The Story of the Famous Journalist Who Converted To Islam! @laurenboothUK
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foreign how did you first hear about Islam what was your last step towards accepting Islam and how was your family's reaction I was in an elevator going oh God big Arab man with a gun bigger Arab man with a gun healed the white woman later and the translation that my mind gave me will kill the white woman later and I said no there's no way I can be Muslim no way not me my clothes the Quran and I thought oh my God nice people crazy book thank you for accepting our invitation we are very happy to have you with us I want to start with who is Lauren Booth can you briefly introduce yourself my name is Lauren Booth I am a journalist and a writer and an actor so I was born in 1967 in Hampstead North London my mum was a model my dad was an actor and I stayed in London until I was 20.
I was studying acting and that was my big dream I wanted to go to Hollywood so after acting for seven years I retrained as a journalist in 1997 and I do a lot of TV as well so I appeared on Sky News I was in mainstream journalism I was working for people like the Daily Mail don't judge me a mail on Sunday I did stuff for the BBC and channel five hosted lots of TV shows alhamdulillah radio shows so in 2010 I accepted Islam and this was after a series of Journeys to Palestine and meeting the people there going first as a journalist and then as an activist how did you first hear about Islam I guess the first time I really took notice of Islam was in 2001 after 9 11.
I remember watching the footage seeming to show planes go into the Twin Towers and I was sitting with a young child thinking what poor country is going to be made to pay for this and in my mind I was a socialist and a leftist and I understood the West has a wall with certain people for power I'm like some poor country with nothing to do with this is going to be made to pay in order for America to feel good about itself again Bingo Afghanistan if Islam was a threat to the West it'd been around for 1400 years and billions of people followed it they could have just taken the west or done awful things so one act does not mean the whole of the Muslim world is responsible for one act by a small group of people what is that it's a political decision to impact and inflict upon Muslim people and I didn't get behind that I couldn't in my heart get behind that we know that as a journalist you have been in Palestine many times why did you first decide to go there I felt a hand an invisible hand on my back propelling me towards Palestine I have no explanation for it I didn't speak Arabic I didn't know any Palestinians but I honestly felt absolutely a hand on my back going go to Palestine go to Palestine go to Palestine so and I found myself in the West Bank on my own with no training can you tell us about your experience in Palestine I think it's really important to understand that I went to the Holy Land as a Christian but I was super excited to walk in the steps of Jesus Christ that to me I was like on a pilgrimage everywhere it was like oh my God Jesus might have been here which is amazing I never expected to go to Jerusalem where he dragged across and to go to the Holy Sepulcher and Jesus was here this is amazing it really happened but everywhere that I started to go in the Middle East it was the Muslims who were looking after the Christian sites and that really confused me so for example the place where Jesus peace be upon Him cured the lepers is a cave in Lebanon and attached to the cave as a church and the man who opens it is a Muslim and I said okay why do you have the keys to this he said it's been in my family for generations and I said can I ask you something he said yes I said did your family steal them from the Christians maybe they killed the Christians to get them he's like you really don't know much about about this no the Christians trust us with these because we care about Jesus too and I was like that was the first time I'm like Jesus's your Prophet okay and the Muslims seem to know a lot more about him as well Muslims seem to know a lot about Jesus you know I had an incredible journey for two weeks and I was shocked that this is the world that we live in that everything I thought I knew about the Middle East was a lie did you have any prejudice against Islam and if you had any how did it go away when I was going to meet Mahmoud Abbas so there's me Western journalist who usually writes about parties going oh God big Arab man with a gun bigger Arab man with a gun and then I remember that I was in an elevator and one of the Arab guards went you know your Hammer that had their hair that's how it entered my ears and the translation that my mind gave me in big letters was we'll kill the white woman later right and I realized oh my god I've taken it all in I'm not a fair person to come here I have absolute Prejudice I'm more afraid of a Palestinian with a gun than Israeli with a gun why is that I don't know either of them so I had to kind of acknowledge my own Prejudice but here's the miracle after 72 hours on my own in the West Bank I would have died protecting any any woman or child or man for that matter because of the love that they showed and the kindness and just the whole atmosphere that I came to realize was their religion do you have any memory that you cannot forget on the trip in 2005 at the end of the trip I had all the bags and bags of souvenirs and I asked the young man who was shopping with me can you please find me a Quran in English and he looked like okay I'm like I didn't think one had been written I mean why would anybody translate a small Middle Eastern religion why would they bother translating it into English so I didn't expect him to find one so he goes you know Quran in English and he comes back and he's got the Quran in English and I'm like okay great and then I look at it it's like 600 Pages I'm like never going to read this and then I remember I asked this young shabab from Jerusalem how much do I owe you because he's been shopping with me so he started he goes like this what's 100 2015 406 and I'm like I'm gonna get fleeced here I'm gonna get done and then he does this he goes I forget it you don't tell us