One Woman's Conversion Story: From Arguing to Understanding

September 28, 2002

Source: The Arizona Republic

http://www.arizonarepublic.com/arizona/articles/0928b2profile28.html

On September 28, 2002 The Arizona Republic reported on "Deedra Abboud, the new president of the Council on American Islamic Relations of Arizona, [who] was raised Christian in Arkansas... She remembers arguing with Muslims about their faith. 'I would verbally attack them,' Abboud said. Your religion oppresses women, she would tell them. Making women cover their heads and hide their beauty is a form of suppression. You are misinformed, the Muslims would counter. The head scarf is liberating. It allows women to be evaluated for their intelligence rather than their sexuality. Abboud decided she needed to become better informed. Then something happened. The more she read about the religion, the more she became attracted to it. 'Initially to win. That was my goal, to be able to argue better,' Abboud said. 'I'd would pick up books and I would try and read as much as I could and then I would go out of my way to meet other Muslims but at some point it changed from wanting to argue to wanting to understand.'"