Professional Documents
Culture Documents
"And remember Allah's blessing upon you when you were enemies,
and He brought your hearts together, so that by His blessing you
became brothers." Quran 3:103 Interpretation of Meaning
Islam - submission to the will of Allah. I converted to Islam because there came
a time when both my mind and my heart accepted that there was no god but
Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala and that Muhammad (salla Allahu 'alayhi wa
sallam) was His Messenger. All that I had believed and upheld before this
conversion is at worst wrong, and at best irrelevant. My duty now, the purpose
of my life, is to submit to the will of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala - to live,
InshaAllah, as a Muslim in the way that Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala has
decreed, through His Prophet and Messenger, Muhammad (salla Allahu 'alayhi
wa sallam). One of the many wonderful things which occurred on the day I
converted was when the Imaam of the Mosque explained that by accepting
Islam I had begun a new life - Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala had forgiven me my
past, and it was as if I started my life again with my Book of Life, the record of
my deeds, empty.
"It is not for the believer - man or woman - when Allah and His
Messenger have decreed a matter, that they should have any option
1 of 15
David Myatt: From Neo-Nazi to Muslim
in their decision. For whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has
indeed strayed into plain error." 33:36 Interpretation of Meaning
Thus did I acquire a new life, a new identity - for I am a Muslim, and all
Muslims are my brothers, wherever they happen to live, and whatever race
they are said to belong to. How was it that I, a Westerner with a history of over
twenty-five years of political involvement in extreme "right-wing" organizations
- a former leader of the political wing of the neo-Nazi group Combat 18 - came
to be standing one Sunday outside a Mosque with a sincere desire to go inside
and convert to Islam? The simple answer is that it was the guidance of Allah
Subhanahu wa Ta'ala - He guided me there. As for my political past, it belongs
to the past. All I can and should do, as a Muslim, is to trust in Allah Subhanahu
wa Ta'ala, The Most Merciful, He Who Often Forgives.
In terms of the 'Western' explanation that most Westerners will seek in order
to try and understand my conversion, I suppose my journey toward Islam
began when I first went to Egypt - over ten years before my reversion to Islam -
and, as a tourist, visited a Mosque. The Adhan - the call to prayer - had begun
and I was struck by its beauty. It is fair to say my heart responded to it in a
way that, at the time, I did not understand. Then, I knew little about Islam, and
at that time I did not investigate it further, returning to my life in England,
and my political activities. Yet something of that moment of beauty stayed
with me, in the months after my visit - as did the image of the Sun rising in
Cairo over the minaret, the dome, of a Mosque as I cycled along the dusty road
from the airport toward the city, heading for the desert.
Less than a year later, I returned to Cairo with my wife. We spent two weeks
travelling, visiting the usual tourist sites - but it was "Islamic" Cairo that we
both enjoyed the most, and we spent several days wandering around there, she
suitably and modestly attired (in a garment she had made herself) and I with
my Tweed cap, long baggy trousers and rather bushy red beard. Everywhere
we were greeted with friendliness, and I was in some ways sad to leave,
although I did not know then why I felt sad. I did not at that time make any
connection between the way I felt, and Islam, even though I once had spent an
hour or so outside a Mosque waiting to hear the Adhan again and even though,
while browsing in a bookshop in Cairo, I had bought a copy of an English
interpretation of the Quran. I just felt, vaguely, that I wanted to know more
about the people and what I considered was their culture. My wife (who did
not share my political views) and I even took to eating, while there, with only
our right hands so as not to give offence, for, like her, I considered that
manners were important, and - unlike her - part of being English, as if the
2 of 15
David Myatt: From Neo-Nazi to Muslim
The next year, we returned to Egypt again, as we returned the year after that,
although two months after our last visit my wife fell ill, to die six weeks later
of cancer. Yet each time we returned to Egypt we both learnt a little more
about the people, and what I still regarded as their culture, and each time,
after our visits, we returned to our English way of life: she to her rather quiet,
unassuming, life and I to my political activities and my pride in being English.
