- My name's David.
I'm 46 years of age, and I've been a Muslim
nearly five years now.
I was born in Manchester, yeah, I'm from the UK.
I was born into a Church of England family.
Protestant, but we weren't religious.
My parents weren't religious.
We'd only go to church sometimes at Christmas,
now and again at Easter.
So, I can't really say I was brought up a Christian
as such, although officially I was.
So, yeah, so that was that.
And then, in my early 20s, you know, around 18 to 21,
I started to question things, like many people do.
"Who am I?
"Where do I come from?
"What's the point of everything?"
You know, those questions you start to ask,
and I started to get more interested in philosophy,
and I went to University, of course,
so you read about things.
And I very quickly became interested in Roman Catholicism.
Partly as a result of looking into my family background,
my family history.
I have a very small family.
So, I start to wonder, "Who, actually, am I?"
Aside from "Who am I from God's perspective?
"Who am I," actually, my family as well.
And I soon came to realize that there's a great deal
of Scottish and Irish ancestry in my family.
Some of that I knew about.
But what I didn't realize was how many were Roman Catholics.
And I thought, "Well, how on earth did I end up
"being in the Church of England, not Roman Catholic?"
Through a strange quirk of coincidence, both my parents
were also Church of England, although each of them
had a parent who's Roman Catholic.
But it was the wrong parent 'cause they didn't decide
on their religion.
So, I became very interested in Roman Catholicism.
Partly for the imagery, I'm sure, I was very attracted
to that at that time.
It is very appealing and interesting.
And I started taking lessons in Catholicism
at the local church in my first year of University.
I went to lessons for about seven, eight months,
so you know, I didn't just jump in.
I was very careful with the decision and took lessons.
At an Easter, I think it was 1992 or 93, I got confirmed
and became a Roman Catholic, and was very committed
as well for a good four, three, four, five years.
Going to confession, going to mass regularly,
trying to live by the principles
of the Roman Catholic Church, which wasn't always easy
for a young man at University.
Very difficult at times (chuckles).
But, over those years, I was living with good friends
at University, you know, we used to talk and discuss things,
and ask lot's of questions of each other.
And they would often ask me about Roman Catholicism,
why, what about this, what about those Popes who did this,
and what about no contraception,
and the priests can't marry, and do you agree with that?
And it made me think, "Hm, actually, I'm startin'
"to struggle a bit here with so many answers,
"'cause I'm not sure I agree with some of them."
So the more I delved deeper, as well,
and actually was honest with myself,
which was the really key thing.
I realized there was so many things I didn't like
about the church.
The Roman Catholic Church in particular.
And that's still the case today, to be perfectly honest.
Many things I think are wrong, many things that are
just not God given.
And so I became a lapsed Roman Catholic,
which so many do.
Probably, by my late 20s, early 30s, and then I just kind of
gave up on it completely.
Didn't go to church, didn't do anything.
And then I had a period, I suppose, you might say
of agnosticism.
Stroke atheism, I just wasn't really sure what I believed.
I was just floating, I was drifting, really,
in spiritual life
for a good few years.
And then I met a friend and I was introduced to Islam,
the Qur'an.
I'm always happy to read things, new things,
haven't got a closed mind, I don't think, at all.
I bought a copy of the Qur'an and I was kind of
pretty blown away by how logical it was
and how there wasn't anything, really, that I'd think,
"Well, that doesn't make any sense.
"How can that be?"
And it was all very logical and made sense.
Whereas, compared to the Bible, and so many principles
of the Church, there's so many things that I just thought
"That makes no sense whatsoever."
You know, they ask you to believe in God, as Islam does,
but they ask you to believe so many things.
You just think, "That's not possible."
Whereas Islam, it doesn't, it's very straight forward,
very simple to my mind.
It's a nice easy, well, maybe not easy, the right word,
but it's a nice guide for life.
It helps you live a clean, healthy life.
So, you know, I came with Islam, I read the Qur'an
a few times, I went to classes at a local mosque.
Again, I didn't just jump in.
I don't tend to jump into things.
I like to research
and make sure it's the right thing for me.
And I learned how to pray myself,
at home,
and I realized it was the right thing for me.
It was helpin' me clean up my act a little bit.
Not that I was a very bad person, or anything like that,
but I just needed to clean up a little bit.
And it's made perfect sense to me.
And then I took the plunge in April 2012.
I haven't really looked back since.
Personally, myself, I didn't have too many concerns.
I can laugh about it a little bit,
but I was a little bit worried about not having
a bacon sandwich again.
I must admit, I used to love bacon sandwiches.
You know, silly little things like that.
And I thought, "Well, I'll never have
an alcoholic drink again," which that's a big, big ask
when you're used to that kind of thing.
