This Is A Personal Letter I Received From God! | The Story of Belgian Revert
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Islam has immense resources to offer to mankind. If you saw it I was really reading it as okay, this is a personal letter I received from God you know. It was okay just wake up now. Who is Gregory Van Damme? And can you tell us briefly about yourself? Salaam Aleikum. I'm really happy to have invited here. So my name is Gregory Van Damme. I was born in Brussels Belgium. I was born in non-religious family, which is very common in Belgium. And I think in all the French speaking world because yes my mother tongue is French in Belgium, we have three languages you know. So I grew up in Belgium. I was very common Belgian child. I went to a Catholic boarding school.
So even though my family was anti-religious, they saw that the best schools were owned by Catholics. Since I was eight years old, I was in a boarding school, the Ancient Abbey a very beautiful place where a Catholic saint is is buried there. So that's practically it. Yeah So you were trained in a Christian curriculum? Exactly, but basically it was a very open minded school. So we had all the classical courses with for example we didn't go to the church every day or even I don't remember actually being at church a lot or things like this. We had of course 2 hours a week.
Religion class was also very open minded because they know that Belgian people are secular and they do not practice religion anymore. So they don't come and teach them in a way that they are expecting to be, you know fellow Catholics. So it was a very open like philosophical, ethical, as you said spiritual kind of teaching. So what were you believing in those years? I think I wasn't believing in something transcendent from the the basic human life. So I think I was quite materialistic child. But yet I think the big quality of my education is that we were very open minded. So my mother for example, she used to have books at home about different cultures, you know... Even different religions?
Yes, but they were interested in religions. But as cultural realities. Like folk realities. Not not as as mother of thoughts. And mother is exactly of spirituality or philosophy, metaphysics or even as worldview or philosophy of life. It was more like okay, oh, that's interesting then they do this. it's funny or it's beautiful. But we are not concerned about this. We are as we are. And we we don't change at all. What was your perception of Islam before you became Muslim? That's a very good question. There are some interesting things. There is one very fascinating anecdote. I remember very well. when I was a very little child.
Maybe I was six years old or seven years old, something we were doing shopping in Brussels, a neighborhood with a lot of Moroccan and Turkish shops. My family used to go there to buy, olive oil, dates what else. And I was with my mother and my grandmother, and we passed before the shop with a big picture in the frame of the Kaaba. I really remember it I looked at it and I said, Oh, mother, I want this for my room. Really, I remember. And my mother was, okay no. You cannot have this because of it's their religion, their culture. If you if you enter and you ask them to buy it, it will be uncomfortable for this. And no, you cannot. I really remember very well that scene.
So I had kind of an attraction that comes from I don't know where. For us in Europe, Muslims are equal to Arabs. We don't realize that. No, they are Turkish people that are Persian people that are African, Indonesian and so Muslim and the Arabs are the enemy always kind of in the background. Some families of Europe imagery of the Crusades also presents not is a racist thing just as a cultural thing because we love you know chivalry, medieval, you know, these stories are very important stories for the European culture. But in these stories the bad guy is the Arab. So yeah. What was the reason that you felt the attraction to Islam? As I said, I was curious about cultures, about ideas.
And at my school, I met a half Algerian half Belgian family totally secular, weren’t practicing this thing at all, very nice people. I met their daughter. We were friends, was getting along in their house. And at some point I just asked them, Oh, you have a Quran there in French? That will be interesting for me. Can I borrow it to just to read and discover? Because I've never opened a Quran like this. So yeah, take it to home. And that was a big shock. Yeah. I think since the very first moment I read the first words and I was, okay, this is something. it was the first time in my life that I read the text, which wasn't about someone or something other than me. This text was talking to me.
It was like I was no hearing the voice speaking in the book. So it was very a very shocking experience. I really I remember very well kind of my state at the time. I was like wow. Because you know, I'm 15 years old kid doing skateboard, and you know with friends With not into that kind of things, that was wow. It was said in this book was just plain evidence. It was okay. Just wake up now. Look around you. Don't you see? And it was yes that's true. That's how I really see the world. And that's how I should see the world. And I that's how I should see myself as part of this world. So it was as though it was speaking directly to you? Allah was speaking directly to you. Definitely, definitely.
