- [Interviewer] Beautiful. Okay.
No, let it go.
Yeah, (laughs) like you did, just talk.
Don't just--
- I am African American, born and in the south,
Southern Baptist, and I became Muslim--
I'm 48 years old.
I became Muslim almost 30 years ago
and it was the best decision of my life.
I thank Allah everyday for allowing me to be Muslim.
As I look back on it now, over 30 years,
as a little boy there were breadcrumbs along the way.
When I was in church I had questions, lots of questions.
I grew up in a very typical southern town,
where everyone got along,
but there was this ever present tension
and the societies were polarized.
So all the blacks lived in one area,
all the whites lived in area.
It just, as a boy, it didn't make sense to me.
I went to church every Sunday, and may God bless my mother,
because when I became 16 she said,
"If you want to go you can go.
"If you don't want to go, you don't have to go."
But the message spoke to me.
I love the history of the Bible, but I had questions.
Then one afternoon, I think I was 10 or 12 years old.
I was home alone just watching afternoon television.
And I'll never forget this movie,
Charlton Heston's movie "El Cid".
I'm sitting there watching it
and I'm a kid and I love adventure,
and it's set in the Muslim Spain, which I never heard of.
What's Muslim Spain?
At one point Charlton Heston is working with the Muslims
and he's working against the Muslims.
Muslims are dignified and noble,
and there are bad Muslims and good Muslims.
And I thought, "What's a Muslim?"
I asked a reverent, I said, "Reverent, what's a Muslim?
What's Islam?"
And he gave me an answer that, I was 12 years old
and it didn't make sense.
Then when I got to university,
I kept coming across this word, the "Ottoman Empire".
I thought, "Well, who are Ottomans?"
And so the more I read, at one point at university,
the angrier I became because I felt
I've been told this great lie.
One, that they were these civilizations
that were prominent before western civilization.
Also that many of them, they were Muslims.
So who were the Muslims?
And I began to read Islam.
One day I happened to be in the bookstore, college bookstore
and there was the autobiography of Malcolm X
and I just bought it, and it changed my life.
It opened windows in my mind really.
That led me on spiritual journey.
I went to the library and I gathered every book.
I said, "Okay."
I had a panic attack.
I said, "You know what? My heart is saying Islam is right,
"but my head says, this is your eternal soul.
"This is not something to play with.
"You have to be absolutely sure that this works for you
"intellectually, spiritually, economically, socially.
"You have to be sure that this works."
Because my heart was saying, "This is right.
"It feels good. It feels right."
Then I checked out every book in the library
I could find about Islam.
Islam in China, the Silk Road,
Genghis Khan's great grandson,
his views on Islam and Kublai khan
and one of the Khans became Muslim and Islam in Africa.
How Islam spread through trade, not through the sword.
The Abbasid and Muslim Spain and Bosnian Brothers.
I read everything I could about Islam
and how Islam came to the west.
And how there were Africans that were in bondage
that were Muslims and how they endeavor to pray.
I read everything, everything, everything
ideologically about Islam.
The great Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd,
to all the great intellectuals and I thought, "Okay."
then one day I had a copy of the Quran in English
and I opened it one day.
It said, "It doesn't matter
"whether you pray to the east or the west,
"but that you believe in Allah and the angels."
And I closed it, I said, "Okay."
I went down to the local mosque and did my Shahada.
That was the best decision I ever made.
I'm far from a saint.
I played football.
I got to college on a football scholarship,
but I decided to become Muslim on my own,
this is a journey that I did by myself.
I didn't take into account the impact
it would have with my family.
My mother and uncles and aunts and brother,
they were devastated.
I've been Muslim 30 years, some of my relatives still--
Most of my relatives to be honest, only last--
Only after being Muslim 25 years, two of my--
My mom and my brother have been able to call me Mujahid.
I utterly was naive and I didn't expect
that level of resistance.
Maybe a little bit, but I thought
maybe after a couple of years they'd get over it.
But southern Baptist and people were not educated
and more fear, not fear of Khomeini.
When I grew up there was only Khomeini,
Imam Khomeini and Gaddafi.
Those were the two prominent themes
of Islam when I was a kid and the constant war on Beirut.
But people were afraid to say Malcolm X's name in my town.
I remember maybe as boy I asked, "Who's Malcolm X?
"I've never seen Muhammad Ali talking about--"
"Shush, don't talk about Malcolm X."
It's gotten better, my family it's gone from war to truce.
And I come home and I'm very polite
and I go to church with them and I speak to their reverent,
but there's always this tension.
I love them, but I became Muslim for me,
and my soul is my own.
It has brought a great peace to me,
because when I got to university
and began to read about colonialism and imperialism
seething anger erupted in my heart.
I see young people now protesting and I see,
"That was me 30 years ago."
Without Islam, the protest, the anger,
the fight consumes you or can consume one.
When I lived in California for a while,
this is long after I was Muslim.
I would meet ex-black panthers and black revolutionaries
and I felt sorry for them, but also I said,
"You know Mujahid without Islam that's you."
Actually one ex-Panther pulled me aside.
He was giving a talk and he said, "Who were the most--"
Someone asked him in the audience,"Who evolved?"
it was an interesting question.
He said, "Who evolved?
"Who's evolved from the '70s?"
He said, the most ...
Successful in his mind, muslims
or the most successful ex-panthers were the Muslims.
He said the Muslims worshiped Allah
and he said, "That was the difference."
for me, back to your question,
it's brought me a tremendous peace and ability to navigate
my own anger and frustration with Salat.
I tell my buddies, Salat and a little bit of chocolate
and life looks a lot better.
90% of all Muslims are good people.
They're honest, they're hard working
and care for their families.
Focus on the 99% ...
And I think your world will be
ecstatically happy and beautiful,
and patient and magnificent.
But remember Islam is perfect and Muslims are not.