"I grew up in a culture of jihad and martyrdom," says Nonie Darwish, the founder of Former Muslims United. Although born in Cairo, she spent her childhood in the Gaza Strip because her father, Colonel Mustafa Hafez, headed Egypt's military intelligence there. (Egypt controlled Gaza until 1967.)

Her life changed dramatically at only eight-years-old when her father was killed by an explosive device planted in a book by a double-agent working for Israeli intelligence.

After her father's assassination, her mother moved the family back to Cairo. She lived there during a turbulent period, which included the 1967 and 1973 wars with Israel. "In school, we recited poetry wishing ourselves to be martyrs in the jihad against Israel," she recalls.

In the mosque, messages were filled with the call to jihad. She heard curses at the end of every service against infidels, Jews, and non-Muslims. "I bought all the propaganda like everybody else," she notes. "I really believed it as a child."

Her mother sent her to a Catholic school run by British nuns, because many of the elite in Egypt considered this a superior option for their children's education. After that, she attended the America University in Cairo. "I was lucky to get a western education," Darwish says. "It was a liberating experience."

As a young woman she wondered about her lack of feeling toward Islam. "I didn't like Islam, but I thought something was wrong with me," she says. She began to wonder, Why don't I want to pray like devout Muslims? Am I an atheist?

Move to the United States

In 1978 Darwish moved to the U.S. She still considered herself a Muslim and went to visit a mosque. She was disconcerted when the imam said, "We're here to Islamize America" and "wear your hijab with pride." Since Darwish never wore the hijab in Egypt, she wondered why she would begin to wear it in America. After she attended the mosque twice, she never returned.

For the first 17 years she lived in the U.S., she lived without any religious feeling or expression. At the suggestion of a friend, she visited a Unitarian church in Los Angeles. Darwish thought it was "very political," with a lot of complaining about America. In that sense, "it was not very different from Islam," she found. If this is church in America, I don't want to go, Darwish decided.

She followed her mother's example, and placed her children in a Christian school. "I wanted them to have a good education like I had in Egypt," she says.

One day her son came to her and said, "Why don't you come to church? I want you to go to Heaven." Based on her previous experience in church, she declined.

But later she happened to watch a Christian television program and was very touched by the message…

Click Here to read about the startling message Nonie Darwish heard that brought her to Christ, and how she eventually launched two important organizations that are bringing the Truth and light to Muslims who are seeking it.

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