It was I was really reading it as, okay, this is a personal letter I received from God, you know and also okay that is God. I never thought about God that way. So that was for me also the big revolution. This is a universal message about truth, about the universal truth actually. What happened afterwards? I opened myself to this Algerian family sitting there. Oh, what's that book it's it's incredible. I think I'm going to be Muslim. By just reading Quran? Yes, and without knowing any practicing Muslim ever. Basically, I was really convinced. So I had no Muslims around me. It didn't matter at all. Through the mother of the family, she got me a book about how to pray. You know 5 pillars.
Basic teaching of Islam. So for two years, I was preparing for the boarding school and I was practicing Islam all by myself. How did your family or your friends react to this? My friends they weren't understanding a thing, you know they were skateboard kids, you know like fun cracker young guys. And they were like, what are you doing there? What's that? They were laughing at me, but they were nice people. So they accepted ok, that 's his thing though is that I think everybody, my friends, my family, everybody thought it's just a teenage. Whim. Yeah. Whim, exactly it will pass with time. But yet what is unbearable for your European minds is rules. Why should you stop drinking alcohol?
Why should you not eat pork? It is just meat. What's the problem? Why should you fast? it's not good for your health. For them following the rules. It's really what they always fought against and are avoided. Exactly. So why our our son or brother is imposing on himself those those rules they don't understand. Was it hard for you to perform five times a day? Or was it hard for you for fasting 30 days in one month? Fasting was not an issue because of North. My first, I had the Rahmah. My first Ramadan was in November. So basically I was fasting for from 8:00 to 5 p.m very easy Ramadan. After that I experienced the Ramadan in summer.
In North summer which is like 21 hours fasting This is something. But so at that time though, Ramadan was not the problem at all really. But praying regularly, that was an issue, of course, when I was at boarding school, very, very difficult to to find a way to pray. I was finding ways to to cover my prayer after school or something. But that was the most important struggle. Did you preach the message of Islam to people around you? And did anybody become Muslim because of you? Actually, yes several friends. I don't know if it's a strategy because it's unconscious, but usually I don't try to convince people. I myself we talk about things.
I give my point of view but without trying hard to convince them or you know you have to accept this no. Not at all. This kind of dialectic thing. We are talking I was like, okay, from my perspective I see the world like this. It had incredible results. I have several friends who came and said okay, I want I want to become Muslim. Come on! Are you serious? We don't try hard to do it. I think it's the best way to convince people because the European mind is very reluctant about being convinced. They don't trust politicians, they don't trust the medias, they don't trust scholars at university, they don't trust anyone. Also the religious figures, they don't trust. Definitely. This is okay.
This is really for them, it's the past. Another interesting, when my sister had her first daughter, I think she was like 4 or 5, she started to ask questions about death. like every children you know and what my sister said these questions you will see with your uncle I have no answer about death, but your uncle he has the answers. That's okay. So you don't really accept my Islam and you are not at ease at all with my belief. But yet you realize that for very crucial realities like death I have more answers than you. This is really interesting. They realize that there is something, but they cannot step forward and they cannot overcome the the barriers they have.
Do you think there's an increasing Islamophobia in Belgium or in the rest of Europe, and what should be done to prevent this? From my point of view, the answer is yes and no. Yes, because it's obvious in the media and in some politicians, after 9/11, everything changed for the bad and with the attacks in Europe, it was just went crazy. Charlie Hebdo. Yeah. And in Belgium, we had an attack at the airport in the in the subway. So it was very shocking things. So definitely definitely there is sentiment that Islamophobia is growing yet clearly saw in Belgium after the attacks, a lot of people wanted to know about Islam. That was a very new thing. They wonder okay, so what is about this religion?
I, I want to understand what's the point? So they start to ask question. Before they didn't ask kind of hidden Islamophobia and today it's a very consciously present Islamophobia. But for some people is the occasion to, to get to know Islam. What was your purpose before Islam and what is it after Islam in life? I always have been the kind of idealistic person. I think my purpose was okay, I'm going to change the world. Probably today I'm still I want to change the world I think I see it completely differently. I think that I first need to change myself is very important. You don't change because you want to change. You have to know exactly what change you want for the world.
