"I am so very glad that I am a Muslim.
Islam is my life. Islam is the beat of my heart. Islam is the blood that
courses through my veins. Islam is my strength. Islam is my life so
wonderful and beautiful. Without Islam I am nothing, and should Allah
ever turn His magnificent face from me, I could not survive."
It all started with a computer glitch.
She was a Southern Baptist girl, a radical feminist, and a
broadcast journalist. She was a girl with an unusual caliber, who excelled in
school, received scholarships, ran her own business, and were competing with
professionals and getting awards – all these while she was going to college.
Then one day a computer error happened that made her take up a mission
as a devout Christian. Eventually, however, it resulted into something opposite
and changed her life completely around.
It was 1975 when for the first time computer was
used to pre-register for a class in her college. She was working on her degree
on Recreation. She pre-registered for a class and then went to Oklahoma City
to take care of a business. Her return was delayed and she came back to college
two weeks into the class. Making up the missed work was no problem for her, but
she was surprised to find that the computer mistakenly registered her for a
Theatre class, a class where students would be required to perform in front of
others.
She was a very reticent girl and she was horrified to think about
performing in front of others. She could not drop the class for it was too late
to do so. Failing the class was also not a choice, for she was receiving a
scholarship that was paying for her tuition and receiving an ‘F’ would have
jeopardized it.
Advised by her husband, she went to her teacher to work out
some other alternative to performing, such as preparing costumes, etc. Assured
by the teacher that he would try to help her, she went to the next class and
was shocked by what she saw. The class was full of Arabs and “camel jockeys”.
That was enough for her. She came back home and decided not to go back to the
class anymore. It was not possible for her to be in the middle of Arabs.
“There
was no way I was going to sit in a room full of dirty heathens!”
Her husband was calm as usual. He pointed out to her that
God has a reason for everything and that she should think about more before
quitting. Besides, there was the scholarship that was paying her tuition. She
went behind locked doors for 2 days to think about. When she came out, she
decided to continue the class. She felt that God gave her a task to convert the
Arabs into Christianity.
Thus she found herself with a mission to accomplish.
Throughout the class, she would be discussing Christianity with her Arab
classmates. “I proceeded to explain to them how they would burn in the fires of
hell for all eternity, if they did not accept Jesus as their personal savior.
They were very polite, but did not convert. Then, I explained how Jesus loved
them and had died on the cross to save them from their sins. All they had to do
was accept him into their hearts.” They still did not convert, and so she
decided to do something else: “I decided to read their own book to show to them
that Islam was a false religion and Mohammed was a false God”.
At her request, one student gave her a copy of the Qur’an
and another book on Islam. With these two books she started on her research,
which she was to continue for the next one and half years. She read the Qur’an
fully and another fifteen books on Islam. Then she came back to the Qur’an and
re-read it. During her research, she started taking notes that she found
objectionable and which she would be able to use to prove that Islam was a
false religion.
Unconsciously, however, she was changing from
within which did not escape the attention of her husband. “I was changing, just
in little ways but enough to bother him. We used to go to the bar every Friday
and Saturday, or to a party, and I no longer wanted to go. I was quieter and
more distant.” She stopped drinking and eating pork. Her husband suspected her
of having an affair with another man, for “it was only for a man that a woman
changes”. Ultimately, she was asked to leave, and she soon found herself living
in a separate apartment.
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