From: bob young 



arah wrote:

> >From Racism to Islam - "Miracles Do Happen" Marc Springer
>
> My journey to Islam was not the usual one. Most white converts I have
> met usually come from a liberal and very open-minded back ground. My
> upbringing was far from this. Both of my parents were in the US
> military and my upbringing was very strict. My father was very racist,
> and because of this, I also was very racist myself until about the age
> of 24. I can remember as a child listening to my father lambaste and
> attack Arabs and Muslims and bash their religion, their way of life,
> and their race. As this was the way I was raised, this is the position
> I took as well.
>
> I had a very troubled childhood, as the above can only begin to
> describe. My father was an alcoholic and very physically abusive. I
> grew up with the constant fear of violence against myself, my mother,
> my brother and my sister. Coming from such a background, it only
> seemed natural that I would seek a group of people to replace the
> family life that I did not have at home. The problem is, with the way
> I was raised, the people I sought this companionship from were the
> worst of the worst.
>
> For several years, I was heavily involved in the racist skinhead
> movement. As with anything else in my life, I was not content to be a
> follower, but always enjoyed taking the lead. My involvement in the
> neo-Nazi skinhead movement was the same. I was well known and feared
> in the town where I grew up.
>
> My longing for family and friends, however, never killed the seed in
> my heart that told me what I was doing was wrong and unjust. I
> remember a Mexican schoolmate of mine asking me, when I was 16, "Why
> do you hang out with those losers, you are better than that." He was
> right, but I guess there was a part of me that, even though I hated my
> father for what he was doing to the family, wanted to be just like
> him. That is where my racism and hatred came from.
>
> The situation at home became worse for me, so I was forced to move out
> on my own. I think from this moment this is what sealed my future as a
> Muslim getting away from my father and the hatred that he felt, and
> experiencing the world and people on my own. The next few years were
> pretty rough on me and I continued for many years on the path that I
> had started on. I was drinking, doing drugs, and getting into very
> serious trouble with the law. All the while, all of the people I had
> sought to take the place of my family turned out to be the worst sort
> of people: violent, dishonest, and untrustworthy.
>
> I left my home state when I was 23, and, for the first time in my
> life, I was able to experience life without the overwhelming figure of
> my father hanging over me and the malign influence of my friends. I
> started to see all of the carefully crafted lies that my life was
> based on crumble around me. I slowly saw all of the truths that my
> life was based on unravel. It is at this point that I started to
> question everything in my life, including my religious beliefs. I took
> the stance that everything in my life was suspect and had to be re-
> evaluated.
> I had a girlfriend at the time whom I later married. She had also been
> active in the racist skinhead scene that I was involved with and I was
> always worried that I might offend her with my new ideas and way of
> thinking. I had always been an avid reader, and I took the next couple
> of years to read everything I could get my hands onto. This passion of
> mine led me to collect a small library of books that now consists of
> over a thousand volumes, everything from Kant and Descartes to Tariq
> Ramadan and Edward Said.
>
> During this time, the Intifada was raging in Palestine. My father,
> racist and anti-Semite though he was, had always supported the Jewish
> state. I now think that he hated Jews, as well as anyone else who
> wasn't white, but he hated the Arabs more than he hated the Jews, so
> that is why he supported Israel. As I was rethinking everything I had
> been taught when I was younger, I decided to take a closer look at
> this struggle in the Middle East.
> I started reading general books on Middle Eastern history and the
> national politics of the area. Again and again I found that I was
> having trouble understanding both the history and politics of the area
> because I didn't have any sort of understanding about Islam. As a
> child, I had attended church from time to time, but didn't have a firm
> grounding in any religion. My father had a hatred of Islam, so as a
> teen I had shared this hatred without having a clue as to what Islam
> was about or what Muslims believed. It goes without saying that I had
> never met a Muslim in my life.
>
> So I started to look into Islam, its history and its beliefs. At this
> time, the Internet was gaining in popularity so I used both print and
> Internet sources to help me gain an understanding on the basics of
