5 Brtitish coverts to Islam share their extraordinary journey to Islam
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00:00Islam. With an estimated 2 billion Muslims around the world, it is the world's fastest
00:08growing religion. Since its origin, it has met with criticism and even hate towards followers
00:13of Islam. Some that have led to horrific crimes against Muslim and even multiple communities
00:20blamed for some of the most horrific atrocities around the world. But how can an ancient religion
00:28be so popular in the modern world? Why are thousands, every year, being drawn to Islam
00:34in the 21st century? Conversion, also known as reversion, isn't new and some have famously
00:41reverted, such as Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, to Brits including Shania O'Connor and Lauren
00:49Booth. My name is Lauren Booth. I'm a journalist and an author, an actor and a content creator.
00:56From the UK, I now live in Istanbul. I went from a celebrity lifestyle to seeing the beauty
01:04of Islam as it was lived, particularly in Palestine, but not only, also by the Muslims
01:09in the UK. Kindness, generosity and belief in one God, and it touched my heart and in
01:142010, I accepted Islam. And since then, by the grace of Allah, I have travelled the world
01:19giving talks and sharing thoughts on what it means to be a person of faith in the 21st century.
01:27In this Shots TV special for Islamophobia Awareness Month, here in Portsmouth, we speak
01:34to five British individuals about their extraordinary journey into Islam.
01:39My life was very chaotic because I was living on the streets. So for me, it was survival
01:45every day, finding somewhere to shower, to stay safe, a warm shelter, and also at the
01:54time being able to keep my stuff that was with me, so my bedding and all that stuff.
02:00So every day was a struggle. You know, there was a lot of problems, you know, almost being
02:06stabbed while sleeping, but it took its toll on me. That's how I found Islam actually,
02:13I was at breaking point, you know, particularly on that day, the day before I took my Shahada
02:18actually was just by the side of Debenhams, there's a block of flats and I put all my
02:25bedding in there because one of the residents had said, yeah, I ain't got a problem. But
02:30that day some builders had come and my passport, provisional, all my identification, bank statements,
02:37bank cards, everything was all thrown in the bin. And when I said to the builders, can
02:43you let me get my stuff? They were just laughing at me, calling me a crackhead, smackhead,
02:47junkie, all of this stuff. And that was it. That was the final straw for me. And I went
02:51down to the rock gardens. I started recording, you know, a video to say, explaining why,
02:58you know, I had an intention. I didn't want to be on this world anymore. I didn't want
03:03to be here anymore. And that's how I found Islam actually, was that I hit, there's rock
03:10bottom and then there's the bit that's below rock bottom. And that's the bit where it's
03:16like the sea, the sediment sits. That's where I was in. I was in the thick of it. For me,
03:23I was so broken because I wasn't getting help from the council, authorities, anything, no
03:29one, you know, and I had nothing to live for.
03:35My name's David. I was born in Manchester in the north of England and I went to a Catholic
03:40school and was brought up a Catholic. I would say I was probably quite a, they used the
03:50word devout, I was probably quite a devout Catholic. I went to mass quite a lot. I was
03:56involved with the church. And at one point I even thought about becoming a monk, but
04:04I didn't do that. And I went into the workplace and aged 20, I traveled down to London and
04:11I joined the police in London when I was 20.
04:15All the distractions of late teen and early adult life, you know, you bounce from work,
04:21you go home with your free time, your mates, you get some new mates. When I went to London,
04:28I didn't know a single person in London. So, you know, you're making new mates, probably
04:32mostly people you work with, but some others. And back in those days, I used to drink alcohol.
04:38So I used to do that. Sometimes I used to go out with my mates into central London to
04:43all the bars and things, as a lot of young people do, having a great time.
04:48We speak to Hedia, who wanted to remain anonymous as she feels that those closest to her aren't
04:54ready to take on the news of her recent conversion.
05:00So I am a revert to Islam. My name's Hedia. And yeah, I live on the South Coast. I came
05:15originally from London, from a Jewish family, a secular Jewish family. So I never felt particularly
05:23Jewish because we weren't religious in our family. In fact, we were more than just secular.
05:30We, well, my family used to talk about religion as almost like a disease that people got.
