I had to go look and see what it was about

From Jihad to Jesus
As told to Heather Johnson
from Outreach magazine, November/December 2006

Hatred brewed in me that day at a military front in Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War. It was 1975, I was 17 years old, and I bore arms in my jihad to defend our people against the Christian infidels. Nearby, I heard church bells signaling Christians to worship and was incensed. From my bunker, I could see the man who was tolling the bell a few hundred feet away from me. Without hesitation, I took my sniper rifle with a long scope and aimed it at him. I thought, Allah must be smiling on me. After a deep breath, I had his head in my crosshairs and fired.

Instead of seeing him drop to the floor, I saw the bullet miss his head only by a few inches as he ducked with the pull of the bell. I screeched in disgust! Maybe Allah wasn't smiling on me, after all.

During my time as a militia fighter, I saw the darkness in my own soul and learned firsthand that there was nothing redeeming about humanity. Finally, I wanted out of the vicious cycle of hatred and blood. I had always dreamed of going to America, and my mother was able to procure a doctor's letter stating that I needed to leave the country for Cyprus for a few weeks in order to have eye surgery. I did not need the surgery, but it was an excuse to get me out of the country and eventually immigrate to Houston, away from the specter of death.

There, I met my wife. We were married six months after meeting, but she would only marry me on one condition—that I go to church with her. I agreed, for I knew that the Bible was false, but I didn't know why. Studying the Bible would enable me to intelligently articulate why the Bible was in error.

Over the next two years, we went to church and I studied the Bible cover to cover. Unbeknownst to me, I had begun a new kind of war—a battle for the survival of my soul. After spending time with people from Sunday school, I saw something different about them—unconditional love, joy, peace and compassion. I later became intellectually convinced that Jesus is the Son of God.

One Sunday at church, my pastor, Dr. Ed Young [of Second Baptist Church], gave the invitation for people to accept Christ into their hearts. I silently cried out to God, If Jesus is really Your son, then send me a physical sign. A few minutes later, as we were leaving this 16,000-member church, I heard someone running behind me in the parking lot saying, "Welcome, welcome!" I turned around and Dr. Young took me by the arm, and as I looked into his eyes, I truly understood the name of Ishmael, which in Hebrew means, "God hears." I knew that He had answered my prayers, and I finally believed that surely Jesus is God's Son. The next Sunday, I, an ex-Muslim militiaman, left this baggage of hatred behind and walked down the aisle of the church to accept Jesus.

Islam uses 99 names for God, but not one of them is "Love" or "Father"; it also adopted 70% of the Quran from the Bible, yet omitted God's love and grace. However, the Bible, which I had studied for two years in order to dispute its message, convicted me of my sin and convinced me that God is not a God of hate, but of love.

God loves Muslims too, and He wants them to intimately know Him as a heavenly Father—that's what I want people to know. At the cross, with every blow, every pounding of the nails, every breath and every tear, God was telling Muslims too, "I love you." God can take a Muslim full of hatred and fill him with this love of God. By the power of His grace, He turns wolves into lambs, blasphemers into worshippers, and idolaters into believers.

Jerry Rassamni, an ex-militant Muslim, recalls the violence of his youth and marvels at the God who saved him from certain death. In his book, From Jihad to Jesus (AMG), Rassamni combines his compelling salvation narrative with researched inquiries into five arguments that unveil holes in Muslim ideologies. Rassamni's "5 Exposition Pillars" methodically and systematically uncover the truth that Jesus Christ is the only path to God for Muslims and Christians alike. Since converting to Christianity, he has traveled around the country sharing his story of a man filled with hatred, who was saved by the consuming love of God (fromjihadtojesus.com).

It was interesting to hear him speak here: