From a priest to an Islamic Herald

The pilgrim Rasheed Shai Maktoob, who is the first Muslim in Gryama tribe, is
going to the Holy land (Mecca) to perform the fifth duty (pilgrimage) with help
.of the African Muslims Committee
He used to be Christian who was raised up in Protestant Church till he became
a priest in the God Church , a delegate and Guardian for it the Fitingine
. province since 1938 till he became a Muslim in 1993
The pilgrim Rasheed was one of the most hostile against Muslim people before
.he became a Muslim
But Allah granted him with Islam to change his whole life from being a
Christian priest into an Islamic Herald , Three hundred of the church followers
had become Muslims the day he announced his conversion into Islam, then he
. changed the muddy church he built on his own land into a masjid
Then, Allah granted him again by giving him the chance to go in pilgrimage
which changed his life style for the second time and increased his love to Islam
and to the Calling to Allah. That’s why he devoted himself to the Calling to
.Allah's way
The goal was to redirect his own people to their original religion (Islam), so
directly after his coming back home, he guided more than one hundred
Christian people to the original religion which is Islam and we had this talk with
.him in a celebration for the new people who entered into Islam
?O' pilgrim Rasheed, would you please tell me how did u get into Islam
I used to be a priest in the church in my region and a representative for it there,
my name was George Shai Maktoob and I spent more than fifty years in this
position, I acquainted with everything in the (new testament) including the
stories, the verses and the suras about Jesus Christ and his followers, so I
discovered that the Holy Book (as the Christians consider) was written after the
alleged crucifixion during the one hundred years that followed his death by Paul
and others. Then I discovered through the holy book that the Jesus Christ was
only a prophet, he wasn’t Allah's son or even a god as they always
.say
 The Holy Book pointed that the Jesus Christ didn’t enter into a church at all,
He didn’t even ordered to build it, and He was saying his prayers in the temples
.which were similar to the masjids
I read in the Holy Book that the circumcision isn't one of the Christian
traditions and it isn't allowed for the circumcised person to enter into church
but that was Paul's speech not Jesus Christ's, because Jesus Christ had ordered
!!his people to do the circumcision and he was circumcised too
Then I knew that Islam is the only religion which order people to do the
circumcision, and one of our customs (as Gryama tribe) is to circumcise the boy
.in his newly born
From here I knew that our original religion was Islam , and our correct real
place is the masjid, that’s why I announced my Islam in front of my people , 300
of them followed me in the same day then I changed church building which was
. built on my own land into a masjid
Of course , church didn’t leave me alone , first of all they tried to lure me with
money to leave Islam, then they took all of my privileges including my salary ,
the gifts which were collected from church followers , and the car . But I was
.still insisting on following the monotheistic belief
How did you feel when you got the news of going to pilgrimage and how was -
?your ex-image about that
when I was Christian, I read about prophet Ibrahim and his son Ismail, who
built a building called Kaaba and I thought that this story is historical and not
existed any more, but when I entered into Islam , I knew that going to
. pilgrimage is a duty for any Muslim who could do it
In spite of the fact that I hadn't even thought that I would have the chance to go
to pilgrimage , that’s why it was a great surprise which I haven't expected in my
.lifetime
Some of my sons and relatives tried to prevent me from going there because
they were afraid lest I should die or should not come back but I insisted on
.doing it whatever it costed
 By the way , Gryamas tribe people think that the one who goes to pilgrimage
won't come back because he goes up to the sky directly, that’s why my partner
who was chosen to go to pilgrimage with me didn’t go.My family was crying
when I said farewell to it because no one expected me to come back home safe
and sound.In fact, going to pilgrimage and coming back safely changed the
.mistaken thought about going to pilgrimage in Gryama tribe
?(How did you conceive the Holy Land (Mecca
In fact, I haven't even imagined being in that great crowded place Mecca. I
haven't lived any faithful situations in my lifetime like those days I spent in
.Mecca
Mecca gathered different peoples and nationalities from the whole world, so I
realized that Islam is a religion for the whole world not only for the Arabs like
what a lot of people think..There, I perceived the meaning of (All praises be to
.Allah, the Lord of the worlds ) which we repeat it more than ten times a day
?What was the change which the pilgrimage did to your life
since I became a Muslim I started to believe that Islam is the (religion of truth) .
In the past , I used to use my free time to invite to Allah but after going to
pilgrimage which brought me close to Allah , my belief was doubled, that’s why
.my calling to Islam activities were doubled too
I devoted myself to calling my tribe to come back to their original religion
( Islam ), I started this in my village from which one hundred people became
Muslims directly after coming back from pilgrimage , so the church which they
used to pray in was closed.Before the pilgrimage I was a kind of nurse who used
to heal the wounds and scratches but now I am like a wise doctor who can do
the completed surges.I changed from a simple limited herald to a herald who
wants to get his tribe back to Islam
?How do you expect the future of calling to Islam here in the area
One hundred years ago, Christianity entered into the countries with help of the
explorers and European slaves merchants under the cover of saving the human
being from the slavery and bondage.But Islam reached to the region through
the Arabic Muslim merchants who propagated Islam using their Islamic morals
.hundreds of years ago
The preachers built two churches (the free town) in Mambassa and (Mission
Society) in Rabay or Dr. Craft as they call according to its establisher.The
 preachers resided in two camps in the churches to establish a group of African
Christians.Those events shared in wiping out the Islamic Identity for the
Gryamic person , also people's escape into the inner woods to save their belief
and their lives from the slavery and bondage which was practiced by the
European explorers, in the last years church's activities increased very much
while the Arab s religious activities were decreasing because they took care of
the commerce inside the big cities, that’s why Islamic Identity for the new
generations is wiped out, they were an easy prey for the preachers. Even though
everything in the region is showing that Islam was here in the close past , our
names are Islamic, our customs like circumcision, burial customs, not eating the
. corpses ..etc are Islamic, and we still have the ability to come back to Islam
If Arabs took care of this region and entered into woods , all of the people would
come back to Islam in a very short time , here we only see one single
organization who takes care of the calling to Allah which is African Muslims
Committee with some single movement but the rest of the Islamic organization
pay their interest to the cities.Please , let me take the chance to call all of the
Islamic organizations to give more interest to our people and to send Moslem
promoters inside the woods , I call them from here to build masjids and Islamic
.schoolsto protect them from the retardations and illusions
?What is your wish
I hope to see the day when all of Gryama's people would come back to Islam ,
and I wish that I could fix what I ruined when I was Christian , and I wish that
all of Gryama's people would have the chance to go to pilgrimage because it's
.one of the main reasons of changing