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An interview with David Forgues

David Forgues, is a Canadian guy with Christian cultural background who converted to Islam, first as a Sunni muslim and then a Shia muslim. In this interview he has answered my questions. Thanks David!


رهیافتگان: David Forgues, is a Canadian guy with Christian cultural background who converted to Islam, first as a Sunni muslim and then a Shia muslim. In this interview he has answered my questions. Thanks David!



*۱٫How did you get familiar with Islam?
* 
There were no Muslims in my town at the time I became curious about Islam, so I learnt about Islam mostly by reading books, including an English translation of the Quran, The Oxford History of Islam and through connecting with Muslims on internet social networks in the beginning. Later on I found a Sunni Masjid in a nearby city and moved there, however there were not much much opportunities for a convert Muslim to seek knowledge and education in such a community, and mostly all I heard were the various opinions of people who act as if they are their own Imams, but having no firm knowledge. So I have found books and websites to be the best way to become familiar with Islam.

*2. When did you convert from Christianity to Islam?
*
My conversion was gradual, in fact there was a time when I would read from the Quran on Fridays, the Old Testament (Tourat) on Saturdays, and the New Testament (Injeel) on Sundays. I first became interested in Islam when I was about 18 or 19, and ordered an English translation of the Quran by mail and read it.

*3. When did you become Shia?
*
Again this was a gradual conversion for me. After a few years of following the majority, and hearing the lies about the Shi’a which I at first believed and gradually began to feel were nothing more than ridiculous accusations and rumors, I felt it was unjust of me to listen to only one side of the story and decided I needed to look at both sides. I started reading Usul al-Kafi and Nahjul Balagha, and was amazed at the wisdom contained in those books about the Oneness of Allah, and Amirul Mu’mineen’s (as) concept of Justice.

*4. What was wrong with Sunni Islam?
*
Sunni Islam is the opiate of the masses. The Islam of Abu Bakr and Umar and the regimes following in their footsteps is the religion of the Arabian politicians and dictators used to control and manipulate the religiously-minded people, entertaining them with a collection of a few nice sounding hadiths while keeping them in the dark about the most important facts of history. Where as the Islam of Muhammad (pbuh&hf) and his true Successors (pbut) is the revolutionary movement of justice and human rights; it is the Islam of calling people to wake up from their slumber of ignorance and actively struggle to enjoin good and forbid evil.
The key problem with Sunni Islam lies in their unquestioning and fanatical support for the dictators who hijacked the Revolution of Muhammad (pbuh&hf) by usurping the status of Ali (pbuh). From a young age, they are taught to admire and respect these characters, and adopt their characteristics. You see them, for example, learning violence and abuse of women from Umar, or you see them, for example, learning to hoard wealth and only show favoritism to family members from Uthman. Terrorism and targeting innocent civilians is learned from the behavior of people like Khalid ibn Waleed. They are taught to determine what pious behavior is by the characteristics of popular personalities in history, rather than to determine these individual’s levels of piety by their behavior, and thus the true principles of Islam become lost more and more as they adopt the behavior of the misguided hypocrites as a religion.
Shi’a Islam does not present this problem, as the Shi’a have role models (as) divinely appointed by Allah himself whom we look up to as examples. It is the same whether you determine the standard of piety by their character or you determine their character by the standard of piety. Every instance of their lives may be taken as a pious example whether in the home, with family, in the mosque, in school, at work, in politics and in private, on the battlefield and in prison.

5. What was the reaction of your family?

Unfortunately due to the influence of the media, the first thing my mom thought when she found out I was reading the Quran was that I might become a terrorist. She has so far come to a better understanding since then, but still worries I may be either influenced by the wrong people or become a target for them.

6. What was the effect of being Muslim in your personal life? job? did you have any problem with people who knew you?
As for my personal life, I find it very difficult to socialize and make friends because I am a very shy person, and because most of the people I come in contact with are non-Muslims who try to invite me to haram activities. Being a Caucasian Muslim, with the majority of Muslims being Asian or Arabian it is very difficult for me because they usually just assume I am non-Muslim due to my skin color. When I am at Muslim gatherings, people who don’t know me usually say “salam” to everyone else, but “hello” to me. It makes finding a job difficult as well because in job applications you are supposed to hide your religious background, yet at the same time I need to explain why I need Fridays off, why I need to take my breaks at specific times that change throughout the year, why I can’t shake the woman’s hand, and so on. Most employers don’t seem to like hiring people with those sort of needs, and at some jobs I’ve had I’ve received complaints about my breaks for salah. But Allah says in the Quran: “Do men think that they will be left alone on saying “We believe” and that they will not be tested? We did test those before them, and Allah will certainly know those who are true from those who are false.” (Surat al-Ankaboot, vs. 2,3)

7. What is wrong with western life style? A lot of people think western life style is perfect since quality of life is really good. Do you agree? If not, what are the problems western life and why does the way you live now is better?
I prefer to refrain from using terms such as “East” and “West” in discussions about religion, because these terms tend to polarize and culturalize the religion, and confine Islam to a specific geographic region where as Allah is indeed the Lord of the East and the West and all that is between them. The real issue is not a “Western model of life” vs. an “Eastern model of life,” rather it is a “dunya centered model of life,” vs. an “akhira centered model of life.” People tend to live for the love of the dollar and the fleeting pleasures of this life; they are addicted to it. Most of them seem oblivious to the fact that this life comes to an end after only a short time and never even considered that all the wealth and property that they have exhausted their lives collecting will be of no benifit to them in their graves. 

۸٫ How do you see the spread of Islam in Canada? Are you familiar with any other person who convert to Islam?
 
I personally don’t know many converts to Islam locally, I do know a few via Facebook though. The spread of Islam in Canada has a few problems:
 a) Most of the people love dunya more than they love akhira. Nobody can ever accept Islam sincerely, especially the madhab of Ahlul Bayt (pbut) unless they love akhira more than dunya. 
b) Most of the Muslim immigrants here are unaware of their own religion, and came to this country with no intention of Dawa. In fact you see many of them changing their behavior to something other than Islam, because they too love the dunya more than the akhira.
c) Islamic religious gatherings in Canada tend to be in languages other than that which is understood by the majority of Canadians.

9. Generally converted people choose Sunni Islam or Shia Islam?



Most of the converts I know on Facebook are Shi’a, or have had a similar experience to me, having been Sunni at first until finding the madhab of Ahlul Bayt (pbut), but I don’t know whether that is an accurate depiction of the general population of convert Muslims. The few converts I’ve seen in person are Sunni/Salafi. Their sect seems to be popular because it is easier to access due to the majority of immigrants being Sunni, and due to the propaganda put out by Saudi Arabia, where as Shi’a communities, at least here, are small and hard to find.
10. Do you feel any considerable difference between Sunni and Shia Islam?

I believe I have already explained the majority of my thoughts on this in previous questions, however I’d like to add that I feel a much stronger and more sincere sense of brotherhood and unity amongst the Shi’a community than I saw with the Sunni community.

p.s.: The answers reflects views of David and the interviewer just tried to be loyal in narration and did not intend to disrepesct Sunni muslims.

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