But you know, obviously, that was not very important things.
The big concerns were, I suppose, how my family and friends
might take it.
Because Islam is a very topical subject at the moment,
it has been for the last 15, 20 years.
A lot of people associate some very bad things with it.
I was worried that my mum might think I was gonna become
some crazy jihadist, or even how her friends might react
to me bein' a Muslim, and they might say bad things
about Muslims in front of her, and she could get offended
by that.
So, I was a little worried about those things.
But as I said to you earlier, I have a very small family.
Only my mother and sister, and my elder daughter.
And I just explained to them what I was doing,
why I was doing it, nothing's gonna change about me
in the obvious sense, apart from the fact I'm sure
I'll be a nicer person, a kinder person, a better person.
And I'm sure that has actually happened, so I said,
"You won't see me dressing very much in long white gowns,
"and growing a very long beard.
"I'm going to be the same person, don't worry,
"just hopefully, God-willing, a better person.
And then it became the practical things
like when I'd go around for Sunday dinner,
I'd say to my mum, "Look, I can't eat that chicken
"or that beef unless it's halal."
And my mum's such a star, really.
She'll hop to "comtochita" meals, she doesn't live far
from here, and she'll go buy halal for me.
And she had no problem with that from the beginning,
because it's the same meat, it's just been killed
a slightly different way.
So, they don't care as long as it's meat.
So, really I shouldn't have worried about them.
They've been absolutely fine.
And my daughter as well, no problem whatsoever.
In fact, I think I've increased her belief in God
as well, to some extent, hopefully.
With my friends, you know, that was a little more hard
for them to kind of understand that
because most of our friendships or our relationships
are built around going to the pub.
You know, meeting there, not necessarily drinking alcohol.
Sometimes I wouldn't anyway.
If you're used to doin' that kind of thing,
drinking alcohol, it's probably best to stay away from it
as much as possible because you just make
your life harder of yourselves.
I just withdrew from that environment.
And I wanted to anyway.
And some of my friends didn't like that
and they thought I was kinda of rejecting them
to some extent.
But, you know, I just had to think, "Well, look guys,
"I have to do what's right for me at the end of the day.
"I can't live my life for you, and for Friday night,
"or for Saturday night."
And if it feels right for me, and we're still friends,
"you know, we can meet for a coffee somewhere,
"and we can go to each other's houses,
"we'll still be mates, obviously.
"But I just can't come to the pub regularly
"and do those things anymore."
And some of them have been okay with it.
Some I don't see as much of now, but you know,
that's the way it is.
And so I'm okay, and I'm sure they're okay as well.
I think it's just made me more of a calm person,
a happier person.
And I know that sounds a little cliched,
and you know, happier.
I can't say I walk around with a big, big smile
on my face all the time.
That's not, well, I smile, but certainly it's made me
just a little more aware of things.
Socially aware as well, you know.
I'm a lot more charitable than I used to be.
I was somebody who use to give money to homeless people
from time to time, but I try and to it a bit more often now.
Or, I'll give money to, you know, Syrian charities,
of Palestenian charities or whatever.
Things I would probably never do before.
And realize how lucky I am, I've got a job
earning X amount of money, and I've got a nice warm house
to live in.
And it's just made ne think, "Well, you know,
"I'm very lucky."
Heaven's not perfect of course, it could be better
of course, in certain areas.
But I've got what I've got thanks to God,
and I have to help other people.
You know, that's why God has given me a nice,
comfortable situation, thankfully.
And it's my responsibility, when I see bad things going on,
that I can do a little bit.
It's not very much, I know, but I have to do a little bit.
It's calmed my personality down.
I could be a little bit of a hot head at times,
and sometimes I can, in the right situation,
but you know, Islam teaches us that yes,
it's okay to be angry.
Anger's a normal emotion
in the world we live in.
And the relationships we have sometimes
will makes us angry.
But you've got to be careful how you manifest that.
And that's not always easy still.
Sometimes I get angry, but it's just made me think,
"Oh, hold on.
"This isn't the right way to behave.
"This is not acceptable."
And it just, it's that little almost (click) thing
in your brain that goes, "Think what you're doin' here.
"Be careful."
And it's just made me just more aware of myself
and you know, it's brought me back to earth, as it were.
(giggles)
I would say, make sure you visit your local mosque,
speak to some Muslims there
Understand the basics, the fundamentals,
how it will change your life.
And if your local mosque offers classes
on understanding Islam, absolutely take those up
because you can learn so much through that.
You can make good friends, good contacts,
people you'll know, possibly for the rest of your life.
So, do your research, learn about Islam,
and when you're ready, just do it
because you won't look back after that.
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