before 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 it ends
it going to be and kind of heavy metal
crowd hanging around a lot of people
with similar interests which weren't
always the best company to keep my first
experience of seeing Muslims was the
9/11 attacks I remember I was quite
young at the time and I wasn't
completely aware of what was going on 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 I'd never heard of
terrorists before as the war was
unfolding and I was seeing more and more
about the war in Afghanistan I started
understanding out these people were
Muslims and that the Muslims were
created doing these horrible atrocities
across the world so from that media
bombardment
I started getting a strong hatred for
Muslims and so much in fact 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 I could
to do my bit for the country and to make
it a bit safer for my family as this I
thought they were kind of the big evil
of the world 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 it was at a time when
I was listening to conspiracy theory
radio and things like this and this I
was a radio station from the American
government called terror talk and it was
talking about the life of the prophet
sallallaahu Salim and 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 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 in 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 laid-back he wasn't with
a big big shouting and killed the kaffir
and you know this kind of stuff and then
I eventually picked up the Quran from my
college when I had it I actually thought
I was picking up a like a terrorist
handbook and I was a bit worried that my
five were going to come after me as soon
as they saw me take it out of the
library but as soon as I started reading
the book it just it hit me immediately
and I couldn't stop reading it it just
sits sank deep into my heart and as I
kept continuing through through the
different surahs
I remember reading about the people in
the fire having boiling water to drink
so I'm 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 how and how
real this thing was how I had to change
the first I went to the mosque I spent
all day there reading and my mum 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 can't be a mosque you a Christian
Christians don't go to mosques and she
was very very shocked and thought I was
going down a bad bad path that was my
mum's original reaction after a while
she started to accept it she done a lot
of crying 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 guess is if me in the past
wasn't me at all I was being controlled
by something else
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 the right and what is wrong so
it's much better to speak to someone
spend time with the Muslims I've spent
many weeks in their company and you get
an understanding of who they are and
what kind of quality of people they are
don't be afraid of what your family
think I've had many people and myself as
well was worried about what my parents
would think and at the end of the day
its Islam is for you it's for you you
can just hope the best of your parents
will come afterwards