anything what he said the only thing I'm going to ask you is don't forget Palestine when you go don't forget about us yeah Savannah that's really impressive and what was the most surprising event in Palestine for example I was it was January and I didn't know it got cold in the Middle East so I didn't have a coat and I remember walking down the street in Ramallah and an old lady in a hijab looks at me and she says something in Arabic and then she grabs me by the arm and I'm like okay is this a granny kidnapping is this how it happened and she looked me up and down and then she took me to her bedroom opened a wardrobe took out a big Overcoat put it on me and said yellow and I'm like she wrote down her number and said there you go and I'm like what I could just walk off with this coach she could not bear for a stranger to be in her town and cold while she had a coat in her cupboard do you get what I'm saying and everywhere I went there was such a softness such an ability to make the best of things what really struck me was that at the time I had a French Farm house a French Barn being built I had a swimming pool I had a one acre Garden I had beautiful children and a great husband and everything and but if one thing went wrong I would be internally Disturbed so like if the editor wasn't happy with the job oh the whole house was in uproar oh my God I'm under stress I'm under stress I'm stressed you know one tiny thing everything needed to be perfect or I was not in a calm place and these people children killed by the Army homes taken by occupiers just the daily neglect of their areas and the oppression and they were like Salam peace how are you have some of our food you know certain they had this car and I asked them why are you so generous why are you okay with this and they said it's that book it's a Quran Allah will make things okay so when did you really feel the attraction towards Islam I remember in 2008 as a non-muslim I was stranded in Gaza Under Siege with those people who are still under siege to this day and and it was Ramadan and I saw that the people were doing kind Deeds for each other even though they were poor so I thought one day let me do a kind deed and take some lamb to a family and Rafa refugee camp so I took this food to a Muslim family in a refugee camp the mother opened the door so full of light and nor and she was living in a Cell nothing to eat nothing to drink and I said to her why are you fasting I said I don't think your God loves you I'm sorry to say it I don't think he does why does he make you a garden thirsty for 30 days when on day 31 do you have water she's like no we don't have water I'm like well so what then on day 30 days you in Gaza you're going without food day 31 is your fridge gonna be full she said no well not before I said well then your God doesn't love you you know give me one good reason why you're fasting and she said in a room of nothing fast in Ramadan to remember the poor and that I thought at that moment if this is Islam let me be Muslim because if there is a faith where you can believe in God and be grateful when you he's given you nothing that day if there is a faith where you have one bowl of food and you give it to a stranger [Music] this must be it is we saw that eighty percent of our audience including this video are not subscribed to our Channel as you know we are a non-profit organization and advertisements are disabled on our videos so the only reason we are asking for this is to spread the truth it may seem like a small act but inshallah it may be a means of guidance for many people now let's click the Subscribe button unless together walk towards eternity you said that they gave you the Quran and then what happened did you read it so I had this Holy Quran given to me as a gift and I opened it one day when my children were at work and I thought okay I'll wash my hands I know they wash their hands and this is a very serious book I took it seriously it wasn't my scripture but it was a scripture it might be a real scripture so let me read it with respect so I read al-fatiha and I thought okay that's like the Lord's Prayer same thing worship God Alone ask him alone thank him alone don't be evil do good I'm fine so Surah al-fatiha was fine it was in line with my Christian beliefs but then came Surah baqarah and you get to before it says there are those who say that they are believers but in their heart is hypocrisy and you know they know they're not telling the truth and Allah hates the liars I mean basically it was calling me out on my hypocrisy and telling me that I was going to go to the Hellfire because I believed in God but I wasn't doing anything about it and I was making bad decisions and not being a good person and not worshiping and not bothered about it and I was lying and I closed the Quran and I thought oh my God I had this cold feeling it was a hot day but absolute Terror and for me the Quran was terrifying so I took it and I put it on a high shelf and I thought wow nice people crazy book because I'd never seen God so angry before and he was angry at me did you get Dharma from Muslims I did get down actually from one place during my journey there was one group of people who were very specific with me do you know who they were Somali taxi drivers they don't mess they don't give like and I found them giving me Dara so I would say assalamu alaikum because I'd been to Palestine and I thought that meant hello they say walaikum Salam are you Muslim no but I'm interested oh boy be careful because you are gonna get you're gonna get a doors right there you're gonna get a from your driver and I really enjoyed them and so they would say well is the prophet peace be upon him said to Aisha and I was learning about this amazing this wonderful man who'd lived 1400 years ago in an Arabian Desert and couldn't read or write but taught people to change themselves ourselves and change the world and I I fell in love with Muhammad the peace be upon him what was your last step towards accepting Islam I got offered a job at the Islam Channel around 2007 because I was advocating for Palestinian Justice and also for the people of Iraq and Muhammad Ali of the Islam Channel offered me the job and I said I have a couple of conditions number one don't talk to