And when I went to Mecca

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with this million of Muslims,

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you know, over there, I was, you know,

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walking around seven times.

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You have to go seven times

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around the house of Allah.

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I call it the black box.

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And that was the Kaaba you mentioned earlier.

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The Kaaba, yes, yeah.

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While I was going around that, nothing happened.

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I was waiting, "Allah, where are you?"

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There is not any encounter with Allah.

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There is not any like

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spiritual or divine, nothing happened.

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So I was looking to Muslims,

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I was looking to the house of Allah,

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and I had that realization, this is not from God.

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This is man-made.

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So I give up Islam in front of Kaaba,

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the most holy place of Islam.

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So over the last 15 or 20 years,

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millions of refugees from the Middle East

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have entered Europe, come often through Greece

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and fleeing war and things like that.

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And we have one of those [people] with us on the podcast.

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You used to live in the Middle East, John,

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and came as a refugee to

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escape a difficult situation.

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So we wanna capture that

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story today on the podcast.

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Tell me, where were you born

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and what was it like growing up?

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Tell me a bit of your background.

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So thank you so much for having me.

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So I am from Yemen.

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So I was born and raised in Yemen.

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But let me give you a

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little background about Yemen.

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Yemen wasn't a Muslim country.

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It was a Jewish kingdom.

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It was a Christian as well.

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There is so many

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Christians before Islam in Yemen.

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And when Islam established in Saudi Arabia,

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and the founder of Islam

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sent his son-in-law to Yemen

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with an army, and they converted the first tribe

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in the capital of Yemen, Sana'a.

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It's called the Al-Haimiri.

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In one day, and after that,

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the whole Yemen became a Muslim country.

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Some Jewish people remain,

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but most of the majority became a Muslim.

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They converted to Islam.

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That's how I was born and grew up

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into a devoted Muslim family.

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So my family taught me how

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to pray five times a day,

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how to fast, how to read Quran,

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and how to do all the Islamic rituals.

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I was really devoted and faithful to Allah

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because that's how I grew up.

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My parents, my community,

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my friends, all of them,

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Muslims around me.

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So I never saw Christians

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around me or other religions

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because it's not allowed.

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Like no other religion outside of Islam

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is what you experienced?

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It's not allowed in Yemen.

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Because in Yemen, it's basically Yemen.

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It's a tribal country.

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Yeah, explain that.

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Tell me more.

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What I mean by that, it's a tribal country.

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Every area has a leader, a name,

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like because I have a big family.

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If I tell you my name, it's more than 50,

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like 20 names.

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Yeah, so it's a tribe.

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And every tribe has a name and has a leader.

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And it's very complicated.

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And as well, it's a family culture,

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like a family values in Yemen.

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So that's how I grew up into this family.

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We used to eat breakfast

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together, lunch together,

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dinner together.

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You know, I was like

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growing up in a small village.

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So I studied in different three schools,

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you know, outside of the village.

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So I have to walk like three

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miles every day to the school.

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And that's how I grew up.

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You know, our village surrounded by mountains.

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It's beautiful.

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So, and when I grew up, my

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family choose a wife for me

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because I told you it's a

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traditional, it's a tribal.

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So they choose a wife for me.

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And she was my cousin, my first cousin.

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And by the, when I finished my high school,

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they said, "My name was Muhammad at that time.

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"Muhammad, it's ready for you

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to get married to your cousin."

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So we did the wedding, you know,

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the celebration in the village.

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And most of my family, they go to Saudi Arabia

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to work and to provide livings for their family.

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So when they are like 16, 17, 18,

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they travel to Saudi Arabia

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to start to provide livings for their families

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and to earn money so they can build the house

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and get a wife.

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That's the extremist dream in their minds.

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So they don't normally go to the university.

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It's very rare.

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There is lack of education.

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So for me, when I was

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married, 2012, I had two daughters.

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I decided to go to the university instead

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[of going] to Saudi Arabia.

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Ah, now, what does it take to go to university?

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You said very few people did that.

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So did you have a scholarship?

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Did, why did you choose that?

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And why do many people not go to university?

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Because yeah, people, they

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want to earn money easily.

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Okay.

Just work hard

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and get money as soon as they can.

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For me, because my uncle,

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he went to the university,

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but he ended up in Saudi Arabia.

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So he influenced me as well.

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So I always dreamed to be different.

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So that's why I decided to go to the university.

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So I went to study business administration.

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So at the Uni., I was

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practicing Islam with my friends

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at the students' accommodation.

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But by like second year, 2014, I was praying

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and practicing all the Islamic prayers,

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but nothing happened.

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There is like a lack of

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connection between me and Allah.

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I was praying because it's ritual.

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You pray five times a day, the same prayers.

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The following day, they will do the same praying

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[as] you did yesterday.

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So the same prayers, every day the same.

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So for me, I felt tired.

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Like, where are you Allah?

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I don't feel you in my spirit.

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I don't have connection with you.

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I feel he's very far.

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I can't reach him.

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So I start to ask the

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leaders, the leaders in Islam

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and the Imams, I told them, I have these doubts

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and the doubts in Islam,

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it's a big, big, big problem.

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Why?

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Why was that a big problem?

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I'll tell you why.

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Because when I start to doubt about

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the spiritual connection,

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the lack of the spiritual

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connection with Allah, I

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asked the leaders about that

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and they told me, Muhammad, you born as a Muslim,

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you die as a Muslim.

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There is no doubts about that.

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So you continue to earn your salvation

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by praying, fasting and reading Quran.

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And upon of that, it's written in Quran,

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[speaking Arabic]

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"Don't ask about anything, it will be bad for you."

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So it wasn't even an option for you

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or at least the Imams were saying,

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this is not even, we're not

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gonna even talk about this.

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It's 100% obligation.

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You, as I said, as I mentioned before,

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you born as a Muslim, you die as a Muslim.

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They don't think that

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Muslims, they should leave Islam.

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Even there is death penalty for leaving Islam.

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This is why Muslims, they

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are not easy to leave Islam

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because there is death penalty for leave Islam.

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Like if you live Islam,

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they're gonna put you to death.

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So now is that, that was just in your community

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or that would be all across Yemen,

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that that would be the

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experience you leave Islam

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your life is forfeit?

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Yemen is an extreme Muslim country.

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Like when I look into Yemen,

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I compare it to Afghanistan.

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Oh, okay, so you see for a minute,

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so a lot of our listeners

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are more, would be Americans

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and we don't hear about Yemen, like at all.

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Like until I started traveling a bit

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and doing some things in the Middle East,

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I didn't know anything about Yemen,

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but we know about Afghanistan, right?

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Cause it's a very strict Muslim country.

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Of course, America's had a

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lot of interactions over there.

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So you're saying you would compare the two

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and you'd say there's similarities

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as far as like how strict it is.

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Yes, it's very, very strict

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Muslim country, yeah, Yemen.

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And when they told me, when they shut me down,

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it was very hard for me because I have to submit

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because I have, there is no other options.

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There is no other options.

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So I have to submit because they will see you.

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If you don't pray, if you start to doubt more,

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they will call you crazy and they will arrest you

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or the community, because

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there is three categories

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for persecution in Yemen if you leave Islam.

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One of the persecution is the family,

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the family will persecute you.

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If the family didn't

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persecute you, the community.

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If the community didn't

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persecute you, the government.

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So there is no way.

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There is three layers.

So even if you would leave, you know, yeah,

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like if you would leave

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and go to a different village

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or something, it's still

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that wouldn't necessarily.

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The same, the same, yeah.

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Wouldn't fix it.

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Yes.

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Wow, so how did you respond to that?

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Like you have these

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questions and you're asking them

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of the religious leaders and they're saying

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this is just the way it's gonna be, basically.

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Like you're going to die Muslim.

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This is, there's no other options, right?

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Like there's no other options for you.

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What do you do at that point?

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So that's a really good question.

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So I, because I told you my family,

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most of my family in Saudi Arabia,

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so my father invited my mother to go to visit

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the most holiest place in

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Islam, which called Mecca, Ka'aba.

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The most holiest place of Islam in Saudi Arabia.

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So my father invited my mother to go to visit him

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and to, he will take her to

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visit the most holy place.

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It's like a religious, one

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of the Muslim Islamic pillars

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A pillar, one of the Islamic pillars.

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So because women in Yemen, they are not allowed

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to travel by themselves, so she need a guardian.

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So my father said, okay,

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you will be her guardian.

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So I was, okay, yes, I was so excited.

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00:11:00,034 --> 00:11:02,745

I was the luckiest Muslim because to go to Mecca,

274

00:11:03,079 --> 00:11:05,664

because every Muslim dreams to go at least once

275

00:11:05,664 --> 00:11:07,917

in their lifetime to visit this--

276

00:11:07,917 --> 00:11:09,919

Ah, the pilgrimage, right?

277

00:11:10,586 --> 00:11:11,879

To Mecca, yeah.

278

00:11:12,463 --> 00:11:14,465

One of the most holiest place in Islam.

279

00:11:15,174 --> 00:11:16,759

So I took my mother, my grandmother,

280

00:11:17,635 --> 00:11:19,345

all the way to Saudi Arabia.

281

00:11:20,054 --> 00:11:21,764

My family came to see us.

282

00:11:21,764 --> 00:11:24,850

We go all together with them to Mecca.

283

00:11:25,393 --> 00:11:26,352

We dress the Islamic

284

00:11:26,352 --> 00:11:29,313

dress, and I was excited, yes.

285

00:11:29,605 --> 00:11:31,107

I might encounter Allah there.

286

00:11:31,732 --> 00:11:34,068

I might encounter him in spiritual way.

287

00:11:35,111 --> 00:11:36,028

And were you looking for

288

00:11:36,028 --> 00:11:37,154

answers to your questions

289

00:11:37,154 --> 00:11:38,364

when you went there, yeah.

290

00:11:38,697 --> 00:11:39,824

Yeah, I was so excited.

291

00:11:40,574 --> 00:11:42,118

And when I went to Mecca

292

00:11:42,118 --> 00:11:43,702

with this million Muslims

293

00:11:44,829 --> 00:11:47,706

over there, I was walking around seven times.

294

00:11:47,706 --> 00:11:48,582

You have to go seven times

295

00:11:48,582 --> 00:11:50,668

around the house of Allah.

296

00:11:51,127 --> 00:11:52,211

I call it the black box.

297

00:11:52,711 --> 00:11:54,964

Mm, and that was the Ka'aba you mentioned earlier.

298

00:11:55,005 --> 00:11:55,965

The Ka'aba yes, yeah.

299

00:11:56,340 --> 00:11:58,843

So while I was going

300

00:11:58,843 --> 00:12:00,761

around that, nothing happened.

301

00:12:01,095 --> 00:12:03,222

I was waiting, "Allah, where are you?"

302

00:12:03,681 --> 00:12:05,641

There is not any encounter with Allah.

303

00:12:05,641 --> 00:12:08,310

There is not any like spiritual or divine.

304

00:12:08,853 --> 00:12:09,603

Nothing happened.

305

00:12:10,896 --> 00:12:12,148

So I was looking to Muslims.

306

00:12:12,398 --> 00:12:14,066

I was looking to the house of Allah,

307

00:12:14,733 --> 00:12:17,570

and I had that realization, this is not from God.

308

00:12:17,570 --> 00:12:18,904

This is man-made.

309

00:12:21,282 --> 00:12:24,118

And I decided to myself, privately,

310

00:12:24,910 --> 00:12:25,786

this is not for me.

311

00:12:25,995 --> 00:12:28,539

So I give up Islam in front of Ka'aba,

312

00:12:29,206 --> 00:12:31,292

the most holy place of Islam.

313

00:12:32,877 --> 00:12:35,171

Wow, that is quite the realization to have

314

00:12:35,171 --> 00:12:38,841

in the heart of Mecca on pilgrimage.

315

00:12:39,675 --> 00:12:40,801

And you give up your religion.

316

00:12:41,260 --> 00:12:43,596

I supposed to encounter Allah.

317

00:12:43,804 --> 00:12:45,723

I supposed to increase my faith there,

318

00:12:46,098 --> 00:12:47,099

but it was the opposite.

319

00:12:47,141 --> 00:12:47,892

It was the opposite.

320

00:12:47,892 --> 00:12:48,976

Yeah, the opposite, yeah.

321

00:12:49,101 --> 00:12:51,687

But that must have felt terrifying.

322

00:12:53,230 --> 00:12:54,648

Didn't it feel strange?

323

00:12:55,191 --> 00:12:55,900

Because now you go, "Oh, I

324

00:12:55,900 --> 00:12:56,734

don't believe this anymore.

325

00:12:58,152 --> 00:12:59,195

What do you believe now?"

326

00:12:59,987 --> 00:13:01,572

I don't know if that makes sense.

327

00:13:01,614 --> 00:13:02,239

That's a really good

328

00:13:02,239 --> 00:13:03,991

question, because I'll tell you why.

329

00:13:03,991 --> 00:13:07,786

Because I used to believe Islam is my identity.

330

00:13:08,704 --> 00:13:10,498

And every Muslim believes

331

00:13:10,498 --> 00:13:12,500

that Islam is their identity.

332

00:13:13,250 --> 00:13:16,045

So that's mean, now, okay, I give up Islam,

333

00:13:16,420 --> 00:13:17,505

I lost my identity.

334

00:13:18,255 --> 00:13:19,757

So now I don't know who I am.

335

00:13:19,757 --> 00:13:20,549

Yeah, who are you?

336

00:13:20,799 --> 00:13:21,383

Who I am.

337

00:13:22,009 --> 00:13:23,844

And it was really hard, by the way.

338

00:13:23,844 --> 00:13:26,222

It was really very, very hard.

339

00:13:26,555 --> 00:13:30,893

For me, who I am now, now I lost my identity.

340

00:13:31,310 --> 00:13:32,686

That's how I grew up as a Muslim.

341

00:13:33,395 --> 00:13:34,980

And with my community,

342

00:13:35,481 --> 00:13:36,857

with my family, my friends.

343

00:13:37,274 --> 00:13:38,275

Yeah, everybody you know.

344

00:13:38,692 --> 00:13:39,902

Everybody, all my life.

345

00:13:39,944 --> 00:13:41,946

Yeah, everybody, your village, everybody,

346

00:13:42,947 --> 00:13:46,033

you would no longer fit in, if that makes sense.

347

00:13:46,283 --> 00:13:47,284

It was really hard.

348

00:13:47,868 --> 00:13:49,620

And the other problem, I

349

00:13:49,620 --> 00:13:50,746

couldn't share with anybody.

350

00:13:51,288 --> 00:13:54,124

I couldn't turn to my family or anyone

351

00:13:54,124 --> 00:13:56,335

and tell them I'm not Muslim anymore.

352

00:13:57,962 --> 00:14:01,590

So after that, when we finished all the,

353

00:14:01,590 --> 00:14:02,800

we visited the grave of

354

00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:04,510

Muhammad in Al-Medin al-Munawra.

355

00:14:05,052 --> 00:14:07,263

We went back to Yemen after that.

356

00:14:07,638 --> 00:14:09,557

And I remember when I went back to Yemen,

357

00:14:10,391 --> 00:14:12,434

my family, my friends

358

00:14:12,434 --> 00:14:14,144

received me and they looked at me.

359

00:14:14,144 --> 00:14:16,021

They say, "You look holy man."

360

00:14:16,438 --> 00:14:18,315

Because I was 20 years old that time.

361

00:14:19,650 --> 00:14:24,113

And I actually was like, from inside I was empty.

362

00:14:24,780 --> 00:14:25,990

I was like, as I told you,

363

00:14:26,240 --> 00:14:28,951

who I am, what I'm doing here,

364

00:14:29,159 --> 00:14:30,911

what is my purpose on this earth?