In those days, I believed that it was our nation, our national culture, which
defined us and which therefore was of supreme importance, and I felt I had a
duty to fight to preserve this culture, and the identity I assumed went with it.
Thus, I was staunchly - and in the previous decade, violently - opposed to
non-White immigration into Britain and had twice been jailed for violence in
pursuit of my political aims. In addition, I regarded Western culture, and what
I called Western civilization, as superior to any other, and was very proud to be
English. Had we not built the greatest Empire, the most civilized Empire, the
world had ever seen? For over two decades I had been active in various
nationalist political organizations, and various para-military groups, as I had
written several articles, and essays, about nationalism and National-Socialism.
Indeed, it is true to say that I was a National-Socialist - a nazi; someone who
admired Adolf Hitler and who sincerely believed that he had created a good,
and honourable, society for the German people, and that a campaign of lies,
disinformation and propaganda had been directed at him, and at National-
Socialist Germany. I really did regard him as a good man, an honourable man,
just as I strived, in my own way, to be honourable - to do my duty to my
people, my nation, believing that sometimes hard choices, hard decisions, have
to made and that violence was justified, and indeed necessary, to achieve my
political aims, for how else could our nation, our race, be saved?
Not long after the death of my wife, I went back to Egypt - to wander into the
desert, and to find a kind of peace there. Back in Cairo, an Egyptian I had met
invited me into his home and I spent a very happy evening there. We talked,
briefly, about Islam, but I was too enwrapped in my own life, my own personal
concerns, to discus the matter further. But the people, the sights, the sounds,
the smells of Egypt - the sound of the Adhan - lingered in my memory, month
after month, following my return to England.
It was around that time that the violent National-Socialist group Combat 18
came to public attention, and I enthusiastically helped them for over three
years - often by writing racist articles; often by giving speeches and attending
various events. And yet I could never quite forget the sound of the Adhan, the
feeling of being alone in the desert and what I can only describe as the wonder
of Islam. It was as if I had caught a glimpse of something strange, and
beautiful: a fleeting memory of another world; a memory of something
3 of 15
David Myatt: From Neo-Nazi to Muslim
sublime, sacred, which made my own life, and especially my own political aims
and views, seem small, insignificant, and maybe even unethical.
It was during my time with Combat 18 that I decided to return to Egypt. It was
an Egypt-Air flight, and I spent well over an hour listening to the Quran, which
I found was being broadcast on one of the channels of the "in-flight"
entertainment system. Immediately, in Cairo, I felt at home, at ease, and I
really did sense, then, that I belonged in such a place with minarets and the
Adhan around me. I have always loathed cities and large towns - but Cairo was
somehow different. I liked it (and still do) - despite the overcrowding, the
noise, the traffic, and it was during this visit that I began to appreciate the
difference between Arab nationalism, and Islam, for I talked to several
Egyptians, and several Muslims, about their land, about Islam, about life in
general.
Reversion to Islam:
4 of 15
David Myatt: From Neo-Nazi to Muslim
I was released, while the Police tried to find sufficient evidence to convict me
in British Court of Law. In the end, they would spend over three years trying to
gather this evidence, and their investigation involved the Police forces, and the
intelligence services, of Canada, France, and the United States. I was
arrogantly determined to continue my political work and that of Combat 18,
but I was losing my enthusiasm - not because of my arrest, or my pending
trial, or anything similar, but rather because I had glimpsed that other world
again: the world of the divine, of God. The world that I felt on hearing the
Adhan; that I felt on hearing the Quran on my flight to Egypt; the world I felt
when alone in the desert, knowing how close I was to death, how slender was
my own thread of life. It was as if in the desert, on hearing the Adhan, on
hearing the Quran, on talking with a well-mannered Muslim, I felt the reality
of God.