me about Islam because I think it's very nice and I think you people are very nice it's not for me and number two I won't wear hijab on your TV station because I think it denigrates and it controls women and I don't want to be a hypocrite and he said Allah will decide whether or not you're going to be a Muslim that's not in my hands and I said no there's no way I can be Muslim no way not me Muhammad Ali said you might be a Muslim I said he said will Allah knows I said all right I said what about hijab he said okay don't wear hijab but please dress as modestly as you can and we'll accept that and so that meant that I started traveling the world interviewing speakers shares having access to more Muslims and more people speaking about Islam and I went to Iran in 2010 and I went as a journalist as a correspondent to report on the al-kudstay rally it was always about Palestine for me so I was in Iran and it was uh we reached com we were having a trip away and it was Ramadan and I went into this mosque and when I went into the mosque I thought okay I think I might have done a full wudu but I definitely yeah I think I did with you with my friend who I was traveling with and when I crossed the threshold I made a Dua and I said oh Allah thank you for everything you've given me and I'm not going to ask you for anything else because you've given me so much but please bless Palestine and then I went to look around and I went to report secretly I had an iPhone with me and I thought wow this is an exclusive you're in an Iranian Shrine in Ramadan you've got a great story you could sell it round the world that was I was not in a religious state of mind I was not oh I want to be Muslim I went in to be nosy and to maybe take some secret pictures but when we got to the main area I sat down and it was just like I was sitting under a waterfall of Peace it was like every worry I'd ever had left me my heart was completely at peace I didn't even know my own name I was completely not Lauren Booth whatever that creation self-creation self-esteem nonsense whatever that was is it was gone it was the best feeling and I didn't want to move and so I slept the night in the mosque in the morning I made wudu and I prayed Fajr and I I knew in my heart at that point I was Muslim at that point I knew God was one and the prophet Muhammad were 100 100 and then what happened how did the people around you react I didn't want to get on a plane back to London without taking my shahada but I couldn't find anyone because my flight was six o'clock in the morning so I went into a mosque in London you know what subhanallah when I said the shahada poof it was like cement slabs falling from my mouth it was like gold bars leaving my tongue it was like there was an earthquake and it fell to the ground wow it was Monumental and I felt like I was suddenly in a big cotton wool ball it was like being in Cotton wall it was like just fluffy and everything kind of went distant the next day when I was taking my kids to school they ran off in front of me and I left the house and and I thought you haven't got your hijab on and I'm like oh come on you're not in Iran now you haven't got your hijab on you haven't got your hijab on you're naked and I could not leave them at the front door on my house I had to go and find the one scarf that somebody had gave me and kind of pull it on in some weird really awkward way and walk the girls to school in the scarf and they said mom why are you wearing hijab I said it's cold they said it's hot I said whatever just go and play in the walk in the woods and when I got to school one of the dads worked for the Jewish Chronicle and he kind of looked like oh this is big news and I'm like oh man so much trouble now he was like yes like all his Christmases had come at once but I didn't care I went home and for the next seven days everything was changed I wanted to pray I wanted to cry to Allah I put my head to the ground like I'd seen the Muslims do and I said two things over and over again I just said Thank you and I said sorry I said thank you for giving me this life for giving me all the love that I've had everything that I haven't recognized you know beautiful daughters I've known love I've had opportunity I've had a good family and I know you and thank you and then I said sorry just a lot of sorry and I cried a lot for about a week but then I had to pick up the Quran again and that was scary so that I took my shahada on a Friday and my children with their father we was divorced or separated and that Friday night I'm like okay great the kids I took my shahada I go home and I sit there and I'm like right Friday night let me call a male friend oh you can't really do that that's yeah uh let me have a cigarette I don't really want to have a cigarette when I know I'm going to pray and say Allah's name so then I went to my fridge and there was a bottle of wine I went oh okay so this is going to be a boring life so there was literally nothing to do so I picked the Quran up again I was like oh God Ya Allah please let us have a good ending please let this not be I'm now going to hell don't let me have got this wrong I trust you and the Quran just said welcome Where Have You Been God loves you you've made the right choice and everything's gonna be okay amazing really and how was your family's reaction so I thought it would be a big deal when my family found out I was Muslim my mum was very sarcastic said you've joined the lunatics you've joined the crazy people are you going to be a terrorist she would have a lot of fear but I became a a better daughter inshallah I worked really hard at loving her for the last years of her life and putting things right my dad was just afraid why as a free woman would you be dressed like this why would you let a man put that on you because God doesn't want you to wear it men have told you to wear this I'm like well I'm wearing this for God all right and he's like but you can go to God anyway you don't have to go like this so he was worried about any marriage that I had are you going to be servile you know are you going to be a servant he said oh my daughter's a strong woman I'm like you don't get it but subhanallah I got to have a discussion with my dad on his deathbed subhanallah and I got to read