05:37So if somebody became particularly religious, even particularly Jewish, I think the phrase
05:42was, oh, they've caught religion. So I grew up feeling Jewish enough that I used to have
05:49nightmares about the Second World War, the Holocaust. I binge read books, starting with
05:56The Diary of Anne Frank, and there are lots of other kids' books about the Holocaust,
06:02When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, all these sort of books. And so I grew up really frightened
06:08from that.
06:10I grew up in an atheist family. No one really spoke about religion apart from when I was
06:14at my first school, it was a Christian school. We sang hymns, we learned stories about Jesus,
06:21but nothing heavy. And when I moved out of that school, that was it. I didn't really
06:27learn anything else about religion. But I was always trying to find myself. There was
06:33something missing. I just can't explain it. There was something missing. And so I researched
06:38different religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity a little bit. But I focused
06:45on New Age spirituality, so tarot cards, crystals, things like that. Just trying to find myself
06:54and who I am. A lot of past life, regression, meditation, things like that. And when lockdown
07:01hit, that's when I had to really face myself and who I was. I had a lot of time alone.
07:08I was doing tarot readings, spiritual meditations, and I had this empty feeling after one of
07:17my meditations where I just knew that I was the leader of my own life at that point. I
07:22needed something to take the lead. I couldn't lead by my own ego anymore. I needed something
07:27higher to guide me.
07:30I had, as a social media influencer, from the early days of Bebo, I think it was called,
07:39I'd always been promoting hate against Islam. I believed Islam was a man-made religion.
07:44It was paganism. It worshipped idols and all sorts of stuff. What broke me was that I had
07:51been so unjust towards myself. That's the problem because God gave us the ability. He
07:58gave us eyes, He gave us ears, and He gave us a brain. And I hadn't used none of it.
08:03So I used to go onto social media. I used to copy, I was a supporter of Britain First
08:10National Front, EDL. And I used to promote their stuff on social media. So anything they'd
08:18come up with like a niqab or a burqa, I'd be like, look at them Muslims, they're oppressing
08:24the women. So I'd done things to survive. I was an ex-drug dealer. I was an ex-criminal.
08:33I was doing things that I'd done. So every day's hard. But the beautiful thing is, the
08:40Qur'an actually says, I take great comfort from this. You say that you believe and that
08:46I won't test you. But the problem is now, people now, it's not just ignorance, people's
08:55hearts are sick. And what I do on social media is I remind them, biggest thing that I do
09:02is I actually challenge people. And I say to people, you've got so much hatred towards
09:07Islam and Muslims, have you ever read their book? No. So then what gives you the right
09:13to talk about that book?
09:17Going back to my lapsed Catholicism, I've always had a belief in God. That's something
09:21I can't help. But if God is who I feel and believe him to be, can't be like man. God
09:31can't have a son. Because God has got to be so much higher than us, couldn't equate to
09:38a person. Nothing could equal God. And then when I was reading about Islam, of course,
09:45you can't read about Islam without soon learning about the shahada. And the first line of the
09:49shahada is, there is no God but God. No one is worthy of worship other than God. And I
09:54thought, well, that's it. And straight away, I thought, well, that solves it for me. There's
10:01Islam. I solved that problem of trying to wrangle with the Trinity, God, the Father,
10:09the Son and Holy Spirit. You know, you're telling me there is no Son and Holy Spirit.
10:13There's just God. Logical.
10:15So I grew up with the typical that we in the West are good and righteous and we do
10:24welfare and everyone else is either second or third world or deluded.
10:31And so that was my frame as a young person. And thankfully, I'm quite a questioning person.
10:37And so gradually over the years, especially with British foreign policy, when I was growing up,
10:44I started to question whether that was true. And I became not religious, but I did become,
10:52as I grew up, spiritual. And this, I've had various challenges in my life. Everybody does.
10:57And I was managing as best I could. And I think I managed pretty well. And then,
11:05I guess a bunch of things happened at the same time. And then as I was talking to my friend
11:09who's Muslim, I started to have this realization. Oh, wait a minute. Somebody does hold us to
11:17account. There is right and wrong. And so that accountability brought me into some kind of focus
11:27that, oh, there is, you know, there is religion. And then I had another moment of awareness when I
11:33realized that this creation, this world that we live in, is not just by mistake. You know,
11:40the beauty, the incredible intricacy that exists in the world.
