Cleveland Eid Unity Festival,

Zaynab Abdur-Rahman

I am a 35 year old Muslim revert, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio as the youngest of four children. I have a 15 month young crib midget that has been nothing short of a blessing. I was raped at a young age while in foster care and told I will never be a mother. Well, I loathed in that for years. I began a spiritual search to find myself and regain my mental psyche. While studying Buddhism, I was introduced to Islam by my husband. We studied the Quran day and night. I saw many similarities to the bible (despite what I was raised to believe)...and what do you know! Muslims did in fact believe in Jesus! So, I sought more and more knowledge and fasted my 30 days for Ramadan. And here he was, a blessing in a blood test to confirm that God heard little old me. Now, that I have "found" myself and sought knowledge, started a family, have an excellent career...I want to reach out, back or where ever I can in an attempt to break these religious barriers in an attempt to unify and demystify Islam. My story may not penetrate one heart (and that's perfectly fine). However, the goal is for that heart to have empathy and compassion for one another persons untold story. So, when that heart randomly sits next to me on a flight, or stand in front of me in the store they'll stop and think "there's a real story within the person under that hijab..."