365

00:14:31,870 --> 00:14:33,080

They would look at you as,

366

00:14:33,706 --> 00:14:34,915

"Wow, you've done this pilgrimage.

367

00:14:35,624 --> 00:14:37,585

"You've seen all these holy sites

368

00:14:37,626 --> 00:14:38,919

"and they're looking at you that way.

369

00:14:39,211 --> 00:14:41,297

"And you're looking at yourself

370

00:14:41,297 --> 00:14:42,631

"and saying there's nothing here."

371

00:14:42,756 --> 00:14:44,049

Yes, it's a really big deal.

372

00:14:44,258 --> 00:14:45,301

Like to go to Mecca, it's a

373

00:14:45,301 --> 00:14:46,719

big deal for every Muslim.

374

00:14:47,636 --> 00:14:50,806

And you come away from it the opposite.

375

00:14:51,181 --> 00:14:52,224

The opposite, yeah.

376

00:14:52,766 --> 00:14:53,601

This has actually just

377

00:14:53,601 --> 00:14:55,227

showed me that it's not even real.

378

00:14:55,477 --> 00:14:57,479

Yes, I went back to Yemen without faith.

379

00:14:57,855 --> 00:15:00,274

I give up Islam like I'm not Muslim anymore.

380

00:15:00,274 --> 00:15:03,027

But the problem is I couldn't share with anybody.

381

00:15:03,986 --> 00:15:07,906

And that was the hardest part in my life.

382

00:15:08,532 --> 00:15:10,909

And I stayed, I kept it private.

383

00:15:11,243 --> 00:15:12,453

I couldn't share with anybody.

384

00:15:13,120 --> 00:15:14,455

And from the outside, I have

385

00:15:14,455 --> 00:15:15,831

to pretend in front of them

386

00:15:15,831 --> 00:15:16,582

that I was Muslim.

387

00:15:17,291 --> 00:15:19,501

And that's really, really hard.

388

00:15:19,918 --> 00:15:22,379

So I stayed like that for three years.

389

00:15:23,797 --> 00:15:24,715

Not telling anybody,

390

00:15:24,715 --> 00:15:26,383

pretending everything's normal.

391

00:15:27,051 --> 00:15:27,718

Everything's okay.

392

00:15:28,135 --> 00:15:29,887

I-- during the Ramadan.

393

00:15:30,387 --> 00:15:31,347

We had to pray.

394

00:15:31,889 --> 00:15:32,973

We have to fast.

395

00:15:33,724 --> 00:15:36,060

Doing the prayer, we are like I have to pray

396

00:15:36,060 --> 00:15:37,561

in front of my friends, in

397

00:15:37,561 --> 00:15:39,647

front of my family, my wife.

398

00:15:39,938 --> 00:15:41,023

You still go to mosque.

399

00:15:41,398 --> 00:15:42,316

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

400

00:15:42,941 --> 00:15:43,734

For three years.

401

00:15:44,026 --> 00:15:47,112

Wow, so you mentioned the fasting in Ramadan.

402

00:15:47,571 --> 00:15:48,322

What's Ramadan?

403

00:15:49,239 --> 00:15:53,160

Ramadan is a month in the year

404

00:15:53,786 --> 00:15:57,956

in which the Muslims, they fast almost 30 days

405

00:15:58,582 --> 00:16:00,209

and they believe when Quran

406

00:16:00,209 --> 00:16:02,586

revealed to Muhammad in Ramadan.

407

00:16:04,088 --> 00:16:06,423

And so you're having to go through all the fasts

408

00:16:06,423 --> 00:16:08,884

and everything that goes with Ramadan

409

00:16:09,343 --> 00:16:10,511

and you don't believe in any of it.

410

00:16:10,844 --> 00:16:12,888

Yeah, it was really,

411

00:16:13,514 --> 00:16:15,349

the most hardest time in my life.

412

00:16:15,349 --> 00:16:16,308

It was really dark

413

00:16:16,308 --> 00:16:18,769

because I couldn't trust anybody

414

00:16:18,769 --> 00:16:20,521

to tell them this is what I feel.

415

00:16:21,021 --> 00:16:22,815

I don't know what to do.

416

00:16:23,732 --> 00:16:26,777

And like, yeah, I start to doubt who I am.

417

00:16:27,319 --> 00:16:28,862

Like what I'm doing here on earth.

418

00:16:29,279 --> 00:16:30,906

What is my purpose on this earth?

419

00:16:31,615 --> 00:16:32,616

Like did you believe in

420

00:16:32,616 --> 00:16:34,284

God or were you an atheist?

421

00:16:34,576 --> 00:16:36,286

At that time, I wouldn't say,

422

00:16:37,162 --> 00:16:39,707

or I didn't call myself atheist

423

00:16:40,082 --> 00:16:42,751

because I believed there is an engineer

424

00:16:43,544 --> 00:16:45,504

design this universe,

425

00:16:46,422 --> 00:16:48,382

but how to reach him, how to know him,

426

00:16:48,382 --> 00:16:49,800

that's the question was.

427

00:16:50,509 --> 00:16:50,884

Yeah.

428

00:16:51,009 --> 00:16:51,343

Yeah.

429

00:16:52,302 --> 00:16:53,846

I guess that would be called

430

00:16:53,846 --> 00:16:55,347

maybe like deism or something.

431

00:16:55,681 --> 00:16:58,559

There's maybe an impersonal being out there

432

00:16:58,684 --> 00:17:00,018

that made everything, but

433

00:17:00,018 --> 00:17:01,645

we don't know more than that.

434

00:17:02,479 --> 00:17:03,814

Maybe that's how it felt, right?

435

00:17:03,897 --> 00:17:04,898

Yeah, that's how I felt.

436

00:17:04,898 --> 00:17:06,442

It was like a gray area.

437

00:17:06,942 --> 00:17:07,276

Yeah.

438

00:17:08,068 --> 00:17:12,489

I tried to read about, you know,

439

00:17:12,698 --> 00:17:15,576

about Darwin, about what they call it.

440

00:17:15,868 --> 00:17:16,827

Oh, like evolution.

441

00:17:17,286 --> 00:17:20,914

Evolution, but it didn't make any sense to me.

442

00:17:22,082 --> 00:17:22,374

So.

443

00:17:22,833 --> 00:17:24,877

Yeah, Darwin is an interesting read, I guess.

444

00:17:25,502 --> 00:17:26,712

He had some strange ideas.

445

00:17:28,380 --> 00:17:29,798

So, wow.

446

00:17:30,883 --> 00:17:33,260

I mean, I can't imagine what that experience

447

00:17:33,260 --> 00:17:34,261

must have been like, you know,

448

00:17:35,512 --> 00:17:38,891

especially not having anybody in your life

449

00:17:39,349 --> 00:17:40,350

that you can talk to about

450

00:17:40,350 --> 00:17:43,312

this to try to find answers,

451

00:17:43,312 --> 00:17:46,148

to try to figure out what do I do now?

452

00:17:46,231 --> 00:17:46,648

Yeah.

453

00:17:46,690 --> 00:17:48,317

You know, that would be hard.

454

00:17:49,860 --> 00:17:51,487

But also, another piece of

455

00:17:51,487 --> 00:17:52,654

this story that's significant,

456

00:17:53,280 --> 00:17:55,908

Yemen was and is going through

457

00:17:56,325 --> 00:17:59,536

a lot of turmoil at that time as well.

458

00:17:59,536 --> 00:18:00,704

Do you want to talk any more

459

00:18:00,704 --> 00:18:02,247

about that with your country

460

00:18:02,247 --> 00:18:03,499

and just the difficulties

461

00:18:03,499 --> 00:18:05,167

for the people of Yemen?

462

00:18:05,667 --> 00:18:06,752

Because again, like a lot

463

00:18:06,752 --> 00:18:08,295

of us that live in America,

464

00:18:08,295 --> 00:18:10,380

at least, we just don't hear about any of it.

465

00:18:10,506 --> 00:18:12,341

We hear about Syria or Iraq or something.

466

00:18:12,758 --> 00:18:14,092

Oh, there's a war there and we read about it

467

00:18:14,092 --> 00:18:16,220

in the newspaper or online or whatever.

468

00:18:16,220 --> 00:18:16,929

But Yemen we just

469

00:18:16,929 --> 00:18:18,430

don't hear about the war there.

470

00:18:19,389 --> 00:18:20,891

Yeah, what would you like to share on that?

471

00:18:21,225 --> 00:18:24,561

So, at that time it was, you know, 2015,

472

00:18:25,145 --> 00:18:27,773

it was a war between Saudi Arabia and Yemen

473

00:18:28,482 --> 00:18:31,026

and Houthis, you know, Houthis,

474

00:18:31,026 --> 00:18:31,944

I don't know how to tell.

475

00:18:31,985 --> 00:18:34,112

Oh yeah, Houthis are things that we,

476

00:18:34,196 --> 00:18:35,280

yeah, how we would say in English.

477

00:18:35,614 --> 00:18:37,991

So, they take over the capital of Yemen.

478

00:18:38,492 --> 00:18:40,619

It was a collapse in Yemen and--

479

00:18:41,203 --> 00:18:42,287

You mean like the government collapsed?

480

00:18:42,579 --> 00:18:43,539

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

481

00:18:43,539 --> 00:18:46,625

And Saudi Arabia in Tivin, you know,

482

00:18:46,625 --> 00:18:49,586

they start to, they have a

483

00:18:49,586 --> 00:18:51,213

campaign against these Houthis.

484

00:18:51,421 --> 00:18:53,006

So, they start to target all

485

00:18:53,006 --> 00:18:56,301

the military bases in Yemen

486

00:18:57,135 --> 00:18:59,638

and Yemen went through starvation

487

00:19:00,222 --> 00:19:03,350

and it was war between the South and the North

488

00:19:03,684 --> 00:19:05,310

and between tribes because

489

00:19:05,310 --> 00:19:06,979

they told it's very complicated.

490

00:19:08,021 --> 00:19:10,399

Tribe fight other tribe and

491

00:19:10,399 --> 00:19:12,150

it was really, really hard.

492

00:19:12,651 --> 00:19:15,946

And still till today still it's unstable country.

493

00:19:16,572 --> 00:19:20,367

And how many people killed during this war?

494

00:19:21,118 --> 00:19:23,787

Almost 355,000.

495

00:19:25,622 --> 00:19:27,708

And the media, they don't talk about it.

496

00:19:28,292 --> 00:19:28,667

Yeah.

497

00:19:29,960 --> 00:19:30,919

That's a lot of number.

498

00:19:30,919 --> 00:19:31,962

Yeah, that's a lot of people.

499

00:19:32,004 --> 00:19:37,259

Yeah, like, and it's still going on, right?

500

00:19:37,426 --> 00:19:39,469

It's still down today, yeah, stable country.

501

00:19:40,137 --> 00:19:43,098

Actually, Houthis, they take more over

502

00:19:43,432 --> 00:19:45,434

most of the North of

503

00:19:45,434 --> 00:19:48,562

Yemen and the South of Yemen.

504

00:19:48,854 --> 00:19:50,105

It's another government.

505

00:19:50,898 --> 00:19:52,149

It's a mess. Oh, it's a mess.

506

00:19:52,399 --> 00:19:53,358

It's a mess, yeah, yeah.

507

00:19:53,358 --> 00:19:55,235

It's a very messed up country.

508

00:19:56,862 --> 00:19:59,656

That must have been hard to see that happen

509

00:19:59,656 --> 00:20:01,199

to your country, all that conflict.

510

00:20:01,199 --> 00:20:02,451

I was student [at] that time.

511

00:20:03,035 --> 00:20:06,330

So actually, I managed to

512

00:20:06,330 --> 00:20:08,081

flee from Yemen in 2017.

513

00:20:09,082 --> 00:20:11,335

Why I left Yemen, actually, I left Yemen

514

00:20:11,376 --> 00:20:13,503

because I have a family in the US.

515

00:20:14,254 --> 00:20:16,840

So I left because I have a family in the US

516

00:20:17,007 --> 00:20:23,513

and my auntie, she has a husband from the US.

517

00:20:23,972 --> 00:20:25,807

Well, he's a Yemeni American.

518

00:20:26,683 --> 00:20:28,268

So he married her and he

519

00:20:28,268 --> 00:20:29,561

invited her to go to the US.

520

00:20:29,645 --> 00:20:32,564

But in order to go to the US, he needed a visa,

521

00:20:32,898 --> 00:20:36,401

like a reunion visa or a family reunion visa.

522

00:20:36,777 --> 00:20:37,903

Because of the war, the

523

00:20:37,903 --> 00:20:40,072

US embassy fled from Yemen.

524

00:20:40,072 --> 00:20:41,406

All the embassies, basically.

525

00:20:41,698 --> 00:20:43,492

But it was unsafe for them to stay in Yemen.

526

00:20:44,701 --> 00:20:46,453

So in order to get her visa,

527

00:20:46,995 --> 00:20:48,747

she needed to go to other

528

00:20:48,747 --> 00:20:49,957

country to get her visa.

529

00:20:49,957 --> 00:20:51,083

So she needed a guardian.

530

00:20:51,667 --> 00:20:52,876

So they chose me, my family

531

00:20:52,876 --> 00:20:54,211

chose me to be her guardian.

532

00:20:55,212 --> 00:20:56,338

That's how I left Yemen.

533

00:20:58,048 --> 00:21:00,425

But practically, how did that work?

534

00:21:00,884 --> 00:21:01,677

So you were able to get a

535

00:21:01,677 --> 00:21:04,221

visa to where then to leave?

536

00:21:04,513 --> 00:21:05,055

Djibouti.

537

00:21:05,389 --> 00:21:06,765

So we went to, actually

538

00:21:06,765 --> 00:21:08,892

that time it wasn't flight.

539

00:21:09,768 --> 00:21:11,353

So we actually went by the sea

540

00:21:11,353 --> 00:21:13,480

from Aden, the South of Yemen.

541

00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:14,022

You went by sea?

542

00:21:14,189 --> 00:21:15,691

Yeah, by the small boat, yeah.

You couldn't fly?

543

00:21:16,608 --> 00:21:17,401

Was there no airplanes?

544

00:21:18,068 --> 00:21:19,611

Yeah, the time it was shut down, yeah.

545

00:21:20,028 --> 00:21:20,862

So I was thinking there

546

00:21:20,862 --> 00:21:22,698

was a time there for a while.

547

00:21:22,948 --> 00:21:24,157

Like there were no planes I

548

00:21:24,157 --> 00:21:25,492

could fly in and out of Yemen

549

00:21:25,492 --> 00:21:26,243

because of the war.

550

00:21:26,868 --> 00:21:28,412

So you experienced that.

551

00:21:28,745 --> 00:21:30,872

You took a boat across, I

552

00:21:30,872 --> 00:21:31,832

guess that would be the Red Sea.

553

00:21:31,873 --> 00:21:33,083

The Red Sea to Djibouti.

554

00:21:33,166 --> 00:21:34,918

And Djibouti would be in Africa,

555

00:21:35,127 --> 00:21:37,504

like north of Somalia, I believe.

556

00:21:38,255 --> 00:21:39,840

Which actually, those are fairly close, right?

557

00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:41,508

Just a short waterway in between.

558

00:21:41,508 --> 00:21:42,551

Yeah, but because the small

559

00:21:42,551 --> 00:21:44,553

boat, it took us 24 hours.

560

00:21:44,553 --> 00:21:45,095

Oh, wow.

561

00:21:45,887 --> 00:21:48,890

It was a really difficult journey.

