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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[…] I was born to British parents in Darussalam in Tanzania in 1964.  […]. I was educated at the famous Roman Catholic Monastic School […] and went on to study history in the London University.  However, I left my education unfinished.

Currently, I am working with an Islamic media company based in England and engage myself in dawah activities [preaching] including lectures on Islam in London’s famous Hyde Park.

[…] I grew totally disillusioned with the British educational system.  It was thoroughly Eurocentric and projected world history in a way that suggested that the civilization attained its full glory and apogee in Europe.  Having lived in Egypt and seen some of the majestic ruins which only archaeologists have access to, I found the West’s interpretation of history totally fallacious.  I began a private study of histories of other peoples of the world, various religious scriptures, and philosophy.  I was practicing Buddhism for nearly three years though never formally embraced it.

The study of the Holy Qur’an immediately attracted me.  Its message had a magical appeal and I grew convinced that it was a divine revelation.  I believe only Allah guided me, none else.  I don’t know what made me deserve Islam.

[…] I was dissatisfied with Christianity from the age of eight.  The concept that was taught to us through rhymes such as Hail Mary!  Was not at all acceptable to me.  While on one hand, the Christians described God to be eternal and infinite they felt no compunctions in ascribing birth of God from the womb of Mary.  This made me think that Mary must be greater than God.

Secondly, the Christians’ concept of the trinity was a puzzle for me.  The similitude like Canadian Maple leaf being one despite three sections appeared utterly inapplicable.

The crunch came when an Egyptian started questioning me.  Despite being confused about the Christian belief I was trying to be dogmatic as most white, middle-class, English Christians do.  I was flummoxed when he led me to accept that God died on the crucifix, thus laying bare the hollowness of the Christian claims of eternity and infinity of God.  I now came to realize that I was believing in as absurd a concept as two plus two is equal to five all through my adolescent years.

The West’s pre laid, programmed life intensely repelled me.  I began to question if a person has to live a life merely to get strait-jacketed in a rigorous schedule.  I found Europeans struggling a lot to enjoy life.  They had no higher purpose in life.

The West’s capacity to brainwash its people became plain to me when I discussed the Palestine issue with Egyptians and Palestinians.  […]

Egyptians were poor, suffered hardships, yet were happy.  […] But in England I found people shallow, materialistic.  They try to be happy but happiness is superficial.  Their prayers combined songs, dances, clapping but no humility, nor intimacy with God.

I realized that popular opinion in the West was totally hostage to the Zionist-controlled media.  The question of Palestine was one among these.  My conversation with Palestinians revealed how the West had believed in myths about Israel.  First among them was that the Jews had the right to return to their original homeland in Israel.  Secondly, they conveniently described themselves as Semitic while the fact was that most Jews of the world were Slavs who had later converted to Judaism.  Thirdly Israel’s economic miracle was theorized to create the economic and scientific myth.

The fact was that I never got to know the Palestinian side of the issue.  I got convinced that the people of the West were brainwashed by the media.  I found that the US was trying every trick to punish nations indulging in small violations of human rights in the third world but was itself sending death squads into Latin American nations to liquidate their leaders who refused to toe the US line.  Such hypocrisy is never criticized by the US media.

[…] The Western psyche emphasizes one’s individuality.  This is at variance with Islam.  Any sincere Muslim feels disturbed.  He or she is constantly bombarded by sex and sexuality.  Most girls lose virginity by 13 and it is normal for girls to have three to four boyfriends.

The dilemma before Muslims in the West is as to how to integrate with a society so steeped in sex, drugs, drinks and sexual intimacy.  And if no integration, then how to save themselves from ghettoization.

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