# “I Found Islam in Church…” A Christian Converts to Islam

- Language: en
- Published: 2026-08-26
- Canonical: https://blog.towardseternity.com/en/blog/i-found-islam-in-church-a-christian-converts-to-islam
- Source video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFTMQSy2uJ8
- Channel: Towards Eternity

This is the cleaned transcript of the source video. The speech is unaltered.

---

they were talking about my wedding so my dad was saying when Elma gets married and this beautiful church and walking her down the aisle then my mom turns around and said that's not going to happen because your daughter's muslim okay so I was born and raised in a Mexican family and during our time in the school we had to attend Mass during mass everybody did the sign of the cross but the person sitting next to me didn't do it why did she not do this and that started a conversation and she started to explain that she was Muslim one night I was sleeping and I remember just getting this anxiety it was placed in a box and those boxes were in the basement so I just felt this urge I have to go and

dig it out I pulled this Quran and I brought it upstairs maybe it's time for me to start without even consciously being aware I was falling in love with this religion I coordinated with a friend of mine to go to the mid you're asking me to cover because of a man so that they can lower their gaze let them learn to lower their gaze sister Alma compos thank you so much for accepting our invitation we are very happy to have you with us I want to start by asking who is Alma compost can you tell us briefly about your life so my name is Alma compos I am a Mexican American convert I was born and raised here in Chicago so I've lived here pretty much all of my life I am the daughter of an immigrant

family so I'm the first born only girl in my home and I accepted Islam maybe I want to I can't even tell you exactly but it's about 25 years now you know it's been it's been a while since I've been a Muslim So currently I am the director of admissions at an Islamic school and I am also a co-founder of ohala foundation the Latino Muslims of Chicago which that has really been my passion this organization so how was your life in regards to Faith what were you believing in okay so I was born and raised in a Mexican family and typically what happens when you come from a Mexican family is we're Catholic so the Catholic faith is really tied into the Mexican culture so culturally this is what I was

but religiously we never really followed Catholicism in my home and I remember just thinking back to my childhood and you just brought this memory to my mind when I was little I must have been maybe four or five I don't even remember how old I was but my mom would always say like God is watching you God is watching you and we had this picture of um it was a hologram of Jesus in the house and I was really scared of this hologram because I would move around and this picture would always follow me so I was really scared of this image but um but yeah so we were raised as Catholics and so I remember being raised just with the idea of God and never fully understanding the concept of Jesus but just

feeling like I have to believe in him he's part of this but it never really made sense to me so as I was growing up sometimes I would go to church and I have to be honest I never really gave the Catholic religion a lot of study you know not until I became a Muslim when I became a Muslim is when not actually not even became a Muslim think when I started studying Islam and really questioning a lot of these things I started to focus a lot on what does Catholicism teach us what is this that I am feeling like that I'm rejecting in terms of a belief system so I started to study that more when I started studying Islam and so how did you first hear about about Islam did you have any prejudices as

you know a conscious adult I was actually a teenager I was in high school I think I was a freshman in high school so my parents have put me into an all girls catholic high school and um my community school was not a very good school so they said okay you're going to go to this all girls catholic high school and during our time in the school we had to attend mass and one of the things that you do during mass is you do the sign of the cross during mass the person sitting next to me didn't do the sign of the cross and I was just thinking why did she not do this so I don't know what led up to it but I had just realized that doing the sign of the cross always brought something bad like something

bad simply would happen and I don't really remember what they were but I just kept feeling it it doesn't leave me with this good feeling or something maybe small and irrelevant but for me it was impactful enough to say this is not right I shouldn't be doing it for myself for me it was like no don't do don't do it please and I didn't understand why but when when we were at mass and this person didn't do it I remember feeling like oh my God what is this this is so strange why isn't she doing the sign of the cross what does this person believe in and that started a conversation and she started to explain that she was Muslim now at that time we're talking like 20 plus years ago right she was not

wearing hijab she was not very practicing there was nothing that would show me that she was different from any of us but that conversation opened up my eyes to there's other religions out there and she ended up be one of my best friends while we were in high school and we would have some very deep conversations about religion and she started to introduce the things that she believed in she would start to talk to me about the Oneness of God you know the position that Jesus has within this religion and she would talk we would talk about the afterlife which was a curiosity that I had had since forever we would talk about you know the creation of the world and we would talk about different