562

00:21:49,808 --> 00:21:52,853

So you go there and you

563

00:21:52,853 --> 00:21:53,520

say you're with your aunt.

564

00:21:53,770 --> 00:21:54,187

So she's able to--

565

00:21:54,479 --> 00:21:55,647

I was a guardian because

566

00:21:55,647 --> 00:21:56,982

she needed to get her visa

567

00:21:56,982 --> 00:21:57,941

from the US Embassy.

568

00:21:59,151 --> 00:22:02,154

So we went to the, you know, Djibouti.

569

00:22:02,154 --> 00:22:05,449

She get her visa in six weeks, basically.

570

00:22:06,199 --> 00:22:08,869

And her husband came to collect her from the US.

571

00:22:09,327 --> 00:22:10,996

That time I couldn't go to the US

572

00:22:11,121 --> 00:22:13,081

because it's not easy to get a visa for me.

573

00:22:13,331 --> 00:22:15,876

Especially at that time it was, you know,

574

00:22:15,876 --> 00:22:18,754

during Trump administration.

575

00:22:18,795 --> 00:22:19,921

They shut all that down, didn't they?

576

00:22:19,921 --> 00:22:22,257

And banned Yemenis from entering the US.

577

00:22:22,591 --> 00:22:22,841

Wow.

578

00:22:23,383 --> 00:22:26,553

My auntie was like an exception visa, I think,

579

00:22:26,595 --> 00:22:28,096

because it was before that.

580

00:22:28,722 --> 00:22:31,183

So she managed to be granted.

581

00:22:31,767 --> 00:22:34,728

But now you're stuck in this other--

In Djibouti, yeah.

582

00:22:35,729 --> 00:22:37,439

But your intention was to leave Yemen.

583

00:22:37,647 --> 00:22:39,483

So did your family know that you were leaving?

584

00:22:39,983 --> 00:22:41,359

Did your community, did they know?

585

00:22:41,443 --> 00:22:42,360

Basically, my family

586

00:22:42,360 --> 00:22:44,613

thought that I will, you know,

587

00:22:45,155 --> 00:22:50,202

drop my auntie to Djibouti and go back to Yemen.

588

00:22:50,577 --> 00:22:51,078

Wow.

589

00:22:51,411 --> 00:22:52,287

They, because they don't

590

00:22:52,287 --> 00:22:54,164

know that I was ex-Muslim.

591

00:22:54,998 --> 00:22:56,541

I don't believe in Islam anymore.

592

00:22:56,958 --> 00:22:58,794

So I decided not to go back to Yemen

593

00:22:58,919 --> 00:23:00,712

because they give me some money.

594

00:23:01,296 --> 00:23:02,422

So I used this money, I

595

00:23:02,422 --> 00:23:03,465

said, okay, I said to myself,

596

00:23:03,465 --> 00:23:04,800

I'm gonna start a new life.

597

00:23:06,218 --> 00:23:08,095

So I traveled Qatar,

598

00:23:08,637 --> 00:23:10,972

Malaysia, Singapore,

599

00:23:11,848 --> 00:23:13,975

I back to Malaysia because I wanted to start

600

00:23:13,975 --> 00:23:15,769

a new life there, but I

601

00:23:15,769 --> 00:23:17,521

couldn't get a working visa.

602

00:23:18,230 --> 00:23:18,939

You're saying Malaysia?

603

00:23:19,523 --> 00:23:21,399

You couldn't get the visa there?

604

00:23:21,900 --> 00:23:22,818

Yeah, the working visa.

605

00:23:22,818 --> 00:23:24,945

They give you like three months' tourist visa

606

00:23:25,737 --> 00:23:26,780

and it was unusual.

607

00:23:28,949 --> 00:23:31,993

Because Yemenis, most of the countries,

608

00:23:31,993 --> 00:23:33,078

they don't accept Yemenis

609

00:23:33,078 --> 00:23:34,746

because it's unstable country.

610

00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:37,457

Right, because if you're, yeah, I mean,

611

00:23:37,457 --> 00:23:39,709

Yemen is tearing itself apart, so to speak.

612

00:23:39,751 --> 00:23:42,045

There's a civil war and there's other entities

613

00:23:42,045 --> 00:23:43,004

coming in and fighting and

614

00:23:43,004 --> 00:23:44,339

there's a lot of terrorism.

615

00:23:44,631 --> 00:23:45,340

All this stuff.

616

00:23:45,632 --> 00:23:47,134

Yeah, terrorism, many things, many things.

617

00:23:47,134 --> 00:23:48,844

So Yemen, it's on the blacklist.

618

00:23:50,262 --> 00:23:52,139

But Malaysia was one place

619

00:23:52,139 --> 00:23:53,014

you were able to go then.

620

00:23:53,223 --> 00:23:53,515

Yes.

621

00:23:54,015 --> 00:23:56,226

So really, once you leave the country,

622

00:23:56,226 --> 00:23:57,602

you're just looking for how do

623

00:23:57,602 --> 00:23:58,645

I get out of here, basically.

624

00:23:59,020 --> 00:23:59,646

Where can I go?

625

00:24:00,063 --> 00:24:02,357

And that was the only option was Malaysia.

626

00:24:04,484 --> 00:24:05,527

That would be so difficult,

627

00:24:05,527 --> 00:24:08,822

trying to find where can I live, where can I go?

628

00:24:08,822 --> 00:24:10,073

When can I start again?

629

00:24:10,073 --> 00:24:11,366

When can I start a new life

630

00:24:11,366 --> 00:24:13,493

and support my family at least?

631

00:24:14,077 --> 00:24:16,872

And feeling stuck at the same time, right?

632

00:24:16,913 --> 00:24:17,706

Because there's so few

633

00:24:17,706 --> 00:24:19,416

options for you at that point.

634

00:24:19,416 --> 00:24:20,125

Yeah, very few.

635

00:24:20,125 --> 00:24:20,959

[Indistinct] sometimes.

636

00:24:21,459 --> 00:24:22,669

Well, I'll tell you what happened.

637

00:24:23,044 --> 00:24:26,548

Well, I was in Malaysia and I

638

00:24:26,548 --> 00:24:29,301

couldn't get a working visa.

639

00:24:29,926 --> 00:24:33,555

So it was hard for me to go back to the old life

640

00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:35,724

because I don't wanna go back to Yemen.

641

00:24:36,016 --> 00:24:37,726

I don't wanna go back to Islam anymore.

642

00:24:38,435 --> 00:24:39,686

I wanna like experience

643

00:24:39,686 --> 00:24:44,274

freedom and find my own way to God.

644

00:24:45,775 --> 00:24:48,486

So I decided, okay, I try to apply

645

00:24:48,486 --> 00:24:50,488

for different countries for visa.

646

00:24:51,031 --> 00:24:53,533

But as I told you, Yemen is on the blacklist.

647

00:24:53,950 --> 00:24:55,535

Every time, boom, they

648

00:24:55,535 --> 00:24:57,495

reject my visa, my applications.

649

00:24:58,371 --> 00:24:59,623

It was so hard for me.

650

00:25:00,332 --> 00:25:03,293

And some of the embassies I go to, the embassy,

651

00:25:03,835 --> 00:25:05,754

the security will tell me, "Where are you from?

652

00:25:05,754 --> 00:25:06,379

"I'm from Yemen.

653

00:25:07,005 --> 00:25:08,256

"Oh, you are not allowed."

654

00:25:08,298 --> 00:25:08,757

Wow.

655

00:25:09,132 --> 00:25:10,008

It was so hard.

656

00:25:10,258 --> 00:25:12,093

Yeah, that would get discouraging.

657

00:25:12,677 --> 00:25:13,595

Very, very.

658

00:25:13,637 --> 00:25:15,222

It was like I was hopeless.

659

00:25:15,555 --> 00:25:18,850

I say, "I was like, where should I go?"

660

00:25:19,517 --> 00:25:22,979

And I need, I should leave the country, Malaysia,

661

00:25:23,521 --> 00:25:25,523

because they give me only three months.

662

00:25:25,774 --> 00:25:28,360

And because I went to Singapore, I came back,

663

00:25:28,360 --> 00:25:29,486

they give me another three months.

664

00:25:30,111 --> 00:25:32,113

So you need to leave the country

665

00:25:32,113 --> 00:25:35,700

after when your three months finished.

666

00:25:36,451 --> 00:25:39,120

You need to leave, you need to leave the country.

667

00:25:39,204 --> 00:25:40,622

So you're out of options.

668

00:25:40,830 --> 00:25:41,289

Where do you get it?

669

00:25:41,289 --> 00:25:41,957

It's out of options.

670

00:25:42,457 --> 00:25:44,542

So I heard about Syrian

671

00:25:44,542 --> 00:25:46,169

people traveling from Syria

672

00:25:46,503 --> 00:25:50,799

to Turkey, and from Turkey to Greece, Europe.

673

00:25:52,092 --> 00:25:53,426

So that video's on YouTube.

674

00:25:53,927 --> 00:25:55,095

So I get some connections.

675

00:25:57,806 --> 00:26:00,809

Because another option, Yemenis at that time,

676

00:26:01,309 --> 00:26:04,604

they have option to go to Iran as well.

677

00:26:05,897 --> 00:26:08,316

So I traveled from Malaysia to Iran.

678

00:26:09,109 --> 00:26:12,153

And from Iran, I escaped to Turkey.

679

00:26:13,029 --> 00:26:15,115

How did you, did you go by land then?

680

00:26:15,532 --> 00:26:18,034

Yes, because I couldn't get a Turkish visa.

681

00:26:19,077 --> 00:26:21,079

And I have to go through the border through like,

682

00:26:21,705 --> 00:26:22,789

it was very hard.

683

00:26:22,789 --> 00:26:24,416

I was arrested three times.

684

00:26:24,416 --> 00:26:25,792

I was beaten by the police.

685

00:26:26,084 --> 00:26:26,584

Oh, wow.

686

00:26:26,626 --> 00:26:28,712

By the Turkish police.

687

00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:31,965

They sent me back many times to Iran.

688

00:26:32,882 --> 00:26:34,217

And it was midnight.

689

00:26:34,592 --> 00:26:35,510

It was crazy.

690

00:26:36,303 --> 00:26:38,263

I was crying, "Where are you, God?

691

00:26:38,263 --> 00:26:39,389

Where are you, God?"

692

00:26:40,056 --> 00:26:42,100

I saw death in front of my eyes.

693

00:26:42,809 --> 00:26:44,436

I'll never do it again.

694

00:26:46,146 --> 00:26:47,063

Like other people that

695

00:26:47,063 --> 00:26:48,565

were trying to escape as well.

696

00:26:48,565 --> 00:26:49,441

Yeah, so many people.

697

00:26:49,441 --> 00:26:53,028

So many people, from Afghanistan, from Kurdistan,

698

00:26:53,028 --> 00:26:53,820

from many countries.

699

00:26:54,738 --> 00:26:55,780

So you will see like

700

00:26:55,780 --> 00:26:57,615

many, many people over there.

701

00:26:58,950 --> 00:27:00,160

But it was so hard.

702

00:27:01,036 --> 00:27:03,872

It was, but I managed to enter to Turkey.

703

00:27:04,581 --> 00:27:05,957

How long did that take though?

704

00:27:05,999 --> 00:27:08,168

Getting from Iran through Turkey.

705

00:27:09,085 --> 00:27:10,337

So it took us three days.

706

00:27:10,837 --> 00:27:12,130

To get across the border?

707

00:27:12,672 --> 00:27:14,716

Yeah, because we tried many times.

708

00:27:16,051 --> 00:27:18,511

And it was like it was through the valley.

709

00:27:18,762 --> 00:27:19,929

It wasn't through the mountains.

710

00:27:20,388 --> 00:27:20,680

Okay.

711

00:27:22,515 --> 00:27:25,518

But every time we go to the Turkish land,

712

00:27:25,977 --> 00:27:28,396

the police will come and send us back to...

713

00:27:29,481 --> 00:27:33,526

So, but we managed to, after like a few attempts,

714

00:27:33,818 --> 00:27:35,320

we managed to enter to Turkey.

715

00:27:36,196 --> 00:27:39,407

So at that time, like we were 60 people

716

00:27:40,116 --> 00:27:42,786

and only three people managed to enter.

717

00:27:42,786 --> 00:27:43,745

And I was one of them.

718

00:27:43,787 --> 00:27:44,662

Whoa, out of 60.

719

00:27:44,996 --> 00:27:45,997

Out of 60, yeah.

720

00:27:46,831 --> 00:27:48,249

Oh my, yeah.

721

00:27:48,708 --> 00:27:49,793

It was really hard, yeah.

722

00:27:49,959 --> 00:27:50,210

Wow.

723

00:27:50,251 --> 00:27:53,755

And from there I went to Istanbul,

724

00:27:54,089 --> 00:27:55,256

from Istanbul to Asmir,

725

00:27:55,465 --> 00:27:57,425

and from Asmir, small

726

00:27:57,425 --> 00:28:01,429

boat to Chios, Greece, Europe.

727

00:28:02,222 --> 00:28:03,515

So I landed in Europe.

728

00:28:03,515 --> 00:28:05,642

Now I am in Europe, new life.

729

00:28:06,726 --> 00:28:08,436

So I felt when I arrived to Europe,

730

00:28:08,686 --> 00:28:13,400

it was really, I felt something new in my--

731

00:28:13,400 --> 00:28:15,443

something like a new chapter in my life.

732

00:28:17,028 --> 00:28:22,117

But it's still hard because I don't speak Greek.

733

00:28:22,450 --> 00:28:24,119

I don't know nobody.

734

00:28:24,661 --> 00:28:25,537

I don't know anyone.

735

00:28:26,287 --> 00:28:27,956

I have only one friend over there,

736

00:28:27,956 --> 00:28:29,040

so I met him in Greece.

737

00:28:30,041 --> 00:28:31,709

So he's from Yemen.

738

00:28:32,168 --> 00:28:37,590

So you left your entire life behind in Yemen.

739

00:28:37,924 --> 00:28:39,843

Like you wanted to leave.

740

00:28:40,176 --> 00:28:41,177

You were trying to leave,

741

00:28:41,469 --> 00:28:44,848

you went to incredible amounts of effort

742

00:28:45,598 --> 00:28:48,059

to escape essentially.

743

00:28:48,768 --> 00:28:50,478

But yet that still must've been hard to leave.

744

00:28:50,895 --> 00:28:52,188

Wasn't it to leave Yemen?

745

00:28:52,564 --> 00:28:54,065

Like you have family.

746

00:28:54,065 --> 00:28:55,108

Yeah, my daughters.

747

00:28:55,233 --> 00:28:57,527

I have two daughters and family, yes, yeah.

748

00:28:58,069 --> 00:29:00,572

It was really hard, but in the same time,

749

00:29:00,572 --> 00:29:02,365

you need to, I need to,

750

00:29:02,740 --> 00:29:04,659

because I don't fit in anymore.

751

00:29:06,119 --> 00:29:10,665

I don't fit anymore to Islam, to the society,

752

00:29:11,666 --> 00:29:15,336

because Islam and the society, the culture,

753

00:29:15,753 --> 00:29:18,256

the family culture, all hand in hand,

754

00:29:18,256 --> 00:29:21,551

all together, the government, the constitution,

755

00:29:22,051 --> 00:29:23,845

all together, hand in hand.

756

00:29:25,138 --> 00:29:26,514

So it's very complex.

757

00:29:26,514 --> 00:29:27,348

It's very complicated.

758

00:29:27,932 --> 00:29:28,349

Yeah.

759

00:29:29,142 --> 00:29:34,814

So you get to Greece, and that must've been

760

00:29:34,814 --> 00:29:36,774

its own stressful situation,

761

00:29:36,774 --> 00:29:37,901

because it's a whole new environment.