So yeah today I think the importance of this knowledge to know better the human beings, to know better how the world works and to know better my main resource which is the Islamic tradition. Thank you so much for accepting our invitation and I pray the best for you and your studies and in your way of life in Islam. Ameen. Barakallahu Fikum.
So even though my family was anti-religious, they saw that the best schools were owned by Catholics. Since I was eight years old, I was in a boarding school, the Ancient Abbey a very beautiful place where a Catholic saint is is buried there. So that's practically it. Yeah So you were trained in a Christian curriculum? Exactly, but basically it was a very open minded school. So we had all the classical courses with for example we didn't go to the church every day or even I don't remember actually being at church a lot or things like this. We had of course 2 hours a week.
Religion class was also very open minded because they know that Belgian people are secular and they do not practice religion anymore. So they don't come and teach them in a way that they are expecting to be, you know fellow Catholics. So it was a very open like philosophical, ethical, as you said spiritual kind of teaching. So what were you believing in those years? I think I wasn't believing in something transcendent from the the basic human life. So I think I was quite materialistic child. But yet I think the big quality of my education is that we were very open minded. So my mother for example, she used to have books at home about different cultures, you know... Even different religions?
Yes, but they were interested in religions. But as cultural realities. Like folk realities. Not not as as mother of thoughts. And mother is exactly of spirituality or philosophy, metaphysics or even as worldview or philosophy of life. It was more like okay, oh, that's interesting then they do this. it's funny or it's beautiful. But we are not concerned about this. We are as we are. And we we don't change at all. What was your perception of Islam before you became Muslim? That's a very good question. There are some interesting things. There is one very fascinating anecdote. I remember very well. when I was a very little child.
Maybe I was six years old or seven years old, something we were doing shopping in Brussels, a neighborhood with a lot of Moroccan and Turkish shops. My family used to go there to buy, olive oil, dates what else. And I was with my mother and my grandmother, and we passed before the shop with a big picture in the frame of the Kaaba. I really remember it I looked at it and I said, Oh, mother, I want this for my room. Really, I remember. And my mother was, okay no. You cannot have this because of it's their religion, their culture. If you if you enter and you ask them to buy it, it will be uncomfortable for this. And no, you cannot. I really remember very well that scene.
So I had kind of an attraction that comes from I don't know where. For us in Europe, Muslims are equal to Arabs. We don't realize that. No, they are Turkish people that are Persian people that are African, Indonesian and so Muslim and the Arabs are the enemy always kind of in the background. Some families of Europe imagery of the Crusades also presents not is a racist thing just as a cultural thing because we love you know chivalry, medieval, you know, these stories are very important stories for the European culture. But in these stories the bad guy is the Arab. So yeah. What was the reason that you felt the attraction to Islam? As I said, I was curious about cultures, about ideas.
And at my school, I met a half Algerian half Belgian family totally secular, weren’t practicing this thing at all, very nice people. I met their daughter. We were friends, was getting along in their house. And at some point I just asked them, Oh, you have a Quran there in French? That will be interesting for me. Can I borrow it to just to read and discover? Because I've never opened a Quran like this. So yeah, take it to home. And that was a big shock. Yeah. I think since the very first moment I read the first words and I was, okay, this is something. it was the first time in my life that I read the text, which wasn't about someone or something other than me. This text was talking to me.
It was like I was no hearing the voice speaking in the book. So it was very a very shocking experience. I really I remember very well kind of my state at the time. I was like wow. Because you know, I'm 15 years old kid doing skateboard, and you know with friends With not into that kind of things, that was wow. It was said in this book was just plain evidence. It was okay. Just wake up now. Look around you. Don't you see? And it was yes that's true. That's how I really see the world. And that's how I should see the world. And I that's how I should see myself as part of this world. So it was as though it was speaking directly to you? Allah was speaking directly to you. Definitely, definitely.
