As a girl, Deborah Joy* remembers staring up at the cross and wondering why she needed to go to the confessional. Why do I have to go to this priest when I can speak to Youdirectly? She felt like Jesus impressed on her heart that she could speak to Him freely.

In college, Deborah searched for a church where she might deepen her faith, but never found one that seemed to fit. "I didn't plug into a church, but I kept reading my Bible.

Then she met a young man from Turkey named Mustafa who came over to the U.S. for his master's degree. "I didn't know anything about Islam except what he shared with me. He said because I was a woman of the book I would not have to convert if we got married."

Mustafa gave Deborah an English version of the Quran. "I was still reading my Bible," she recounts. "When I started reading the Quran it was confusing and contradicting. I didn't want anything to do with it."

After dating two years, the couple became engaged. "My parents were not thrilled about me dating this foreigner," she says. They were less than encouraging or hospitable toward Mustafa.

The couple married in Turkey and lived with Mustafa's family for the first few months of their marriage. In contrast to her family, his family was very welcoming.

Her father-in-law, however, was very direct with Deborah about her religious affiliation. After the meal one evening he turned to her and said, "You understand the Quran says you will burn in Hell if you are a Christian."

Night after night they had discussions about faith and he continued to push his point. "I felt pressure from my father-in-law," she recalls. "Finally, I thought I could say the Shahada and go on. But I didn't understand the impact."

The Shahada is the Islamic creed or testimony declaring belief in the oneness of God and Muhammad as God's prophet.

Under duress, Deborah recited the Shahada in front of her father-in-law: "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the prophet of Allah." (Photo: file/Reuters)

Her statement of faith thrilled Mustafa's family. "That's all you have to say to become a Muslim," she notes.

Soon, she felt the weight of increased expectations from his family. "Now I was this American bride who accepted Islam. The whole honor and shame culture increased. I was serving and waiting on them"...

Read what happened next, and how Deborah found Jesus by clicking here.

(*—name changed for security reasons)

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