762

00:29:37,901 --> 00:29:40,028

You're trying to figure out what kind of life

763

00:29:40,028 --> 00:29:40,862

will I have now.

764

00:29:41,529 --> 00:29:44,157

Were you in a refugee camp then on the island?

765

00:29:44,282 --> 00:29:46,993

I was in a Chios refugee camp.

766

00:29:46,993 --> 00:29:47,702

It's called Vial.

767

00:29:49,245 --> 00:29:51,414

And when I went to that camp,

768

00:29:51,664 --> 00:29:54,876

I started to meet people from Syria, from Iraq,

769

00:29:55,793 --> 00:29:57,712

from any other countries.

770

00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:02,383

And yeah, it was a new chapter in my life.

771

00:30:02,759 --> 00:30:03,927

So I started to make friends.

772

00:30:04,844 --> 00:30:05,970

I met someone from Syria.

773

00:30:06,888 --> 00:30:08,431

And the life wasn't easy there.

774

00:30:08,431 --> 00:30:09,432

I was homeless, basically.

775

00:30:10,058 --> 00:30:11,392

Because when you arrive to Greece,

776

00:30:12,310 --> 00:30:14,312

you will be in camp.

777

00:30:15,188 --> 00:30:16,314

And it was very cold.

778

00:30:16,564 --> 00:30:18,066

I arrived on October.

779

00:30:19,234 --> 00:30:20,610

And I am from Middle East.

780

00:30:21,402 --> 00:30:22,695

I never used to cold weather.

781

00:30:23,738 --> 00:30:26,449

And it was, so they put us in that camp.

782

00:30:26,741 --> 00:30:29,994

And I built my own small tent.

783

00:30:31,412 --> 00:30:32,288

And it was really hard.

784

00:30:32,288 --> 00:30:33,998

So I made this, I became a

785

00:30:33,998 --> 00:30:35,500

friend to someone from Syria.

786

00:30:36,167 --> 00:30:39,754

And this friend, we had a good talk together.

787

00:30:40,255 --> 00:30:42,674

And he has a tattoo in his hand, actually.

788

00:30:43,341 --> 00:30:44,342

And they asked him, "So

789

00:30:44,342 --> 00:30:45,343

why do you have this tattoo

790

00:30:45,343 --> 00:30:45,969

"in your hand?"

791

00:30:46,219 --> 00:30:48,680

Because as Yemeni, we don't have tattoos.

792

00:30:48,846 --> 00:30:49,931

It's not allowed in Yemen.

793

00:30:49,931 --> 00:30:50,682

It's forbidden.

794

00:30:51,641 --> 00:30:53,518

Tattoos and other things is forbidden.

795

00:30:53,977 --> 00:30:54,852

Because it's very

796

00:30:54,852 --> 00:30:57,480

conservative, society in Yemen.

797

00:30:58,439 --> 00:31:00,066

About women, about how the

798

00:31:00,066 --> 00:31:01,943

women dress, about everything.

799

00:31:02,610 --> 00:31:04,571

It's very, very close country.

800

00:31:05,822 --> 00:31:08,825

And when I asked the Syrian,

801

00:31:08,825 --> 00:31:10,159

"Why do you have this tattoo in your hand?"

802

00:31:10,952 --> 00:31:12,453

He told me, he replied in Arabic,

803

00:31:12,453 --> 00:31:14,622

this is the cross of Yeshua al-Masih,

804

00:31:15,164 --> 00:31:17,208

the Savior of the world, Yeshua the Messiah.

805

00:31:17,917 --> 00:31:20,128

And that was first time in my life

806

00:31:20,211 --> 00:31:21,337

to hear about Yeshua

807

00:31:21,337 --> 00:31:22,880

al-Masih, about Yeshua the Messiah,

808

00:31:23,089 --> 00:31:25,800

the biblical, Jesus Christ.

809

00:31:26,384 --> 00:31:28,970

So you would have heard of Jesus through Quran.

810

00:31:29,637 --> 00:31:31,222

Through Islam, that's how I brought up.

811

00:31:31,347 --> 00:31:33,808

Had you ever seen a Bible or met a Christian?

812

00:31:34,434 --> 00:31:35,602

So that's a good question.

813

00:31:36,477 --> 00:31:37,687

Before I leave Yemen,

814

00:31:38,479 --> 00:31:40,481

actually, two things happened.

815

00:31:41,691 --> 00:31:42,859

And these two things, one of

816

00:31:42,859 --> 00:31:44,652

them, because I was a student,

817

00:31:44,902 --> 00:31:47,030

and we sometimes go to when there is a sale

818

00:31:47,196 --> 00:31:51,618

in the clothes shop or like a bookstore.

819

00:31:52,535 --> 00:31:55,163

So once, I remember I went before I traveled,

820

00:31:55,163 --> 00:31:56,914

two months before I traveled from I leave Yemen,

821

00:31:57,790 --> 00:32:00,209

I went to a store and clothes,

822

00:32:01,127 --> 00:32:04,005

and we met with me and my friends,

823

00:32:04,005 --> 00:32:06,215

and we saw a T-shirt in that store.

824

00:32:06,716 --> 00:32:08,926

And the T-shirt has the cross of Jesus Christ.

825

00:32:09,719 --> 00:32:12,472

I don't know how that T-shirt get into Yemen.

826

00:32:13,139 --> 00:32:14,307

Yeah, it's a surprise.

827

00:32:14,349 --> 00:32:16,142

Yeah, and my friends, they told me,

828

00:32:16,225 --> 00:32:18,895

we challenge you, we dare,

829

00:32:19,270 --> 00:32:21,606

like dress it and go outside.

830

00:32:22,607 --> 00:32:22,940

Okay.

831

00:32:23,232 --> 00:32:24,317

I thought, are you crazy?

832

00:32:24,609 --> 00:32:26,527

They're gonna shoot me,

833

00:32:27,070 --> 00:32:28,821

because in Yemen, everybody has a weapon.

834

00:32:30,323 --> 00:32:33,201

So I told them I have an idea.

835

00:32:33,201 --> 00:32:35,119

I'm gonna share it on social media, on Facebook,

836

00:32:35,411 --> 00:32:37,372

and I will write, what do

837

00:32:37,372 --> 00:32:38,456

you think about tolerance

838

00:32:39,165 --> 00:32:41,084

and to accept others?

839

00:32:43,002 --> 00:32:44,045

And so you did?

840

00:32:44,128 --> 00:32:44,837

I did it, yeah, yeah, I did it.

841

00:32:44,837 --> 00:32:45,922

Yeah, you posted it, okay.

842

00:32:46,756 --> 00:32:48,132

When I posted on social media,

843

00:32:48,132 --> 00:32:50,259

I don't have so many followers at that time.

844

00:32:50,259 --> 00:32:52,595

I have like my family and some of my friends.

845

00:32:53,179 --> 00:32:55,139

I start to receive messages from my family.

846

00:32:55,515 --> 00:32:56,307

What are you doing?

847

00:32:56,307 --> 00:32:57,767

Well, where did you get this T-shirt?

848

00:32:58,851 --> 00:33:00,687

Delete the post, delete this picture.

849

00:33:02,230 --> 00:33:03,564

Yeah, we believe in tolerance,

850

00:33:04,440 --> 00:33:06,234

but we don't believe in the cross.

851

00:33:07,985 --> 00:33:08,277

Wow.

852

00:33:08,569 --> 00:33:10,571

This is Western things.

853

00:33:11,030 --> 00:33:12,031

Delete it right now.

854

00:33:12,031 --> 00:33:12,990

So they scared me actually.

855

00:33:13,491 --> 00:33:14,784

So I didn't delete it.

856

00:33:14,784 --> 00:33:15,868

There is a setting on

857

00:33:15,868 --> 00:33:18,204

Facebook, so you can hide it.

858

00:33:18,579 --> 00:33:19,622

So I make it private.

859

00:33:20,832 --> 00:33:22,041

I don't know why I did that.

860

00:33:22,917 --> 00:33:24,961

And the second event happened.

861

00:33:25,420 --> 00:33:26,671

We went to secondhand

862

00:33:26,671 --> 00:33:30,174

bookstore, and I bought some books,

863

00:33:30,842 --> 00:33:32,051

and I saw the Bible,

864

00:33:32,468 --> 00:33:33,678

secondhand the New Testament.

865

00:33:34,470 --> 00:33:35,471

Really? [Speaking Arabic]

866

00:33:36,472 --> 00:33:37,849

That would be very rare, though.

867

00:33:37,849 --> 00:33:38,891

Very rare, yeah, yeah.

868

00:33:39,016 --> 00:33:41,018

How, I wonder how that happens.

869

00:33:41,018 --> 00:33:43,813

It was a seasonal library.

870

00:33:45,106 --> 00:33:47,191

So when I went there, I saw it,

871

00:33:47,650 --> 00:33:49,777

and I bought it, by the way.

872

00:33:49,819 --> 00:33:50,611

You bought it, okay.

873

00:33:50,611 --> 00:33:51,988

But I was scared to read it.

874

00:33:51,988 --> 00:33:52,905

I didn't read it.

875

00:33:53,573 --> 00:33:55,908

So I never heard about Yeshua.

876

00:33:56,743 --> 00:33:58,786

So, and you left it when you left Yemen.

877

00:33:58,786 --> 00:34:01,330

I had it in my bag, under my clothes, actually.

878

00:34:01,414 --> 00:34:02,582

Okay. In my room-

879

00:34:02,623 --> 00:34:03,499

So you took--

back in Yemen.

880

00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:06,627

So you didn't take the New Testament

881

00:34:07,086 --> 00:34:08,254

when you traveled and left Yemen.

882

00:34:08,254 --> 00:34:09,464

No, no, no, no, it's still, I think--

883

00:34:09,505 --> 00:34:10,381

Oh, it's still in your--

884

00:34:10,715 --> 00:34:12,133

Maybe they found it, I don't know.

885

00:34:12,592 --> 00:34:14,051

Probably somebody found it by now, somewhere,

886

00:34:14,510 --> 00:34:15,261

back in your country.

887

00:34:15,261 --> 00:34:16,846

Yeah maybe, or they burned it, I don't know.

888

00:34:18,139 --> 00:34:20,183

But that is phenomenal

889

00:34:20,183 --> 00:34:22,226

that you had those encounters.

890

00:34:22,727 --> 00:34:24,187

Two, two of them. Two of them, yeah.

891

00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:26,230

And then, but you still haven't,

892

00:34:26,230 --> 00:34:28,191

you haven't met a Christian at this point.

893

00:34:28,441 --> 00:34:30,276

You haven't read the Bible, you've seen one,

894

00:34:30,276 --> 00:34:31,694

but you haven't read it, right?

895

00:34:32,278 --> 00:34:34,489

And now you meet this Syrian fellow.

896

00:34:34,781 --> 00:34:36,991

And so he was a Christian then, I assume.

897

00:34:37,658 --> 00:34:39,118

Is that how you first heard about--

898

00:34:39,160 --> 00:34:40,369

So yeah, that's how I

899

00:34:40,369 --> 00:34:41,996

heard about Yeshua the Messiah.

900

00:34:42,538 --> 00:34:44,332

And he started to talk about Jesus Christ.

901

00:34:44,874 --> 00:34:47,794

It was so nice to hear about Jesus Christ,

902

00:34:48,294 --> 00:34:49,170

but it's given me a lot

903

00:34:49,170 --> 00:34:51,172

of curiosity and questions.

904

00:34:51,422 --> 00:34:52,465

And I started to ask him,

905

00:34:52,715 --> 00:34:54,300

I never heard about Jesus Christ,

906

00:34:54,300 --> 00:34:55,134

he's the Savior of the

907

00:34:55,134 --> 00:34:56,427

world, nobody told me before.

908

00:34:56,969 --> 00:34:58,429

So he actually invited me

909

00:34:58,429 --> 00:34:59,931

to go to study the Bible.

910

00:34:59,931 --> 00:35:00,681

He said, "Would you like to

911

00:35:00,681 --> 00:35:02,058

come to study the Bible with us?"

912

00:35:02,308 --> 00:35:03,518

There is a German missionary,

913

00:35:03,935 --> 00:35:05,520

they teach the Bible every

914

00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:06,979

day, every week, once a week.

915

00:35:07,355 --> 00:35:08,773

So we will go together.

916

00:35:09,357 --> 00:35:11,526

I said, "Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's do it.

917

00:35:11,526 --> 00:35:13,611

Let's discover more about this Jesus Christ."

918

00:35:14,320 --> 00:35:17,156

So I went alongside him to that Bible study,

919

00:35:17,532 --> 00:35:19,450

and it was like the German missionary,

920

00:35:19,450 --> 00:35:21,536

they start to teach the Bible in coffee shop.

921

00:35:22,495 --> 00:35:24,247

And when they start to

922

00:35:24,247 --> 00:35:25,414

teach from the New Testament,

923

00:35:26,040 --> 00:35:27,250

so much information.

924

00:35:29,210 --> 00:35:32,547

But it was so much, I couldn't get it,

925

00:35:32,547 --> 00:35:34,298

it was so much for me.

926

00:35:34,674 --> 00:35:36,384

And you'd never heard any of this.

927

00:35:36,759 --> 00:35:38,678

Everything new, everything new,

928

00:35:39,345 --> 00:35:40,721

because they read from the Bible.

929

00:35:42,473 --> 00:35:43,432

But when they said Jesus

930

00:35:43,432 --> 00:35:44,892

Christ is the son of God,

931

00:35:45,893 --> 00:35:47,270

I told them, "I have a question.

932

00:35:48,563 --> 00:35:50,815

Listen, I am an ex-Muslim,

933

00:35:50,815 --> 00:35:52,024

I don't follow Islam anymore.

934

00:35:53,067 --> 00:35:55,736

I call myself, let's say agnostic,

935

00:35:56,988 --> 00:35:59,031

I'm looking for God, now you

936

00:35:59,031 --> 00:36:00,783

are telling me God has a son."

937

00:36:02,451 --> 00:36:05,204

And they try to explain to me, I couldn't get it.

938

00:36:05,413 --> 00:36:07,290

Don't blame me, don't

939

00:36:07,290 --> 00:36:09,542

blame me, I couldn't get it.

940

00:36:10,042 --> 00:36:12,003

Well, the Trinity is hard to understand.

941

00:36:12,003 --> 00:36:13,212

It's very hard, yeah,

942

00:36:13,337 --> 00:36:14,297

but the most hardest

943

00:36:14,297 --> 00:36:16,090

thing for Arabs to understand.

944

00:36:17,508 --> 00:36:19,468

Because, and maybe we should clarify on that,

945

00:36:19,468 --> 00:36:22,305

because Islam would not believe in the Trinity.

946

00:36:22,638 --> 00:36:23,890

Yeah, because it's mentioned in the Quran,

947

00:36:23,890 --> 00:36:25,057

it's mentioned in the Quran,

948

00:36:25,474 --> 00:36:26,809

if you believe that Jesus,

949

00:36:27,059 --> 00:36:29,937

if you believe in that Trinity of Jesus Christ,

950

00:36:30,605 --> 00:36:31,939

you will go to hell.

951

00:36:32,857 --> 00:36:33,649

So basically-- Or if you say

952

00:36:33,774 --> 00:36:35,985

"Jesus Christ is God, you are infidel."

953

00:36:36,527 --> 00:36:39,405

Yeah, I remember I read the Quran at one point,

954

00:36:39,780 --> 00:36:42,450

and it's right there, it's like,

955

00:36:42,450 --> 00:36:43,784

you know, Allah has no son,

956

00:36:44,452 --> 00:36:45,161

I mean, that's the English

957

00:36:45,161 --> 00:36:46,245

translation, I guess, but--

958

00:36:46,495 --> 00:36:47,288

Allah has no son.

