- Usually I'm the one asking. (laughs)
- [Interviewer] Now it's time for revenge.
So I tell Yusuf
- You're gonna do it first, then I'll do it, all right?
- [Interviewer] That's why he did it, he's done it.
- He did it, okay. (laughs)
Okay, my name is Iskander Tung.
I'm 58 years old this year, and I'm from Malaysia.
Ethnically I'm Chinese, okay, my grandfather came from China
but I was born in Malaysia into a Methodist family,
Protestant Methodist, my family is fairly religious.
I embraced Islam in 1983, around July, cannot remember
the exact date, but it was, you know, middle of Ramadan,
33 years ago, and I heard about Islam, of course,
Malaysia being, you know, a predominantly Muslim country,
majority are Malay Muslims, they are about 55% to 60% now
of Muslims, and from young, of course, you know,
we grew up going to church, not knowing much about
other people's religion, and we usually referred to Islam
as the Malay's religion, okay, so it's ethnically connected.
And I started learning about more interest in religion
when I was in my teens, in my teenage years,
and what my, especially my family, I mean,
they were Pentecostal Christians, and we were very active
and we attended courses and classes
and some of the classes we attended
were comparative religion, and I've actually attended
quite a number of them, including Hinduism, Buddhism,
Sai Baba, and, you know, and finally, I think it was
back in 1980 that the church organized a pastor from Egypt
to teach about Islam, so this is the first time
I really go in depth into knowing Islam, all right?
It was a three-day course, three evenings I will say,
and there was a book, he gave us a book that he wrote
about Islam, okay, and I read it, of course,
what he told us in the, you know, in the seminar
was how bad Muslims were, unfortunately,
as I read the book, I said, look, I was able to discern,
all right, if you say Islam is like,
the book was fairly accurate, if I look back now,
what other people do to their religion and to themselves
has nothing to do with the religion, all right,
if they misbehave, all right, has nothing to do with Islam,
if Christians misbehave, it's nothing to do
with Christianity, so it started me on journey,
basically, to read further and it took me about three years
before I accepted Islam in 1983, I was attracted
because of the concept of the oneness of God,
and since I was young, I always wonder,
you know, about existence, I was inquisitive type,
and I loved to lay down on the roof and look at the skies.
I think probably that started me on this journey
of the quest, so I will say, you know,
that it started in 1980, I will say that when I was a child,
all right, just that we were not exposed
to any other religion except Christianity,
so this is how, you know, I took the step.
I was busy with life, working, and also learning
whatever I can, there was very few books in English
those days and what happened was I went to London
and I went to the Region Street,
I think there's a mosque, something like that,
can't remember, and I saw the Quran, and I bought it
and I read it, okay, and so when I returned
and I decided, I had a few, very few Muslim friends
at that time, but they were, they did not tell me
a lot about the religion, but they did show me,
and I was impressed by the haram, you know,
I was impressed by how they treated me
with always a lot of respect, even the very few
in the concept, you know, in religion, in Islam,
they told me about it, and I think I was naturally inclined,
you know, to accept it, well, I come from family, all right,
of moderate Christians, I know that my family would not,
you know, allow me, all right, would not permit, approve,
but I was in the doubt and I know I could, you know,
I could convince them in the process
and which I did, because I studied quite a lot
and I was knowledgeable about the Bible at that time
and I explained to them, all right, and I was confident
of my ability to explain my religion because I was using
more or less like comparative religion at that time,
all right, and comparing the similarities
and explaining to them why, you know,
about the oneness of God, and God being uncreated,
all right, and I still remember, I told my family,
once God becomes a creation, it's a creation,
it's no longer a creator, so this is how,
I was confident of my ability, basically,
and I felt that it was the time that I,
I need not search anymore because I practically
stopped searching, all right, and once I started learning,
then the conviction grew and I made the decision.
Yeah, Islam has changed my life in many ways,
actually, in almost every way.
Well, I still, I'm very close to my family, still,
all right, and they are very close to mine
and my family felt that I was, I mean, I am a better son
than I was before. (laughs)
We are both right and wrong, but, you know,
I have been, you know, concerned about them
and I always, you know, keep in touch.
I've brought my dad, and you know, to live with me
he said his Shahadah when he was 74 years old
yeah, he just passed away.
I would encourage you to look inwards to yourself
and pray to God to give you the courage that you need.
God willing, you will find the courage to do so.