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My name is Loren and I am an American Muslim. I am a convert of
about eight, nine months I converted last May
and before I came to Islam, I knew absolutely nothing about Islam
I thought that
prophet Mohammed was a God
I saw women with their scarves on and
never really thought much of it
you see things on the news you never really ...
on some other country you don't
really care too much
I grew up in a strong
christian family
and both of my
parents my mother and her husband
are Minesters and I am the only Muslim in my family that I know of.
so
like I said before
I became a Muslim. I was raised in a Christian family
and when I started my spiritual journey was ...
I watched the history channel one days
they were
doing a..
like a documentary I guess
or a segment about
the Bible
and the lost books of the Bible
there raised a lot of questions for me as far as ...
I began to question the authenticity of of the Bible
and I just had lots of questions that non of my
Christian family or friends could really answer for me
eventually uh...
I just started to
learned more about
the roots and origins of Christianity
and I became very interested in history
and things like that
I started this
spiritual .. you know..journey as I like to call it
and eventually it lead me to Islam
I met two people
an older couple who were
Muslim converts
and they basically taught me
everything they know
and they are actually
Sunni Muslims
but either way, I understood Islam..you know
and it came very easy to me
and I felt that it
answered a lot of the questions that I couldn't answer with Christianity
and shortly after..
them teaching me everything
I met another muslim woman one day
when I was at a government buildings
and I was looking for a job
I saw this Muslim woman
and this was before I wore hijab
actually you know
say shahada
and I walked up to her and I was so shy
and I said Alsalam Alikum
and
she was very sweet
and she was very kind to me
and I just explained to her that
I was thinking about becoming a muslim and
if she knew any other muslims that were
possibly close to my age or
if there was a mosque in that area that I was living at the time and
I remember that
she had the most
kindest and most peaceful eyes i've ever seen
and I always tell people that
when I
looked at her ideas I just wanted to lay my head on her lap and go to sleep
and we are
very very good friends actually she is probably my bestest friend to
this day and..
through her I gained up enough courage
to
actually say shahada
she took me to the masjed
and she
she is the one who introduced me to
the shiah path
and I just kept doing
my research
and learning about the differences and the history
of sunni and shiah and soffe
and other different sects as will and
I decided that
the shiah path was
what I felt I believed in
and that is how I became a shiah muslim
so
the process of
me saying shahada
happened shortly after I met
the woman who
lead me to the they shiah path
and we became good friends
and we were friends for a while before I had actually
uh... made the decision to
recite the shahada and
I actually wasn't even sure like
what the shahada was
I son't think I knew what the shahada was at all
I think I asked her one day
you know
what exactly do I have to do to
make myself a muslim and
she told me that I had to do is to say that ..you know..
there is no God but God and
prophet Muhammad is his messenger and
when I said that we were actually
at wholefoods store
which is where they
sell organic and natural food and
were eating there
and I said it and everything and she was like
congratulations you're a muslim now
and I'm like
so
then about a week later she brought me to the masjed
in our area
which was not a
shiah masjid it was a sunni masjid but
that's okay I just wanted to
be in a masjid and recite a shahada
to make it feel more formal
more official
and you know recite it in Arabic and
she brought me there
and everybody was very welcoming
it was great and I recited my shahada there and now I am a Muslim.