him al-fatia and I got to hold his hand and look deep into his his eyes and and share spirituality and love for God with him and he said that God is one and the prophet Muhammad is the last prophet and Jesus is a prophet so Allah knows best he didn't say it in Arabic and I didn't push it but he has had always said to me there's one God Jesus is a prophet and I said the prophet Muhammad was a great man who was a prophet he said okay I believe that he was a profit and I had a lovely dream about him after he passed that he was being washed by three imams and full of light so inshallah at that time you were working in an English news channel what happened there so and the first morning I went to Sky News and hijab was hilarious because you know they're all trained to be very cool customers whatever walks into the studio you're like but you could see everyone going oh you know as you walked past it was like hi Lauren you know I could just see what was happening behind me two days later I got a call saying Lauren we're jiggling things around we won't be needing you anymore cut they didn't use me anymore ever again now are there hijabes on Sky News yes mashallah are they hijab is in the news world yes have you ever seen a convert hijabi who's in news name one now this is a struggle that the mainstream world has because if you accept that Islam is your faith Allah is your lord then by the media standards you've either had a nervous breakdown or you've had a nervous breakdown I don't think there is even is a bee how can they present you as a thinking intelligent credible person who in the middle of their life says morning everybody my name is Lauren Booth by the way I believe Allah is God and Prophet Muhammad was the last prophet now to weather you know we can't do that they can have brown people on who have hijab because oh that's their weird little thing but if you're from the mainstream how can that be normalized without having a conversation about God and about Islam and about what we do to Muslims and how we treat the Muslim world I come with that conversation now and I embrace it alhamdulillah I embrace it was there someone that met Islam and changed their life in your circle I was on a plane a few years ago coming back from Qatar and the man in front of me was a British man in a vest smelling of alcohol and he was a skinhead and I'm like oh please God I don't want to sit next to him for four hours and so my ticket is 21g he's 21f so we go and sit down and I have to get over him and he looks at me like I'm absolute dirt he looks at me like Ugh so the food comes and and he's like yeah I'll have a vodka and I'll have a beer and I'm like so I'm just having a drink of water going I'll laugh forgive me this is the worst flight ever and then he says um would you like the water as if I can't speak English so I'm like oh thank you very much so I'm like okay I have to do a good deed now I'll give him something would you like my cheese he's like thank you very much and he says where are you from mate I'm from London where are you from he's like what you dressed like this from London and he looks away and he does something really strange start sitting there and he's going I'm sorry sorry I'm sorry and I look him like are you okay he's like yeah but I was thinking horrible things about you and I'm sorry and I said to him you didn't say them okay so it's okay don't worry long story short over four hours we get speaking I find out that he tells me that he's depressed he doesn't want to live he's a bad man and I said to me no everybody can have these moments but we pray to God who do you pray to who do you reach out to because I don't believe in any of that I said there's somebody there's something that you go to when you're in the state you say well I have a picture of my mum and sometimes I cry to her and say mum help me it's a 40 year old man in pain I said to him okay was your mum religious he said yeah she used to pray a lot I said who did she your mum used to pray to he said God I said how about next time you feel like this you pray to the one you Mar your mum prayed to and it was like a light bulb went on yeah you're right you're right okay and I had a Quran in English in my bag by the grace of Allah and I gave it to him and this big guy you know big British guy was getting off the plane going thank you so subhanallah people need people need help we have to be access points in Charlotte so I'm devoted to to creating that to crafting output looks after our young Muslims gives us places to feel proud of our heritage to look forward to what we can do with it and not also for non-muslims and people who are doubting to ask their questions inshallah and that that's a good cause can you tell us about your projects you did and future projects you know my big project is to reveal how the Muslim attitude to this world what is tired what is the goodness how do we revive it now and how do we live it in our lives alhamdulillah I think one of the big projects that really moves me is to speak to the Muslims about how great our heritage is and how we can reflect on that and be great again alhamdulillah I wrote a book called in search of a holy land I made it also by the grace of Allah into an audio book so people can listen to it that's online and so I worked with a producer to create my book into a play and we've performed it it's called accidentally Muslim we played to 900 mostly non-muslims at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival you know I love to to show Islam as it truly is an impact on the heart and a positive impact on society if you had a chance to speak to all the non-muslims in the world what would you like to say if you had just one minute oh you sitting at home now you have times when you don't know why you're alive you have times of sadness and loss and grief and the fun just isn't working the way it used to you have pain and maybe sometimes you don't know why you're alive and you want to ask somebody to help you but you don't know how to ask and everything feels like it's strange and unreal God is one when you feel like this look at a rose look at a rose in the garden and think that it makes sense for us when you feel like this look at the bees and just think how amazing that honey is so tasty and it's also a healing we give it for sore throats just think about how nature is there for us how beautiful it is that the rain goes into the ground into the roots of the trees and then the trees grow a leaf or a flower and then that flower becomes fruit that we can just eat and it has goodness for us and feel the loving and benevolent presence of your Lord thank you sister Lauren for being with us or we will meet in other projects too foreign
