The activist’s decision was inspired by the Palestinian people’s steadfast commitment to Islam.

The American writer and activist, Jeffery Shaun King, and his wife, Rai King, became Muslims on the first day of the holy month of Ramadan 2024, after delivering a declaration of faith, known as Shahadah, which was posted on the Instagram page Muslimi as well as on King’s official Facebook account. The American couple embraced the new faith under the guidance of US Muslim scholar Omar Suleiman, a friend of King’s for more than a decade.

“Together, we took Shahada and converted to Islam to start off Ramadan. It was a beautiful, powerful, meaningful day for us that we will never forget,” King wrote as he and his wife returned home from evening prayers at a mosque in Dallas, Texas. The American activist added that “we will begin fasting in the morning with over 1 billion Muslims around the world.”

While addressing the crowd, the 44-year-old donned a keffiyeh, a Palestinian head covering, and attributed his decision to the agony, suffering, and trauma that Gaza has endured over the last six months.

“It has touched me in the most profound ways to see people right now in the most dangerous, traumatic place on the planet still be able to sometimes look at nothing but rubble and the remains of their family, and still see meaning and purpose in life,” he remarked.

“Their faith and their devotion to Islam has not only opened my heart but has opened the hearts of millions of people around the world,” said King who has been vocal about his support for Palestine against Israel’s war on besieged Gaza, which has killed at least 31,112 people, mostly children and women, and wounded 72,760 so far.

Since October 7, King regularly shared posts on social media that highlighted the destruction in Gaza and called for an end to Israel’s attacks.

Shaun and Rai King’s Journey Through Islam

In an interview on YouTube, Shaun King shared the story of his wife’s journey through Islam, which marks a significant transition from her lifelong Christian faith.

“People often say like ‘Well Shaun, how did you come to this decision?’ For me more than anything else, it was just the consistent presence of Muslim friends in my life that really caused me to be inquisitive about Islam. It caused me to say how are they like that?

“Two of my best friends in the world are Sheikh Omar Suleiman and sister Linda Sarsour who was an activist in the United States. For the past 10 years they have been two of the most consistent reliable human beings in my universe, so I decided even a few months before I took Shahada, that this is what I wanted to do and so I started speaking to Shaikh Omar and others just to see what this would look like for me.

“When I traveled to Edmonton some brothers gave me copies of the Quran, and let me tell you what happened. A few months before that, in early November, I told my wife that I want to become a Muslim. My wife, who had been a devout Christian her whole life, told me: ‘Shaun, I will never become a Muslim.’ It hurt me a bit, because it made me think if I become a Muslim, it might drive a wedge in my marriage. I’m 44, I’ve been with this woman since I was 15 years old, so I didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize my marriage.

“A few weeks later when I traveled to Edmonton, I shared [it] with some men including a local Imam there in Edmonton and the brother told me something that was so profound. He said: ‘Shaun, do not try to convince your wife to do this, it’s more likely that you will mess it up than anything else. But I do want you to trust that Allah will guide her heart.’

“When I got home from Edmonton, this is in early January, I laid both copies of the Quran on my dresser, not because I was like low key wanting my wife to find them, I just didn’t want them to get bent up in my suitcase, and I was so exhausted from traveling that I went to bed like at 8:00 p.m. When I woke up, almost 12 hours later, my wife had grabbed one of those copies, and through the night she had already read almost half of the Quran and when I woke up my wife said to me something that was so shocking. She said: ‘Shaun, I think we should become Muslims.’

“There’s a powerful lesson there. Like most Americans, most of what my wife knew about Islam, she learned from places that you don’t want to learn about Islam. If what you know about the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, you learned it from the news, if you learned it from movies, if you learned it from social media, it will be misinformation! And my wife, who’s a an intellectual and a voracious reader, the first thing she said to me was: ‘Shaun, the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, is not who I thought he was!’ And she was just moved by his life and his example!

“And also, she thought that to become Muslim, it meant you no longer had any reverence for Jesus, and I think, most Christians think that, and it was actually quite the opposite! And when she saw that to be a Muslim still meant to have nothing but reverence and love for the Prophet Jesus, it changed her. And for the next 6 weeks, she and I were on a really beautiful private Journey to make this big move in our lives.”

Dr Rai King announced in an Instagram post her embrace to Islam, too: “This decision has been years in the making for Shaun and I both and was initiated by the deep kindness of our Muslim friends over the years. I’ve been so moved by the Muslim community’s devotion to living out their faith. So many have loved on and supported us through some of the darkest periods of our life. It has always touched my heart, but eventually made me want to know more about what made them so incredibly kind and loving.

“I said for many years that … I would never convert bc I was raised a Christian and loved the church. Truthfully, I still do and always will… After reading and studying for myself, the pillars of the faith and beliefs of Islam surprised me and I discovered that all people of faith have much more in common than we do apart. I see Islam simply as a way for me to more deeply and intentionally connect with God after so many years of feeling lost in my faith.”

King and his wife currently reside in New York with their five children, two of whom were adopted.

Civil Rights Advocacy

The controversial Black Lives Matter activist, Shaun King was the pastor of Courageous Church in Atlanta, Georgia, from 2008 to 2011 before becoming a full-time advocate for racial justice. For much of the 2010s he was a prominent figure in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Despite the challenges, King devoted his life to promoting social justice causes, particularly through his writing on civil and human rights, race relations, police brutality, mass incarceration, and law enforcement misconduct.

Over the past few months, he has increasingly focused on the Israel-Hamas war, leading fundraising efforts aimed at helping Palestinian families in Gaza and railing in social media posts against the Israeli ground assault that has killed more than 30,000 people.

He is among those who filed suit against Meta, the parent company of Instagram, which King has accused of banning him from the platform because he was “fighting for Palestine.” Instagram banned King’s account, which had over 6 million followers, in December.

“My heart is with my dearest friends in Gaza and I’m proud that we were able to provide meals tonight to thousands and thousands of families from the North to the South in Gaza and will do so every day of Ramadan,” King wrote in a Facebook post announcing his conversion to Islam.

Source: TRT World