COLUMBUS, Ohio, 5 December 2006 — She was at work in Tampa Florida when the Sept. 11 tragedy struck. Like all Americans and the rest of the world, Elizabeth’s first reactions were of surprise and shock: “It’s not happening, I can’t believe it!”
Elizabeth frantically picked up the phone and tried to call New York City. Seven of her cousins and an uncle worked in the World Trade Center’s twin towers. All lines were busy, Elizabeth couldn’t contact anyone. There was chaos as the towering buildings came crumbling down and were reduced to ashes, dust and debris. All eight of Elizabeth’s relatives died on Sept. 11. Her family, made up of Catholics and Jews, were all united in their grief and condemnation of the terrorist acts that claimed the lives of over 3,000 people.
Though Elizabeth abhorred the act, she did not hate Muslims because she realized that the perpetrators had nothing to do with religion. It was purely an act of terror. She never thought that a mere four years later, her own life would be transformed. She would become Safia and join those she was told were “slaves,” also known as Muslim women. Elizabeth never imagined she would one day embrace the religion of the people who had killed eight of her relatives.
During her life, Safia had heard only negative things about Islam. “I was raised in Puerto Rico where the Spanish influence is strong. In Spain, Islam is not looked upon favorably because Muslims invaded Spain and lived as conquerors for 800 years. I had heard that within the fold of Islam, all followed one person, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and that they treated their women as slaves.”
A trip to Morocco in 2005 changed Elizabeth’s opinion of Islam. It was the first time she saw Muslims in their own setting and their own society. The call to prayer attracted her attention. She loved the sweet sound. She went to visit a mosque: “I felt like I had walked into heaven. It was so beautiful. I felt God’s presence everywhere and felt that it was a call for me to be there.”
When Safia returned home to Tampa, Florida, she began studying Islam. Soon she was convinced that it was the true religion. She felt spiritually satisfied. And she was surprised to know that Muslim women did not cover up because they were slaves, but for their protection and out of modesty.
For the previous eight years Safia had not taken part in any religious activity. Earlier she tried practicing Judaism, believing it was her right to be a Jew since it was her grandfather’s religion. But she was disillusioned with Judaism when, in 1997, she approached a synagogue in Tampa for help but was told by the rabbi that just because somebody in the family was a Jew, that didn’t make her one. “You’re not pure enough,” he said.
By June 2005 Safia was ready to declare she had embraced Islam. She recited the Shahada at the Islamic Society of Tampa. She was named Safia because it was the name of the Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) Jewish wife. Safia also started learning Arabic. Her conversion to Islam was not received well by her family. Her mother and sister are still upset with her. Safia also faced opposition and resentment from her elder daughter, Sylvia, who is a Baptist and a young widow. Her husband was in the navy and died in an air crash. Sylvia did not appreciate her mother coming to her husband’s funeral, carrying a Qur’an and wearing the hijab.”
Safia’s second daughter was more accepting. “She is in the army and has just returned from Afghanistan. She brought me a wooden camel from there.” Her youngest daughter, ten-year-old Natalia, finds her mother’s religion “cool.”
For Safia, conversion brought lots of joy but also some challenges. “I found wearing the hijab and covering up the most difficult thing to do, because of the (Florida) weather and because of work. And it is difficult to get used to it.” Also people stared at her or checked her ID twice. “Giving up my Western lifestyle was not difficult. Having been a sergeant in the air force national guard, discipline comes naturally to me.”
Islam also gave her another joy. She met her husband, Mahmoud El-Kasabi, an Egyptian, (whom she calls her Arabian Prince) in an Islamic chat room where he taught Islam and the Qur’an. The two got married just a few weeks ago. Safia had never met Mahmoud before he landed in the US. But she is very happy. She has been married before, but thinks that a Muslim husband is very good, a blessing. He is more serious about marriage, more family-oriented and loving.
What are some of the problems that Safia faces as a convert?
Safia said that in her opinion the one problem that converted Muslims face is that “other Muslims think that we are not serious about Islam. They don’t believe that we understand Islam. We accept it in whole, not parts. Like I have no problem with a man having four wives.” (A lot of born Muslim women don’t accept that readily or happily, though they should).
Some are even suspicious. Safia said that some people in the mosque thought that maybe she worked for the FBI. “I am white, have an army background, lost eight members of my family in the Sept. 11 attacks so some thought I was probably an agent. That really upset me.”
Critics say that many blacks and down-trodden people become Muslims because they gain financially. Safia too was given a job by the Islamic society of Tampa and they paid some of her bills and filled her refrigerator with groceries. What does Safia have to say to that? “I became a Muslim for my salvation,” she said. She said that if blacks and poor embraced Islam, they found a new family in Islam just as she did. The Islamic Society became her family. “Many whites have also converted to Islam.”
After becoming a Muslim, Safia has attracted considerable media attention. She was interviewed by Al-Jazeera, an American newspaper and a Spanish television channel. What kind of feedback is she getting?
“I got mostly positive feedback from Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Only after the Al-Jazeera interview, some people thought I shouldn’t have converted because Islam is a ‘terrorist religion.’” Safia said life’s become harder for Muslims after the Sept. 11, but it has also brought Islam into focus. She is hoping that as more people embrace Islam, it will be seen as the peaceful, wonderful religion that it really is.
