and welcome to our show this is the community issues group and we're going to have a very exciting show today i'll be your host brother benjamin should bow out and to my right and you questions what attracted him to being a muslim and we hope that this will help some of our viewing audience get a better understanding of the religion of islam so before we start this open i would a short do raised there you know and i went to high school there and everything and i and i was raised you know as a christian you know i was i was my mother and father and  had seven siblings and and we was raised up in a very strict religious strictly religious home my mother and father were strictly strict christians and i grew up you know going to church every sunday and everything and so and i was this you know as i think back you know my i can't ever remember you know as i was growing up a time here in the word islam you know never you know as you know i didn't know anything about is and i while i was growing up i can't even even remember it being mentioned you know but  years and i had a brother that was drafted out of college just soon as he went into his freshman year he got drafted out of college so i decided i was right behind him and i school so i decided to  fort lewis washington that's our happened to get get into the state of washington you know as i got up here and when i did my two years in the service i got out and instead of going back home like i after i was here for a while you know i started going away from my teachings and you know christian tensions from home and i got into trouble and and i ended up group and and i and i started going to services with them and that's how i got introduced to it and and i kept going to services with them but as i began to learn more about the religion you know i was also also started talking to the other that was was a sunni muslim and because i wanted to know the difference between the two to religion's and  keeping a kind of a close watch on him as i was you know because i was to curious about the religion and trying to learn as much as i could about it and as i watched him you know i could see him doing some things that that was under islamic to me you know while i was around him and and watching him you know while i was still there and incarcerated and i seen him doing some of his nomic things that made more sense to me and i compared it with christianity and i start looking into the history of both of them and as as i begin to get more knowledgeable about both histories not just made more sense to me the koran was more understandable than the bible it would make things more clear to you what you could understand what it they were really saying you know it was a little at his creation and all the things that he created n plus it was brought down the philosophy of one god you know one g them the sunni muslims made more sense to me and i like that what they taught and and how it affected me as a person and but after i it was a release f community i fell off you know i didn't i didn't stick to the reason that i should have and and i was trying to i was still going to services and stuff but i was trying to straddle the fence i was still doing other things on one hand and and going still going to services on the other and and as i you know i was still starting to run and still you know getting to know the religion better and as i as i did that you know it began to bother me you know what i was doing you know i i did that for a while though and and as time passed i eventually you know made up my mind that i wanted to you know put forth any kind of way you know about about me doing about making that choice you know so they didn't i mean so i do examine any violent way or anything like that so but you know they definitely didn't like it you know but i you know i stuck to my choice anyway you know just one more question on that issue with the brothers in a nation where they want to see black issues you know about trying to wake the black man up as forces middle condition and and his self inferiority complex you know th had about himself is trying to wake him up to what was really happening as far as history you know and i and i can you know see the difference i think there was leaning more or less toward waking us up as africans african americans you know to come out of the hole that we had dug for our selves and when we had help doing it of course but he was trying to bring us up out of the condition that we were in and start want to start doing for ourselves you know and i think that was it was more or less history you know which i tried in and clued in religious history and i just started stuff started about history appear and they let us let me know that how important it was that we know about who we were and you know and what very important point about our history right because you know like the majority i don't know what the percentage was but i know a lot of muslims they came over here it was put into slavery it was muslim but africans it was mostly yeah they were in the way to the way to keep that tradition going in the family the slave masters would take the kids the babies from the family and then teach them what they wanted to know so they broke that they broke that link yeah they cut off all ties for sure one thing i remember about reading about our history some of the same masses would tell the people who is going to pick up the slaves they don't bring no more because the muslims would always be vote eaching of how important information is you know i feel i was very fortunate to be i feel i was blessed you know to be to be come out and got completely lost you know and that's another reason i feel fortunate i never really just fell all the way away from it i still held on to a little corner of it or something you know  is just a lot of things that i used to do when i was you know out there in the so called fast life you know a lot of the things i used to do when i was doing that i don't even believe in it no more i don't even you know it just completely you know it makes me wonder even you know got him you know how even did in the first verse pla were muslim they turned muslim and there and when they got out here you know i ran into a couple and they had became christians you know and i with the information that i have now i just i just i just couldn't do it you know because i just know too much now islam has taught me too much now to to to turn back to christianity you know in the main thing is that one god you know i never could go back to believing in a trinity again because i have too much information about about  one and also about eternity you know i know where that was a manmade thing you know trying to get away with less this little there for a minute because you know how deep deeply imbedded christianity is in the african american community is so for you to say that you had this conversion so so so so so what is what is the difference there you talk about the one in the verse the trinity was what is the real confusion among the guts to you know even even their gods would be confused as i was more than one because one would be are going to buy what he created i have about something that he created and they were it won't do whatever they created you know connected you know it's all connected which all is up to be one creation and not and that's you know why i can and i can never go back to the trinity again definitely father and the holy ghost so now the father the son here has to do whatever he was supposed to do so they're not really saying there's three separate gods there is one god separated into you know as to when i you know i was raised as a christian i know now that god it's too far above anything as well as having anything connected with him as far as his power and he don't need anything from anybody you know he's the one and only one god and to be associate him with a son or daughter any kind of you know offspring would be degrading guy you know as far as i'm concerned and and i look at god as being forced to above all that you know this these are gifts that he gave to man you know as far as given birth sons and daughters then this is gifts that he gave to man and you know and it can never be attributed to him to do these things because these are blessings and gifts that he gave to us you know and and he's far too above are above all of that for