MSA hosts Irish Muslim convert

By Cindy Dinh     3/12/09 7:00pm

If she were not wearing her hijab, most passersby might not notice that Fidelma O'Leary was a devout Muslim. O'Leary, who teaches neuroscience at St. Edward's Universtiy in Austin, spoke on campus last Tuesday, not about the intricacies of neurons, but about religion and her struggle as a converted Muslim. The lecture, entitled "A Muslim Woman's Jihad," is the first in the Islamica series sponsored by the Muslim Student Association.

O'Leary, who was born and raised as a Catholic in Ireland, converted to Islam when she was 16. At that time, she knew nothing about the Islamic faith except what was in the Koran, the Islamic holy book, which she received as a gift from a friend. After reading the Koran, O'Leary said she realized her true beliefs were confirmed in Islam rather than in Christianity.

"I never thought I changed my religion," O'Leary said. "I evolved my religion. .I never doubted God's existence - only the practice is different."

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She said the source and value system of the Abrahamic religions is the same, but praying to the Almighty was her deciding factor.

"I spent about three to four months thinking, 'Who is Jesus?'" O'Leary said. "Jesus himself prayed to a higher power, and that spoke to me."

What attracted her to the faith was the concept of one god, with one message and one human family, as well as the notion of equality in that all people and prophets were held equal, she said.

"In Islam there's no concept of one being born of higher rank, no ticket to heaven," she said. "We all start out equal to one another. .Only our piety can distinguish ourselves from one another."

O'Leary said she had no doubts about converting, despite her parents' attempts to intervene and change her decision.

"This was my first jihad," she said. "I wanted to honor and respect my parents, but also honor my own faith."

After she converted, O'Leary lived for a year and a half in Ireland before moving to the United States. During her time in Ireland, she said she knew no other Muslims in her community and felt there was no one who could relate to her struggles. O'Leary said the most difficult practices to adapt to were fasting during the sacred month of Ramadan and performing the five daily prayers.

"I didn't have a Muslim family to support me or a Muslim community to understand me," she said. "I only had the book to learn from God's revealed message rather than other people who are not perfect."

For Wiess College junior Zafir Khan, a board member of the Muslim Student Association, O'Leary's conversion to the Islamic faith was inspiring.

"She had these innate beliefs that were confirmed when she found the Koran," Khan said.

O'Leary's faith in the Islamic religion was strengthened when she traveled to Saudi Arabia in 2003 for the hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca. She left her teenage children behind and made her pilgrimage despite the international tensions brewing at that time.

"Nothing could stop me, not war, nothing," she said. "The only thing I feared was my creator."

While there, O'Leary said she had an intense reflective experience where she came to know her sins, weaknesses and vulnerabilities and felt it served as a guideline to improve oneself.

"I encourage Muslims to go on hajj as soon as they can, to better understand oneself," she said. "It still takes an ongoing, strong, persistent jihad to weave the practice and context of God in my daily life."

Khan said the Islamica series is intended to bring Muslims on campus together and to also let non-Muslims learn more about the religion in a casual environment.

"On a campus that's largely non-Muslim, it's our duty to spread the message of Islam and let people find out about it," Khan said.

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