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We\u2019re working on this mall.\u00a0 It\u2019s the holiday season, and they put these extra booths in the hallways.\u00a0 There was a gal at one, and we had to pass right in front of her.\u00a0 I\u2019d say, \u201cGood morning, how are you?\u201d If she said anything, it was \u201cHi.\u201d And that was it.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Finally, I said, \u201cMiss, you never say anything.\u00a0 I just wanted to apologize if there was something I said wrong.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n She said, \u201cNo, you see, I\u2019m a Muslim.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re what?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a Muslim, and Muslim women, we don\u2019t talk to men unless we have something specific to talk about; otherwise we don\u2019t have anything to do with men.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOhhhhh.\u00a0 Muslim.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n She said, \u201cYes, we practice the religion of Islam.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIslam – how do you spell that?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI-s-l-a-m.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n At the time, I knew that Muslims were all terrorists.\u00a0 She doesn\u2019t even have a beard.\u00a0 How could she possibly be Muslim?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHow did this religion get started?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWell, there was a prophet.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cA prophet?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMuhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I started some research.\u00a0 But I just came from one religion.\u00a0 I had no intention of becoming Muslim.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The holidays are over.\u00a0 The booth moves.\u00a0 She\u2019s gone.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I continued to pray, and asked why my prayers weren\u2019t being answered.\u00a0 In November of 1991, I was going to bring my uncle Rockie home from the hospital.\u00a0 I started to empty his drawers to pack his stuff and there was a Gideon Bible.\u00a0 I said, God has answered my prayers.\u00a0 This Gideon Bible. (Of course, they put it in every hotel room.) This is a sign from God that He\u2019s ready to teach me.\u00a0 So I stole the Bible.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I went home and I started praying: O God, teach me to be a Christian.\u00a0 Don\u2019t teach me the Jehovah\u2019s Witness way.\u00a0 Don\u2019t teach me the Catholic way.\u00a0 Teach me Your way! You would not have made this Bible so hard that ordinary people sincere in prayer could not understand it.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I got all the way through the New Testament.\u00a0 I started the Old Testament.\u00a0 Well, eventually there\u2019s a part in the Bible about the prophets.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Bing!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I said, Wait a minute, that Muslim lady said they had a prophet.\u00a0 How come he\u2019s not in here?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I started thinking, Muslims – one billion in the world.\u00a0 Man, one out of every five people on the street theoretically could be a Muslim.\u00a0 And I thought: One billion people! C\u2019mon now, Satan is good.\u00a0 But he\u2019s not that good.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n So then I said, I\u2019ll read their book, the Quran, and I\u2019ll see what kind of pack of lies this thing is.\u00a0 It probably has an illustration on how to dissemble an AK-47.\u00a0 So I went to an Arabic bookstore.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n They asked, \u201cWhat can I help you with?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m looking for a Quran.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOkay, we have some over here.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n They had some very nice ones – thirty dollars, forty dollars.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cLook, I just want to read it, I don\u2019t want to become one, okay?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOkay, we have this little five-dollar paperback edition.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I went home, and started reading my Quran from the beginning, with Al-Fatihah.\u00a0 And I could not get my eyes off of it.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Hey, look at this.\u00a0 It talks about a Noah in here.\u00a0 We have Noah in our Bible too.\u00a0 Hey, it talks about Lot and Abraham.\u00a0 I can\u2019t believe it.\u00a0 I never knew Satan\u2019s name was Iblees.\u00a0 Hey, how about that.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n When you get that picture on your TV set and it\u2019s got a little bit of static and you push that button [klop] – fine tune.\u00a0 That\u2019s exactly what happened with the Quran.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I went through the whole thing.\u00a0 So I said, Okay, I\u2019ve done this, now what\u2019s the next thing you got to do? Well, you gotta go to their meeting place.\u00a0 I looked in the yellow pages, and I finally found it: Islamic Center of Southern California, on Vermont.\u00a0 I called and they said, \u201cCome on Friday.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Now I really start getting nervous, `cause now I know I\u2019m going to have to confront Habib and his AK-47.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I want people to understand what it\u2019s like for an American Christian coming into Islam.\u00a0 I\u2019m kidding about the AK-47, but I don\u2019t know if these guys have daggers under their coats, you know.