Lauren Booth – A Message For Christians And Secularists

			Salam aleikum. Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh. I was born in London to parents who had lost their face,
they were 1960s people in a famous circle of friends. And so they had lost their face. So I became a
kind of celebrity in my late 20s.
		

			Mostly because my brother in law was the Prime Minister. But I certainly made the most of my moments
of attention. And it becomes very, very toxic, very addictive. Celebrity is addictive, wants people
that are looking at you, and admiring you, and wanting you to come to give you things, alright
celebrities a lot about being given stuff, you get free clothes, you can get a free car and get free
holiday. And then and then you get lots of free attention. But I was getting myself into situations
which were ugly, with people who are in a very low moral state, which to be honest, their feign was
this high, the moral state was in the gutter. Really, really, you know, degrading circumstances for
		

			the human being to be in. But it looks great on the front cover of a magazine. So there's this big
disparity that I started to notice. And may Allah forgive me, I was very selfish. I was a selfish
human being. Because I was so involved in my own drama, the drama of life. Allah is great. And He
knows our condition. And we have to be we have to be, we have to get out of our old habits to some
degree. You know, and I had to be deprogrammed. I had to have my rough edges cut off, you know,
knocked off me before I was humble enough to say Leila Hill Allah Muhammad Rasul Allah, which is the
Shahada. I believe in the Oneness of Allah. And I believe the Prophet Muhammad isn't last and final
		

			prophet. I had a very traumatic time. In 2009, my family had a traumatic time.
		

			I didn't know what to do.
		

			And it got to the stage when I was in a rented flat, which I couldn't afford, back in London with no
car with a court case, trying to take my children away from me, when I put my head to the ground,
and I said, a lot, just my children.
		

			Because I understand that life is not about money anymore. It wasn't about the swimming pool. It
wasn't about the great job.
		

			Just my kids, let me learn about life and just my kids. And I said sorry to God.
		

			And I sat down in the mosque, and it felt as if I was under a waterfall of peace, a waterfall of
peace. If you can imagine all the tension of that year I was starting to have like feelings of a
heart attack. You know, that whole year, you know, when you're so under pressure, they talk about
stress, I thought I was gonna die from a heart attack. And at that moment in that mosque,
		

			everything just went and I knew I knew the universe was peaceful.
		

			And I knew that everything was going to be okay Subhan Allah
		

			and I said there is no God Allah alone and without partners. The Prophet Muhammad was the last and
final messenger and suddenly Friday night I was also low equity
		

			what's interesting, you know what people
		

			so I worked in the mainstream media right I worked for right wing newspapers as a left winger, I'm
I'm a liberal. I don't even know what that means anymore as a Muslim. But anyway, you know, I wasn't
right wing. I was considered myself a liberal. And
		

			working I worked in the mainstream of newspapers. And was there anything and so as soon as I came to
Islam, there's only two things that the right wing media can write. If someone who is saying because
I clearly wasn't mad, if someone who is from them. I had a page in the newspaper in the in the Mail
on Sunday, I was a regular columnist. I was on TV on Sky News regularly, suddenly turns up in a head
job. It's like, okay, two options.
		

			She can't cope with life, or she's having a midlife crisis. Because if it's not one of those two,
then maybe there's a God. And maybe that God, the One God calls himself Allah,
		

			and they can't do that. So I got treated immediately, like a written about you get written about as
if there was something missing. You were at a loss, you couldn't cope. So here's the crutch of a
faith that you don't understand. There you go. I mean, this rhetoric really is far
		

			Right rhetoric. I had a nice life I had good parts and had difficult and fun parts. I wasn't looking
for faith. Faith by the Grace of Allah came to me. When you when you study Islam, when you live a
Muslim life when you speak to a lie every day, everything makes sense. You will know why you're
here, where you go to next, and how to make things better.