"Allah (alone) has power over, and is the (sole) master of, all things.
The creations in Heaven and Earth, the very change of Night to Day,
are Signs for those gifted with intelligence, those who whether
sitting, standing or reclining on their sides, give praise to Allah and
who frequently recall these creations in Heaven and Earth, (saying):
'You who are our Rabb - You created all these things for a purpose;
the achievement is Yours alone.' " 3:189-191 Interpretation of
Meaning
"This present life is only like water which We send down from the
clouds so that the luxuriant herbage sustaining man and beast may
grow; until when the Earth puts on its lovely garment and becomes
adorned, and its people believe that they are its masters - down then
comes Our scourge upon it by night or in broad day, laying it waste
as though it had not blossomed yesterday. Thus We make plain our
Signs to thoughtful men." 10: 24-25 Interpretation of meaning
The close contact with Nature I encountered on the farm, the toil of manual
labour, really did restore my soul, my humanity, and I became slowly aware,
over a period of many months, of the Oneness of the Cosmos and of how I was
but part of this wonderful Order which I felt God had created. In my heart and
in my mind I was began to feel that this Order had not arisen by chance - it
was created, as I myself was created for a purpose. I felt the truth of the one
and only Creator in my heart and in my mind. For the first time in my life, I
felt truly humble. Then, as if by chance (but I assume it was the guidance of
Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) I took from my bookcase one of the copies of the
Quran I had bought after one of my visits to Egypt. I began to read it properly -
before, I had merely "dipped into it", reading a few verses, here and there.
5 of 15
David Myatt: From Neo-Nazi to Muslim
What I found was logic, reason, truth, revelation, justice, humanity and beauty.
Then, with a desire to find out more about Islam, I "surfed the Internet" for
Islamic sites. I found one with audio files of Adhan and Salat and Suras from
the Quran. Again, my heart responded. There was no need for words.
In the next few days I found more web-sites as I read all I could about Islamic
beliefs, travelling to Oxford, and London, to find books about Islam. Stripped
of my prejudices, my arrogance, my belief in Western superiority, here was
everything that I myself felt, and always had felt in my heart to be true:
dignity, honour, trust, justice, community, truth, an awareness of God on a
daily basis, the need to be self-disciplined, the spiritual way before
materialism, and the recognition of how we, as individuals, are subservient to
God. I marvelled at the life of Muhammad (salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) and
at the spread of Islam - at how those early Muslims, once "rough and ready"
nomads, had through only the words, deeds and revelations of the Prophet,
created perhaps the most civilized civilization there has ever been. I became
enthralled reading about the life of the Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu
'alayhi wa sallam), for there was something remarkable here: he seemed to
represent everything I felt in my heart and my mind to be noble and civilized.
In fact, he seemed to me to be the perfect human being: the perfect example
to follow.
The more I discovered about Islam, the more it answered all the doubts, all the
questions, of my past thirty years. It really did feel as if I had "come home" - as
if I had at last found myself, as if I could see things clearly for perhaps the
first time. Now, I would sit for hours listening to recordings of the Adhan and
the Quran in Arabic. Truly, here - I felt - in Islam was the numinous, the
sacred; the way for us to become, to behave like, civilized human beings.
Thus, my own conversion became not a question, but a duty. For I had found
and accepted the truth that there was no god but Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala
and that Muhammad (salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) was His Messenger.
At first when I, very nervously, entered there seemed to be no one around. Out
of respect, I removed my shoes and knocked on an inner door. The Imaam
6 of 15
David Myatt: From Neo-Nazi to Muslim
opened it - but he could not speak English, and I tried to say something in
Arabic but the only thing that made sense was Shahadah. Soon, someone was
fetched, who translated, and the Imaam embraced me. They were so pleased
and so friendly - so brotherly - that it brings tears to my eyes now as I
remember it, and I thank Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala that I found the true Way
in the end.
