Why I became a Muslim?
Posted by amad on February 12 2008 02:55:47
Deep down in the human soul there lurks the consciousness of the fact that there does exist the Almightly God. It is more or less dependent upon the circumstances of education and up-brining under which one is born that our definite religious views are shaped. It was exactly so in my case. My parents were strict Catholics and they brought me up a staunch Catholic, marking me out for the priesthood. But fate would have it otherwise and my footsteps took me to the country of Java, in the Far East, to observe with my own eyes how dearly and faithfully Muslims held their faith. This was an eye-opner to me; for I learnt that the Muslims, as dinned by the Christian priestcraft, inot our ears, are anything but heathens, and Islam which they misrepresented so much is not a religion with hateful practices. Being a lover of truth, I took up the cudgels for Islam some six years ago, to secure for it its rightful place against untrue and unjust suspicions. I had with this aim in view to call in the help of some distinguished and good-hearted friends for the purpose of building a mosque in Holland in the same way as in London, Berlin, and Paris. Gradually it dawned upon me that it was imperative that the fight for Islam should be maintained. In the meantime, I had learned about Islam from some of my true Muslim friends, and after thoroughly studying the Holy Qur'an I came to the knowledge that Islam had always been my religion.

The only difference which the present declaration makes is that I am now openly going over to Islam and in this I feel every happy.
Now I realize that my place is among my Muslim brothers to glorify Allah for bringing salvation to mankind.

It does me immense pain to realize why I had not accepted Islam as my faith earlier. I close with the promise that my life from now onwards will be dedicated to the service of the best religion of the world--Al-Islam.

J.L.Ch. Van Beetem
(Mohamed Ali)
(Born 1879, served in the Army and Navy and retired as first Lieutenant in 1919)

~1. Islam, the First and Final Religion, pp.123, 124.