Europe’s and America’s New Muslims

Discover the Misleading Stereotypical

Image of Islam in Western Media

Diana Betty : “I have found in the Holy Qur’an convincing

answers to my questions and perplexity and have not found

any contradictions, errors or distortions in it”

The American Diana Betty was like the other perplexed British girls who had been looking for convincing answers to unending questions related to various aspects of life in quest of peace of mind and spiritual healing for their faith and psychological troubles. Diana embarked on her faith journey searching for spiritual salvation and desiring to get rid of the spiritual vacuum she had been living in. Her faith journey led her in the end to embrace Islam during her university studies’ period.

Diana mixed with Muslim female students during her study at university. She learnt through them the extent of her ignorance about Islam and Muslims. Diana made a point of benefiting from the opportunity to know more about Islam and Muslims by asking her Muslim fellow female students a lot of questions. She managed to acquire good knowledge about Islam, namely about its teachings and principles. Thus, she was completely convinced that this was the religion she had been looking for and in which lay her spiritual and psychological salvation.

We are going to look at the details of Diana’s faith journey which led her to embrace Islam and change her name to Massuma Amat Allah, by which some of her acquaintances have started to call her, while many of them have kept calling her by her old name.

Diana relates the details of her faith journey stating : “my name is Diana Betty, some like to call me Massuma Amat Allah, but the majority of my acquaintances have kept calling me by my old name, particularly my non-Muslim acquaintances and female friends. I embraced Islam at the age of twenty three. I was at university studying physics and training to become a physics teacher after graduation. I am an American citizen from Colorado. My father and brother are electricians. My brother was married and had two children when I announced my conversion to Islam. He lived two houses away from the family house. My mother worked as a legal secretary in our district attorney’s office. None of my family members had gone to university before me. My father was a drunkard and heavy smoker. His bad habit put more pressure on the whole family and made it unhappy, because he was then very selfish, giving no attention to his family. He used to get angry very quickly which created a tense atmosphere within the family. His life was similar to that of a dead man’s. My mother was upset for him and pitied him. She had a marital life that was lacking in love and affection. I think that we appeared to people as a model family, which was contrary to reality. The presence of dogs in our house and the alcohol which my father drank continuously made visiting us difficult, but I tried to visit my female friends whenever possible. My mother used to blame me for the scarcity of my friends while my father preferred that. Our family led a difficult life for long years, yet we at least managed to reach an important point, namely that for the family to remain tight though this was unrealistic and not exemplary.”

She went on to say : “When I went to university I met Muslim women for the first time. After this I started to realize the extent of my ignorance of Islam and Muslims. I also realized that most of what I had learnt about Islam and Muslims before was wrong. I also learned facts that I had not heard before. My curiosity for learning more about Islam increased as a result of the Muslims’ good conduct and of their faithfulness to their religion. Moreover, I was impressed by the Muslim’s prayer because of the humility and piety it consists of. The idea of a religion which helps organise all the aspects of life was the very thing I had been in quest of.

I grew up in a Christian family, this is why my bringing up was Christian when I met my Muslim female fellow students at college. I was at that time seriously studying the Bible, too but I did not find convincing answers in the Bible to the questions that were on my mind. Yet I found answers to those questions in the Holy Qur’an. In the beginning I did not want to read the Holy Qur’an because of what it says about Jesus Christ as not being the Son of God, as Almighty Allah states : “The Jews say : ‘Uzair is the son of Allah, and the Christians say : Christ is the Son of Allah. That is their saying with their mouths; resembling the saying of those who disbelieved aforetime. Allah’s curse be on them : how they are deluded away from the truth”. (Surat At-Tauba, Verse 30) ; and similarly, for what it says about wars and fighting, such as His Almighty’s Statement : “Allah has purchased of the believers their lives and their properties for (the price) that theirs shall be the Paradise. They fight in Allah’s cause, so they kill (others) and are killed. It is a promise in truth which is binding on Him in the Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel) and the Qur’an. And who is truer to his covenant than Allah ? Then rejoice in the bargain which you have concluded. That is the supreme success” (Surat At-Tauba, Verse 111) All this had an echo in my mind when I heard about the Muslims’ terrorism and violence. However, I used my Muslim acquaintances as a model to compare with the stereotypical image of Muslims in the Western media I grew up with. I found that they were different from it and did not correspond to that description. Then, I started to get astonished by some of the similarities between the Bible and the Holy Qur’an ; thus it actually appeared to me that they had the same origin. I did not believe my Christian religion teacher when he told us that the source of the Qur’an was Satan who made some similarities between it and the Bible so as to succeed in his trick. Similarly, I did not believe that those Muslims who were more sincere in their worshipping of Almighty Allah than Christians would go to Hell as I had learnt.

