in the name of Allah the most beneficent
the most merciful
my conversion story really started I
guess in college I was I studied at the
University of Pittsburgh and I consider
myself to be somewhat of a spiritual
person I guess you could say like a free
spirit so I wasn’t really looking for a
religion you could say but my parents
named me Amira they grew up during the
civil rights movement and as a result of
that they were familiar with some of the
basic concepts of Islam but they weren’t
what you would consider to be Muslims
and so by the time I went to college I
subscribe to the belief that religion
was a social construct I wasn’t really
necessary what really changed was a
series of events I had friends who were
Christian for instance but I knew for
myself that I didn’t believe in
Christianity so I would just engage in a
few discussions with them and I realized
that they couldn’t give me any sort of
concrete reasons behind their faith
which is something that they felt I
guess they had a conviction that was for
me wasn’t a sound enough and so really
my own journey started when I went to
London to study abroad I was there for a
semester I actually purchased the Quran
from my college bookstore and because I
consider myself to be I guess a Muslim
by association you could say I was
studying abroad there or a four-month
thing during the first month I was
reading the Quran sort of offering on
haphazardly you could say
but the verses I’d really couldn’t
really relate enough I didn’t understand
it but fortunately enough for me the
copy that I had had an introduction
section so I started to read that over
the course of about a week and the
writer he explained the tenets of Islam
our belief system so really for me it
sort of answered so many questions that
I had as a child as a teenager and even
I think that I was sort of going through
my own life just wondering about why am
I here is it really just to get a degree
just to go to school for me I’m
converting looking at the information
and learning about the tenets of Islam
it was as if you know before I was I was
seeing the world and my own life
blurry everything was sort of unclear
and then after learning about the basics
the foundation it was as if someone had
given me glasses and everything was
clear and so I guess for me
converting to Islam was a decision based
on reason it was faith based on reason
and I think for me that was something
somewhat unique there was no one that
convinced me to become a Muslim actually
gave my soul Shahada just from looking
online and then did it to learn how to
perform the salah and I continued to
read the Quran the next day and happened
to come across the verse and the Quran
explaining the command for men and women
to guard their modesty and from that day
forward I began the prayers in addition
to covering full time and wearing the
hijab but was it was a practical
decision for me a personal one and
really was as if again it was as if my
questions had been answered
when really I didn’t even know I was
looking for answers
I came across why Islam from attending
some lectures after I had converted and
some teachers there were explaining that
why Islam is a great resource
I had already don’t most of the
information there by then it was about a
year later so I continued to refer other
people to the website mostly people who
are thinking about converting to Islam
sometimes if I feel like just sharing
information about Islam or doing Dawa
inviting people to Islam I’ll just post
a link to why Islam on Twitter or
Facebook for instance because it’s a
great resource and really interesting
well put I work in Manhattan now and so
I did have the chance to see the
Billboard one day on my way to work and
I was nice it was a sort of comforting
to see that people who are not familiar
with this Lomb may be hostile towards
the religion I was nice to see that they
were active in advertising it not
necessarily to convert people or sort of
promote during agenda but really just to
open people’s eyes and hopefully shed
some light on their perspective about
the religion the reverb follow-up
classes are really a sort of sanctuary
for me I had the chance to live in Texas
for a year great Muslim community I also
lived in hometown New Jersey when I was
teaching as an Islamic school teacher
there but honestly I could say that this
is the first class I’ve encountered that
I feel completely at ease completely
unwelcome
and I think that’s mostly because the
target group is for reverts or commerce
to the faith so for me I think it’s
definitely a source of East you know
everyone’s day I can come and see
familiar faces and here’s similar
experiences and not have my background
be questioned or so I have to prove
myself so I think it’s really comforting
and it’s definitely necessary in the
community