959

00:36:47,330 --> 00:36:48,289

Yeah, has no son.

960

00:36:48,372 --> 00:36:49,665

Yeah, I know it in Arabic,

961

00:36:49,665 --> 00:36:50,958

but I don't know how to say it in English,

962

00:36:51,375 --> 00:36:56,213

(speaking Arabic)

963

00:36:58,591 --> 00:37:00,426

(speaking Arabic)

964

00:37:00,426 --> 00:37:01,219

He's the only one.

965

00:37:01,886 --> 00:37:03,346

God is one only.

966

00:37:03,346 --> 00:37:04,597

God is one. Yeah.

967

00:37:04,639 --> 00:37:07,725

And the only one, and he has no son, and yeah.

968

00:37:08,601 --> 00:37:10,895

Which, just a side note here,

969

00:37:10,895 --> 00:37:13,439

you've been quoting the

970

00:37:13,439 --> 00:37:14,440

Quran at different points,

971

00:37:14,440 --> 00:37:15,733

you've pulled out different verses,

972

00:37:16,108 --> 00:37:17,068

did you have it memorized?

973

00:37:17,735 --> 00:37:18,861

Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.

974

00:37:19,612 --> 00:37:21,656

You had to memorize the Quran in school,

975

00:37:21,656 --> 00:37:22,907

or how did you learn it all?

976

00:37:22,907 --> 00:37:23,449

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

977

00:37:23,491 --> 00:37:26,535

So basically, Quran, my family taught me,

978

00:37:26,535 --> 00:37:29,580

my mother, my father, and when you go to school

979

00:37:29,664 --> 00:37:32,208

from the first year in the school,

980

00:37:32,458 --> 00:37:33,501

they will teach you Quran.

981

00:37:34,168 --> 00:37:35,252

So you need to memorize it,

982

00:37:35,252 --> 00:37:36,462

and if you don't memorize it

983

00:37:36,671 --> 00:37:38,422

the teacher will beat you.

984

00:37:39,548 --> 00:37:41,050

So you have to recite it. Oh, wow.

985

00:37:41,092 --> 00:37:42,051

You have to--

986

00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:44,720

That would be a lot of work.

987

00:37:45,096 --> 00:37:45,513

I mean, that's--

988

00:37:46,097 --> 00:37:48,474

It's an obligation, it's not like an optional,

989

00:37:48,849 --> 00:37:49,809

it's an obligation.

990

00:37:50,643 --> 00:37:52,520

So even though you don't

991

00:37:52,520 --> 00:37:54,522

believe Islam at this point,

992

00:37:56,107 --> 00:37:57,608

you still have the Quran memorized,

993

00:37:57,608 --> 00:38:01,237

you still have a lot of those mindsets,

994

00:38:01,237 --> 00:38:01,737

even though you don't

995

00:38:01,737 --> 00:38:03,531

believe them, if that makes sense.

996

00:38:03,531 --> 00:38:03,948

Of course, yeah, yeah.

997

00:38:04,073 --> 00:38:05,908

And so you hear Jesus is God's son,

998

00:38:05,908 --> 00:38:08,119

and be like, I don't understand that.

999

00:38:08,369 --> 00:38:11,497

Like that is completely alien, foreign,

00:38:12,206 --> 00:38:14,625

to what you would have experienced or known

00:38:14,625 --> 00:38:15,334

up to that point.

00:38:15,835 --> 00:38:18,671

But they tried in peaceful way to explain to me,

00:38:18,796 --> 00:38:19,922

they were very nice.

00:38:20,923 --> 00:38:22,508

And they said, okay, would

00:38:22,508 --> 00:38:23,634

you like to come to the church?

00:38:24,051 --> 00:38:25,136

I said, okay, yeah.

00:38:25,636 --> 00:38:28,055

And at that time I never been to church in my life,

00:38:28,347 --> 00:38:29,515

because as I told you, we

00:38:29,515 --> 00:38:30,516

don't have churches in Yemen.

00:38:31,851 --> 00:38:34,228

So I never experienced a church in my life.

00:38:34,854 --> 00:38:36,188

So basically, I only know

00:38:36,188 --> 00:38:37,481

about the church through TV,

00:38:38,024 --> 00:38:40,484

or movies, where you can

00:38:40,484 --> 00:38:42,153

see the groom and the bride

00:38:42,153 --> 00:38:43,904

came together and they

00:38:43,904 --> 00:38:45,197

blessed them in the church,

00:38:45,197 --> 00:38:45,865

and they do party.

00:38:46,449 --> 00:38:51,245

That's the only knowledge about the church.

00:38:51,871 --> 00:38:52,663

Yeah, seriously.

00:38:53,539 --> 00:38:55,374

I mean, that makes sense though.

00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:57,668

I mean, wow.

00:38:58,002 --> 00:38:59,295

So what was that like?

00:38:59,295 --> 00:39:00,963

Like when you go to church for the first time,

00:39:01,797 --> 00:39:02,923

I'm sure it was quite

00:39:02,923 --> 00:39:04,175

different than what you were used to,

00:39:04,175 --> 00:39:05,843

and I'm guessing it was quite

00:39:05,843 --> 00:39:07,178

different than going to mosque

00:39:07,803 --> 00:39:08,679

for prayers or something.

00:39:09,263 --> 00:39:10,222

Talk to me about that.

00:39:10,264 --> 00:39:11,891

So I accepted the invitation.

00:39:12,308 --> 00:39:13,934

I remember I went to the church,

00:39:14,602 --> 00:39:16,520

and I remember that Sunday morning,

00:39:16,812 --> 00:39:18,064

I entered through the door,

00:39:18,647 --> 00:39:20,399

and it was man and woman worshiping.

00:39:20,983 --> 00:39:22,151

And that was like from the

00:39:22,151 --> 00:39:23,360

back, I was looking to them,

00:39:23,360 --> 00:39:25,571

I said, what are these crazy people doing?

00:39:26,947 --> 00:39:28,324

But you know what happened, my brother?

00:39:28,824 --> 00:39:30,743

I felt jealous inside of my

00:39:30,743 --> 00:39:32,078

spirit, inside of my heart,

00:39:32,078 --> 00:39:33,496

because I said, it must be a

00:39:33,496 --> 00:39:35,247

divine power to unite them,

00:39:36,499 --> 00:39:37,416

to give them this

00:39:37,416 --> 00:39:39,919

confidence to worship their God,

00:39:40,836 --> 00:39:43,714

because I can see the joy in that place.

00:39:44,340 --> 00:39:45,966

I can see it through the worship,

00:39:46,759 --> 00:39:48,844

through how they worship, how some of them,

00:39:48,844 --> 00:39:51,097

their eyes closed, their hands lift up.

00:39:51,806 --> 00:39:53,182

I was looking to them, wow.

00:39:53,682 --> 00:39:56,519

You know, something is like, yeah.

00:39:57,686 --> 00:40:00,064

And when they finished, the

00:40:00,064 --> 00:40:01,857

pastor was Greek in the church,

00:40:02,358 --> 00:40:03,526

and he started to preach.

00:40:04,318 --> 00:40:05,736

He was very smart because he saw,

00:40:06,237 --> 00:40:08,114

there is new people in his church.

00:40:09,031 --> 00:40:12,034

And it was, his sermon translated into Arabic,

00:40:12,368 --> 00:40:15,287

English, Farsi, French,

00:40:15,496 --> 00:40:16,539

and other languages, yeah.

00:40:16,831 --> 00:40:17,873

They had translators there?

00:40:17,915 --> 00:40:18,624

Yeah, yeah, yeah, international.

00:40:19,834 --> 00:40:21,085

And then he started to preach.

00:40:21,502 --> 00:40:23,129

And you know what he started to preach about?

00:40:24,004 --> 00:40:24,547

About sin.

00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:26,090

He said, we are sinners.

00:40:26,882 --> 00:40:29,468

We inherited sin from Adam and Eve,

00:40:30,052 --> 00:40:32,138

and sin separated us from God,

00:40:32,847 --> 00:40:35,099

and sin became a disease in our hearts.

00:40:35,850 --> 00:40:37,226

And this is why we need a Savior.

00:40:38,435 --> 00:40:41,480

And this Savior, his name is Jesus Christ.

00:40:41,689 --> 00:40:44,066

He came all the way from heaven to earth,

00:40:44,525 --> 00:40:48,362

lived 33 years, was crucified on the cross.

00:40:48,821 --> 00:40:51,824

For our sins, on the third day he rose again,

00:40:51,824 --> 00:40:52,533

and he's alive.

00:40:54,201 --> 00:40:56,328

He's the way, the truth, and the life.

00:40:56,328 --> 00:40:57,496

He's the living water.

00:40:57,496 --> 00:40:58,497

He's the bread of life.

00:40:58,873 --> 00:41:00,040

He started to share many,

00:41:00,040 --> 00:41:01,292

many verses from the Bible.

00:41:01,834 --> 00:41:04,170

And he said, if you want your name to be written

00:41:04,336 --> 00:41:06,338

on the Book of Life, accept

00:41:06,338 --> 00:41:08,382

him as Lord and Savior, as God.

00:41:09,383 --> 00:41:10,551

I was looking, wow.

00:41:12,303 --> 00:41:17,099

And I start to get more curious.

00:41:17,099 --> 00:41:18,976

I wanna know more about this Jesus Christ.

00:41:20,102 --> 00:41:22,688

And I met another couple from Norway.

00:41:23,856 --> 00:41:25,858

They came to me, they welcomed me.

00:41:26,108 --> 00:41:26,942

Where are you from?

00:41:26,942 --> 00:41:27,484

They are retired.

00:41:27,860 --> 00:41:28,485

Where are you from?

00:41:28,485 --> 00:41:29,403

I told them I'm from Yemen.

00:41:29,904 --> 00:41:32,239

I was speaking with my broken English.

00:41:32,823 --> 00:41:35,284

I have very limited at that time, very limited English.

00:41:36,493 --> 00:41:39,079

And they said, wow, from Yemen.

00:41:39,580 --> 00:41:42,333

And the husband, he ran and

00:41:42,333 --> 00:41:44,335

he gave me the Bible in Arabic.

00:41:44,335 --> 00:41:45,711

He said, this is a gift to you.

00:41:46,253 --> 00:41:49,006

He said, we have a missionary in India.

00:41:49,298 --> 00:41:51,592

They reached out to Muslims in India.

00:41:52,134 --> 00:41:54,136

And we have a copy of the Bible in Arabic.

00:41:54,136 --> 00:41:55,179

This is a gift to you.

00:41:56,180 --> 00:41:58,098

So he gave me the New Testament in Arabic.

00:41:58,849 --> 00:42:01,018

And I was so curious to read about Jesus Christ.

00:42:01,393 --> 00:42:03,646

Why Jesus Christ died for me?

00:42:05,022 --> 00:42:06,357

I wanna know more about him.

00:42:07,441 --> 00:42:08,692

So I started to read,

00:42:08,692 --> 00:42:12,363

decided to read this New Testament.

00:42:12,655 --> 00:42:13,781

So I start from Matthew chapter

00:42:13,781 --> 00:42:16,283

one, chapter two, chapter three.

00:42:16,742 --> 00:42:18,702

Chapter three was the baptism of Jesus Christ

00:42:19,078 --> 00:42:19,954

in the Jordan River.

00:42:21,247 --> 00:42:22,206

And while I was reading

00:42:22,206 --> 00:42:25,167

chapter three, verse 16 and 17,

00:42:25,459 --> 00:42:27,670

where it says, a voice from heaven said,

00:42:28,170 --> 00:42:30,589

this is my beloved son whom I am pleased with.

00:42:31,507 --> 00:42:33,634

Wow, I thought, wow, God speaks from heaven.

00:42:34,218 --> 00:42:37,554

This is my beloved son whom I am pleased with.

00:42:38,055 --> 00:42:41,350

Because it explain the Father speaks from heaven,

00:42:41,934 --> 00:42:43,686

the Holy Spirit descending like a dog

00:42:44,019 --> 00:42:47,898

and Jesus Christ is the son of God, the Trinity.

00:42:49,316 --> 00:42:52,486

And that is the most hardest thing

00:42:52,486 --> 00:42:54,113

to Arabic people to understand.

00:42:55,447 --> 00:42:57,992

And I felt something boom in my heart,

00:42:58,909 --> 00:43:00,828

like I believe the seed of faith.

00:43:02,079 --> 00:43:06,000

I was like more focused and excited.

00:43:06,709 --> 00:43:08,794

I continue to read chapter four and five.

00:43:09,253 --> 00:43:11,088

While I start to read chapter five,

00:43:11,088 --> 00:43:11,964

the Sermon in the Mount,

00:43:12,464 --> 00:43:13,716

which is the most powerful

00:43:13,716 --> 00:43:15,092

teaching in the universe.

00:43:16,468 --> 00:43:18,387

I start to read the Beatitudes

00:43:18,721 --> 00:43:20,055

-blessed are the poor in the spirit

00:43:20,055 --> 00:43:21,390

for there's is the kingdom of

00:43:21,390 --> 00:43:23,183

heaven- all the blessings.

00:43:24,018 --> 00:43:26,812

And I felt the God I was disconnected from.

00:43:27,438 --> 00:43:29,148

I felt he speaking to me directly.

00:43:29,982 --> 00:43:30,691

This is to you.

00:43:30,691 --> 00:43:33,027

I felt like this is to you from the scripture.

00:43:34,194 --> 00:43:34,903

I was so happy.

00:43:34,903 --> 00:43:35,821

I was reading them over

00:43:35,821 --> 00:43:37,114

and over and over and over.

00:43:37,531 --> 00:43:38,407

I was so happy.

00:43:38,907 --> 00:43:39,742

I was so joyful.

00:43:40,159 --> 00:43:41,952

I felt this is applied to my life.

00:43:41,952 --> 00:43:42,828

This is what I want.

00:43:42,828 --> 00:43:43,746

This is what I need.

00:43:44,580 --> 00:43:47,541

And I continue to read chapter six and seven.

00:43:48,334 --> 00:43:52,463

And all my questions about prayer, about fasting,

00:43:52,713 --> 00:43:54,506

all my doubts about God,

00:43:54,798 --> 00:43:56,300

about how to worship Him,

00:43:56,300 --> 00:43:58,594

how to love, because love your enemies.

00:43:59,678 --> 00:44:01,388

Jesus Christ taught us how to love your enemies.

00:44:02,389 --> 00:44:03,974

And so many things in the Bible,

00:44:03,974 --> 00:44:06,435

in the three chapters, the Sermon in the Mount.

00:44:06,894 --> 00:44:07,603

I was so happy.

00:44:07,853 --> 00:44:09,521

I said, this is the God I want to follow.

00:44:09,813 --> 00:44:11,982

This is the God I want to give life to.

00:44:12,608 --> 00:44:14,860

I was so really excited to go back to the church,

00:44:14,860 --> 00:44:15,486

which I did.

00:44:16,445 --> 00:44:19,031

I went back to the church the following Sunday.

00:44:19,573 --> 00:44:20,949

I didn't sit at the back.

00:44:20,949 --> 00:44:21,700

I sat in front.

00:44:23,369 --> 00:44:25,412

Like to be close to the pastor, yeah.

00:44:26,455 --> 00:44:28,999

And when the pastor finished his sermon,

00:44:29,041 --> 00:44:31,126

he always invite people,

00:44:31,377 --> 00:44:32,294

because he knew there is a

00:44:32,294 --> 00:44:33,587

new people in his church.

