked
and thought I was going down a bad bad
path. Um,
that was my mom's original reaction.
After a while, she started to accept it.
She' done a lot of crying.
Um, I'm not too sure why she was crying.
I think she felt I was rejecting
everything she'd taught me. A lot of
people say when they find Islam, it's as
if they've come home. And that's just
the feeling I get. It's as if me in the
past wasn't me at all. I was being
controlled by something else. Um, only
good things have happened since I've
become Muslim. My life is sorted out and
I've never had so much going on in my
life at one time. If I was going to give
advice to someone else who is thinking
about Islam, I'd definitely tell them to
come to the mosque and speak to a man of
knowledge, not search the internet for
the answers. There are some good things
on the internet, but when you don't know
anything about Islam, you can't judge
what is right and what is wrong. So,
it's much better to speak to someone.
Spend time with the Muslims. I I spent
many weeks in their company and you get
an understanding of who they are and and
what kind of quality of people they are.
Don't be afraid of what your family
think. I've I've had many people and
myself as well was worried about what my
parents would think. And at the end of
the day, it's if Islam is for you, it's
for you.