New Muslims face many obstacles in their journey to Allah, and would you believe, old Muslims can be one of them? What are some of the ways that seasoned Muslims inadvertently turn New Muslims away from the Deen, and how can we avoid them? We talk to Shaykh AND convert Abdullah Oduro about culture, homogeneity, and the reality of American Muslims and their struggles integrating into the existing community.

“A lot of people become Muslim, and still are Muslim, but a lot of them don’t know the basics of their faith. They don’t know how to make wudu. They don’t know Faatiha – they can’t recite Faatiha and they’ve been Muslim for ten, twenty years and have Muslim children.”

Shaykh Abdullah Oduro obtained his degree from the College of Islamic Law from the University of Madinah in 2007. He is also the founder of KnewU,  a non-profit organization for new Muslims. He is currently the Imam of the Islamic Center of Coppell and a research scholar with Yaqeen Institute. He is a native of Ghana and a naturalized Texan.

“Converts and young Muslims, their experiences are very much similar in not knowing the religion, not knowing the first pillar of Islam, not really understanding tawheed. Why do I have to go to Saudi Arabia and go around a black box. What does that even really mean?”

“I remember my mentor, he told me he used to walk around in a thobe with the kohl. The guys in the hood where he used to be there were looking at him like man, what happened to you bro? Why are you wearing a dress and mascara, man? What’s up with that? Why would you convert to a religion that makes you wear a dress and mascara?”