04-15-2006, 11:52 AM
David Myatt, now known as Abdul Aziz, spent 25 years in the neo-Nazi movement.
He was imprisoned twice for violence in pursuit of his neo-Nazi political aims.
Before finding Islam 6 years ago, he led the political wing of Combat 18.
David Myatt
Although British by birth, Abdul Aziz (né David) spent his childhood years in
colonial East Africa and the Far East, returning to England when he was 16
years of age.
Shortly afterwards he became involved in politics, joining Colin Jordan's
British Movement, and then the National Front. He spent over 5 years as an
extreme right-wing street activist and agitator, and was imprisoned twice for
violence in pursuit of his neo-Nazi political aims.
On his release from his second term of imprisonment, he spent 2 years as a
Christian monk at a monastery in England. He left the monastery to continue
pursuing his political goals and was active for the next 20 years in various
neo-Nazi groups, including Combat 18. He took over the leadership of the
political wing of Combat 18 when its founder was jailed for murder.
Shortly afterwards, Abdul Aziz was arrested on suspicion of inciting racial
hatred and incitement to murder. The police investigation lasted over 3 years,
with the case being dropped because of lack of evidence. During those 3 years,
he discovered Islam following a trip, as a tourist,to Egypt.
He reverted to Islam in AH 1419/1998 CE.
A British Neo-Nazi's Journey to Islam
By Abdul Aziz Myatt
Mar. 02, 2006
http://www.islamonline.net/english/journey...03/jour01.shtml
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Islam - submission to the will of Allah. I converted to Islam because there
came a time when both my mind and my heart accepted that there was no god but
Allah and that Muhammad was His Messenger. All that I had believed and upheld
before this conversion is at worst wrong, and at best irrelevant.
My duty now, the purpose of my life, is to do the will of Allah, to submit to
the will of Allah — to strive, In sha' Allah, to be a good, a devout, Muslim.
To live as a Muslim in the way that Allah has decreed, through his Prophet and
Messenger Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. One of the many wonderful
things which occurred on the day I converted was when the Imam of the Mosque
explained that by accepting Islam I had begun a new life — Allah had forgiven
me my sins, and it was as if I started my life again with my Book of Life, the
record of my sins, empty.
I have a new life now, a new identity - for I am a Muslim, and all Muslims are
my brothers, wherever they happen to live, and whatever race they are said to
belong to.
How was it that I, a Westerner with a history of political involvement in
extreme "right-wing" organizations, came to be standing one Sunday outside a
Mosque with a sincere desire to go inside and convert to Islam? The simple
answer is that it was the will of Allah - He guided me there. As for my
political past, it belongs to the past. All I can do now is to trust in Allah,
the Compassionate, the Merciful, the Lord of all the worlds.
As Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid - a distinguished scholar - has said:
"Asking for details of a persons past and wanting to know what sins they might
have committed when they were ignorant about Islam is not right at all. Allah
covers peoples' sins and loves to see them covered (i.e. not dragged out into
the open). So long as a person has repented, his sins have been wiped out.
Islam deletes whatever came before, so why should we ask questions that will
only embarrass people? Allah accepts people's repentance without their having
to confess or expose their sins to any other person. A number of the Sahabah
[companions of the Prophet] had committed adultery and murder repeatedly, or
had buried infant girls alive, or stolen things, but when they entered Islam
they were the best of people. No one needs to be reminded of a shameful past;
it is over and done with, and Allah is the All-Forgiving, Most Merciful."
In terms of the 'Western' explanation that most Westerners will seek in order
to try and understand my conversion, I suppose my journey toward Islam began
when I first went to Egypt and, as a tourist, visited a Mosque. The Adhan - the
call to prayer - had begun and I was struck by its beauty.
It is fair to say my heart responded to it in a way that, at the time, I did
not understand. Then, I knew little about Islam, but each time I visited Egypt
I learnt a little more. I talked to several Egyptians about their religion, and
bought a copy of an English translation of the meanings of the Qur'an. The
little bits I read made a lot of sense to me, and the more I learnt about
Islam, the more admirable it seemed to be. The more Muslims I met, the more I
admired them.
