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TRIED BY FIRE: FINDING FAITH IN A TROUBLED LAND
By Stephanie Tracy - HERALD Editorial Assistant
Arlington Catholic Herald, VA
July 18 2007
Daniel Ali spent a large part of his adult life living under the
threat of torture and death. For 17 years, he fought against the
oppression of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
He survived bombings, torture, eight imprisonments, and the March
1988 chemical attacks on the Kurdish city of Halabja, regarded as
the largest modern chemical weapons attack on a civilian population.
In the midst of such turmoil, the intellectual Muslim Kurd embarked
on a journey that brought him to the Catholic Church.
Growing up, Ali's family was surrounded by the diversity of religions
and cultures typical in Kurdistan. A neighbor's son, a priest of
the Armenian Church, gave the 7-year-old Ali a book about the early
Christian martyrs, which he devoured.
"I loved that book. It struck me as odd," said Ali, 48, a parishioner
at St. John Neumann Church in Reston. "These guys didn't fight. These
guys did not shed anybody's blood. ... They went voluntarily, willing
to suffer and they did not denounce the faith. ... That was in stark
contrast to what I read about my own faith, the martyrs, that they
were heroes on the battlefield, were killed in the process of killing."
Ali studied the Quran better than most. His study of the Muslim holy
book and the tradition of Mohammed, the Hadith, however, piqued his
interest in Jesus.
"I did not have a reason to doubt my faith. I had every reason to
love it," he said. "This was the faith of my father and my father's
father. ... (But) this Jesus in the Quran is a very unique individual."
Ali said he was intrigued by passages that contradicted the Muslim
assertion that Jesus was only a man and not divine. He couldn't
understand how Jesus could be present on earth while, in other
passages, He was said to be watching over the world. And he wondered
why the Quran said Jesus would come at the end of the world if Muslims
believed Mohammed was the last prophet.
By 15, Ali was reading the works of St. Thomas Aquinas and St.
Augustine. By 1982, he had intellectually rejected the faith of
his family.
After working as a linguist for the U.S. military during the Gulf
War, Ali met and married his American Christian wife, Sara, who was
surprised that he did not want her to convert to Islam. Ali confessed
he no longer believed in the faith of his fathers, but he also insisted
he would not convert to Christianity.
The Alis moved to the United States in 1993, and through Sara's
influence and that of other friends, Daniel was baptized Sept. 17,
1995, in Sara's non-denominational Christian church.
Attracted by the coherency of the Scriptures, in contrast to the Quran,
Ali began his daily habit of spending up to eight hours studying
the Bible. But it was a televised Mass that brought the Alis to the
doorstep of Catholicism.
"Sara was watching EWTN, and I was watching, too, and we saw the
priest elevating the Host," said Ali, wiping away tears. "That
speaks volumes. Even if this Jesus is not there, just to put that
much reverence into elevating Him was enough."
A Catholic neighbor who attended the Alis' non-denominational Bible
study also intrigued them, and put them in touch with the late Father
William Most.
For more than two years, Father Most, a retired priest from the
Diocese of Dubuque, Iowa, who taught at Christendom College's Notre
Dame Graduate School in Alexandria, catechized Daniel and Sara. He
welcomed the pair into the Catholic Church at a private Mass at All
Saints Church in Manassas on July 13, 1998.
Making the jump from a faith that, in varying degrees, denies the
existence of free will in favor of blind obedience to a harsh God,
to one that believes in a loving Triune God who respects human choice,
wasn't the hardest part of conversion, according to Ali.
"Living the doctrine is another thing," he said. "To pray for your
enemy, to turn the other cheek and to have humility were the hardest.
The hardest thing to let go of from Islam was pride."
Ali's family, while tolerant of his choice because they knew he
"didn't take sides easily," didn't take his conversion very well. But
Ali said he still speaks to his parents every day, and three of his
siblings are now Christian.
He takes every opportunity to share his faith with Muslims, and
educate Christians about Islam, even if those attempts at dialogue
lead to rejection.
"When you call yourself Christian, you must evangelize," he said. "If
we do not personify the life of the Trinity in our life, we cease to
be Christians."
>From 2001-03, Ali organized and ran the Christian Islamic Forum in
an effort to promote dialogue between the two faiths. In 2003, he
co-authored Inside Islam: A Guide for Catholics, a primer on Islam in
question and answer format. And this past March, he published his first
solo book, Out of Islam, Free at Last, the story of his own conversion
and an argument for Christianity from an Islamic perspective.
Eventually, Ali would like to earn a doctorate in theology. In
the meantime, he continues to reach out to Muslims and encourage
Christians to do the same, noting that he was never openly evangelized
by a Christian during his own conversion.
"Everyone says Muslims are difficult to convert. ... When was the
last time you tried? Don't be afraid - go and make disciples of
all nations," he said. "Christ will not care about how many times
you fall."
