NativeTongue,

That is true, with 35 percent of African-Amerians contributing to it. There are over 1 billion Muslims in this world--That is more than what anyother religion have. I remebered looking at 20/20 about the affects of Islam after the 9/11 attacks. from what I seen, according to the reports, there were many people---the majority of them being women converting from Christianity to Islam, by 11 percent and more and more people are more interested Arabic studies/Arabic Language than ever before. With some of these people thier interest has nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks it's just that they want to know more about the Middle East/Asian and about Islam in general.

Ever since I was a kid, I was always intrigued by Islam/Middle Eastern as well as many other cultures. As a kid , I didn't have a whole lot of understadning about it and just had kiddle , imaginary fantasies about it, like flying on a magic carpet, going to the Taj Mahal and just moving to Saudi Arabia or something. I was just fascinated by it. I remembered going to my aunt's sisters house. Her sister was a Muslim and sometimes she wore her hijab/veil and I just wanted to wear one of those, but didn't know why ? I just liked it. As I got older and understood more about God/religion, I wanted to be more" closer" to him and I was searching about for him. The first time I wanted to be Muslim was when I was 16. I told my mom about it and her answerwas flat out NO! She thought that I was confused about who I was and that I wouldn't be happy in it because my aunt sister wasn't.( She's now a Christian)

I, too, is a Christian--a Baptist-- and have been for almost seven years. I'm happy and content with where I am and wouldn't want to change it as I'm always looking for spiritual stability. I also look back and ask " What if...." What would have happended if she wouild have giiven me permission to become one, or to learn more of the benefits of being one? There were times I asked myself should I have defiedher command? but I didn't, but I hate that I never got a chance to seek this answer, For all she know, it could have been me, god could have very well lead me to this part of his kingdom. Two days ago, I was walking with my 6 year old nephew from the library and as we passed by four places of worship a house(services that are being held in a house for the time being)Masjid, a house Buddist temple, and a Pentacostal church. as we passed by we heard some music coming from the Masjid and my nephew was curious about and and I explained it to him .My nephew told his grandmother about it and she was antsy about it, saying that he doesn't need to know aboutthat at his age. I disgree. As a kid he may not know what Islam, Baptist, Penacostal etc is, but when it comes to god, everybody knows who he is. That is the common thing those guys are sharing with each other. If my nephew /my child told me that he wanted to be a Muslim ( at an older age far as understanding the studeis of being a Muslim)or anything else, I would support his decision as long as his mission is to serve god and not Satan. Moreso, Islam is more than a religion, it's about history. That was something I learned about in the 3rd grade.