A BLOG FOR THE ASPIRING DA'EE

Tuesday 27 September 2011

Norway Shooting Spree Survivor Converts

The Fresh Air blog describes how one of the people who survived the Anders Breivik’s shooting spree converted to Islam:

"Just a fortnight ago, IERA, the Islamic Education and Research Academy travelled to Norway to attend the World Humanist Congress in Oslo.  Headed up by Hamza Tzortzis who was set to debate Dr Lars Gule, a leading Norwegian humanist, IERA made the trip in order to better educate the Norwegian public about Islam.
In a remarkable twist of fate following Anders Breivik’s right wing shooting spree last month, one of the Non-Muslim survivors from the Island made his way to the IERA dawah table.  Describing his story for the camera, he explained that he found himself praying to God as he hid fearfully from the bullets.  No sooner had he said Allahu Akbar, he felt at peace.  He took his Shahadah right there and then in front of the IERA brothers.
Ironic indeed that a right wing extremist who sought to eradicate the effects of Islam from Europe instead created the conditions for the opposite outcome completely.
‘They plot and plan, and Allah too plans; but the best of planners is Allah’ Quran - 8:30 "

Haji Malik El Shabazz: Letter from Makkah

Excerpt from a letter written by Haji Malik El Shabazz (formerly Malcolm X):

“Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the home of Abraham, Muhammad and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures.  For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors.

“I have been blessed to visit the Holy City of Mecca, I have made my seven circuits around the Ka’ba, led by a young Mutawaf named Muhammad, I drank water from the well of the Zam Zam.  I ran seven times back and forth between the hills of Mt. Al-Safa and Al Marwah.  I have prayed in the ancient city of Mina, and I have prayed on Mt. Arafat.

“There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world.  They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans.  But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and non-white.

“America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem.  Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered white - but the white attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam.  I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color.

“During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept on the same rug - while praying to the same God - with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white.  And in the words and in the deeds of the white Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana.

“We were truly all the same (brothers) - because their belief in one God had removed the white from their minds, the white from their behavior, and the white from their attitude.

“I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man - and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their ‘differences’ in color.

“With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called ‘Christian’ white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem.  Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent disaster - the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.

“Each hour here in the Holy Land enables me to have greater spiritual insights into what is happening in America between black and white.  The American Negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities - he is only reacting to four hundred years of the conscious racism of the American whites.  But as racism leads America up the suicide path, I do believe, from the experiences that I have had with them, that the whites of the younger generation, in the colleges and universities, will see the handwriting on the walls and many of them will turn to the spiritual path of truth - the only way left to America to ward off the disaster that racism inevitably must lead to.

“Never have I been so highly honored.  Never have I been made to feel more humble and unworthy.  Who would believe the blessings that have been heaped upon an American Negro?  A few nights ago, a man who would be called in America a white man, a United Nations diplomat, an ambassador, a companion of kings, gave me his hotel suite, his bed.  Never would I have even thought of dreaming that I would ever be a recipient of such honors - honors that in America would be bestowed upon a King - not a Negro.

“All praise is due to God, the Lord of all the Worlds.”

(Source: Islamreligion.com)