00:44:34,505 --> 00:44:35,798

So he invited, he said,

00:44:35,798 --> 00:44:37,257

"Who wants to give his life to Jesus Christ

00:44:37,257 --> 00:44:38,300

"as Lord and Savior?"

00:44:39,426 --> 00:44:40,636

I raised up my hands.

00:44:41,929 --> 00:44:45,766

And he led me in prayer too, for, you know.

00:44:46,266 --> 00:44:48,685

So I repented that time in front of everybody.

00:44:49,353 --> 00:44:50,813

And the prayer was like this.

00:44:50,813 --> 00:44:51,355

"I am a sinner,

00:44:52,689 --> 00:44:56,735

"and I believe that Jesus Christ came all the way

00:44:56,735 --> 00:44:57,820

"from heaven to rescue me.

00:44:57,820 --> 00:44:59,863

"He was died on the cross for me.

00:45:00,322 --> 00:45:02,116

"On the third day, he rose again.

00:45:02,533 --> 00:45:03,826

"Islam behind me,

00:45:05,035 --> 00:45:06,412

"agnosticism behind me,

00:45:06,662 --> 00:45:09,206

"the world behind me, and Jesus before me.

00:45:09,832 --> 00:45:11,917

"He is my Lord, he is my King,

00:45:12,334 --> 00:45:14,837

"he is my God, he is my Savior forever.

00:45:15,129 --> 00:45:15,838

"Amen."

00:45:15,838 --> 00:45:17,673

I said, as soon as I said, amen, brother,

00:45:18,173 --> 00:45:19,800

I saw everything so beautiful.

00:45:21,427 --> 00:45:22,886

So majestic.

00:45:24,847 --> 00:45:26,098

I felt even light.

00:45:26,723 --> 00:45:28,058

I felt like I'm a new creation.

00:45:29,351 --> 00:45:31,895

I get that excitement,

00:45:32,479 --> 00:45:35,274

that desire to read the Bible.

00:45:36,567 --> 00:45:38,026

I was so hungry, brother.

00:45:38,735 --> 00:45:41,071

So I really ask the church, I told them,

00:45:41,071 --> 00:45:42,448

"I need the whole Bible."

00:45:43,365 --> 00:45:45,284

Oh, you just had the New Testament at this point.

00:45:45,325 --> 00:45:46,326

Yeah, that was the New Testament.

00:45:46,368 --> 00:45:47,494

And you were like, "I want the whole thing."

00:45:47,536 --> 00:45:49,496

No, no, no, no, I need the whole thing.

00:45:49,872 --> 00:45:51,039

Give me the Bible, give me

00:45:51,039 --> 00:45:52,374

the Bible, give me the Bible.

00:45:52,708 --> 00:45:54,501

The whole Bible, because I decided to read

00:45:54,585 --> 00:45:55,919

from Genesis to Revelation.

00:45:57,254 --> 00:45:59,506

And that time, so that,

00:45:59,506 --> 00:46:00,924

because that happened quickly,

00:46:01,175 --> 00:46:03,552

the German missionary left because they came for

00:46:04,553 --> 00:46:06,680

like a few weeks, maybe three weeks, I remember.

00:46:07,639 --> 00:46:10,100

And after that, the

00:46:10,100 --> 00:46:13,562

missionary from the US came to Chios,

00:46:14,188 --> 00:46:15,230

and that was I-58.

00:46:16,023 --> 00:46:17,357

So I met them.

00:46:17,733 --> 00:46:19,526

So this German introduced us

00:46:19,526 --> 00:46:21,487

to this American missionary.

00:46:22,613 --> 00:46:24,740

And they established ministry over there.

00:46:25,491 --> 00:46:27,451

And they start to walk alongside them.

00:46:27,701 --> 00:46:29,453

And they taught me the Bible from beginning.

00:46:31,038 --> 00:46:34,291

Wow, that is so much to learn.

00:46:34,291 --> 00:46:35,042

You know, how did that feel?

00:46:35,375 --> 00:46:36,126

Like you're learning all

00:46:36,126 --> 00:46:37,127

of this for the first time.

00:46:37,127 --> 00:46:37,711

Yes, a start from zero.

00:46:38,086 --> 00:46:38,337

Yeah, yeah.

00:46:38,337 --> 00:46:41,048

Yeah, it must have felt amazing though.

00:46:41,048 --> 00:46:43,008

Yes, it was a journey.

00:46:43,842 --> 00:46:44,801

It was an adventure.

00:46:45,177 --> 00:46:46,512

It was so beautiful.

00:46:46,720 --> 00:46:48,722

I was, I asked so many questions.

00:46:49,473 --> 00:46:51,016

I wasn't baptized, by the way.

00:46:51,266 --> 00:46:52,017

Straight away.

00:46:52,017 --> 00:46:53,060

No, no, no, no, no, no.

00:46:53,435 --> 00:46:54,937

I start to study with them.

00:46:55,437 --> 00:46:58,023

And so many things happened in that period.

00:46:58,023 --> 00:46:59,233

It took me one year basically.

00:47:00,317 --> 00:47:03,779

Because what the thing about this missionary,

00:47:04,238 --> 00:47:06,198

they used to send like every three months,

00:47:06,198 --> 00:47:07,574

they used to send new family.

00:47:08,575 --> 00:47:10,536

So first I get to know new families

00:47:10,744 --> 00:47:13,413

and everybody like bought something in my life.

00:47:13,956 --> 00:47:15,749

And all of it, it's for good.

00:47:16,583 --> 00:47:19,711

Because they came to teach, to serve.

00:47:20,879 --> 00:47:23,924

And I believe God sent them in the right time.

00:47:24,633 --> 00:47:25,801

Because I know they are

00:47:25,801 --> 00:47:27,261

from the Mennonites community,

00:47:27,803 --> 00:47:28,929

from Anabaptist community.

00:47:29,638 --> 00:47:31,431

And God sent them in the right time.

00:47:32,849 --> 00:47:34,851

So in God, yeah, in that period,

00:47:35,310 --> 00:47:37,604

so I get persecuted in the camp,

00:47:37,604 --> 00:47:39,439

but by the way, straight away.

00:47:39,439 --> 00:47:41,400

Because I want to share my faith with them.

00:47:42,401 --> 00:47:43,402

You're courageous.

00:47:43,735 --> 00:47:44,945

So I was gonna say,

00:47:44,945 --> 00:47:47,990

cause you give your life to Jesus very publicly.

00:47:48,407 --> 00:47:49,533

I mean, people know.

00:47:49,908 --> 00:47:51,994

That was in the island, in

00:47:51,994 --> 00:47:53,996

the church and in the camp.

00:47:54,496 --> 00:47:57,124

Yeah, so people, I'm sure in the camp,

00:47:57,124 --> 00:47:59,042

other refugees, things like that found out.

00:47:59,751 --> 00:48:00,836

So you're saying you got persecution.

00:48:01,169 --> 00:48:02,963

You get persecuted, they stopped [eating] with me.

00:48:03,505 --> 00:48:04,798

They start to call me an infidel.

00:48:05,215 --> 00:48:05,799

They start to...

00:48:06,675 --> 00:48:08,093

Yeah, it was a really hard time.

00:48:08,719 --> 00:48:12,097

Remember we had a discussion with some Muslims

00:48:12,306 --> 00:48:13,515

because I used to live in-

00:48:14,141 --> 00:48:15,475

I moved to live with Muslims,

00:48:16,143 --> 00:48:19,521

10 people from Yemen in a small caravan.

00:48:21,440 --> 00:48:22,774

And we used to eat together,

00:48:22,774 --> 00:48:23,984

but when they found out

00:48:23,984 --> 00:48:25,444

that I became a Christian,

00:48:25,944 --> 00:48:27,779

persecution started, they stopped [eating] with me.

00:48:28,113 --> 00:48:30,115

So I was eating by myself.

00:48:30,115 --> 00:48:30,741

I was lonely.

00:48:32,159 --> 00:48:34,202

Because they consider me unclean.

00:48:34,995 --> 00:48:37,080

And one, it was very quickly.

00:48:37,080 --> 00:48:39,082

Once I remember, I came back

00:48:39,082 --> 00:48:40,334

from the church that Sunday

00:48:40,459 --> 00:48:43,545

and [indistinct] Muslim.

00:48:43,545 --> 00:48:45,547

When I say cute [?] Muslim, lukewarm Muslim.

00:48:45,631 --> 00:48:48,133

We say there is lukewarm Christians.

00:48:48,717 --> 00:48:50,510

There is lukewarm Muslims as well.

00:48:50,552 --> 00:48:51,720

Okay, lukewarm, yeah.

00:48:52,137 --> 00:48:53,388

But I call them cute.

00:48:54,097 --> 00:48:55,057

They are not radicals.

00:48:56,558 --> 00:48:58,894

So he came to me, he's very friendly.

00:48:58,894 --> 00:49:01,313

He said, "John, you just came from the church

00:49:01,480 --> 00:49:03,482

and you believe Jesus Christ saved you."

00:49:04,066 --> 00:49:06,360

And I told him, "Yes, I believe he saved me

00:49:06,360 --> 00:49:09,112

because I don't want to deny my faith.

00:49:09,863 --> 00:49:11,531

I don't want to deny Christ.

00:49:12,032 --> 00:49:12,824

I don't want that."

00:49:13,408 --> 00:49:15,077

So yes, he died for me and

00:49:15,077 --> 00:49:17,245

I will go to heaven 100%.

00:49:17,704 --> 00:49:19,623

And that's give them when I tell that

00:49:19,873 --> 00:49:23,460

because Muslims, they don't have assurance

00:49:23,710 --> 00:49:25,420

that they will go to heaven, zero.

00:49:25,962 --> 00:49:26,630

Oh, wow.

00:49:27,089 --> 00:49:29,383

So that was probably a

00:49:29,383 --> 00:49:30,509

powerful piece for you then

00:49:30,717 --> 00:49:31,885

in your life, that assurance

00:49:31,885 --> 00:49:33,762

that I know God has saved me.

00:49:34,388 --> 00:49:37,015

So, and he started, he asked me, okay,

00:49:37,140 --> 00:49:38,684

but you grew up as a Muslim.

00:49:38,684 --> 00:49:39,893

This is how he asked me.

00:49:40,143 --> 00:49:41,144

You grew up as a Muslim.

00:49:41,520 --> 00:49:44,773

And how about Muhammad?

00:49:46,149 --> 00:49:47,651

And you know, the founder of

00:49:47,651 --> 00:49:49,194

Islam, the prophet of Islam.

00:49:49,820 --> 00:49:51,279

What do you think about him now?

00:49:51,988 --> 00:49:54,658

I told them, he's like, he was a smart man,

00:49:54,866 --> 00:49:58,078

a military leader, like [indistinct].

00:49:59,287 --> 00:50:01,998

And another extreme Muslim grabbed the knife

00:50:02,416 --> 00:50:03,208

and put it here.

00:50:04,000 --> 00:50:05,252

He wanted to kill me.

00:50:05,752 --> 00:50:09,297

How dare you say like that about Muhammad?

00:50:09,297 --> 00:50:13,051

Because you can say anything about Allah,

00:50:13,260 --> 00:50:14,386

but when it comes to Muhammad,

00:50:14,845 --> 00:50:16,430

they're gonna die for Muhammad.

00:50:17,639 --> 00:50:18,557

And that was really hard.

00:50:18,557 --> 00:50:21,768

[I] froze when he put the knife here.

00:50:22,352 --> 00:50:23,687

I have another friend as well.

00:50:23,937 --> 00:50:26,898

I think God used him to save me

00:50:27,149 --> 00:50:28,066

because he was as well a

00:50:28,066 --> 00:50:29,985

cute Muslim, a nice Muslim.

00:50:30,819 --> 00:50:32,654

No, when I say cute Muslim,

00:50:32,988 --> 00:50:35,365

they see everyone will,

00:50:36,116 --> 00:50:37,617

all the religions the same.

00:50:38,744 --> 00:50:42,164

So when this Muslim saw that he bought the knife,

00:50:42,164 --> 00:50:45,333

he want to kill me, he was really angry, he jump,

00:50:47,043 --> 00:50:49,838

he hold him, took the knife and he asked me,

00:50:50,630 --> 00:50:53,300

John, leave, because I changed my name into John.

00:50:54,384 --> 00:50:55,761

Leave, leave the caravan.

00:50:56,887 --> 00:50:57,804

So then I called the

00:50:57,804 --> 00:50:59,139

missionary, that's what happened.

00:50:59,473 --> 00:51:00,557

They came to rescue me.

00:51:00,557 --> 00:51:02,976

They came by the van and they adopted me.

00:51:02,976 --> 00:51:03,727

So I start to live with

00:51:03,727 --> 00:51:04,811

actually with the missionary.

00:51:05,395 --> 00:51:06,438

You couldn't even live in the camp.

00:51:06,688 --> 00:51:07,939

No, no, I didn't.

00:51:08,815 --> 00:51:11,067

Actually, when I went to the missionary,

00:51:11,276 --> 00:51:12,569

I told them about the situation

00:51:12,903 --> 00:51:15,822

and we prayed the whole night for them.

00:51:16,531 --> 00:51:20,118

And I remember the leader, the pastor, he said,

00:51:20,118 --> 00:51:24,206

okay, let's buy them, bless them tomorrow

00:51:24,372 --> 00:51:26,124

because I didn't take anything with me.

00:51:26,124 --> 00:51:28,960

My stuff still in the, with them.

00:51:29,711 --> 00:51:31,755

So he said, okay, let's go

00:51:31,755 --> 00:51:32,798

tomorrow to do some shopping

00:51:33,173 --> 00:51:36,885

for them food and rice, chicken and bless them.

00:51:37,677 --> 00:51:42,015

And he did that, so he bought them stuff.

00:51:42,015 --> 00:51:44,434

So I called my friend, the cute Muslim friend,

00:51:44,434 --> 00:51:45,477

the one who rescued me.

00:51:46,102 --> 00:51:47,145

So he brought my stuff.

00:51:48,021 --> 00:51:50,232

So the pastor give him the, he said,

00:51:50,232 --> 00:51:53,109

this is thank you so much for standing with John.

00:51:53,735 --> 00:51:54,486

And this is a blessing.

00:51:55,529 --> 00:51:58,990

Was that hard to do, to bless them like that?

00:51:59,991 --> 00:52:01,868

We are Christians with Jesus Christ.

00:52:01,868 --> 00:52:03,078

He said, love your enemies.

00:52:03,078 --> 00:52:04,830

And he said, pray for them.

00:52:05,997 --> 00:52:10,168

So then I, yeah, then my life

00:52:10,168 --> 00:52:11,711

continue to be a missionary.

00:52:12,963 --> 00:52:14,506

And I wasn't baptized at that time.

00:52:14,506 --> 00:52:17,717

So after one year, I decided to be baptized.

00:52:18,677 --> 00:52:22,556

[singing] I have decided to follow Jesus

00:52:23,682 --> 00:52:27,894

No turning back, no turning back

00:52:28,645 --> 00:52:31,064

You [indistinct] the Father and the Son

00:52:31,356 --> 00:52:32,107

and the Holy Spirit.

00:52:34,025 --> 00:52:40,198

(audience applauding)

00:52:44,870 --> 00:52:47,080

So, but for yourself,

00:52:47,581 --> 00:52:50,834

did baptism seem a really big step for you?

00:52:51,501 --> 00:52:52,711

And that, is that why you

00:52:52,711 --> 00:52:54,963

wanted to wait till you had studied

00:52:54,963 --> 00:52:56,339

the whole Bible and things?