I continued my study of the Bible and was able through this study to read the Bible with new knowledge and in a new light. I found contradictions, errors and wrong scientific facts, which made me doubt the authenticity of the Bible, and started to get convinced of the distortions introduced in it by human beings. Yet, these errors and contradictions are non-existent in the Qur’an. All that the Qur’an has mentioned about Allah and about the human being’s goal in life were for me logical, reasonable and easy to understand. I learnt that Allah has sent down to us a religion that we can understand and follow. My study of the Holy Qur’an lasted for many months which were among the difficult periods of my life. For, I was studying both the Bible and the Qur’an and came to the conclusion that Islam was the religion of Allah which was exempt from weaknesses, contradictions and distortions. Therefore, I was convinced that it was the true religion which Allah has sent to us.

After this in-depth study I reached the truth that Islam was the religion in which the human being finds psychological and spiritual salvation with which he fills the spiritual vacuum, hence my decision to announce my embracing Islam. At that time I was not sure of knowing everything about Islam, nor did I know the importance of the Hijab in Islam or the way to perform prayer, etc. However, with the passing of time I started to learn a lot about my new religion.

It was very difficult for me, after I became a Muslim, to come to conclusions such as the idea that the people I knew prior to my conversion, namely my teachers, my parents, my grand parents, my friends and my priests, were all wrong. Furthermore, it was very difficult for me to decide taking a road against my family and doing something I knew they hated and misunderstood. I feared to take the wrong decision. For Christianity teaches this : if you do not believe that Christ (PBUH) sacrificed himself to expiate your sins, you will go to Hell. This is at least what the priests taught me before I became a Muslim ; hence my fear of having gone astray. Moreover, I feared the reaction of my female friends, of my colleagues and of my superiors at work. I feared also that my family would disown me as a result of my conversion to Islam. My family did not like my choice but did not disown me. My relationship with its members underwent a noticeable change. Whenever I talked to my mother she complained and was exasperated about my wearing the Hijab, as it is the Islamic dress. It seems that it annoyed them more than anything else. My mother still sends me some books and pamphlets that deal with the Christian religion.

When I wore the Hijab for the first time, my mother wept for almost one week ; she suffered a lot for my wearing the Hijab. She wrote me a letter describing my wearing the Hijab as a slap in the face to her, accusing me of having forsaken the education I was given in my childhood and trying to become an Arab girl. For the understanding of Islam among most Westerners is limited to their idea that it is a religion meant for Arabs only, but the truth is completely the opposite, since Islam is Allah’s religion for the whole of humanity. My family members tried to convince themselves that I converted to Islam and wore the Hijab for the sake of my Muslim husband ; this is why they did not like him and hoped we would divorce. I was told by one of my family members that I would go to Hell.

It was not easy for me to abstain from eating non-Halal food and drinking alcohol, as well as to start performing prayers, fasting Ramadan and wearing the Hijab without some difficulty at first. Yet the real difficulty lied in causing harm to my family in one way or another. At that time I lost a few of my family members who could not adjust to the changes that took place in my life after my embracing Islam. However, the majority of my friends remained as they were before. Furthermore, I did not find any difficulty in finding a job as a result of wearing the Hijab. I also received a great deal of respect from my colleagues at work. The only difficulty I have faced comes from my family as I am their daughter. Men do not know what to do when I refuse to shake hands with them. In the end, however, they respect my religion and my stand.

It is very difficult to describe to someone who is unaware of Islam how it changes and improves a person’s life. Actually, Islam has changed me completely. Now I have no doubt about our purpose in this world and about my finding the Right Path. After I became a Muslim I felt a peace of mind that I had never felt before. Islam has improved my life as a woman. For I witnessed how good Muslim men kindly treat Muslim women with more respect than the treatment reserved by men to women in the American society where I grew up. By embracing Islam you experience the feelings of someone who has returned home.”