It was I was really reading it as, okay, this is a personal letter I received from God, you know and also okay that is God. I never thought about God that way. So that was for me also the big revolution. This is a universal message about truth, about the universal truth actually. What happened afterwards? I opened myself to this Algerian family sitting there. Oh, what's that book it's it's incredible. I think I'm going to be Muslim. By just reading Quran? Yes, and without knowing any practicing Muslim ever. Basically, I was really convinced. So I had no Muslims around me. It didn't matter at all. Through the mother of the family, she got me a book about how to pray. You know 5 pillars.
Basic teaching of Islam. So for two years, I was preparing for the boarding school and I was practicing Islam all by myself. How did your family or your friends react to this? My friends they weren't understanding a thing, you know they were skateboard kids, you know like fun cracker young guys. And they were like, what are you doing there? What's that? They were laughing at me, but they were nice people. So they accepted ok, that 's his thing though is that I think everybody, my friends, my family, everybody thought it's just a teenage. Whim. Yeah. Whim, exactly it will pass with time. But yet what is unbearable for your European minds is rules. Why should you stop drinking alcohol?
Why should you not eat pork? It is just meat. What's the problem? Why should you fast? it's not good for your health. For them following the rules. It's really what they always fought against and are avoided. Exactly. So why our our son or brother is imposing on himself those those rules they don't understand. Was it hard for you to perform five times a day? Or was it hard for you for fasting 30 days in one month? Fasting was not an issue because of North. My first, I had the Rahmah. My first Ramadan was in November. So basically I was fasting for from 8:00 to 5 p.m very easy Ramadan. After that I experienced the Ramadan in summer.
In North summer which is like 21 hours fasting This is something. But so at that time though, Ramadan was not the problem at all really. But praying regularly, that was an issue, of course, when I was at boarding school, very, very difficult to to find a way to pray. I was finding ways to to cover my prayer after school or something. But that was the most important struggle. Did you preach the message of Islam to people around you? And did anybody become Muslim because of you? Actually, yes several friends. I don't know if it's a strategy because it's unconscious, but usually I don't try to convince people. I myself we talk about things.
I give my point of view but without trying hard to convince them or you know you have to accept this no. Not at all. This kind of dialectic thing. We are talking I was like, okay, from my perspective I see the world like this. It had incredible results. I have several friends who came and said okay, I want I want to become Muslim. Come on! Are you serious? We don't try hard to do it. I think it's the best way to convince people because the European mind is very reluctant about being convinced. They don't trust politicians, they don't trust the medias, they don't trust scholars at university, they don't trust anyone. Also the religious figures, they don't trust. Definitely. This is okay.
This is really for them, it's the past. Another interesting, when my sister had her first daughter, I think she was like 4 or 5, she started to ask questions about death. like every children you know and what my sister said these questions you will see with your uncle I have no answer about death, but your uncle he has the answers. That's okay. So you don't really accept my Islam and you are not at ease at all with my belief. But yet you realize that for very crucial realities like death I have more answers than you. This is really interesting. They realize that there is something, but they cannot step forward and they cannot overcome the the barriers they have.
Do you think there's an increasing Islamophobia in Belgium or in the rest of Europe, and what should be done to prevent this? From my point of view, the answer is yes and no. Yes, because it's obvious in the media and in some politicians, after 9/11, everything changed for the bad and with the attacks in Europe, it was just went crazy. Charlie Hebdo. Yeah. And in Belgium, we had an attack at the airport in the in the subway. So it was very shocking things. So definitely definitely there is sentiment that Islamophobia is growing yet clearly saw in Belgium after the attacks, a lot of people wanted to know about Islam. That was a very new thing. They wonder okay, so what is about this religion?
I, I want to understand what's the point? So they start to ask question. Before they didn't ask kind of hidden Islamophobia and today it's a very consciously present Islamophobia. But for some people is the occasion to, to get to know Islam. What was your purpose before Islam and what is it after Islam in life? I always have been the kind of idealistic person. I think my purpose was okay, I'm going to change the world. Probably today I'm still I want to change the world I think I see it completely differently. I think that I first need to change myself is very important. You don't change because you want to change. You have to know exactly what change you want for the world.
So yeah today I think the importance of this knowledge to know better the human beings, to know better how the world works and to know better my main resource which is the Islamic tradition. Thank you so much for accepting our invitation and I pray the best for you and your studies and in your way of life in Islam. Ameen. Barakallahu Fikum.