Note from Lyssa Strada... please be sure to check out Stephanie's review of Shirin Ebadi's Iran Awakening, if you haven't already. Just look under Recommended Reading in the right sidebar, or under New Forum Topics on the left sidebar.

Well now. It definitely wasn't where I was headed but life has a habit of throwing gentle turns at me. It's the kind of turn one doesn't notice one is making until one is headed in a completely different direction. Since September 11, 2001 I have been doing a lot of reading and researching about Islam. Being the intellectually curious creature I am, it seemed only natural to gain a better understanding.

In the intervening years I have visited a local mosque and written a short paper about it for a Comparative Religion class, read many books and spoken with Muslims.

Most recently, I spoke with an Iranian woman living in the Iranian community in LA who presented a paper at a history conference I attended at Stanford. Having just read Shirin Ebadi's Iran Awakening (a book that will go on the library shelves just as soon as I can get organized), I felt like I was meant to speak with this woman.

While the time I had with her was very short, it was enthralling. I learned so much and it made me even more curious.

2 conversations happened in the last week that made me come to a realization. I had become the accidental activist for Islam.

The 1st conversation began when I read a column by a conservative OpEd columnist who stated that he hoped he would have the courage to be like the Italian journalist hostage who, rather than reciting the words his captors wanted him to, stood up and tried to rip his hood off as he was shot. This columnist wanted to die like that instead of living by reciting those words as the Fox journalists did. I took him to task for this.

Our conversation was polite, although I confess to calling him pompous, arrogant and disrespectful in my initial email. But as with all ideologues, it became obvious that we would never change the other's mind. What was interesting to me was that no matter how many questions I asked or how many rebuttals (complete with sources) I threw his way, he always wound up quoting bin-Laden and Khomeini about ji-had. He ignored all of my questions and insisted on telling me I was wrong and to prove it, here were quotes from 2 of the most extreme fundamentalists Islam had to offer. I haven't heard from him in several days, so I'm sure he decided I was no longer worth his time.

The 2nd conversation was with my PoliSci instructor who told me she enjoyed reading my commentary in the class forums because I had a lot of good insight. In going back to see what I had written, I realized that nearly all the comments made had to do with Islam and the misperceptions being bandied about.

But yet, it still hadn't come home to me yet. That happened today when I received a very sweet email from my contact at the local mosque whom I had written asking about the open house scheduled for the first weekend of Ramadan. She said she did remember me and was amazed that our meeting 4 years ago had made such an impression upon me.

I had asked for some of her time because I want to know more so I can make better arguments and quote better sources whenever I encounter someone who is insistent upon skipping the 1300 years of history between Mohammed (peace be unto him) and bin-Laden.

So this pagan left-wing liberal feminist made a gentle curving turn into advocating for Islam. Without even noticing.