Elizabeth Choose Islam After Eight Friends Becoming Victims of 11 / 9 Tragedy

He was often called by his birth name, Elizabeth. Although now, he had replaced all his official documents to be Safia Al-Kasaby, his new identity after becoming a Muslim.

News he converted could reap the controversy in the United States. Maklumnya, many things that can not connect why then he dropped the option on the Islamic faith.

Can not connect? Yes. Safia, 43, is Jewish and Puerto Rico. His grandfather is a Holocaust survivor who later escaped to Puerto Rico. They hid in a house of worship.

He is also a former first sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. And, here it is, Safia lost eight relatives - one uncle and seven cousins ​​- in the Sept. 11 attacks that puts Muslims as "suspect" in 2001.

But for Safia, all connect-connect. Precisely after the funeral September 11, he find out about Islam. Confidence in him grew increasingly discredited Islam in the U.S., he feels is wrong there.

"I do not care who did it," he said. "I only care about how Islam suddenly hated. I never hated Islam, or Muslim hate. For me to be angry about what happened to the twin towers would be like me hating all the Germans who killed Jews."

The more he devoured books about Islam, the more he fell in love with the religion which was broadcast by the great man, Muhammad. He was more agitated. Finally arise courage, in 2005 or four years after the tragedy that took his family, he bersyahadat.

Like other Muslims, Safia feels the tension around her: curious stares because she wore a headscarf or veil and shopkeepers who suddenly asked for additional identification every time he went to the shopping center.

Even officials at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo refused the initial request of her future husband, a man from Egypt, for a temporary visa. Safia considered to have other hidden agenda to marry Egyptian men.

New religion has also expanded the gap between him and his family. His mother, three sisters and one daughter, Sylvia, questioned the choice.

Sylvia even want nothing to do with him. Sylvia berated Safia all-out when she appeared in her husband's funeral wearing a headscarf and carrying the Koran.

But he was lucky, another one of his children, Natalia, to support his choice. "Religion is selected mama really cool," he said.

Girl 18 years to appreciate the transformation of beliefs Safia. He often does not hold with those who mock Islam or Muslim stereotypes. "I said, 'Wait a minute. My mother's a Muslim, "he mimicked if she interrupt her colleagues." And he's not a terrorist. "