Stephanie Tracy can be reached at [email protected]
By Stephanie Tracy - HERALD Editorial Assistant
Arlington Catholic Herald, VA
July 18 2007
Daniel Ali spent a large part of his adult life living under the
threat of torture and death. For 17 years, he fought against the
oppression of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
He survived bombings, torture, eight imprisonments, and the March
1988 chemical attacks on the Kurdish city of Halabja, regarded as
the largest modern chemical weapons attack on a civilian population.
In the midst of such turmoil, the intellectual Muslim Kurd embarked
on a journey that brought him to the Catholic Church.
Growing up, Ali's family was surrounded by the diversity of religions
and cultures typical in Kurdistan. A neighbor's son, a priest of
the Armenian Church, gave the 7-year-old Ali a book about the early
Christian martyrs, which he devoured.
"I loved that book. It struck me as odd," said Ali, 48, a parishioner
at St. John Neumann Church in Reston. "These guys didn't fight. These
guys did not shed anybody's blood. ... They went voluntarily, willing
to suffer and they did not denounce the faith. ... That was in stark
contrast to what I read about my own faith, the martyrs, that they
were heroes on the battlefield, were killed in the process of killing."
Ali studied the Quran better than most. His study of the Muslim holy
book and the tradition of Mohammed, the Hadith, however, piqued his
interest in Jesus.
"I did not have a reason to doubt my faith. I had every reason to
love it," he said. "This was the faith of my father and my father's
father. ... (But) this Jesus in the Quran is a very unique individual."
Ali said he was intrigued by passages that contradicted the Muslim
assertion that Jesus was only a man and not divine. He couldn't
understand how Jesus could be present on earth while, in other
passages, He was said to be watching over the world. And he wondered
why the Quran said Jesus would come at the end of the world if Muslims
believed Mohammed was the last prophet.
By 15, Ali was reading the works of St. Thomas Aquinas and St.
Augustine. By 1982, he had intellectually rejected the faith of
his family.
After working as a linguist for the U.S. military during the Gulf
War, Ali met and married his American Christian wife, Sara, who was
surprised that he did not want her to convert to Islam. Ali confessed
he no longer believed in the faith of his fathers, but he also insisted
he would not convert to Christianity.
The Alis moved to the United States in 1993, and through Sara's
influence and that of other friends, Daniel was baptized Sept. 17,
1995, in Sara's non-denominational Christian church.
Attracted by the coherency of the Scriptures, in contrast to the Quran,
Ali began his daily habit of spending up to eight hours studying
the Bible. But it was a televised Mass that brought the Alis to the
doorstep of Catholicism.
"Sara was watching EWTN, and I was watching, too, and we saw the
priest elevating the Host," said Ali, wiping away tears. "That
speaks volumes. Even if this Jesus is not there, just to put that
much reverence into elevating Him was enough."
A Catholic neighbor who attended the Alis' non-denominational Bible
study also intrigued them, and put them in touch with the late Father
William Most.
For more than two years, Father Most, a retired priest from the
Diocese of Dubuque, Iowa, who taught at Christendom College's Notre
Dame Graduate School in Alexandria, catechized Daniel and Sara. He
welcomed the pair into the Catholic Church at a private Mass at All
Saints Church in Manassas on July 13, 1998.
Making the jump from a faith that, in varying degrees, denies the
existence of free will in favor of blind obedience to a harsh God,
to one that believes in a loving Triune God who respects human choice,
wasn't the hardest part of conversion, according to Ali.
"Living the doctrine is another thing," he said. "To pray for your
enemy, to turn the other cheek and to have humility were the hardest.
The hardest thing to let go of from Islam was pride."
Ali's family, while tolerant of his choice because they knew he
"didn't take sides easily," didn't take his conversion very well. But
Ali said he still speaks to his parents every day, and three of his
siblings are now Christian.
He takes every opportunity to share his faith with Muslims, and
educate Christians about Islam, even if those attempts at dialogue
lead to rejection.
"When you call yourself Christian, you must evangelize," he said. "If
we do not personify the life of the Trinity in our life, we cease to
be Christians."
>From 2001-03, Ali organized and ran the Christian Islamic Forum in
an effort to promote dialogue between the two faiths. In 2003, he
co-authored Inside Islam: A Guide for Catholics, a primer on Islam in
question and answer format. And this past March, he published his first
solo book, Out of Islam, Free at Last, the story of his own conversion
and an argument for Christianity from an Islamic perspective.
Eventually, Ali would like to earn a doctorate in theology. In
the meantime, he continues to reach out to Muslims and encourage
Christians to do the same, noting that he was never openly evangelized
by a Christian during his own conversion.
"Everyone says Muslims are difficult to convert. ... When was the
last time you tried? Don't be afraid - go and make disciples of
all nations," he said. "Christ will not care about how many times
you fall."
Stephanie Tracy can be reached at [email protected]