A Daughter of the Islamic Revolution Discovers Christ -INPERSON INTERVIEW

Only nominally religious, she was invited by an enthusiastic teacher to join religion classes after school. She became a devout Muslim. She could not have imagined herself as a Catholic. Now, she and her husband, Greg, run an apostolate selling Catholic books and tapes.

Aghi, who lives in London, spoke with Register correspondent Joanna Bogle about her conversion.

The Islamic Revolution banished the Shah and the Royal Family and instituted a new fundamentalist regime under the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran in the 1970s — and you were living through that?

Yes — suddenly everything changed. All young people believed it was a great new beginning: I still have my passport, marked with its special stamp stating that I voted for the Islamic Revolution. There was fervor everywhere. Teams of young men, calling themselves Guardians of the Revolution, patrolled the streets, arresting women they said were improperly dressed or others deemed to be infringing Islamic law.

It seemed as though the answers to life’s questions had arrived. The world belonged to Islam. It’s impossible to explain adequately just how total is its message. Islam rules how you think and how life should be, for individuals and for the community. I felt the whole world must fall to Islam, and then everyone would be happy and at peace. It didn’t seem possible that there was any other way of looking at things.

After I left school I had the chance of continuing my studies in America, and my uncle invited me to travel there with his family. First we went to England, and my uncle arranged for me to stay at a Catholic students’ hostel in London. I was wearing my Islamic headscarf when I arrived and met the priest in charge, Father Hugh Thwaites. Looking back, I laugh now — I was convinced I’d convert him to Islam. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind — I knew that the rest of the world must fall to it and submit.

Well, Father Thwaites — he would later be spiritual director to my family and a big part of our lives — lent me a New Testament in my own Farsi language, the Persian language.

I was 18; I thought I knew everything. I had my ritual prayers and assumed that God was part of that and there was nothing more I could know. But I had never encountered Christ. No one had told me about him, about the things he taught, about what he had done. I was amazed. I was shattered. How did this extraordinary person exist, and how had I been kept in ignorance about him?

For people who have been brought up Catholic, and been introduced to Jesus Christ from early childhood, it is difficult to understand how extraordinary, how magnificent, he is. I had simply been taught to regard Christians as people who were beneath contempt, people who were not part of Islam. But I had never met Christ, and when I did, it completely shattered my worldview.

The totality of Islam had blocked this out until then. Now I had to re-think everything. It was like being turned inside-out.

Things happened gradually. Because of difficulties obtaining my visa to America, I remained in London and began my studies — and through the Catholic students I started attending meetings of the Legion of Mary. They had talks on different aspects of the Catholic Faith, and these were very interesting. I just sat and listened. I also told myself I must read the Koran properly. I had never actually done this before.

I was amazed at how dull it seemed after the New Testament, which had been such a compelling read. The Koran seemed very prescriptive, and when compared to the Bible quite lightweight. I didn’t find the answers I was seeking. I found it lifeless.

Things that Catholics take for granted, like the Sacred Heart — Christ’s heart, loving us, open to us — were a revelation. There is this warmth in the relationship with God, this immediacy.

I had met Greg — he was a fellow student at the hostel, a devout and believing Catholic. A chaste, kind, intelligent person. We talked a great deal about religion. Our friendship was growing.

But before we made any decision about the future — marriage, a whole new chapter — I wanted to talk to my family.

They were not happy about my marrying and living so far away. I returned to London still uncertain about what to do. But I did know that I wanted to become a Christian. So I was received into the Church early in 1980.

Then suddenly the borders were closed and I discovered that, for the foreseeable future, I could not go home again. It was a difficult time. The decision to marry Greg had to be taken alone. He is West Indian, his family comes from the island of St. Lucia, and has a strong Catholic tradition — his brother Linus is a priest. We decided to marry, and this would be a Catholic marriage and we would raise a Catholic family together.