prophetic stories and that was a big one different prophetic stories because the way that she presented any prophetic story it was so clean and so pure and it was just a beautiful story something that you would say oh you know I could look up to this person and I started to realize that innately the things that I had believed in since I was a child really fell into the things that she was telling me so it was like not like the stories that you heard in the Bible right and again I didn't really study the Bible but you know when you're a teenager you want to take the things that are going to be like contradicting what is it going to you know anything that felt that was going to be a

contradiction or something that you could question that would stick out in your mind and I remember hearing some of the stories and the way they were presented about some of these prophets and just feeling like wow but if that was a prophet you know those things are pretty pretty deep you know to to paint them in that light is it true is it not true why would they be chosen if that was a truth and if they're here to guide us why were they really sent here what was this message they were trying to share with us you know it was a lot of those questions that I had but but the biggest question for me the big big one was God the concept of God like all of these little things they were important

but not as important as God how do it feel like when you when you were told the concept of God in Islam when I was told the concept of God in Islam for me it was so powerful to know that everything I had believed in just naturally believed in had a place you know when I was a child it was like this is how I believe but this is what we are and it doesn't fit it doesn't go with this but I have to still be Catholic but it just never fit so it took me to a place where I where I understood that there's more that I have to study and learn and whatnot because this wasn't the only option that we had or the only option that existed I should say I was just trying to be part of the group because of the

family I Was Born Into You know my cultural background and stuff like that so then how how did your journey towards Islam begin I never thought that this was my journey you know you're just living life you're just a kid and those conversations slowly but surely let me to learn a little bit more I wanted to find out and discover a little bit more and it was a long journey for me I wasn't someone who like mallah they hear and they take shahada this is amazing for me it was a lot of uh questioning and investigating and confirming for myself what is true what is not true you know how did the Bible get put together what happened here where is the disconn oh now the Bible is making sense because

the Quran made sense and put this piece together for me and um but at the end I always kept coming back to Islam and what I was learning and as a young kid because again I was in high school so life just takes you in different directions and I kept finding myself thinking well again I'm Mexican I was born into my beautiful family this is who we are that's who you are so it's great it's beautiful I respect it I believe it but this is for you guys this is us you know my mind was kind of closing that option of having that be something for me I don't know why but it just was closing that as an option for me and that happened for many years you know so when I got into college and you know you're

in college you're just being young again I found myself always revisiting this idea of Islam I found myself defending Islam defending the Muslims and when people would say negative things about it I would say like wait a second hold on you know have you met any Muslims have you read read the Quran do you know anything about this but again I didn't know that it would ever be for me so then what was the main thing that convinced you that Islam is the truth and you decided to take Shada what happened that you decided I can't say that there was one determining moment where I discovered or where I said to myself this is the truth I think it was a journey for me so for me I was discovering myself

I was growing you know you're at that time in your life because I was you know a teenager in my early Mones during that time and you're growing you're trying to find yourself who you are and this and that and at the same time I was discovering this beautiful religion and without even consciously being aware I was falling in love with this religion and it's something I didn't know you know I I found myself studying it and I and I realized at one point it's been penetrating in my heart and it wasn't one thing that happened and I said you know oh this is the truth it was by the time I realized I was in love with this Islam you know this is uh this is my journey how it happened with me and then

what happened that you decided to become Muslim so becoming Muslim uh after many years of studying it on my own I was pretty private about the way that I was studying Islam I had a lot of Muslim friends who were not practicing you know and one thing that I really respected about them is that even though they were not practicing they were very clear about saying what is right and what is wrong within their religion you know they wouldn't try to justify any mistakes that they were making and this for me I was like I really respect that I respect that they're so firm on what they believe even if it's against themselves you know so for me I was I was impressed by that and um I would study it a