I was studying acting and that was my big dream I wanted to go to Hollywood so after acting for seven years I retrained as a journalist in 1997 and I do a lot of TV as well so I appeared on Sky News I was in mainstream journalism I was working for people like the Daily Mail don't judge me a mail on Sunday I did stuff for the BBC and channel five hosted lots of TV shows alhamdulillah radio shows so in 2010 I accepted Islam and this was after a series of Journeys to Palestine and meeting the people there going first as a journalist and then as an activist how did you first hear about Islam I guess the first time I really took notice of Islam was in 2001 after 9 11.
I remember watching the footage seeming to show planes go into the Twin Towers and I was sitting with a young child thinking what poor country is going to be made to pay for this and in my mind I was a socialist and a leftist and I understood the West has a wall with certain people for power I'm like some poor country with nothing to do with this is going to be made to pay in order for America to feel good about itself again Bingo Afghanistan if Islam was a threat to the West it'd been around for 1400 years and billions of people followed it they could have just taken the west or done awful things so one act does not mean the whole of the Muslim world is responsible for one act by a small group of people what is that it's a political decision to impact and inflict upon Muslim people and I didn't get behind that I couldn't in my heart get behind that we know that as a journalist you have been in Palestine many times why did you first decide to go there I felt a hand an invisible hand on my back propelling me towards Palestine I have no explanation for it I didn't speak Arabic I didn't know any Palestinians but I honestly felt absolutely a hand on my back going go to Palestine go to Palestine go to Palestine so and I found myself in the West Bank on my own with no training can you tell us about your experience in Palestine I think it's really important to understand that I went to the Holy Land as a Christian but I was super excited to walk in the steps of Jesus Christ that to me I was like on a pilgrimage everywhere it was like oh my God Jesus might have been here which is amazing I never expected to go to Jerusalem where he dragged across and to go to the Holy Sepulcher and Jesus was here this is amazing it really happened but everywhere that I started to go in the Middle East it was the Muslims who were looking after the Christian sites and that really confused me so for example the place where Jesus peace be upon Him cured the lepers is a cave in Lebanon and attached to the cave as a church and the man who opens it is a Muslim and I said okay why do you have the keys to this he said it's been in my family for generations and I said can I ask you something he said yes I said did your family steal them from the Christians maybe they killed the Christians to get them he's like you really don't know much about about this no the Christians trust us with these because we care about Jesus too and I was like that was the first time I'm like Jesus's your Prophet okay and the Muslims seem to know a lot more about him as well Muslims seem to know a lot about Jesus you know I had an incredible journey for two weeks and I was shocked that this is the world that we live in that everything I thought I knew about the Middle East was a lie did you have any prejudice against Islam and if you had any how did it go away when I was going to meet Mahmoud Abbas so there's me Western journalist who usually writes about parties going oh God big Arab man with a gun bigger Arab man with a gun and then I remember that I was in an elevator and one of the Arab guards went you know your Hammer that had their hair that's how it entered my ears and the translation that my mind gave me in big letters was we'll kill the white woman later right and I realized oh my god I've taken it all in I'm not a fair person to come here I have absolute Prejudice I'm more afraid of a Palestinian with a gun than Israeli with a gun why is that I don't know either of them so I had to kind of acknowledge my own Prejudice but here's the miracle after 72 hours on my own in the West Bank I would have died protecting any any woman or child or man for that matter because of the love that they showed and the kindness and just the whole atmosphere that I came to realize was their religion do you have any memory that you cannot forget on the trip in 2005 at the end of the trip I had all the bags and bags of souvenirs and I asked the young man who was shopping with me can you please find me a Quran in English and he looked like okay I'm like I didn't think one had been written I mean why would anybody translate a small Middle Eastern religion why would they bother translating it into English so I didn't expect him to find one so he goes you know Quran in English and he comes back and he's got the Quran in English and I'm like okay great and then I look at it it's like 600 Pages I'm like never going to read this and then I remember I asked this young shabab from Jerusalem how much do I owe you because he's been shopping with me so he started he goes like this what's 100 2015 406 and I'm like I'm gonna get fleeced here I'm gonna get done and then he does this he goes I forget it you don't tell us anything what he said the only thing I'm going to ask you is don't forget Palestine when you go don't forget about us yeah Savannah that's really impressive and what was the most surprising event in Palestine for example I was it was January and I didn't know it got cold in the Middle East so I didn't have a coat and I remember walking down the street in Ramallah and an old lady in a hijab looks at me and she says something in Arabic and then she grabs me