00:52:56,840 --> 00:52:59,759

Yes, I really studied like why,

00:53:00,510 --> 00:53:02,053

why we baptized, why I

00:53:02,053 --> 00:53:03,763

studied from the Old Testament

00:53:04,097 --> 00:53:06,683

and the New Testament, how God rescued, you know,

00:53:07,309 --> 00:53:10,478

the Israelites through the sea and the,

00:53:10,854 --> 00:53:12,522

what's they call it, the ark.

00:53:12,814 --> 00:53:15,317

So I connected all the dots, you know, of course,

00:53:15,317 --> 00:53:16,693

with the help, this is why I told you,

00:53:16,693 --> 00:53:17,944

I studied the Bible with the missionary.

00:53:18,987 --> 00:53:22,490

And they taught me when I finished the Bible,

00:53:22,490 --> 00:53:23,116

finished reading the

00:53:23,116 --> 00:53:24,784

Bible by the end of the year,

00:53:26,786 --> 00:53:29,539

2018, I decided to be baptized.

00:53:29,998 --> 00:53:32,459

And I changed my name into John, a new faith,

00:53:32,918 --> 00:53:37,172

a new life, a new, I was born again.

00:53:38,590 --> 00:53:39,758

A new everything, I mean, yeah.

00:53:39,758 --> 00:53:40,967

A new everything, yeah.

00:53:41,301 --> 00:53:43,178

Like new mentality, new heart.

00:53:44,054 --> 00:53:45,555

Like you have changed so

00:53:45,555 --> 00:53:47,182

much from the person you were

00:53:47,265 --> 00:53:49,559

back when you were Muslim in Yemen, you know,

00:53:49,559 --> 00:53:52,437

like the man who went on pilgrimage

00:53:52,812 --> 00:53:56,274

and walked around the Ka'aba in Mecca, you know,

00:53:56,274 --> 00:53:57,275

to who you are today.

00:53:57,651 --> 00:53:59,069

I mean, just think about how much transformation

00:53:59,402 --> 00:54:00,362

has happened in your life.

00:54:00,695 --> 00:54:02,739

And that's, it's happened

00:54:02,739 --> 00:54:03,907

through the Bible as well.

00:54:03,907 --> 00:54:06,785

And it's happened through, because I start like

00:54:07,160 --> 00:54:09,037

to do a mission, to walk

00:54:09,037 --> 00:54:10,246

alongside the missionary,

00:54:10,246 --> 00:54:11,247

to live with them.

00:54:11,831 --> 00:54:13,208

I was watching their life.

00:54:14,501 --> 00:54:16,836

And that's, that was really, like,

00:54:16,836 --> 00:54:19,589

it really impact my life in powerful way.

00:54:20,215 --> 00:54:21,299

I'm gonna say that.

00:54:22,217 --> 00:54:23,510

It's impacted my life.

00:54:23,510 --> 00:54:25,178

So if you encounter any new

00:54:25,178 --> 00:54:27,013

believers, please help them.

00:54:27,764 --> 00:54:29,808

Because we come from, we have a lot of things

00:54:29,808 --> 00:54:32,143

from the [indistinct] and lots of problems.

00:54:32,686 --> 00:54:34,854

It's not easy to get rid of it.

00:54:35,647 --> 00:54:40,026

So you need some people to care, to love you,

00:54:40,568 --> 00:54:42,529

to accept you as you are.

00:54:44,072 --> 00:54:45,240

So, and that's how, this

00:54:45,240 --> 00:54:47,242

is how my life like changed

00:54:47,867 --> 00:54:52,872

from like Arabic, Yemeni, hold to the culture

00:54:53,248 --> 00:54:55,291

to a radical Christian.

00:54:56,501 --> 00:54:57,877

Because of that experience,

00:54:57,877 --> 00:54:59,629

that year, that period.

00:55:00,255 --> 00:55:02,048

That's actually not only one year, two years.

00:55:02,799 --> 00:55:05,093

So I was baptized by the end of 2018.

00:55:05,510 --> 00:55:06,928

I remember when Pastor

00:55:06,928 --> 00:55:08,221

William baptized me, he said,

00:55:08,596 --> 00:55:11,391

"John, upon your confession of faith,

00:55:11,391 --> 00:55:12,350

I baptize you in the name

00:55:12,350 --> 00:55:14,019

of the Father and the Son

00:55:14,310 --> 00:55:15,270

and Jesus Christ.

00:55:15,603 --> 00:55:16,896

And he brought me into the water.

00:55:16,896 --> 00:55:18,023

I came out of the water

00:55:18,023 --> 00:55:20,650

and I felt God, Jesus Christ.

00:55:20,692 --> 00:55:23,153

He told me, I felt that conviction.

00:55:23,403 --> 00:55:25,780

He said, you're gonna share me with the nations."

00:55:27,907 --> 00:55:28,825

And I didn't mean, because I

00:55:28,825 --> 00:55:30,493

used to live with the missionary.

00:55:30,869 --> 00:55:33,580

I went the same baptism day, I went back,

00:55:33,580 --> 00:55:36,082

we had supper, you know, dinner in his apartment.

00:55:36,541 --> 00:55:39,836

And I told him, "Pastor, I

00:55:39,836 --> 00:55:40,962

wanna share my faith publicly.

00:55:41,588 --> 00:55:43,298

Are you sure your family back

00:55:43,298 --> 00:55:44,549

in Yemen, you have daughters?"

00:55:45,467 --> 00:55:47,552

And I have that conviction in my heart

00:55:47,635 --> 00:55:48,595

because I wanna tell

00:55:48,595 --> 00:55:50,138

everybody about the God of love,

00:55:50,180 --> 00:55:51,431

the God of salvation.

00:55:51,765 --> 00:55:52,599

It's shame on me.

00:55:52,599 --> 00:55:54,642

I start to quote verses from the Bible, you know,

00:55:54,642 --> 00:55:55,602

"If you deny me before

00:55:55,602 --> 00:55:57,520

people from Matthew 10:32,

00:55:57,729 --> 00:55:59,147

if you deny me before people,

00:55:59,147 --> 00:56:00,815

I will deny you before my Father in heaven.

00:56:01,107 --> 00:56:02,484

If you acknowledge me before people,

00:56:02,734 --> 00:56:04,569

I will acknowledge you before my Father in heaven.

00:56:05,070 --> 00:56:05,987

If you love your mother

00:56:05,987 --> 00:56:07,363

and your father more than me,

00:56:07,614 --> 00:56:08,865

you are not worthy of me.

00:56:09,115 --> 00:56:10,492

If you love your sisters,

00:56:10,492 --> 00:56:13,828

daughters and sons more than me,

00:56:13,828 --> 00:56:14,829

you are not worthy of me.

00:56:14,829 --> 00:56:17,540

Pick up your cross and follow me."

00:56:18,041 --> 00:56:18,249

Hmm.

00:56:19,501 --> 00:56:21,836

So I was into the scripture.

00:56:23,213 --> 00:56:26,132

Paul said, "I am not ashamed of the gospel

00:56:26,299 --> 00:56:27,258

for the gospel is the

00:56:27,258 --> 00:56:28,635

salvation to the whole nations."

00:56:29,552 --> 00:56:31,221

I said, "It's shame on me if

00:56:31,221 --> 00:56:33,181

I don't share with my people."

00:56:34,224 --> 00:56:37,644

So God give me that, you know, that passion.

00:56:38,436 --> 00:56:41,439

Nobody can stop me, no, even- Your daughter,

00:56:41,439 --> 00:56:43,024

my daughter was in Yemen.

00:56:43,316 --> 00:56:45,944

I know if I share, it's

00:56:45,944 --> 00:56:47,487

going to be a huge consequences.

00:56:48,905 --> 00:56:52,117

But even though I shared the same night,

00:56:52,367 --> 00:56:54,619

I upload my baptism, my testimony.

00:56:55,161 --> 00:56:55,411

Wow.

00:56:55,703 --> 00:56:57,664

So that would have been very,

00:56:58,039 --> 00:56:59,290

that's a dangerous thing to do.

00:56:59,290 --> 00:57:00,500

Yes, really dangerous.

00:57:00,917 --> 00:57:01,835

I mean, that's the end.

00:57:02,836 --> 00:57:06,005

I mean, especially like not only you've converted

00:57:06,005 --> 00:57:07,132

to Christianity, you're also,

00:57:07,966 --> 00:57:09,342

you say you uploaded your baptism.

00:57:09,592 --> 00:57:11,594

Yeah, my baptism and my testimony.

00:57:11,803 --> 00:57:12,303

And your testimony.

00:57:12,720 --> 00:57:13,805

I mean, so it's not just,

00:57:13,805 --> 00:57:14,681

oh, he's just saying that.

00:57:14,681 --> 00:57:15,765

No, no, no, like you got

00:57:15,765 --> 00:57:17,100

baptized, you have a testimony.

00:57:17,308 --> 00:57:19,310

Like this is not just here-say this is,

00:57:19,727 --> 00:57:21,312

you're showing this is the fruit.

00:57:21,521 --> 00:57:22,188

This is the evidence.

00:57:22,522 --> 00:57:23,022

Yeah, yeah.

00:57:23,648 --> 00:57:25,150

What happened when you posted that?

00:57:25,942 --> 00:57:29,779

Muslims, Yemenis, YouTubers, influencers,

00:57:30,446 --> 00:57:31,906

they start to do videos against me.

00:57:32,740 --> 00:57:34,492

You put this out on like social media.

00:57:34,868 --> 00:57:37,787

Facebook and YouTube.

00:57:38,204 --> 00:57:38,413

Wow.

00:57:38,621 --> 00:57:39,622

So yeah, very publicly.

00:57:40,415 --> 00:57:43,668

Because most of the vast majority in my country,

00:57:43,668 --> 00:57:44,377

they use Facebook.

00:57:45,378 --> 00:57:49,382

So it went viral and people, these influencers,

00:57:49,799 --> 00:57:52,468

they have billions of followers.

00:57:53,052 --> 00:57:54,846

They uploaded videos against me.

00:57:55,180 --> 00:57:57,307

They used my baptism video on my testimony.

00:57:58,474 --> 00:58:01,102

And people, they start to get curious

00:58:01,102 --> 00:58:02,687

because it's never happened in Yemen.

00:58:02,896 --> 00:58:04,898

Nobody baptized in Yemen or

00:58:04,898 --> 00:58:06,482

outside of Yemen as a Yemeni

00:58:06,482 --> 00:58:08,109

and share his testimony before.

00:58:08,109 --> 00:58:09,235

I was the first one.

00:58:09,277 --> 00:58:11,154

Because it was too dangerous, I guess.

00:58:11,154 --> 00:58:12,197

It is too dangerous, yeah.

00:58:12,488 --> 00:58:13,239

Yeah, it was crazy.

00:58:14,032 --> 00:58:15,575

So they make me more popular.

00:58:15,742 --> 00:58:17,160

They make it more viral.

00:58:17,160 --> 00:58:18,494

And my family saw that,

00:58:18,494 --> 00:58:19,996

my community, the leaders,

00:58:20,205 --> 00:58:20,747

the imams.

00:58:21,414 --> 00:58:23,374

So boom, my family start to call me

00:58:23,666 --> 00:58:26,211

because they get pressured from the community.

00:58:26,794 --> 00:58:27,921

This is your son, my

00:58:27,921 --> 00:58:29,756

family, they were in big trouble.

00:58:30,632 --> 00:58:33,509

Because I told you it's a family culture.

00:58:34,260 --> 00:58:35,762

It's a tribal culture.

00:58:36,387 --> 00:58:39,432

So what I did is it didn't only affect my family,

00:58:39,432 --> 00:58:40,350

it's gonna affect everybody.

00:58:41,267 --> 00:58:44,979

And my family start to call me, it's too late.

00:58:44,979 --> 00:58:47,649

I have decided to follow Jesus, not turning back.

00:58:48,066 --> 00:58:50,109

They couldn't, it was too late.

00:58:51,152 --> 00:58:52,320

They start to use my mother.

00:58:52,528 --> 00:58:54,364

My mother called me, I

00:58:54,364 --> 00:58:55,782

can't believe this is my son.

00:58:56,532 --> 00:58:57,700

I don't know, this is your son.

00:58:58,159 --> 00:59:01,496

And I came to know the God of the Bible,

00:59:01,913 --> 00:59:03,790

the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

00:59:03,831 --> 00:59:06,084

And this God, he came to rescue me.

00:59:06,542 --> 00:59:07,627

And I start to preach to her.

00:59:07,627 --> 00:59:09,712

He died on the cross from me and he rose again.

00:59:10,880 --> 00:59:12,548

And he died for you as well.

00:59:13,216 --> 00:59:14,217

You need to repent.

00:59:14,217 --> 00:59:15,718

I thought this is what I told my mother.

00:59:16,302 --> 00:59:18,554

Because I was bold, like straightforward, boom.

00:59:19,347 --> 00:59:20,515

And she was offended.

00:59:20,515 --> 00:59:22,809

How dare you say, oh, you know,

00:59:22,809 --> 00:59:24,936

my case is not from Allah.

00:59:25,603 --> 00:59:27,563

And she was offended about Islam.

00:59:27,563 --> 00:59:28,856

Because when I shared my testimony,

00:59:29,357 --> 00:59:30,775

I said why I left Islam.

00:59:31,734 --> 00:59:33,695

And like why you went on that pilgrimage

00:59:33,695 --> 00:59:34,821

and you saw it wasn't real.

00:59:35,113 --> 00:59:35,947

Yes, I showed.

00:59:35,947 --> 00:59:37,657

That's part of my testimony as well.

00:59:37,657 --> 00:59:38,616

That's probably, you know,

00:59:38,616 --> 00:59:39,784

that would have been very offensive.

00:59:39,826 --> 00:59:41,536

That's very, very right.

00:59:41,536 --> 00:59:45,832

It was, and she was really upset

00:59:46,249 --> 00:59:48,626

and she shut the phone on my face.

00:59:49,460 --> 00:59:50,420

It was really hard.

00:59:50,920 --> 00:59:52,380

So the Imam actually in

00:59:52,380 --> 00:59:54,382

my village divorced my wife

00:59:54,507 --> 00:59:55,717

under Islamic Sharia law.

00:59:57,051 --> 00:59:58,845

My daughters remained with my mother.

00:59:59,929 --> 01:00:03,141

My wife was taken by her family.

01:00:04,726 --> 01:00:07,979

And they divorced, like the Imam divorced her

01:00:07,979 --> 01:00:09,272

under Islamic Sharia law.

01:00:09,272 --> 01:00:10,440

And even they said me the

01:00:10,440 --> 01:00:14,527

official divorce from their side.

01:00:16,279 --> 01:00:20,074

So she has not any, she like,

01:00:20,366 --> 01:00:21,159

because when you get

01:00:21,159 --> 01:00:22,368

married, there is a contract.

01:00:23,494 --> 01:00:23,745

Okay.

01:00:24,495 --> 01:00:25,288

Like a contract.

01:00:25,913 --> 01:00:29,167

And that's the divorce contract came from them.

01:00:30,126 --> 01:00:31,419

That she divorced me.

01:00:31,711 --> 01:00:33,921

She is not under my authority anymore.

01:00:36,758 --> 01:00:37,925

And it was really hard

01:00:39,552 --> 01:00:41,346

because my daughters became the victim.

01:00:43,181 --> 01:00:45,058

They become the, without

01:00:45,058 --> 01:00:47,393

father and without mother.

01:00:48,811 --> 01:00:50,813

And it was a really hard time for me.

01:00:50,813 --> 01:00:53,900

It was like, I said, Lord, what to do?

01:00:54,525 --> 01:00:55,485

I lost everything.

01:00:57,153 --> 01:00:59,322

And I know, I know in the Bible already said

01:00:59,489 --> 01:01:02,116

that your family will become against you.