lot on my own I was reading the Quran and reading whatever I could get my hands on um privately again you know it was like a very personal Journey for me and it wasn't a journey that I thought was going to lead me to be a Muslim it was a journey of something I was just interested in at the time um so what happened was one night I was sleeping and I remember just getting this anxiety about where did I place my Quran and it was strange because I don't get anxiety like that but I was just wonder where did I place this Quran and it was half in English half in Arabic but for me it was a holy book I I I realized like this is a holy book and I remember that it was placed in a box and those boxes

were in the basement so I just felt this urge like I have to go and dig it out it can't be there just out of respect whatever it was I don't know and in the middle of the night I went to the basement I started going went through all these boxes I pulled this Quran and I brought it upstairs then I said you know maybe it's time for me to start finding some more information finding a class or something just to revisit this idea of Islam and uh I coordinated with a friend of mine to go to the Masjid it was a Saturday or Sunday morning we said we're going to go to the Masjid so that uh that morning Subhan Allah like if anything was ever going to change my life it was that day so that morning we

Ste into the mid and there was a man that was there I don't know know who he is but I always make so much Dua for this person cuz I believe he has passed on but um we just asked him I'm looking for some classes anything do you have something to learn about Islam and we started a conversation and he started asking me um what do I know about Islam you know so I started to tell him I've been studying it for a while I've been fasting now for a couple of years I mean my way right it wasn't the best way but I was trying to fast and um I had already by that time stopped eating pork I had stopped anything that had alcohol in it and so I was implementing all of these little things as I was learning

just because they made sense to me it seemed like the right thing to do and I would do it so then he started asking me the articles of Faith he started asking me do you believe in the one God do you believe that Jesus is a prophet you believe in Prophet Muhammad s wasallam and I kept answering yes to everything and so that's when he asked me why haven't I took shahada and again this is the first time that I recall or that I accepted this this question from somebody and um I didn't know why and so then he he pretty much told me something that remained with me till this day is something that I that I tell people we don't know what tomorrow might bring we don't know what could happen to us once

we leave this room if you believe and this isn't like saying I agree with what Islam says or I think that this is part of the Muslim faith if this is what you you believe then to not declare the shahada is denying your creator right so immediately I understood wow I believe in this like it's in my heart I know that I believe this and to not do it is to say like I'm rejecting my Creator I'm rejecting God and that was very powerful for me like I felt I couldn't do that I I think in that moment I fully understood that this what I was going to do and this journey didn't involve anybody else it was not about any other person it was me and and God my Creator Allah and this contract that I was

about to sign with him this agreement this testification that I was saying it was for him it was me telling him I believe in you I believe in in you and you've L me in this journey and it led me to this moment and I don't have a choice so I went and I took my shahada and it was a beautiful moment that I didn't really value until much later and that's when my journey began as a Muslim so how did you take how did you feel when you took your shahada can you take us to those moments oh my goodness you know I think it didn't fully sink in at that moment everything that I was about to Embark in but taking shahada for me at that time was crucial you know I was young I was still a college student I

had um so many different ideas of what should I do with my life what should I study what what do I want as a career what do I want to do when would I want to get married which I had no intention of getting married anytime soon having children not anytime soon absolutely not becoming a Muslim all of a sudden but I I was at that uh Cross Point where lifelong decisions had to be made for me you know I had to decide my future my future goals and I was very confused I didn't know what to do where I was going to end up tomorrow it was a lot of that going on in my mind and the moment I took shahada it's Subhan Allah it's only Allah who could do that but all the pieces of my life they just came

together everything just came together how did your family and the people around react after taking shahada I wasn't sharing with everybody that I was a Muslim I didn't mind if people found out if they knew that was fine with me but especially in those early stages of my conversion I wasn't out telling people I was a Muslim so I didn't share that with my family at all one of the reasons why I didn't do that and I think for some of us it's important that we have to find the strength within ourselves especially if you are by yourself you need to figure out who you are in this religion and you know strengthen yourself and what you know before you engage in these conversations and personally I

didn't want to have any debates like I didn't want people to give me these opinions and telling me that it was wrong or that why did I do this or all of these questions that were going to come out out of love you know they were they were probably going to ask me this because they love me they care about me they were worried this was so new to them but I knew what I was doing and like I said before this was something very much between me and God and I didn't want anybody else to come in the way of that I so at the end of the day I'm going to be standing in front of my creator with what I just did and the actions that are going to follow this and nobody else is going to have any role in that