by the arm and I'm like okay is this a granny kidnapping is this how it happened and she looked me up and down and then she took me to her bedroom opened a wardrobe took out a big Overcoat put it on me and said yellow and I'm like she wrote down her number and said there you go and I'm like what I could just walk off with this coach she could not bear for a stranger to be in her town and cold while she had a coat in her cupboard do you get what I'm saying and everywhere I went there was such a softness such an ability to make the best of things what really struck me was that at the time I had a French Farm house a French Barn being built I had a swimming pool I had a one acre Garden I had beautiful children and a great husband and everything and but if one thing went wrong I would be internally Disturbed so like if the editor wasn't happy with the job oh the whole house was in uproar oh my God I'm under stress I'm under stress I'm stressed you know one tiny thing everything needed to be perfect or I was not in a calm place and these people children killed by the Army homes taken by occupiers just the daily neglect of their areas and the oppression and they were like Salam peace how are you have some of our food you know certain they had this car and I asked them why are you so generous why are you okay with this and they said it's that book it's a Quran Allah will make things okay so when did you really feel the attraction towards Islam I remember in 2008 as a non-muslim I was stranded in Gaza Under Siege with those people who are still under siege to this day and and it was Ramadan and I saw that the people were doing kind Deeds for each other even though they were poor so I thought one day let me do a kind deed and take some lamb to a family and Rafa refugee camp so I took this food to a Muslim family in a refugee camp the mother opened the door so full of light and nor and she was living in a Cell nothing to eat nothing to drink and I said to her why are you fasting I said I don't think your God loves you I'm sorry to say it I don't think he does why does he make you a garden thirsty for 30 days when on day 31 do you have water she's like no we don't have water I'm like well so what then on day 30 days you in Gaza you're going without food day 31 is your fridge gonna be full she said no well not before I said well then your God doesn't love you you know give me one good reason why you're fasting and she said in a room of nothing fast in Ramadan to remember the poor and that I thought at that moment if this is Islam let me be Muslim because if there is a faith where you can believe in God and be grateful when you he's given you nothing that day if there is a faith where you have one bowl of food and you give it to a stranger [Music] this must be it is we saw that eighty percent of our audience including this video are not subscribed to our Channel as you know we are a non-profit organization and advertisements are disabled on our videos so the only reason we are asking for this is to spread the truth it may seem like a small act but inshallah it may be a means of guidance for many people now let's click the Subscribe button unless together walk towards eternity you said that they gave you the Quran and then what happened did you read it so I had this Holy Quran given to me as a gift and I opened it one day when my children were at work and I thought okay I'll wash my hands I know they wash their hands and this is a very serious book I took it seriously it wasn't my scripture but it was a scripture it might be a real scripture so let me read it with respect so I read al-fatiha and I thought okay that's like the Lord's Prayer same thing worship God Alone ask him alone thank him alone don't be evil do good I'm fine so Surah al-fatiha was fine it was in line with my Christian beliefs but then came Surah baqarah and you get to before it says there are those who say that they are believers but in their heart is hypocrisy and you know they know they're not telling the truth and Allah hates the liars I mean basically it was calling me out on my hypocrisy and telling me that I was going to go to the Hellfire because I believed in God but I wasn't doing anything about it and I was making bad decisions and not being a good person and not worshiping and not bothered about it and I was lying and I closed the Quran and I thought oh my God I had this cold feeling it was a hot day but absolute Terror and for me the Quran was terrifying so I took it and I put it on a high shelf and I thought wow nice people crazy book because I'd never seen God so angry before and he was angry at me did you get Dharma from Muslims I did get down actually from one place during my journey there was one group of people who were very specific with me do you know who they were Somali taxi drivers they don't mess they don't give like and I found them giving me Dara so I would say assalamu alaikum because I'd been to Palestine and I thought that meant hello they say walaikum Salam are you Muslim no but I'm interested oh boy be careful because you are gonna get you're gonna get a doors right there you're gonna get a from your driver and I really enjoyed them and so they would say well is the prophet peace be upon him said to Aisha and I was learning about this amazing this wonderful man who'd lived 1400 years ago in an Arabian Desert and couldn't read or write but taught people to change themselves ourselves and change the world and I I fell in love with Muhammad the peace be upon him what was your last step towards accepting Islam I got offered a job at the Islam Channel around 2007 because I was advocating for Palestinian Justice and also for the people of Iraq and Muhammad Ali of the Islam Channel offered me the job and I said I have a couple of conditions number one don't talk to me about Islam because I think it's very nice and I think you people are very nice it's not for me and number two I won't wear hijab on your TV station because I think it denigrates and it controls women and I don't want to be a hypocrite and he said Allah will decide whether or not you're going to be a Muslim that's not in my hands and I said no there's no way I can be Muslim no way not me Muhammad Ali said you might be a Muslim I said he said will Allah