"It is not for the believer - man or woman - when Allah and His
Messenger have decreed a matter, that they should have any option
in their decision. For whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has
indeed strayed into plain error." 33:36 Interpretation of Meaning
Thus, I now know and understand that, for a Muslim, such things as "race"
and "nation" and one's ancestral culture, are not important. Indeed, they are
'Asabiyyah. As I wrote in my essay Nationalism, Race, Culture and Islam:
7 of 15
David Myatt: From Neo-Nazi to Muslim
Our aim is to obey and submit to only Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala - racial
separation is a Taghut which many of the kuffar, in their ignorance, see
as a worthy cause, a worthy goal, just as many of these kuffar judge
people according to their alleged or presumed "ethnic origin" and give
their loyalty and allegiance and obedience to a cause, or some
organization, or some person, who seeks to separate and judge people
according to their alleged or presumed "ethnic origin".
The criteria we use to judge someone - the criteria we should use, for
example, to find a good wife or husband, the criteria for friendship - is
the criteria of Taqwa, of obedience to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, of
being Muslim. The assumed or presumed "ethnic origin" of the person is
irrelevant, as is the culture of their ancestors, as is the place of their
birth.
8 of 15
David Myatt: From Neo-Nazi to Muslim
Narrated By Abu Hurayrah: The Prophet (salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) said:
"Allah, Tabarak wa'tala, has removed from you the pride of Jahilliyah and its
boasting about ancestors. A person can be either an honourable believer or an
ignoble sinner. You are sons of Adam, and Adam came from dust. Let the
people cease to boast about their kin and kin-folk." Abu Dawud, Book 36, 5097
"Those who have experienced the beauty that is Al-Eeman are those
who are content with Allah as their Rabb, with Al-Islam as their Way
of Life, and with Muhammad (salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) as their
Messenger and Prophet." Narrated Al-'Abbaas bin 'Abd Al-Muttalib
(Shahih Muslim)
Appendix 1:
Concerning National-Socialism
9 of 15
David Myatt: From Neo-Nazi to Muslim
National-Socialism depends upon - has its basis in - several errors of the kuffar.
The first of these is the Taghut of nationalism; the second of these is the
Taghut of racialism; the third of these is the Taghut of "Destiny".
All these Tawagheet (and indeed all Tawagheet) are assumptions - abstract
concepts which the kuffar have manufactured and which they impose, or
project, upon "Reality" and upon human beings and which "Reality" and which
human beings they then, in their arrogance and ignorance, believe they have
"understood" (and thus have "knowledge of"). In addition, the kuffar often give
their loyalty and allegiance to, and believe in, such Tawagheet, which they
come to regard as "ideals" or goals (to "perfection") to be striven for, just as
they use such Tawagheet to define and "understand" not only others, but
themselves, assuming that the meaning of their mortal lives lies in such
things. They also derive their laws and their ethics from such Tawagheet.
All these kaffir assumptions - all these Tawagheet - obscure our true nature, as
human beings, as they all lead us away from the Signs (Ayat) of Allah
Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. Our true nature is Muslim: to understand and know
ourselves in relation to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala:
"I created the Jinn and human beings so they might ya-budun Me."
(51:56 Interpretation of Meaning)
10 of 15
David Myatt: From Neo-Nazi to Muslim
alleged or assumed "ethnic identity", and in terms of the land where they were
born, or where their ancestors were born. They will have a pride in their race
and nation, and will give their allegiance to such Tawagheet and may well
fight for or on behalf of them, believing that such Tawagheet must be
maintained, whatever the cost (in terms of human suffering). Many of them -
although not all of them - will also believe that their own race, and/or their
own nation, are superior to - and more valuable than - others. Thus, they will
judge others according to the criteria of race and nation.