so I didn't tell anybody also maybe I was a little scared you know to tell people but um the way my family found out I don't think they remember this but I remember we all went out to dinner and we were sitting in this restaurant and I'm the only girl in my home so I'm the eldest only girl so from my dad you know I'm his little girl and they were talking about my wedding so my dad was saying when Elma gets married and this beautiful church and walking her down the aisle and it was a lot of these plans that my dad had for my wedding so I was very quiet and I was just you know enjoying my meal just very quiet letting them have that conversation then my mom turns around and said that's not

going to happen and so my dad obviously reacted and he said why would that not happen and she said because your daughter's Muslim so I started eating a little bit faster she saw me praying and I think she saw me praying in my room and then she made the connection that I had already taken my shahada and became a Muslim but I think they thought it was a phase for for a long time and um again maybe because of my age and just who I was at the time when I was passionate about something and this was one of those things I became very um protective so I defended my religion I I was scared to lose my religion I was scared to lose what I had just found so they they were very respectful of the choices

that I had made they didn't understand it but they're my family and a lot of times we ask when somebody takes Shada um how's your family reacting how are they treating you how is it going at home and Subhan Allah now that I've been Muslim for so long and looking back I think it's very important to ask how are you being with your family how are you bringing Islam into their life how are you representing Islam to them cuz they love you and they're scared maybe they might think that you're just taking a completely different path and that um and that is something I reflect on now cuz I wasn't the best example at that time but I'm doing better so how did your father react uh you know so I'll say

they they were okay they thought it might be a phase they were fine they were trying to see how Islam might change me what what is going to be different about me after becoming a Muslim I think most of the changes that they saw were positive you know so they were okay with that but then I decided I'm going to sell my business and moved to the Middle East so that I could study and I don't know how I did it I really don't know how I put that on my parents I cannot imagine my kids doing that to me or you know where you know how Brave I was to have done that at that time but I said this is a time when I can do this financially I could do it the the business I was engaged in I was uh partnered

with a mortgage broker and I understood that RBA was Haram so I had to get out of that business so I had figured okay they could buy me me out I'll have the the money so that I could travel and live out there and find myself because I also wanted to disconnect from my life here I wanted to be by myself and discover myself and find this religion in a way that was going to fit me you know so then when I was going to make that Journey that was difficult for them you know they they found that to be a difficult part they were very scared for me to go I didn't know people you know I didn't speak the language we had never traveled we didn't have FaceTime we didn't have you had to send a letter and

it was like 2 weeks before you got the letter and phone calls were like you know you use a little calling card now that I look back you know when I was reading into Islam I'm sure that anytime I came across a page discussing hijab I would just flip that page like I I didn't want to know I it was something that I didn't want to do it was something that was so foreign to everything that I had known as as myself like nobody in my family ever wore hijab hijab was just very very far from anything I ever wanted to do at that time and this this happened for a while you know I tried to dress more modest more long sleeves and this and stuff that was relatively easy I have to admit after taking

shahada I did go through my wardrobe and got rid of a lot of my clothes and the reason I did that is because I recognized the weakness inside of me so I knew this is something I had to do you know it it should not be available to me anymore so I was trying to change my wardrobe but putting something on my head was very difficult it was very the concept the idea of it was very difficult for me and it took me a while after studying more and more about Islam I had to really reflect on why I had this rejection for hijab you know I had to really reflect why was I so against the idea of even learning about it I don't want to hear about it I want to hear examples about it why was it so strong in me

and I came to the conclusion that this was something in me it wasn't my religion it wasn't Islam that was doing something wrong or oppressive or unjust you know because at that time my mind would only understand that it is oppressive it it it's not nice um you're asking me to cover because of a man so that they could lower their gaze let them learn to lower their gaze you know my idea was just I'm I have you're asking me to do this for somebody else that's not fair and why are all of these Muslim Brothers walking around with nothing that identifies them as Muslim you know there's nothing I won't know that they're Muslim but you want me to wear the hijab it just I had that um so after some