knows I said all right I said what about hijab he said okay don't wear hijab but please dress as modestly as you can and we'll accept that and so that meant that I started traveling the world interviewing speakers shares having access to more Muslims and more people speaking about Islam and I went to Iran in 2010 and I went as a journalist as a correspondent to report on the al-kudstay rally it was always about Palestine for me so I was in Iran and it was uh we reached com we were having a trip away and it was Ramadan and I went into this mosque and when I went into the mosque I thought okay I think I might have done a full wudu but I definitely yeah I think I did with you with my friend who I was traveling with and when I crossed the threshold I made a Dua and I said oh Allah thank you for everything you've given me and I'm not going to ask you for anything else because you've given me so much but please bless Palestine and then I went to look around and I went to report secretly I had an iPhone with me and I thought wow this is an exclusive you're in an Iranian Shrine in Ramadan you've got a great story you could sell it round the world that was I was not in a religious state of mind I was not oh I want to be Muslim I went in to be nosy and to maybe take some secret pictures but when we got to the main area I sat down and it was just like I was sitting under a waterfall of Peace it was like every worry I'd ever had left me my heart was completely at peace I didn't even know my own name I was completely not Lauren Booth whatever that creation self-creation self-esteem nonsense whatever that was is it was gone it was the best feeling and I didn't want to move and so I slept the night in the mosque in the morning I made wudu and I prayed Fajr and I I knew in my heart at that point I was Muslim at that point I knew God was one and the prophet Muhammad were 100 100 and then what happened how did the people around you react I didn't want to get on a plane back to London without taking my shahada but I couldn't find anyone because my flight was six o'clock in the morning so I went into a mosque in London you know what subhanallah when I said the shahada poof it was like cement slabs falling from my mouth it was like gold bars leaving my tongue it was like there was an earthquake and it fell to the ground wow it was Monumental and I felt like I was suddenly in a big cotton wool ball it was like being in Cotton wall it was like just fluffy and everything kind of went distant the next day when I was taking my kids to school they ran off in front of me and I left the house and and I thought you haven't got your hijab on and I'm like oh come on you're not in Iran now you haven't got your hijab on you haven't got your hijab on you're naked and I could not leave them at the front door on my house I had to go and find the one scarf that somebody had gave me and kind of pull it on in some weird really awkward way and walk the girls to school in the scarf and they said mom why are you wearing hijab I said it's cold they said it's hot I said whatever just go and play in the walk in the woods and when I got to school one of the dads worked for the Jewish Chronicle and he kind of looked like oh this is big news and I'm like oh man so much trouble now he was like yes like all his Christmases had come at once but I didn't care I went home and for the next seven days everything was changed I wanted to pray I wanted to cry to Allah I put my head to the ground like I'd seen the Muslims do and I said two things over and over again I just said Thank you and I said sorry I said thank you for giving me this life for giving me all the love that I've had everything that I haven't recognized you know beautiful daughters I've known love I've had opportunity I've had a good family and I know you and thank you and then I said sorry just a lot of sorry and I cried a lot for about a week but then I had to pick up the Quran again and that was scary so that I took my shahada on a Friday and my children with their father we was divorced or separated and that Friday night I'm like okay great the kids I took my shahada I go home and I sit there and I'm like right Friday night let me call a male friend oh you can't really do that that's yeah uh let me have a cigarette I don't really want to have a cigarette when I know I'm going to pray and say Allah's name so then I went to my fridge and there was a bottle of wine I went oh okay so this is going to be a boring life so there was literally nothing to do so I picked the Quran up again I was like oh God Ya Allah please let us have a good ending please let this not be I'm now going to hell don't let me have got this wrong I trust you and the Quran just said welcome Where Have You Been God loves you you've made the right choice and everything's gonna be okay amazing really and how was your family's reaction so I thought it would be a big deal when my family found out I was Muslim my mum was very sarcastic said you've joined the lunatics you've joined the crazy people are you going to be a terrorist she would have a lot of fear but I became a a better daughter inshallah I worked really hard at loving her for the last years of her life and putting things right my dad was just afraid why as a free woman would you be dressed like this why would you let a man put that on you because God doesn't want you to wear it men have told you to wear this I'm like well I'm wearing this for God all right and he's like but you can go to God anyway you don't have to go like this so he was worried about any marriage that I had are you going to be servile you know are you going to be a servant he said oh my daughter's a strong woman I'm like you don't get it but subhanallah I got to have a discussion with my dad on his deathbed subhanallah and I got to read him al-fatia and I got to hold his hand and look deep into his his eyes and and share spirituality and love for God with him and he said that God is one and the prophet Muhammad is the last prophet and Jesus is a prophet so Allah knows best he didn't say it in Arabic and I didn't push it but he has had always said to me there's one God Jesus is a prophet and I said the prophet Muhammad was a great man who was a prophet he said okay I believe that he was