it's 1 p.m. in Mission vijo California
when Angela Collins answers the call to
prayer it's her second prayer of the day
and following custom she'll pray three
more times before the day is done now I
have this belief and I love my belief so
I have to respect it and follow the
rules the rules are not easy to follow
Angela is Muslim she has been for almost
5 years raised Catholic she learned
about Islam after meeting Muslims while
tring overseas she converted just 2
months after September 11th a time when
the war on terror was almost synonymous
with a war on radical Islam I saw a very
dark Persona of Muslims in general to
Americans and I realized it was so far
removed from my actual experience abroad
that people had to know this is not who
they are this is not how they are there
are an estimated 1.3 billion Muslims
world worldwide and most are not Arabs
here in the United States while the
Muslim contingent numbers an estimated 7
to 8 million it's growing rapidly 20,000
new converts each year four times as
many women as men in the Quran it says
that women were created independently of
Adam that Eve was an independent
creation of gods and so for a lot of a
white American women that really appeals
to their sensibilities of equality and
it's very liberating for them maybe I'll
help you cook something Julia roach
converted to Islam after being
introduced to the religion by her
husband Chris they weren't married at
the time he is also an American when I
found out he was Muslim I told him I
believe right away I will never become a
Muslim I will never cover my head I will
never be this person so don't ever ask
me to be that person and he never did
but she did have Lively discussions with
him about religion she was raised a
Christian and said she converted after
she was able to see past the stereotypes
and learned about the values of Islam
the concept of freedom and liberty of
each individual person and the rights of
each person and that's all wrapped up in
the theological teachings of Islam as
well yes I'm an American I'm very
outspoken um I'm pretty assertive and
very happy person and it's not the
typical stereotype that people see with
a Muslim woman we're going to read Green
Eggs and lamb 5 years after converting
to Islam Angela Collins is now the
director of an Islamic school it took
her a while to get used to wearing the
hijab but now instead of being a fashion
emergency it's become a fashion
accessory yeah people looked and they
were curious but they never a lot of the
times they didn't realized I was a
Muslim wearing hijab they thought oh she
must be some French designer coming up
with a new fashion it's not a new
fashion but maybe a new face on the
world's second largest religion George
Lewis NBC News Los angel