Islam: Tidligere højre-ekstremist og hans forhold til islam

“Once I was a 100% sure that I wanted to become a Muslim, I immediately felt better,” said British Muslim convert Mohammed Islam.

Mohammed Islam, tidligere kendt som John Ord, var før han konverteret til islam en meget aktiv medlem af den højre-orienterede parti, The British National Party (BNP).

“Growing up, I was never particularly religious. I only went to church for weddings, funerals and baptisms,” he told the Eastern Eye Online.

Mohammed Islam var vokset op i Nord-øst england, og da han var 16 år tilsluttede han sig BNP, fordi hans venner var medlemmer. De hvide ekstremister narrede ham ret hurtigt til, at tro at alle asiatere og sorte mennesker var en trussel for hans måde, at leve på. Mohammed Islam sagde, at der kun var to politiske målsætninger, som BNP havde dengang, og det var; “beat them up”, and “kick them out”.
Mohammed Islam beskrev, hvordan han plejede, at gå “Paki- bashing” og chikanerede asiatere;

We would find them and give them a good kicking and say stereotypical things such as, ‘Why are you in our country and why are you taking our shops and jobs?’”

Denne tidligere højre-ekstremist blev dog senere frustreret over BNPs politik og forlod partiet, da han var omkring 20′erne, og tog afsted til London, men han var stadig racist. I London fandt han sine ligesindede, som fejlagtigt betragtede islam som en trussel.

He said that he and his friends were asked by the police to provoke Muslims in order to get them into trouble and help the police arrest them. “We would always get a response to our statements and this gave the police a reason to arrest Muslims. Often the police would use this method to target those Muslims who were wanted by other countries,” he said.

Mohammed Islams liv forandrede sig gennemgribende, da han ved en fejltagelse havde købt en Koran;

He said: “I bought the book because of the picture on the cover – it was the most beautiful picture I had ever seen, with the most gorgeous colours and a beautiful building. I thought I’d buy a cheap frame and ended up with a nice picture. I had no idea I had bought the Qur’an until I got home.”

Han besluttede sig for, at læse af Koranen for, at finde frem til noget, han kunne bruge imod muslimerne.

“My mind was telling me that like any book written by humans, it would contain errors and contradictions. I had this view of Islam being this great bad religion.”

Da Mohammed Islam læste koranen kom han frem til det modsatte af hvad samfundet ellers ville have ham til, at tro om islam.
I 1992 forlod han London og tog tilbage til nordøst england, hvor han mødte en gruppe muslimer, som han havde diskussioner om Koranen og Gud;

“Not only were they able to intellectually prove that God existed but also that the Qur’an was the word of God,” he said.

Gruppen han havde opsøgt udfordrede Mohammed Islam, og bad ham om, at bevise for dem, at Gud ikke eksisterede, og at Koranen ikke var Guds ord, og hvis det lykkedes for Mohammed Islam, at bevise alt disse, ville de omvende sig til Kristendommen, og hvis det var det modsatte, skulle han konvertere til islam, men det lykkedes ikke for Mohammed islam, at bevise at Gud ikke eksisterede;

Mohammed accepted the challenge without hesitation. He said he used to meet the Muslims “with what I thought were convincing arguments but they would always have answers. Eventually I got scared and backed off.” Four years later, he decided to become a Muslim. He took his shahadah in November 1996.”Because I knew I was about to make a momentous decision that would affect the rest of my life, I felt as if a big rock was crushing me and that I couldn’t breathe…

Once I was a 100 per cent sure that I wanted to become a Muslim and took the decision, I felt as if everything just lifted and I immediately felt better,” Mohammed said.

Most people close to Mohammed were not shocked by his conversion to Islam. “I had made the decision to convert a year before and had told people that I was going to become a Muslim.” (Resten kan læses; Islamonline)