In essence, the fundamental difference between our real Truth, and the
ignorance of the kuffar, is that we know and accept that only Allah Subhanahu
wa Ta'ala is Al-Jalil, Al-Qadir, Al-Muqtadir, Al-Awwal, Al-Akhir, and that only
Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala can provide us with the guidance, the gifts, we
need in order to know, understand, and to live our lives as we should. Thus, we
accept that the only true justice is the justice of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala,
and that the only true manifestation of justice, in the dunya, is that obtained
by following the guidance of Allah, Al-Hakam, As-Salam, in the Shariah. In
complete contrast, the kuffar accept and believe not only that they can, by
their own efforts and/or by their manufactured assumptions, arrive at or attain
knowledge and understanding, but also that it is their own manufactured
assumptions and "ideals" which manifest or which can manifest "perfection",
"truth", and such things as "justice".
11 of 15
David Myatt: From Neo-Nazi to Muslim
(David Myatt)
27 Ramadan 1429
Appendix 2:
The Kaffir Errors of Ideology and Extremism
12 of 15
David Myatt: From Neo-Nazi to Muslim
13 of 15
David Myatt: From Neo-Nazi to Muslim
This error arises from the kuffar judging Muslims according to whether those
Muslims accept or reject the West, and accept or reject the values, concepts,
abstractions, ideas, ideals and ways (the world-view) of the West. Those who
accept the West, with all that this implies, the kuffar call "moderate Muslims".
Those who do not accept the West - who refuse to accept the kaffir
mis-interpretation of Islam and the hubris on which it is based - the kuffar call
"extremists", or "supporters of terrorism" or "terrorists" or adherents of some
so-called "Islamist ideology".
A Personal Addendum:
Many of the kuffar - and some Muslims, imitating the kuffar for whatever
reason - have, on hearing about or learning about my reversion to Islam, not
only made many assumptions about me, but they have also, almost without
exception, described me according to their own prejudiced (and Western)
assumptions. Thus, according to them I have simply "swapped one extremism
for another", and have moved from one totalitarian "ideology" to another -
from National-Socialism to "radical Islam". Thus do they reveal not only
prejudice, but also arrogance and ignorance. Prejudice, because there is a
pre-judgement based on existing assumptions and/or upon a failure to use Aql,
a failure to perceive - a failure to-be - beyond one's hawah; Arrogance, because
they assume or believe that the Western, kaffir, world-view and values, are
correct and universal; Ignorance, because they are in ignorance not only of the
true nature of Deen Al-Islam but also of their own true nature, as fallible
human beings, who are but creations of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala and who
14 of 15
David Myatt: From Neo-Nazi to Muslim
but briefly live, in the dunya, in a vast Cosmos, but who have an opportunity of
eternal life in Jannah.
Those who understand correctly, those who use Aql, will understand my
reversion (Alhamdulillah) as a gift from Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala: a
dis-covery of Tawheed; a move toward a knowing of the numinous as the
numinous is. Thus, it is rejection of Tawagheet and a simple, unaffected,
reliance on, and remembrance of, only Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. Thus, all
the terms that the kuffar (and those imitating them) may use to describe this
reversion, and me, are irrelevant.
"You only do we obey and to You only do we turn for help." 1:5
Interpretation of Meaning
Whatever good that may have been written is from Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala,
and whatever mistakes or errors have been made are from me.
Notes:
(1) 'Aql is often best left untranslated - it is gift, to us, from Allah Subhanahu
wa Ta'ala, the basis for our humanity, and it implies both reason and
intelligence, although not as these words are commonly understood in the
West, according to the materialistic philosophy of the West. One possible
interpretation of the meaning of al-'aql is "awareness of the numinous" where
by numinous is meant "the sacred", the divine. An awareness of the numinous
can dispose us toward what is good, and distance us from what is bad. Thus, a
Sign of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala is numinous - reminding us of Allah
Subhanahu wa Ta'ala; reminding us of the beauty, the purity, of Emaan;
reminding us of the truth of Islam itself.
15 of 15