time I started studying and just just reading into it very privately because I wanted nobody's input or any pressure into wearing my hijab and I don't remember what it was exactly but I know there was a lecture that I had listened to and it really convinced me when I understood I'm not wearing it for anybody else except because Allah is asking me to do this and if everything that I have researched and looked into so far has made sense has had a point has been there for good then why am I not going to do this I should do that and um I decided that the day that I would travel to Jordan again separating myself from this community and my Society was going to be the day that I would start wearing

hijab and that is what I did and I for a while I had this impostor syndrome right like I'm in somebody else's clothing I am not um who I am and I would look at the different ways that different cultures would wear the hijab and I would just feel like but I'm not but I'm not this he but I'm not this and it was it's been a very long journey for me so I started wearing it only to please Allah only to please Allah understanding there is good in this for me and after I started wearing it that's when I really saw how impactful it has been in my life so I understood the way that I would engage in conversations the way that people would would engage me the the way it protected me and nothing I could

say nothing since I became a Muslim did you ever encounter any hardship because of your head scarf uh I think as somebody who wears a headscarf I definitely have so it's funny you know for a man that is a Muslim there's nothing that really identifies you as a Muslim so you can navigate life like nothing for me personally I've had a couple situations because of my head scarp that I could say okay this is why you you targeted me butd nothing to too big of an issue so there's one time when I was in Mexico I was traveling with my family and it was my parents my my kids my husband we were all just doing the touristy things in Mexico City and we came to this um building and I was telling my mom

you know there's so much history in Mexico related to Islam like Muslims did come here Muslims were part of the people that were building this you know we were going through all of that and I was telling her but our history has been denied and whatnot so we get to this building it's a government building and I'm wearing hijab so the man tells me well you can't come in you have to take that off so obviously I said I can't this is a religous wear how am I supposed to take it off and he says I'm sorry you can't come in you have to take it off no hats no this no that and so my my immediate response was like do you believe in Mary and then he said yeah so I was like hello remember Mary I'm

dressing like Mary and you're not going to let me in and then he was like okay just go in and go as a woman who has accepted Islam do you think that this religion devalues women as a woman who accepted Islam does this religion devalue women absolutely not absolutely not and I understand that people might feel that way or might have that perception of it but when you really study this religion and you see the way that it honors women I think that for me I was completely impressed by that I was taken back to understand the way that women were treated even at the time of our Prophet Muhammad wasallam you know I mean obviously starting at the time of our Prophet Muhammad s alhi wasallam and

culturally I think right now we're seeing a lot of this with um I think we're seeing Islam in a better light right now with everything that is going on in Gaza and you're seeing the way that men truly do behave in difficult situations the way that they do protect their family their women their children their Community the the softness in them right and you see the role of the woman as well so before coming to Islam I absolutely had this misconception that it was a religion that oppressed women and after studying it and living it I can guarantee that it is not many people think that when you become Muslim you will become an Arab you will change your name change your clothing change your

tradition yeah so is it possible to stay stick to your culture and be Muslim at the same time can you be a Mexican Muslim yes okay so I think that one of the big misconceptions that people have have had is that when you Embrace Islam you're you're becoming an Arab or you're becoming some other cultural makeup that isn't yours and I'll be honest when I first came to Islam which is like over 20 years ago I didn't find any revert Muslims any converts any Latino Muslims at that time and it was very difficult for me then now it is so different it is so different times have changed I think with social media and the different platforms and groups and exposure of Islam we understand that you don't

have to be out up you don't have to be Daisy you don't have to be Russian you can be exactly who you are wherever you're coming from and be a Muslim it was sent down for Humanity and that includes you personally that Journey for me at that time was a little bit um was a little bit difficult and I remember feeling like I'm the only convert ever nobody else is a convert nobody else is a revert and I was looking at that time to find somebody who understood my journey understood my questions understood my hardships understood you know what I was going through my whole experience and I couldn't find it and I feel that a lot of people who have accepted Islam you know way back or years back

probably went through that and that's why you see so many organizations and groups and convert groups and convert supporting groups again like ohala Foundation which is something that we started because we needed it ourselves and we wanted to you know feel that need for others that were coming into Islam but right now yeah I think that alhamdulillah people finally understand that Islam is your connection to Allah it's not about any of this stuff [Music]