01:01:02,116 --> 01:01:04,285

But when it's become real in your life,

01:01:04,952 --> 01:01:08,164

how to deal with your- in the midst of that?

01:01:08,206 --> 01:01:10,124

What to do, how to deal with it?

01:01:11,417 --> 01:01:15,546

So my- the missionary, they prayed for me,

01:01:15,880 --> 01:01:18,049

[stood] with me, supported me.

01:01:18,591 --> 01:01:22,720

And I said, that verse came to my mind

01:01:22,970 --> 01:01:24,430

and still encouraged me

01:01:24,430 --> 01:01:25,932

every time I quote this verse

01:01:26,057 --> 01:01:31,479

from Matthew 16, What will it benefit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

01:01:31,479 --> 01:01:32,522

and I said, Lord Jesus Christ,

01:01:32,522 --> 01:01:35,400

I'm convinced 100% that

01:01:35,400 --> 01:01:37,235

you died on the cross for me

01:01:37,443 --> 01:01:39,404

and you rose again and you are alive.

01:01:39,987 --> 01:01:41,531

You are my God, you are my Savior.

01:01:42,198 --> 01:01:44,158

And I wanna honor you, I wanna obey you,

01:01:44,367 --> 01:01:46,452

I wanna follow you all the time.

01:01:47,620 --> 01:01:48,996

But I can't do it by myself.

01:01:50,415 --> 01:01:51,457

This is what happened.

01:01:51,457 --> 01:01:52,959

I lost everything basically.

01:01:53,418 --> 01:01:54,252

I start to receive death

01:01:54,252 --> 01:01:56,462

threats, my life at risk.

01:01:57,672 --> 01:01:59,215

And he gave me that peace.

01:01:59,674 --> 01:02:00,716

That shalom.

01:02:02,593 --> 01:02:05,763

And I felt, you know, peaceful

01:02:06,347 --> 01:02:08,224

and sought to dedicate my

01:02:08,224 --> 01:02:09,517

life more to read the Bible

01:02:10,560 --> 01:02:14,147

and to learn more about him, to dwell in him

01:02:14,355 --> 01:02:15,690

and to read the scripture,

01:02:16,941 --> 01:02:18,109

to enjoy the scripture in

01:02:18,109 --> 01:02:19,777

my life, to rest in him.

01:02:20,945 --> 01:02:22,822

And he gave me the courage as well

01:02:22,822 --> 01:02:24,240

to continue to do more videos.

01:02:25,783 --> 01:02:29,704

So, and persecution get intense in Greece.

01:02:30,079 --> 01:02:31,164

They wanted, even this,

01:02:31,164 --> 01:02:32,373

they started to persecute

01:02:32,373 --> 01:02:33,583

the missionaries as well

01:02:34,542 --> 01:02:38,671

because I, you know, they accused us

01:02:38,671 --> 01:02:40,882

that we take Muslims into Christianity

01:02:41,215 --> 01:02:45,803

because we baptized many people in Chios.

01:02:47,722 --> 01:02:49,724

And I would be stopped many times.

01:02:50,099 --> 01:02:51,476

They were looking after me.

01:02:51,893 --> 01:02:53,686

They were looking for my address.

01:02:55,313 --> 01:02:56,856

And it came to the point I

01:02:56,856 --> 01:02:57,773

need to flee from Greece.

01:02:58,608 --> 01:02:59,901

I used to love Greece.

01:02:59,901 --> 01:03:01,652

I have my Greek documents.

01:03:02,069 --> 01:03:03,321

It was beautiful time.

01:03:04,280 --> 01:03:06,240

I met these people from different nations.

01:03:06,699 --> 01:03:08,367

We loved to evangelize to them.

01:03:08,367 --> 01:03:10,036

I was the translator to the missionary.

01:03:11,245 --> 01:03:13,706

I was like the bridge between the missionary

01:03:14,081 --> 01:03:18,211

and the people who came to Christ.

01:03:19,795 --> 01:03:21,714

And so I just came to the

01:03:21,714 --> 01:03:23,716

point that I need to flee.

01:03:24,967 --> 01:03:27,970

Because in order to do social media,

01:03:28,804 --> 01:03:30,056

you need like a safe country

01:03:30,139 --> 01:03:32,183

because Greek people, Greek police,

01:03:32,517 --> 01:03:34,352

they see Arabs all the same.

01:03:34,352 --> 01:03:35,686

They don't care if you are

01:03:35,686 --> 01:03:38,814

Muslim, Christian, convert.

01:03:38,814 --> 01:03:39,398

They don't care.

01:03:40,691 --> 01:03:41,526

And I don't blame them.

01:03:42,318 --> 01:03:44,070

They have their own problems, I think.

01:03:45,696 --> 01:03:48,115

So, I have to flee from Greece.

01:03:48,658 --> 01:03:50,368

I, you know, I traveled to

01:03:50,368 --> 01:03:52,036

France by my Greek documents

01:03:53,162 --> 01:03:55,623

because I am allowed to go to the European Union.

01:03:56,832 --> 01:04:01,921

I traveled to Sweden, to Norway, back to Sweden,

01:04:02,421 --> 01:04:04,090

and okay, where to go Lord?

01:04:05,049 --> 01:04:06,092

I couldn't speak the

01:04:06,092 --> 01:04:08,219

languages, so I only speak English.

01:04:08,511 --> 01:04:11,514

So God gave me the conviction to go to the UK.

01:04:13,266 --> 01:04:16,394

So I booked my ticket and flew to the UK,

01:04:17,228 --> 01:04:17,979

in the [indistinct] in London.

01:04:19,689 --> 01:04:21,732

So when I arrived to London,

01:04:22,400 --> 01:04:25,945

I asked for political asylum

01:04:26,445 --> 01:04:28,155

because my life was at risk.

01:04:29,198 --> 01:04:31,200

They sent me to a hotel,

01:04:31,492 --> 01:04:33,703

hostel, and I was in London.

01:04:34,161 --> 01:04:35,871

They put me in the second floor.

01:04:36,455 --> 01:04:37,373

They gave me a room.

01:04:37,373 --> 01:04:38,165

I opened the window.

01:04:38,958 --> 01:04:43,254

I saw a mosque in front of my, in the hostel.

01:04:43,921 --> 01:04:46,465

I said, "Lord, why you send me here to the UK?

01:04:46,716 --> 01:04:47,717

Why you send me to London?"

01:04:48,509 --> 01:04:50,303

Oh my. I was so frustrated.

01:04:51,304 --> 01:04:55,308

I ran from Greece because Greece is near Turkey,

01:04:55,308 --> 01:04:56,642

and Turkey is a Muslim country.

01:04:56,642 --> 01:04:58,102

All Arabs, they go to Greece,

01:04:58,102 --> 01:04:59,770

and from Greece to Europe, Muslims.

01:05:00,896 --> 01:05:02,273

"Why you send me here, Lord?"

01:05:03,649 --> 01:05:04,817

The following day, the same.

01:05:05,026 --> 01:05:05,860

I opened the window.

01:05:05,860 --> 01:05:09,572

I saw a woman and her husband with beard,

01:05:10,281 --> 01:05:13,200

and the woman with the burqa,

01:05:13,200 --> 01:05:14,452

you know, covered everything,

01:05:15,620 --> 01:05:16,370

the black one.

01:05:17,163 --> 01:05:19,665

I said, "Lord, this is [indistinct]."

01:05:20,875 --> 01:05:23,127

I was so like, I said,

01:05:23,127 --> 01:05:25,129

"Lord, why you send me to the UK?

01:05:26,297 --> 01:05:27,089

Why you give me the

01:05:27,089 --> 01:05:28,424

conviction to come to the UK?"

01:05:30,176 --> 01:05:33,471

So anyway, the following

01:05:33,471 --> 01:05:35,348

days, like in three days,

01:05:35,348 --> 01:05:38,476

I've been sent to other city,

01:05:38,976 --> 01:05:40,186

which I will not mention it

01:05:40,186 --> 01:05:42,229

because of security reasons.

01:05:43,189 --> 01:05:47,068

And so now I start a new life in the UK.

01:05:48,944 --> 01:05:53,282

So I get my political asylum in the UK,

01:05:53,783 --> 01:05:55,743

and I start my new life working.

01:05:56,077 --> 01:05:56,827

I start to work actually

01:05:56,827 --> 01:05:59,789

with a church for three years.

01:05:59,789 --> 01:06:01,415

I worked in a steel company.

01:06:02,958 --> 01:06:04,126

I worked different jobs,

01:06:05,169 --> 01:06:06,921

and I start a new life, you know,

01:06:07,129 --> 01:06:09,256

but I have that heart for evangelism

01:06:09,465 --> 01:06:11,550

because God called me, gave me two gifts.

01:06:12,343 --> 01:06:14,845

One of them to evangelize to nonbelievers.

01:06:15,304 --> 01:06:16,722

Second, to equip the church,

01:06:16,722 --> 01:06:18,224

because what I saw in the West,

01:06:18,224 --> 01:06:21,477

the church is so sleepy,

01:06:21,977 --> 01:06:24,939

I always say sleepy, weak.

01:06:25,648 --> 01:06:26,482

They are ashamed of Christ.

01:06:27,692 --> 01:06:29,026

And, you know, "Come on,

01:06:29,026 --> 01:06:30,444

people, you have Jesus Christ,

01:06:30,778 --> 01:06:32,363

the one who died for our sins.

01:06:32,363 --> 01:06:33,322

He suffered for us.

01:06:33,989 --> 01:06:35,574

Come on, proclaim him."

01:06:35,574 --> 01:06:37,827

So many people, because he command us,

01:06:37,827 --> 01:06:41,247

go to the whole nations and make disciples

01:06:41,622 --> 01:06:42,623

and baptize them in the

01:06:42,623 --> 01:06:43,749

name of the Father and the Son

01:06:43,749 --> 01:06:44,500

and the Holy Spirit,

01:06:44,500 --> 01:06:46,627

and I will be with you to the end of the time.

01:06:47,253 --> 01:06:48,713

And the churches didn't do that

01:06:48,921 --> 01:06:51,298

because the nations, they are like in the UK,

01:06:51,507 --> 01:06:52,925

in everywhere, you can see them,

01:06:52,925 --> 01:06:54,635

and you can, I think even in the US.

01:06:55,720 --> 01:06:57,680

Come on, share with the nations.

01:06:58,097 --> 01:07:00,599

The nations is a new country.

01:07:02,351 --> 01:07:05,438

So this is why I have heart for mission.

01:07:05,896 --> 01:07:09,442

I am, my mind is like about mission.

01:07:09,442 --> 01:07:10,818

I wanna do mission, mission, mission.

01:07:10,860 --> 01:07:12,319

I wanna see the churches to do mission,

01:07:12,903 --> 01:07:15,906

to evangelize, to tell everyone about the God,

01:07:16,657 --> 01:07:18,868

Jesus Christ, the King of heaven.

01:07:19,869 --> 01:07:23,122

So now I continue to share my

01:07:23,122 --> 01:07:25,040

faith public on social media.

01:07:25,416 --> 01:07:26,834

I have established last

01:07:26,834 --> 01:07:29,128

year my ministry officially.

01:07:29,420 --> 01:07:30,671

It's called Faith and Love Media,

01:07:31,380 --> 01:07:34,550

and I share like videos in Arabic,

01:07:34,800 --> 01:07:36,260

basically like one minute video,

01:07:36,719 --> 01:07:39,180

but I invite people to come to the Lord.

01:07:39,472 --> 01:07:41,140

Jesus died for you.

01:07:41,599 --> 01:07:43,309

I proclaim the cross of Jesus Christ,

01:07:43,309 --> 01:07:44,393

the blood of Jesus Christ,

01:07:44,393 --> 01:07:45,394

the name of Jesus Christ,

01:07:45,811 --> 01:07:46,896

the message of the cross,

01:07:46,896 --> 01:07:48,189

basically, all the time.

01:07:49,815 --> 01:07:52,234

And my dream to have podcasts like you,

01:07:52,985 --> 01:07:55,613

to do more teaching and to invite people,

01:07:55,613 --> 01:07:58,407

to talk about different topics.

01:07:59,283 --> 01:08:02,661

And because I continue to share my faith public

01:08:02,912 --> 01:08:05,080

on social media, you know,

01:08:05,080 --> 01:08:06,415

Yemen is almost 40 million.

01:08:07,708 --> 01:08:08,000

Wow.

01:08:08,584 --> 01:08:12,838

And because I, in Facebook, I do ads, campaigns,

01:08:13,839 --> 01:08:16,383

and 60% of my people in

01:08:16,383 --> 01:08:18,260

Yemen heard about Jesus Christ.

01:08:19,637 --> 01:08:20,554

That's incredible.

01:08:20,930 --> 01:08:23,599

I say, I say my videos go where I can't,

01:08:23,599 --> 01:08:24,683

because if I go back to

01:08:24,683 --> 01:08:26,435

Yemen, they're gonna skin me,

01:08:26,435 --> 01:08:27,603

they're gonna kill me life.

01:08:27,603 --> 01:08:28,854

Bro, they're gonna skin me,

01:08:28,854 --> 01:08:30,439

they're gonna take my skin off my body.

01:08:31,106 --> 01:08:32,024

That's what they're gonna do.

01:08:32,024 --> 01:08:32,942

They're gonna send their message

01:08:33,359 --> 01:08:35,069

to everybody in Yemen.

01:08:35,611 --> 01:08:36,529

If you dare to do what

01:08:36,529 --> 01:08:38,447

John did, this is the result.

01:08:39,615 --> 01:08:42,201

Have you heard from religious leaders down there,

01:08:42,409 --> 01:08:43,494

issuing like, what kind of

01:08:43,494 --> 01:08:45,663

threats have they said towards you?

01:08:45,913 --> 01:08:47,540

Like, what are they claiming they'll do to you?

01:08:47,540 --> 01:08:50,209

I advise everybody to go on my social media,

01:08:50,417 --> 01:08:53,420

John Ghanim, John Ghanim, and see the comments

01:08:53,504 --> 01:08:55,422

how every day I receive,

01:08:55,923 --> 01:08:57,842

big death threats, persecution.

01:08:58,968 --> 01:09:02,137

Some secret Christians, because every day

01:09:02,137 --> 01:09:04,181

we hear new testimonies inside of Yemen.

01:09:04,765 --> 01:09:06,433

There is an underground.

01:09:07,059 --> 01:09:09,353

I was just telling you one before we started,

01:09:09,562 --> 01:09:11,230

or I messaged you before recording this,

01:09:11,230 --> 01:09:12,231

it's like some, in a

01:09:12,231 --> 01:09:13,148

different Middle Eastern country,

01:09:13,148 --> 01:09:14,817

watching videos are coming to Christ.

01:09:15,025 --> 01:09:16,360

You know, it's real.

01:09:16,402 --> 01:09:17,319

It's happening again.

01:09:17,319 --> 01:09:18,362

It's happening, so there is

01:09:18,362 --> 01:09:21,490

underground believers in Christ.

01:09:22,283 --> 01:09:23,659

So some of them, they've been arrested,

01:09:24,785 --> 01:09:27,746

and we know what happened when they investigate,

01:09:27,746 --> 01:09:31,000

when they, you know, investigate them.

01:09:31,876 --> 01:09:34,044

They ask them, "Do you know this John Ghanim?"

01:09:35,379 --> 01:09:36,255

They ask them about me.

01:09:37,047 --> 01:09:38,215

This is the government of Yemen.

01:09:39,341 --> 01:09:40,759

They ask him, "Do you know him?"

01:09:41,176 --> 01:09:43,262

No, they deny some of them.