Under Islam, to be a Christian is to be the lowest of the low — it is described as worse than being a dog, which is a terrible expression in Islam. Converting to Christianity is virtually unthinkable.

The whole understanding of God is different. In Islam, the idea that God is your father, that we are his children, that we can love him, and that he loves us, in a truly personal way, is considered somehow disgusting, dreadful. The devout Muslim would say, “How dare you say that?” The very idea is shocking.

I loved my family and I missed them, especially my mother, very much in the first years of my marriage. It was sad that she was not there when my first child was born.

As the years went by, and the political situation eased a bit, I was able to go back and see my family, and since then there have been several visits back and forth. I’m on good terms with my mother and my sister.

You have a big family — 10 children — and a busy life. And just recently you’ve started to give some talks about Islam and about your conversion.

It wasn’t a special decision to do that. I’m quite a shy person, and I have plenty to do at home. But the children are growing up; our second eldest is married and has a child of his own, and our youngest is now at school. I have a bit more time. I have started a course in business studies, partly to help with our work in selling pro-life and Catholic tapes and other materials. And I’ve agreed to give some talks to Catholic groups. It began with just one, a Catholic women’s group meeting, and then gradually there were more.

I want to tell people about the Catholic Faith. I want to show what it means to be a Catholic — to know Christ and to be part of his Church, to have this joy. And raising a big family means we have learned something about parenthood, about how crucial it is to pass on the faith and values to your children. So we’d like to help and encourage young Catholic families in doing that.

2 posted on 04/04/2006 1:48:09 PM PDT by NYer (Discover the beauty of the Eastern Catholic Churches - freepmail me for more information.)

For people who have been brought up Catholic, and been introduced to Jesus Christ from early childhood, it is difficult to understand how extraordinary, how magnificent, he is.

Amen to this. I had to become an almost-agnostic before I realized it. After that, coming back the Church was the only possible course of action.

3 posted on 04/04/2006 1:53:41 PM PDT by Antoninus (I don't vote for liberals regardless of their party affiliation.)

Father Hugh S. Thwaites, S.J., though he had been planning to enter the Anglican ministry, joined the army in 1939 when war broke out and was sent to France. He left Paris in June 1940, two days before the Germans entered the city. In December 1941, on a troopship in the Indian Ocean, he was received into the Catholic Church. Taken prisoner in the fall of Singapore, he spent 3 years in Japanese prison camps. After the war he became a Jesuit. Since his ordination in 1954 he has worked with students and young people of ethnic minorities in London

Is this the same Joanna Bogle who wrote "A Book of Feasts and Seasons"? If so, she was on EWTN with Fr. Mitch around Christmas time, as she was taping a new show to be shown next Advent on cooking. She was absolutely delightful and with a great personality! Really funny and spoke in wonderfully descriptive "English-isms." I'm looking forward to her series next fall!

What an amazing story! Thank you for posting it. That certainly adds so much to this conversion story. May our Lord richly bless and reward Fr. Thwaites.

8 posted on 04/04/2006 6:49:07 PM PDT by NYer (Discover the beauty of the Eastern Catholic Churches - freepmail me for more information.)

Heartwarming story.

Well, Father Thwaites... lent me a New Testament in my own Farsi language, the Persian language... I had never encountered Christ. No one had told me about him, about the things he taught, about what he had done. I was amazed. I was shattered. How did this extraordinary person exist, and how had I been kept in ignorance about him?

This is why God gave us the internet. Arabic New Testament (searchable)

10 posted on 04/05/2006 5:24:41 AM PDT by Aquinasfan (When you find "Sola Scriptura" in the Bible, let me know)

I hope she stays safe, she's very outspoken.

The love of Christ outways everthing though and she is a true role model for where Christ belongs in every heart.

12 posted on 04/05/2006 5:48:13 PM PDT by Coleus (Roe v. Wade and Endangered Species Act both passed in 1973, Murder Babies/save trees, birds, algae)

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