> Islam and its history. I was living in Washington State and was not
> aware of a Muslim community there, so there was really no one with
> whom I could talk. Shortly after this, my wife's job transferred her
> to England, so that was all about to change.
>
> When I got to England, my interests strayed for a while. I was in a
> new country with a long and rich history, so I spent a few years
> exploring this history and traveling all over Europe. But from time to
> time, events would draw my attention back to the Middle East and the
> politics there. I was now in a country with a long-standing and well-
> established Muslim community, although the town I lived in didn't have
> any such community. I began now to read in earnest about Islamic
> beliefs, ideology, and history. I also started reading the Qur'an .
>
> >From the very beginning, certain things struck a chord with me and
> answered doubts I had always had concerning the religion I was raised
> in. I had always taken issue with the idea that God could have
> offsprings. From my readings, I recognized this belief as being
> derived from pagan sources. Zeus, Odin, and numerous other pagan gods
> all had children.
> In the case of Odin, his followers even believed that he had been hung
> on a tree, much like Christians believe that Jesus was hung on a
> cross. Odinists, the name given to the followers of this ancient
> northern European religion, also believed in a trinity of sorts formed
> by Odin, his son Thor, and his consort Freja. It was clear this
> innovation of the Christians did not have its basis in God, but in
> previous pagan beliefs.
>
> The other issue that I had always struggled with was the concept of
> original sin. The idea that God could be so unjust as to hold myself
> and everyone else responsible for the sins of others who had died
> thousands of years before me just seemed so unjust. I had a basic
> concept of God, and the idea He could be so unjust to do such a thing
> just did not sit well with me.
>
> It always seemed to me that Christians just didn't have the answer to
> these questions, and if they did, their answers just reinforced these
> unjust positions. I looked to Judaism, but that religion offered more
> questions than answers as well. Their attitude towards the prophets
> (peace be upon them all) was disgraceful. Their religious texts
> accused these greatest of men of the most terrible crimes and I
> refused to believe God would pick such men to lead His people on
> earth. If Judaism held such beliefs, how could I look to them for
> guidance?
>
> It seemed clear that Islam had all of the answers. It cleared up the
> confusion of the lie of the trinity and asserted Jesus' true role as a
> prophet, and not as the son of God. Islam reveres all of the prophets
> and recognizes them for the great people they were. In Islam and the
> values it promotes, I saw the answer to my problems and questions, and
> the future of mankind. My main issue was to try implementing Islam in
> my life.
>
> As I said before, I was married to a woman who came from the same
> background as I did. She didn't have an easy time dealing with my
> interest in this subject, whether it be Islam or Middle Eastern
> politics. I knew that the way I needed to change my life was to start
> living in a proper manner, but I knew this was going to cause us
> serious issues. It eventually came to the point where I would be
> unable to practice my new found religion and stay married to this
> woman, so we split up. Before I left England, I went with a young
> Lebanese man I had met in London and said my Shahadah in a mosque
> there.
> When I left my ex-wife, I was forced to leave England. I would have
> loved to stay there because the opportunity to learn about my new-
> found religion there would have been great, but al-hamdu lillah, I was
> to learn later why God chose this turn of events for me. I quickly got
> a job working for the US government in Alaska.
>
> Of course, there is not much in the way of a Muslim community in
> Alaska, and it is centered in Anchorage and Fairbanks. I was working
> hundreds of miles from either of these cities, so I took the
> opportunity to continue reading and searching for information
> concerning Islam the best I could, from the Internet and other
> sources.
>
> I used to travel, from time to time, to the Washington DC area for
> business. I made friends within the Muslim community there. At this
> point, I had been thinking about getting married. I had been divorced
> for several years and I knew that one of the main ways for Muslims to
> fulfill their deen (religion) is through marriage.
>
> I was a bit worried about this, being a convert. I knew that many
> Muslims came from ethnic backgrounds that would not be too welcoming
> of a white American convert marrying their daughter. This was
> compounded further because I had tattoos from my teenage years, and I
> was very uncertain that I would find a Muslim woman and her family
> that would accept me.
>
> A new friend of mine said that he knew of a sister who was looking to
> get married, so he asked her if it was OK to give me her number. I
> tried to call her when I first got home, but she wasn't there and I
> left a message. The next day I called her back, and we talked for
> hours. We exchanged e-mail addresses and for the next three days, we
> talked for dozens of hours. We hardly slept those first three days. I
> got so little sleep that I found myself falling asleep at work. We
> talked about all of the important things that we would need to know to
> make a successful marriage work.
>
> It was clear from the beginning that we had a lot in common, and that
> it all centered around our devotion to our faith and to God. I had
> this feeling that she was meant for me. She was such a good God-
> fearing Muslim woman and she had so much she could teach me about the
> religion. Not only could she teach me about religion, but she could
> also help me with Arabic because she was a native speaker. We talked
> on the phone and via e-mail for several months.
>
> Talking and e-mailing were wonderful, but we both knew that we had to
> meet each other face-to-face to see if the connection we had would
> still be there. Always keeping God and our religion in mind, we wanted
> to make sure we did everything halal and in the proper manner. We
> decided, with the permission of her family, that I would visit during
> Ramadan of that year to join the family for dinner and the breaking of
> the fast.
>
> I was very nervous, and I think I had a right to be. There is one bit
> of information I have left out here and after I say this, you will
> understand my nerves. My wife and her family are from Saudi Arabia;
> both of her parents were born in Makkah. My earlier fear of the
> cultural issues that any prospective wife and her family might have
> with me were compounded 100 percent by this fact.
>
> Trusting in God, and having a lump in my throat, I set off to meet
> this wonderful woman and what I supposed to be her intimidating
> family. I arrived in Washington DC right before sundown, collected my
> bags, and waited for a taxi. When it was my turn for a taxi, I jumped
> in.
>
> The taxi driver was wearing a red and white checkered gutra, or Arab
> headdress. I greeted him with "as-salamu `alaykum" and he returned the
> greeting. The sun had gone down and he was just breaking his fast with
> a date. He asked if I was fasting, and when I replied in the positive,
> he offered me one of his own dates to break my fast. It turned out
> this nice older gentleman was originally from Afghanistan, I saw this
> as a very positive sign.
>
> After dropping off my luggage at my hotel, I proceeded to the family's
> house with a traditional gift of dates and incense in hand. As I got
> out of the taxi and started walking up to the door, I just said
> "bismillah" to myself and knew God would choose the best for me. All
> sorts of scenarios played through my mind. She would like me, but the
> family would hate me. The family wouldn't mind, but she would be
> indifferent. What if they liked me and I didn't like them? The 20-foot
> walk from the curb to the door seemed to me like 20 miles. Finally, I
> got to the door and rang the bell.
>
> What seemed to be a dozen people answered the door: family elders,
> people my age, sisters, sons, daughters, and family friends. I was
> warmly welcomed and asked to come into the house. After I entered, I
> was asked to take off my shoes and join the family in the meal they
> had made for me. It turned out, al-hamdu lillah, that I need not have
> been worried. The family and I took to each other instantly. In
> talking during the dinner and after, it was clear that the nice young
> woman and I had a connection that transcended the miles and the phone
> line.
>
> I came back to the Washington DC area that January, when we got
> married in front of friends and family. We took a nice honeymoon, and
> then I had to return to my work in Alaska, which was not to finish
> until the end of April. When it finished, I moved to the Washington DC
> area and took up a job with a division of my company. I have been here
> almost two years now.
>
> It is amazing, subhan Allah, how God led me from disbelief in a home
> filled with hate and then guided me to Him. At first glance, it might
> seem that in my childhood house I couldn't have been farther from
> Allah, but I would argue that this wasn't the case. Allah was always
> there looking out for me; He directed me through some dangerous and
> bad times to become the man and the Muslim that I am today.
>
> People say that miracles do not happen today, but I would contend that
> my story proves them wrong.
> *(Source IslamOnline.com

Miracles never happen, they are truly the creation of the human mind [like
their gods]

Lies  happen though,
as we all clearly know

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