My journey to Islam began at the philosophy library at the University of Southern California. I was taking my last class to receive my B.A. in English. My advisor allowed me to take a PhD course and during the first class I made a comment like, "Oh, I think that was the Moors in Spain," and from that point on, I was dubbed resident Islamic scholar. I could not say no, I was too embarrassed. It was this comment that landed me the weekly gig and untimely led me to convert to Islam.

Conversion was the last thing on my mind. I was happy as a Catholic, until I began to read the works of the church Father’s in Latin. When I read about the Trinity and the Council of Nicea, the scales fell from my eyes. I felt betrayed by my family and the Church who always said the Trinity was divinely revealed, but there I was with the documentation. I said to myself, "You would not accept a counterfeit of Shakespeare’s work, so why a counterfeit work of God’s?" I could not be a Catholic anymore and the last thing I wanted was to be a Muslim.

I began studying Islam for my class. I read The History of God by Karen Armstrong. The author, who is not a Muslim, basically authenticated the life of Muhammad and the Qur’an. This was really something big, a historically accurate religion. I still did not want to convert, but I was interested. I asked myself, "You consider yourself educated, then if Muhammad wrote the Qur’an, and it is a brilliant piece of work, so why not follow a brilliant thinker?"