11:58And that combined with being curious about the people I was seeing on my phone from Gaza
12:07facing hideous oppression and atrocities. And they were saying, alhamdulillah, you know, praise
12:14to God. With their dead babies in their arms, they were still praising God. And they're not
12:20on antidepressants like half the Western world. And they're not, you know, manically
12:27chasing some happiness and reading about it in books and going, what is happiness? What is
12:31happiness? They've got that in their hearts. And so all of these things kind of fell into place for me,
12:39which is, you know, beautiful and lucky. And I'm blessed to have had this moment of
12:44knowing what is true, knowing what is possible. And so this all combined. And suddenly one day
12:52I thought, oh, I think I might be Muslim. I think I might be accepting Islam. And I
12:59made some phone calls. I did some more research. I read some more books. I spoke to
13:04a sister who is a revert who's fairly well known. And I remember talking to her. I was on a walk
13:11and tears were pouring down my face. And then I phoned the imam at the mosque in London.
13:18And I said, I think I might be Muslim. And he sort of talked me through what a shahada is,
13:23how it happens. And he said, when you're ready, sister, you know, come and do your shahada.
13:29And then every time I prayed after that for a long time, I would have tears streaming down my face,
13:35which sounds evangelical and all the things that as a secular person I would have just laughed at
13:43previously. And yet they were true for me. So it's an interesting journey.
13:49So growing up, I always had a confusion about religion. And then I kind of put it aside. I was
13:58not looking into religion at all because obviously growing up with my mum, not believing in God at
14:05all. And then I came to the UK and started dating a Moroccan guy. So I was kind of in love and
14:15learning about Islam, but not so profound. And then I started working in restaurants. And
14:25SubhanAllah, Osama, he came into the store with some Qurans and he was giving Qurans.
14:33Yeah, SubhanAllah. And then he gave me a Quran and I kind of put it aside. But then I broke up with
14:41my boyfriend at the time and I was dying and I was crying so much. And I grabbed that Quran.
14:46I remember grabbing that Quran and I open it and I started reading it. And I felt so drawn by it.
14:55SubhanAllah. And I started like reading more and more in my TikTok scrolls, Islam and things like
15:01that. And then SubhanAllah, I started working in another restaurant. There are Muslims there.
15:08And one day I just came in and I was talking about, it was near Christmas last year.
15:16So I came inside and one of the workers, he was like, so where are you going to spend Christmas
15:24this year? And I said, I don't celebrate Christmas. I'm practically a Muslim. And he was like, what do
15:29you mean you're a Muslim? And I said, yeah, I'm a Muslim. I don't celebrate Christmas. I don't eat
15:33pork anyways for like two years now. So I'm basically a Muslim. And he was like, you know,
15:37I'm a Muslim. You didn't take your shahada yet. I said, okay, that's good then. SubhanAllah, I took my
15:43shahada before my shaykh and I was crying. It was such a weird feeling. My back was
15:51chills everywhere and I was crying so much. Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah.
15:56The challenges the reverts face aren't just changes in lifestyle,
16:00but the reactions of their new way of life by those closest to them.
16:05Mixed responses from different people. I mean, I've got an old school friend who was from the
16:10Catholic school and he said some things that I found weird. So odd things. So you worship Allah
16:20now. And I had to explain. Sometimes I was astonished by people's ignorance. No, I knew
16:28this. I thought Allah is just the Arabic word for God. And I also know that Judaism, Christianity
16:35and Islam all worship the same God. It's just that Allah is an Arabic word. But God, yeah,
16:41it's the same God. I don't worship a different God. And then one of the things he said to me
16:46was, does Christmas offend you? I said, no, Christmas doesn't offend me. It doesn't offend me.
16:58If I ate pork in front of you, would that offend you? I said, crack on mate. I would advise you
17:04not to eat pork. I wouldn't force anyone to do anything they didn't want to do. That's the
17:11opposite of what it's about. If you were to ask me, I would say no. But I wouldn't force you and
17:19I wouldn't bring the subject up. Poppies. I got asked that, do poppies offend you? I've got a
17:23poppy on today. Look, no, the poppy doesn't offend me. I'm Muslim and I wear a poppy. So no,
17:28poppies don't offend me. And all these things, I thought, wow, you've had all these things in
17:32your head. And it never occurred to me that my friend would think all these things offended me.
