Read about It. Рахимбергенова М.Х. - 15 стр.

                               TEXT IV                                                Reem asked me to repeat my testimony: La ilaha il Allah. Mu-
                                                                              hammad – ur Rasool’ Allah. «There is no god but God, and Muhammad
      Read the text and do all the tasks given below.                         is his messenger». I said the words three times, smiling from ear to ear.
                                                                              I had just accepted Islam.
WHY I CONVERTED TO ISLAM AFTER SEPTEMBER 11                                           I had started thinking seriously about converting the previous
           (as told to KAREN DUKESS)                                          summer. And then, September 11 happened. That morning, I was doing
                                                                              volunteer work for an attorney in a New York office. We watched on a
                                                                              little black and white television as the World Trade Center collapsed.
                                     Before the attacks, Jean-Michelle        The attorney said, «We should bomb everyone, the whole Arab world.»
                               Ajon was just an American Catholic with        I was shocked that she could say such a thing.
                               an interest in a new religion. Today, she              What the terrorists did was awful and wrong. But people
                               grapples with her new life as a Muslim –       shouldn’t blame the religion for the terrorism. The Koran, the holy book
                               and explains her controversial decision        of Islam, states that killing is a sin. What the terrorists did in the name
                               to convert.                                    of Islam was a misrepresentation of the religion. Hearing people blame
                                                                              it – instead of them – made me determined to stand up for my new faith.
                                       On October 28, 2001, six weeks                 On the day I recited my oaths, the director of the mosque, the Is-
                                after Islamic terrorists attacked the World   lamic Center of Long Island, commended me for my courage in accept-
                                Trade Center and Pentagon, I stood in-        ing the religion at a time of such strong anti-Islamic sentiment. I hadn’t
                                side a mosque in Westbury, NY, for the        converted to show my bravery, but his words reminded me that it was a
first time. I sat in the back and watched men and women stand and             big thing to do at the moment.
kneel in unison as they silently prayed. The room was beautiful, open,
and airy. A green carpet covered the floor, except for one aisle in the                      «IN THE MOSQUE, I FEEL AT PEACE»
middle, which separated the men from the women.                                       There is nothing Middle Eastern about my heritage. I am 31 years
        When the prayers ended, people started murmuring and looking          old and was born and raised a Catholic in Queens, NY. As a child, I
at me. Word had gotten around that I was going to «take shahada» –            went to Catholic school and attended mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It
recite the testimony that would officially make me a Muslim.                  was vast and beautiful, but totally impersonal. I’d always felt like there
        A young woman named Reem led me to a microphone. Cameras              was a lot of God flowing through my life, but in church, people seemed
started flashing. I hadn’t known that shahada would be so public. My          to be going through the motions without any real connection to Him.
clothes-sneakers, an old pair of Banana Republic pants, and a fleece                  After high school, I began to look into other religions, but noth-
sweatshirt – suddenly seemed inappropriate. At least my hair was cov-         ing really inspired me until two years ago, during a conversation I had
ered by a hijab, the head covering Muslim women must wear. When I’d           while working at a financial-services firm in Manhattan. I asked a Mus-
arrived at the mosque, a group of women had wrapped it arround my             lim coworker about his religion over lunch. As he talked about Islam, I
head and tied it at my neck. A lot of people think making women wear a        realized that everything he was saying meshed with my own beliefs.
head covering suppresses us, but I think it’s liberating. It takes courage            In the Catholic schools I used to attend, the nuns and priests were
to wear one – to know you are beautiful, even with your hair covered.         bitter, angry people. They never seemed like representatives of God.
On that day, I began to truly feel part of the community.                     But in Islam, there is no one between you and God. Also, I liked the
                                                                              fact that in Islam, you totally run your life according to religion. It

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