Asalamu Alaikum my brothers and sisters in Islam, this is my reversion story

My name is Abbas Al Ridha I live in Oxnard California in the United States and I am 14 years old. 

My entire family is Catholic and therefore I was raised to be Catholic I went to Catholic church on Sundays and was always surrounded by Catholic pictures in my house. It was about middle school when I began wondering about religion and what my beliefs really were. 

I never really considered myself a Christian and I did not really believe in the same ways as my family. I had no clue about anything to do with Islam and certainly never thought of ever reverting to Islam.

Then everything suddenly changed the views of my family and my awareness of the world.  I woke up one morning getting ready for school when I found my mother sitting in front of the tv grieving. I asked her what was wrong and then looked at the TV. it showed the sight of the twin towers in flames and crumbling down, I did not know what was going on, who did this, or why my mother was grieving so much. I simply went to school and forgot the matter. While at school I heard teachers talking about the twin towers and the news seemed to be everywhere. Even while this was happening I never understood what happened or why it was such a big deal. My Mom only told me "some very,very evil people have done this" and it was left at that. 

A few years later I remembered back when America first invaded  Iraq and all the war that came with this invasion. I had little clue as to why they invaded Iraq but it had me curious. Finally in my first year of middle school I learned that the people who destroyed the twin towers were Muslims "terrorists" they called them and they were from the Middle East and I was told that was who we were fighting. I (being a teenager) loved warlike things and videogames about war so I began to look into it. I saw pictures on websites of more "terrorists" I read articles on these websites, which were saying terrible, terrible things about the religion of Islam and the people of Islam and just everything about the Middle East. I even watched beheading videos, this was a very confused and disturbing point in my life. My mind was transformed I felt I was brainwashed I thought terrible things about Muslims. I thought they were all terrorists and my parents never corrected me because they thought so too and they didn't like them at all. 

During the same year my grandfather passed away, aged 72, someone who was very close to me, I was heartbroken and I was in a terrible depression. At that point I cared nothing about the world. I began listening to morbid music and even drew devilish pictures I was a very depressed and confused person and my parents really didn't like this period of my life they took away the CDs and the drawings but it never changed my feelings. 

By the end of my middle school years this point ended and I was no longer depressed. I didn't like the whole satanist stuff anymore I realized it was just a phase. I really had no faith at all and I was still confused, and my mind still terribly brainwashed into thinking the worst about Muslims. 

I began to look at Muslims and the Middle East again. I read terrible propaganda about them but for some reason something drew me towards them and I did not accept all the things I was reading. I  delved deeper and deeper through the bad articles and false claims and eventually  I broke through it all and found something completely different....

 It was the truth

It was the real story the real pictures and I exploded inside myself I learned EVERYTHING I learned how the religion and most of the people of Islam are beautiful peaceful people. I learned how Osama Bin Laden and 911 made all the Muslims look bad and how all those terrible designations were WRONG! I thought to myself HOW COULD I HAVE THOUGHT THESE LIES and HOW COULD I BE SO IGNORANT AND MISLEAD?? 

I changed deeply and this was a total change. I now loved the people of Islam and the Middle East and I supported Muslims. I knew everything about politics over in the Middle East and also about the people living there. I continued to study and I felt very confident about my knowledge of politics when concerning the Middle East and I was now much more aware of what was going on in the world.

Even in this stage of affection for the people and lands of Islam I knew very little of the religion of Islam. It wasn't until I started high school that I learned about the religion of Islam and what being a Muslim was all about. 

Although I was turning the right path and I completely broke through the truly evil lies about Muslims around America my parents did not see my point of view. My parents continued their beliefs and their strong hold on Catholicism. They were very agitated, disappointed to see that I was looking into Islam and matters pertaining to politics in the Middle East. They would constantly question me and scold me for my new-found interests in Islam and they would only repeat the same lies that I first believed, that many believe before investigating Islam for themselves.  My parents even went as far as to think I may be a follower of Osama Bin Laden (al qaeda)  All this upset because I wanted to learn more about Islam.

I studied hard though and I stayed up all night learning and learning and learning about Islam and how Muslims live I knew how they prayed and how much they prayed and I learned about places that were  important to Muslims, I learned as much as I possibly could. I eventually set a goal for myself, I was going to become a Muslim. I was in love with Islam, I cared so much for Allah(swt). I had now realized Him, recognized Him. During this stage of true understanding of Islam I soon brought my parents better knowledge of the truth about Muslims and Islam. They now new more of the truth, I gave them the right information. They soon calmed down and were less worried about my study into Islam, they stopped struggling with me and they realized how capable I was for learning the truth about Islam and Muslims.

As the days passed by, the weeks, I learned more and more about Islam, about Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and other important Muslims in history. Eventually I learned what I needed to do to become a Muslim, my shahada.   The very next day I decided this was my path, my path to the truth. The night of January 23rd 2010 I stated my shahada and I reverted to Islam. I felt complete, I felt so happy. I have accomplished something I always wished to accomplish - finding the truth, I pushed my way through the evil designations and lies about Muslims all around me. ALL ALONE I learned of Islam and how to live as a Muslim. I am extremely proud of my religion and devoutness to Allah(swt) and I am never going back, I serve Allah(swt) now and only Allah(swt). I am surely his servant and I have no doubts of it. I am also a very devout and proud Shia Muslim due to my love for Ali (as),Hussain (as),and all of the Ahlubayt (as) - I love Shia Islam. 

I am currently studying about it on the Revert Muslims website! So thank you for reading this my brothers and sisters that is my story and I hope that my words inspired you to learn more about Islam.