Spanish Brother
Yusuf Fernandez says:
●I understood that Islam was what I had been waiting for a long time. Islam appeared to be in my eyes a strong and clear way of life (not only a religion) without inexplicable mysteries.
●Before Islam, I was a nervous person who did not see the sense of my existence and had a pessimistic view on life and the future. Now, I am a quiet, active, and positive person.
●In Spain, the Dawah perspectives are good although the work in this field is clearly insufficient.
Yusuf Fernandez, another western Muslim brother, narrates the interesting story of his conversion to the beautiful lights of Islam following a long journey along the doctrines and ideologies prevalent in the western world that did not convince or reassure him as for their soundness or goodness. He has been generous enough to write the story of his embracing Islam to tell the magazine readers and all those who are certain about the greatness of this Right Religion.
I was born in 1965 in Asturias, a region in northern Spain, which was claimed to be the cradle of the National-Catholicism, the political and religious doctrine which dominated Spain for five centuries. According to the myths of the old official thought, Muslims, who had come to Spain in A.D. 711 through the Gibraltar Strait and taken over most of the Iberian Peninsula in only seven years, were defeated by the King Pelayo and some few Christian followers in Covadonga, a mountainous stronghold in Asturias. This was said to be the beginning of the Reconquista (the eight-century Christian holy war to conquer the whole Peninsula and eliminate the Muslim states in it). On January 2, 1492, Granada fell, and this date meant the end of the bright Muslim period of Al Andaluos.
After that, Spain was an official Catholic state until the death of the dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. In 1978, the first democratic Constitution was passed, and the first law of religious freedom was also passed two years later.
Due to these historical facts, Asturias was supposed to be a difficult place for people to discover Islam. The Austrian and Spanish identities have been linked to the National-Catholicism for a long time. However, this fact does not mean that the Catholic religion is currently strong in Asturias. The alliance of the Catholic Church with Franco’s military rebellion against the Second Republic with his 40-year - dictatorship has seriously undermined the Church’s credibility. The spreading of Socialism and Communism in Asturias and Spain was another key factor explaining the rapid process of secularism of the Spanish society. Currently, only 20% of Spaniards are practicing Catholics, and more than one million practice other religions.
My family was a traditional Catholic one. One uncle (my father’s brother) is a priest. I was educated in this faith from the first years of my life. However, the environment in which I grew up (friends, school and so on) was highly secularized.
When I was in my early teens, I started to give up Catholic practices, which I considered an increasingly unbearable burden. I quit going to church on Sundays, and my lifestyle became more secularized. I also became member of the Communist Party and Youth.
In the Communist Party, I worked in the international relations field. I started to take part in solidarity campaigns with the Palestinian people. In 1984, I became member of the Association of Friends of the Palestinian People, which was based in Gijon. I began to read more about the history of the Palestinian resistance against the Zionist oppression and became more interested in this issue, especially because I hated to see how the international community allowed the Zionists to carry out their criminal activities without doing anything.
My first contacts with the Arab and Muslim worlds were also my first contacts with Islam. In 1979, when I was 14 years old, I watched on TV the fall of the Shah’s regime and the creation of the Islamic Republic in Iran under the slogan« No East No West » . I admired Iran as a country that did not bow to Western pressure or threats like many other nations in the world. Through the Association of Friendship with Palestine, I was able to get some books on Islamic issues, and I wrote to the embassies of Islamic countries demanding more information. The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran was one of the few ones which answered me. A Spanish Muslim who worked there sent me some books and information about an Islamic association which was mainly made up by Spanish converts.
By reading those books, I understood that Islam was what I had been waiting for a long time. Islam appeared to be in my eyes a strong and clear way of life (not only a religion) without inexplicable mysteries. It was an easy way to reach God, whom I had never been able to communicate with during my period as Catholic.
I phoned my new Muslim friends, and they invited me to visit them in Madrid. I spent some days with them, and I discovered a new way of life with different - and far more attractive - values: generosity, a healthy and happy life, patience, steadfastness, and hospitality. On the second day, my decision was already made: Islam had taken over my heart. On 21 June 1989, two weeks after the death of Imam Khomeini - a figure whose example and thought had inspired me - I made the Shahada in a cafeteria with two Spanish brothers and an exiled Iraqi.
From the beginning, I knew that I would face some difficulties. For example, my links with my friends started to deteriorate because of their way of life, especially drinking alcohol as a way of socializing, was unacceptable for me. Moreover, my conversion to Islam made me a new and weirder person for them. Some of them even thought I had joined a damaging cult.
My family respected my decision especially because they saw many wonderful changes in my new life. I did not drink alcohol, and my behavior and attitude were very positive. Some of my relatives, however, did not like seeing my photo or articles in the newspapers about my life as Muslim and the Islamic associations in which I carried out my activities. Currently, I am secretary of the Muslim Federation of Spain (the second Muslim Federation in the country).
Islam has changed my life for good. Before, I was a nervous person who did not see the sense of my existence and had a pessimistic view on life and the future. Now, I am a quiet, active, and positive person who holds an optimistic view of our life, which is only a small and short piece of existence and the gate to the eternal life that God (Allah) has promised us. Islam has helped increase my happiness in good times and has protected and relieved me as an unshakeable shield in difficult times.
Islam has also taught me a sense of the value of things. Sometimes, when I see people becoming outraged by unimportant petty things, I see clearly that their life is empty and that they have not found the sense of their existence. They keep themselves apart from the true happiness.
About Islamic Dawa, I think that Muslims must use new modern technologies, especially internet, to reach out the general population. Many young people nowadays use the internet as their main source of information. There have to be sites in different languages with attractive contents and clear explanations. Up to now, people who become Muslims in the West need to go through a long and difficult process to get accurate information on Islamic issues. Most of them only find negative and false things, which the enemies of Islam continue to spread.
In 2003, my Islamic Association held the first conference of Spanish- speaking Muslims, which many Muslims from countries such as Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Argentine, Colombia, and Panama attended.
The Dawah work in Latin America is much easier than in Europe due to the openness and character of the peoples of these countries, whose importance is always increasing. In this sense, I propose that Islamic sites in Spanish language be supported and more Dawah workers be sent to this continent.
In Spain, the Dawah perspectives are good although the work in this field is clearly insufficient. Unfortunately, some Muslims still stick to the wrong approach of« only-Mosques » and are ready to give funds to build mosques, but they do not support other tools that are even more important to reach out the non-Muslim population (media, cultural centers etc). Up to now, there is not a Muslim - written - newspaper in Spain.