\u00a0 So I come up to the front, and sure enough, there\u2019s this six-foot-three, 240-pound brother, beard and everything, and I\u2019m just in awe.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I walked up and said, \u201cExcuse me, sir.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n [Arabic accent:] \u201cGo to the back!\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n He thought I was already a brother.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I said, \u201cYessir, yessir\u201d [meekly].<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I didn\u2019t know what I was going back for, but I went back anyway.\u00a0 They had the tent and the rugs were out.\u00a0 I\u2019m standing there, kind of shy, and people are sitting down listening to the lecture.\u00a0 And people are saying, Go ahead, brother, sit down.\u00a0 And I\u2019m going, No, thanks, no, thanks, I\u2019m just visiting.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n So finally the lecture\u2019s over.\u00a0 They\u2019re all lined up for prayer and they go into sajdah.\u00a0 I was really taken aback.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n It started making sense intellectually, in my muscles, in my bones, in my heart and my soul.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n So prayers are over.\u00a0 I say, hey, who\u2019s going to recognize me? So I start to mingle like I\u2019m one of the brothers, and I\u2019m walking into the mosque and a brother says, \u201cAssalaamu alaikum.\u201d And I thought, Did he say \u201csalt and bacon\u201d?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAssalaamu alaikum.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s another guy who said \u201csalt and bacon\u201d to me.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I didn\u2019t know what in the world they were saying, but they all smiled.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Before one of these guys noticed that I was not supposed to be there and took me to the torture chamber, or beheaded me, I wanted to see as much as I could.\u00a0 So eventually I went to the library, and there was a young Egyptian brother; his name was Omar.\u00a0 God sent him to me.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Omar comes up to me, and he says, \u201cExcuse me.\u00a0 This is your first time here?\u201d He has a real strong accent.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n And I said, Yeah, it is.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOh, very good.\u00a0 You are Muslim?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNo, I\u2019m just reading a little.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOh, you are studying? This is your first visit to a mosque?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCome, let me show you around.\u201d And he grabs me by the hand, and I\u2019m walking with another man – holding hands.\u00a0 I said, these Muslims are friendly.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n So he shows me around.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFirst of all, this is our prayer hall, and you take your shoes off right here.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat are these things?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThese are little cubicles.\u00a0 That\u2019s where you put your shoes.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWell, because you\u2019re approaching the prayer area, and it\u2019s very holy.\u00a0 You don\u2019t go in there with your shoes on; it\u2019s kept real clean.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n So he takes me to the men\u2019s room.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnd right here, this is where we do wudoo.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cVoodoo! I didn\u2019t read anything about voodoo!\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNo, not voodoo.\u00a0 Wudoo!\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOkay, because I saw that stuff with the dolls and the pins, and I\u2019m just not ready for that kind of commitment yet.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n He says, \u201cNo, wudoo, that\u2019s when we clean ourselves.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhy do you do that?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWell, when you pray to God, you have to be clean, so we wash our hands and feet.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n So I learned all these things.\u00a0 He let me go, and said, \u201cCome back again.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I went back and asked the librarian for a booklet on prayer, and I went home and practiced.\u00a0 I felt that if I was trying to do it right, God would accept it.\u00a0 I just continued to read and read and visit the mosque.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I had a commitment to go on a tour of the Midwest on a comedy circuit.\u00a0 Well, I took a prayer rug with me.\u00a0 I knew that I was supposed to pray at certain times, but there are certain places where you are not supposed to pray, one of which is in the bathroom.\u00a0 I went into a men\u2019s room on a tourist stop and I laid out my carpet and I started doing my prayers.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I came back, and when Ramadan was over, I started getting calls from different parts of the country to go and lecture as a Jehovah\u2019s Witness minister who embraced Islam.\u00a0 People find me a novelty.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Ref. www.islamreligion.com \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 We\u2019re working on this mall.\u00a0 It\u2019s the holiday season, and they put these extra booths in the hallways.\u00a0 There was a gal at one, and we… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories-of-famous"],"yoast_head":"\n
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