a profit and I had a lovely dream about him after he passed that he was being washed by three imams and full of light so inshallah at that time you were working in an English news channel what happened there so and the first morning I went to Sky News and hijab was hilarious because you know they're all trained to be very cool customers whatever walks into the studio you're like but you could see everyone going oh you know as you walked past it was like hi Lauren you know I could just see what was happening behind me two days later I got a call saying Lauren we're jiggling things around we won't be needing you anymore cut they didn't use me anymore ever again now are there hijabes on Sky News yes mashallah are they hijab is in the news world yes have you ever seen a convert hijabi who's in news name one now this is a struggle that the mainstream world has because if you accept that Islam is your faith Allah is your lord then by the media standards you've either had a nervous breakdown or you've had a nervous breakdown I don't think there is even is a bee how can they present you as a thinking intelligent credible person who in the middle of their life says morning everybody my name is Lauren Booth by the way I believe Allah is God and Prophet Muhammad was the last prophet now to weather you know we can't do that they can have brown people on who have hijab because oh that's their weird little thing but if you're from the mainstream how can that be normalized without having a conversation about God and about Islam and about what we do to Muslims and how we treat the Muslim world I come with that conversation now and I embrace it alhamdulillah I embrace it was there someone that met Islam and changed their life in your circle I was on a plane a few years ago coming back from Qatar and the man in front of me was a British man in a vest smelling of alcohol and he was a skinhead and I'm like oh please God I don't want to sit next to him for four hours and so my ticket is 21g he's 21f so we go and sit down and I have to get over him and he looks at me like I'm absolute dirt he looks at me like Ugh so the food comes and and he's like yeah I'll have a vodka and I'll have a beer and I'm like so I'm just having a drink of water going I'll laugh forgive me this is the worst flight ever and then he says um would you like the water as if I can't speak English so I'm like oh thank you very much so I'm like okay I have to do a good deed now I'll give him something would you like my cheese he's like thank you very much and he says where are you from mate I'm from London where are you from he's like what you dressed like this from London and he looks away and he does something really strange start sitting there and he's going I'm sorry sorry I'm sorry and I look him like are you okay he's like yeah but I was thinking horrible things about you and I'm sorry and I said to him you didn't say them okay so it's okay don't worry long story short over four hours we get speaking I find out that he tells me that he's depressed he doesn't want to live he's a bad man and I said to me no everybody can have these moments but we pray to God who do you pray to who do you reach out to because I don't believe in any of that I said there's somebody there's something that you go to when you're in the state you say well I have a picture of my mum and sometimes I cry to her and say mum help me it's a 40 year old man in pain I said to him okay was your mum religious he said yeah she used to pray a lot I said who did she your mum used to pray to he said God I said how about next time you feel like this you pray to the one you Mar your mum prayed to and it was like a light bulb went on yeah you're right you're right okay and I had a Quran in English in my bag by the grace of Allah and I gave it to him and this big guy you know big British guy was getting off the plane going thank you so subhanallah people need people need help we have to be access points in Charlotte so I'm devoted to to creating that to crafting output looks after our young Muslims gives us places to feel proud of our heritage to look forward to what we can do with it and not also for non-muslims and people who are doubting to ask their questions inshallah and that that's a good cause can you tell us about your projects you did and future projects you know my big project is to reveal how the Muslim attitude to this world what is tired what is the goodness how do we revive it now and how do we live it in our lives alhamdulillah I think one of the big projects that really moves me is to speak to the Muslims about how great our heritage is and how we can reflect on that and be great again alhamdulillah I wrote a book called in search of a holy land I made it also by the grace of Allah into an audio book so people can listen to it that's online and so I worked with a producer to create my book into a play and we've performed it it's called accidentally Muslim we played to 900 mostly non-muslims at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival you know I love to to show Islam as it truly is an impact on the heart and a positive impact on society if you had a chance to speak to all the non-muslims in the world what would you like to say if you had just one minute oh you sitting at home now you have times when you don't know why you're alive you have times of sadness and loss and grief and the fun just isn't working the way it used to you have pain and maybe sometimes you don't know why you're alive and you want to ask somebody to help you but you don't know how to ask and everything feels like it's strange and unreal God is one when you feel like this look at a rose look at a rose in the garden and think that it makes sense for us when you feel like this look at the bees and just think how amazing that honey is so tasty and it's also a healing we give it for sore throats just think about how nature is there for us how beautiful it is that the rain goes into the ground into the roots of the trees and then the trees grow a leaf or a flower and then that flower becomes fruit that we can just eat and it has goodness for us and feel the loving and benevolent presence of your Lord thank you sister Lauren for being with us or we will meet in other projects too foreign