My name is Justin Peyton, and I am a 29-year-old African American convert to Islam, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  I grew up in a loving, two-parent, and middle-class household with three siblings. 
Growing up, my family and I identified ourselves as Christians, but we were never members of a church, nor did we attend Sunday services or other activities. The extent of religious expression in our home was celebrating Christmas.

9/11 Lead Me to Study Islam

[…] If I had to identify one single event as the starting point for my journey to Islam, it would have to be the tragic events of 9/11.  After months of seeing very unflattering media coverage about Islam and Muslims, it occurred to me that the negative portrait being painted did not coincide with the experiences I had with Muslim classmates, neighbors, and others, growing up in Philadelphia. 

It also occurred to me that despite knowing Muslims, I had never actually bothered to take the time to learn about their faith.

So, with the open-mindedness instilled in me by my parents, I decided to research some facts about Islam in order to reconcile the apparent disparity between my personal experiences and media coverage.
[…] Spurred to learn more, I went to a local bookstore, purchased a copy of the Quran, and began to read. I could spend pages listing which information struck me most and why, but suffice it to say that everything that I read made intrinsic sense to me.

I Decided to Convert to Islam

After a few more months I decided that reading and learning about Islam on my own was not enough, so I searched to find any nearby mosques.
I contacted the closest mosque, which was about 45 miles away, spoke to their president, and arranged a time to visit and discuss Islam with local Muslims.

On the appointed day, I showed up and spent a great deal of time talking to a very helpful brother.  Unbeknownst to me, the information he shared permeated my heart.

During my second visit […] it dawned on me that I believed that Islam was the truth, so right then and there, I took my Testimony of Faith and spent the whole weekend at the mosque learning what was necessary for me to perform the ritual prayers on my own when I returned to school.

That community was wonderful and had I stayed in the vicinity, and I am sure that I would have received a lot of support adjusting to my life as a new Muslim.  But that was not to be. Prior to the events of 9/11, I had developed an interest in the military, and continued discussions with local armed forces recruiters, concurrent with the exploration of Islam that would lead to my conversion. […] Looking back on that part of my life, I am grateful for the skills I gained and the experiences I had during the course of my service.  But in retrospect, the timing between these two events was less than ideal.

Even after leaving training, I was located in an area of the U.S.  With no Muslim community, which prevented me from developing my faith.  It wasn't until some three years into my service that I met another practicing Muslim service member who would be able to teach me both about Islam and how to navigate military life as a Muslim.  May God reward him for his efforts.

After completing my military service in the summer of 2007, I moved back to Philadelphia, became an active member of a local mosque, and was blessed with the ability to obtain a job at the local chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a non-profit civil rights and advocacy organization for Muslims.

The two years I spent as a part of the Philadelphia Muslim community, and an employee of CAIR-PA was a tremendous learning experience that really spurred my development and whetted my appetite for more.

And that leads me to where I am now, an Islamic chaplaincy student at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, pursuing its combined Masters of Arts in Islamic studies, Christian-Muslim relations and Graduate Certificate in Islamic chaplaincy.

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My name is Mariano Ricardo Calle.  I am from Buenos Aires, Argentina. […] Since my childhood, I was connected with religion through my mom and my grandmother […]. I read the Bible since seven years old.  I began reading the Bible for kids in Spanish.  My heroes were David, Nuh and Job. " My first desire was to learn Arabic, but my soul awakened when I began to read the Quran "

[…] I fell into drugs until a crisis at twenty one years of age.  I have always been searching for the truth. […] This I did for a whole year.  But that didn't help me too much, but God knows better.

[…]I began to study the Arabic language on my own, with the help of a book from the internet.  […] In the book fair, my mom took two little books for free about Islam.  I read them, and the subjects of science mentioned in the Quran, seemed very interesting to me.  And, I read about Muhammad (PBUH) and I felt that person was a model for me.

So, one day I left smoking and drinking.  I never was a drunkard, but I left completely whatever was related to alcohol.  That was my own decision, and I never thought of being a Muslim until the day I said my Shahadah.

I thought of buying a Quran to read something in Arabic and that way, learn faster.  My teacher told me that I could get one for free, in the mosque of Palermo (Buenos Aires).

On the same day, I went to the mosque, just to ask for a Quran and I wondered how such a great place could be so empty.  I understood that Argentina is not an Islamic country but that this mosque was the greatest in Latin America.

That day in the mosque a man […] gave me a link to the Quran that I could download from the internet, I later printed it.  It was just an hour, and I had the Quran. […] The Quran I got was in Arabic and Spanish, that way I could read it in Arabic directly.

Since my childhood I have read the whole Bible twice, and the Gita from India also twice, and now I had the Quran to read, and much better, in Arabic.  My first desire was to learn Arabic, but my soul awakened when I began to read the Quran.  […]

Alhamdulillah, I could realize that what the Quran says was the parts that were missing in the Bible.  And I remember well, I understood as well when I read it that all that the Quran says could perfectly be the truth I was looking for. […]

Since then, I began to go to the mosque and in two weeks I said the Shahadah […] because, I was sure that Muhammad was a messenger of God, like Jesus or Moses. So, I began to read everything I found about Islam and began to study Arabic in the mosque. […]

In the two weeks before I said the Shahadah, I was going to the mosque to learn, and I felt that the place was full of peace.  I prayed with the Muslims there while I wasn’t a Muslim yet, but I wanted to know how it feels to prostrate in front of God, because I knew that intention was important for God. So, in two weeks, I learned the whole salat (Prayer).  […] I continued going to the mosque and then came Ramadan, which was a beautiful experience.  […] Since I said the Shahadah, I haven't missed a salat.

What was difficult to me was to leave girls, because I had a girlfriend, but I knew that it wouldn't have worked.  So, I left her and asked God to grant me a good wife. I remember that was the first thing I asked God for.  And I got to know a woman, the same week I said the Shahadah! […]

I told my mother and father that I now was a Muslim.  My mother was a little afraid, but I began to treat my parents better.  […] I got a job and in my first day I asked my boss for a place to pray, which was not a problem […].  So, my life changed to the better, because I began to smile more, and try to act good with everybody.[…]

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