17:39And it was, do you not like English people? Are you now anti-British? And I just thought, wow,
17:50I didn't realise the problems existed like that. I said, no, I am British. I was born in Manchester.
17:56I was working in two places. I was doing the restaurant and I was working in the nightclub.
18:04So obviously, it was a big shock. Suddenly, I had to stop my work as a hostess in the nightclub and
18:13serving drinks and doing everything to be completely out of everything that was haram.
18:24But Alhamdulillah, it was easy to stop doing the things I used to do. For example, drinking,
18:31smoking, it was easy to stop doing that. All my life, I've been interested in music. I learned
18:38how to play guitar. I started singing at open mics in pubs with my guitar teacher. And music
18:46was just a huge part of my life. I have so many beautiful memories from my childhood attached to
18:52music. And when I was feeling down, I'd express myself through music. So it's quite hard to give
19:00up. But when you realise the effects that music has on your heart and your soul, when you put the
19:08Qur'an in your heart and you listen to it daily, when you listen to music, you can notice how
19:14crazy the difference is in your mood. When you're sad, you listen to sad music. It makes you more
19:21sad. When you're happy, you listen to happy music. And you get addicted to that tune. It's in your
19:26head all day. Why can't I think of anything else but this tune? So I know Allah makes rules
19:36that are good for us, not to restrict us, not to change our lives, make it harder. He does it for
19:41us. So I can't say it's easy to give up, but I know that it's right to give up. In our society,
19:51we are so prone to suffering, depression. We're just disappointed in our lives. We see the world
19:58in such a dull way. And we are the most privileged people in our time. We've got everything we could
20:05have asked for, but we don't have religion in this society. Whereas they, in Gaza, religion is the
20:15only thing they're counting on. They don't count on their homes, their family. They're gone. Food,
20:21gone. They have nothing but God. And they are the most happy people because they know they're going
20:27to heaven, inshallah. And we have everything we could have wanted. I think if we can order food
20:32right now if we wanted to, it'll be there in an instant. We can run the tap as long as we want.
20:38They're literally begging for rain just to go into their mouths. And we are such an ungrateful
20:44nation. I mean, we all have our own struggles. We have hardships. Life wouldn't be life
20:51without hardships. But if you just look at the big picture, we are so lucky. And I think people
20:58started to realize, what am I complaining for, really, when they have nothing?
21:04I think what is so different about the Gaza situation is that they're trying to teach the world
21:12about how to have a community and a faith community in a time of horror. And I think
21:20that is a reflection point for all of us, wherever, whichever place we live in the world, as to how do
21:27we cope with modern reality, let alone a massacre on this scale? What are we bringing our children
21:33up to be? And who are we and what are we doing that's good? And within that, we need to change
21:39our political systems because we must never be this hand-bound and gagged ever, ever again.
21:46Otherwise, humanity suffers. What's happening in Gaza has really saddened me in many ways. But now
21:55we're talking about Islam, aren't we? So I'm going to tell you the way it's saddened me about Islam
21:59is that it's been mooted in the press. And obviously, people repeat this and in social
22:07media and all sorts of forums that it's a religious war. The war is about religion.
22:12And the war is about between Muslims who want to kill the Jews. And Jews are now retaliating
22:20because Muslims want to kill them. And because of that, it's given rise to Islamophobia. And I would
22:28say now that the last bit of racism that is actually acceptable is Islamophobia. It's acceptable
22:37to say bad things about Muslims and bad things about Islam. So a scientist said in a quote that
22:44if you choose to believe in God and it turns out that it's true, you have something to gain.
22:49But if it turns out that it's not true, you have nothing to lose.
22:53Well, God gave us wisdom and he gave us the ability and understanding and the intellect.
22:58The thing is, is you've got to ask yourself, how arrogant are you really being by not picking up
23:02a book and talking about that book when you know nothing about it?
23:08You know, this is that we've got no excuses. Those who spread lies against Islam with access
23:16to social media, to the internet, these people are just hate spills.
23:22And they never change. They will never change until they want to change themselves.