But I was still in thrall to my own ego, my own Western way of life, and by two
other things which prevented me from fully appreciating Islam and investigating
it further. First, my life-long belief in Nature: the belief that we somehow
belong to Mother Earth in a special, almost pagan, way and that our own
consciousness is the consciousness of Nature.
Second, that it was our nation, our national culture, which defined us and
which therefore, was of supreme importance. But, in my heart, I always felt a
universal, honourable, compassion, as I always felt the need to be aware of the
numinous, the sacred. Many times in my life I believed this "numinosity"
derived from God, the supreme Being - while at other times I believed it
derived from Nature, from the cosmos itself: from what I often termed "the
gods".
For decades, I wavered between these two versions regarding the origin of the
sacred. Because of this awareness, these feelings, I was not as many people -
and journalists in particular - believed me to be: some sort of fanatical
political extremist who 'hated' people. And yet it is true to say that I was
perhaps too arrogant - too sure of myself and the understanding I believed I
had achieved - to give in to this compassion, this awareness, and accept I was
simply a humble creation of an all-powerful supreme Being. Instead, I believed
I could make if not a significant difference then at least some difference to
this world, based on my own beliefs and understanding.
Conversion
My conversion really begins when I started a new job, working long hours on a
farm, often by myself. The close contact with Nature, the toil of manual
labour, really did restore my soul, my humanity, and I became really aware of
the Oneness of the Cosmos and of how I was but part of this wonderful Order
which God had created.
In my heart and in my mind I was convinced that this Order had not arisen by
chance - it was created, as I myself was created for a purpose. It was as if my
true nature had fought a long battle with Shaitan, who had deceived me, but who
could deceive me no more. I felt the truth of the one and only Creator in my
heart and in my mind.
For the first time in my life, I felt truly humble. Then, as if by chance (but
it was the guidance of Allah) I took from my bookcase one of the copies of the
Qur'an I had bought after one of my visits to Egypt. I began to read it
properly - before, I had merely "dipped into it", reading a few verses, here
and there.
What I found was logic, reason, truth, revelation, justice, humanity and
beauty. Then, with a desire to find out more about Islam, I "surfed the
Internet" for Islamic sites. I found one with audio files of Adhan and Salah
and verses from the Qur'an. Again, my heart responded. There was no need for
words.
In the next few days I found more web sites as I read all I could about Islamic
beliefs. Stripped of my prejudices, my arrogance - no longer deceived by
Shaitan - here was everything that I myself felt, and always had felt to be
true: dignity, honour, trust, justice, community, truth, an awareness of God on
a daily basis, the need to be self-disciplined, the spiritual way before
materialism, and the recognition of how we, as individuals, are subservient to
God.
I marvelled at the life of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and at
the spread of Islam - at how those early Muslims, once "rough and ready"
nomads, had through only the words, deeds and revelations of the Prophet,
created perhaps the most civilized civilization there has ever been. I became
enthralled reading about the life of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings
be upon him, for there was something remarkable here: he seemed to represent
everything I felt in my heart and my mind to be noble and civilized. In fact,
he seemed to me to be the perfect human being: the perfect example to follow.
The more I discovered about Islam, the more it answered all the doubts, all the
questions, of my past thirty years. It really did feel as if I had "come home"
- as if I had at last found myself. It was like the time I first went to Egypt
and wandered around Cairo.
The sounds, the smells, the scenes, the people - I really felt I belonged
there, among "Islamic Cairo" with minarets and the Adhan around me. Personally,
I have always loathed cities and large towns - but Cairo was somehow different.
I liked it (and still do) - despite the overcrowding, the noise, the traffic.
Now, I would sit for hours listening to recordings of the Adhan (which I
understood) and the Qur'an in Arabic (which I did not understand). Truly, here
- I felt - was the numinous.
Thus, my own conversion became not a question, but a duty. For I had found and
accepted the truth that there was no god but Allah and that Muhammad was His
Messenger.
So it was that I came to enter a Mosque to say that I wished to convert to
Islam. They were so pleased and so friendly - so brotherly - that it brings
tears to my eyes now as I remember it, and I thank Allah that I found the true
Way in the end.
In my new life, I have a lot to learn, and a desire to learn, as I believe I
have the best guides anyone can have - the holy Qur'an and the example of the
noble Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.