Original subtitles

assalamu alaikum

dear viewers if islamic history has

taught us one thing

is that no matter how dreadful someone's

past

is if he or she even intends to make it

right

or atoned for his mistakes allah creates

fascinating pathways that leave him or

her

to the path of righteousness this story

is about one such person a former u.s

marine

richard mckinney who once planned to bob

a mosque

but in a twisting turn of events ended

up becoming a muslim himself

to begin with growing up richard

mckinney was always the boy

who was into the adventure genre his

favorite movie

was rambo which was characterized by

plenty of action

the protagonist of the movie was ramble

himself who mckinney believed to be

tough

respected and having an intestinal

fortitude

mckinney wanted to be like rambo he

wanted

action so got enrolled in the united

states marine corps

ultimately for quite a number of years

mckinney fought

several times in the middle east desert

shield desert storm

south america philippines and somalia

during this time he took down countless

enemies

at first he used to count down the foes

felt by him

but he lost count after 26. after

serving in the marine corps for 25 years

he contracted an injury in iraq and was

forced

to retire moving on when he came back to

his home country

as a retired marine he was traumatized

by all the deaths he had caused as a

soldier his nationalistic beliefs were

amplified

and he decided that islam was his enemy

he had begun drinking

half a gallon of vodka every single day

and was getting consumed by

hate and anger after his return one day

mckenney went to a dsw with his wife he

saw two women

in black berkus from distance and his

first

instinct was to go over and end

their lives after his conversion he

described the event in the following

words

i cried as i pray for enough strength to

go over there

and break both their necks fortunately

he didn't act on his impulses

he however devised a plan to create his

own homeland bomb ied and

set it off right outside the islamic

center

of monkey to kill or injure

200 plus muslims he knew that doing so

would send him to federal prison and

eventually get him executed but he

didn't care his hatred of islam

was what was keeping him alive he

thought he was doing his country

a favor interestingly before he

implanted this devious plan

one day he had a conversation with his

daughter who told about the mother

of a boy who sat across from her in the

school

apparently that woman was a muslim and

had covered her body

from tip to toe on hearing that mckinney

snapped he started spewing things

that children should never hear his

daughter just stood there

in silence appalled mckinney later said

she didn't say anything it was look on

her face

i remember my daughter looking at me

like i was

absolutely the craziest person on the

face of the earth

she was my little buddy she used to say

we were road dogs

i know i saw it in her eyes i made her

question that love

that was the turning point of mckinney's

life

he decided to give the muslim community

one more chain

he went to the islamic center of monkey

and was greeted

by a gentleman with a smile mckinney

told him

that he wanted to learn about islam the

man gave him the english version of the

holy quran

and told him to read it and come back to

him with any questions

mckinney did exactly that whenever he

found

something confusing he would go to the

muslims

in that mosque and ask them to explain

to his surprise

they always had all the answers he says

they would explain it in a way that i

could understand

what they were talking about they didn't

try to answer a parable

with another parable this gave me plain

answer

this was an awakening for mckinney after

eight weeks

of his first visit to the islamic center

mckinney said

his shahada and became a muslim three

years later

he became the president of the islamic

center of monkey

the same place which he once intended

to destroy after his conversion mckenney

said

that he was completely wrong about

everything that he felt before his

conversion to islam

he says judaism had a message

christianity

had a message and islam had a message

funny thing is

though it was the same message it was

about peace

it was about love of the three

aforementioned religions

mckinney however was able to find the

answers he was looking for

in islam he believes that everyone

has been sent to this world by the same

creator and we all have one

unanimous purpose to get along

nowadays mckinney lives as a muslim a

veteran

and a proud american he is often being

summoned

to motivational speaking sessions as a

guest speaker

his big ambition is to stop the hate

from spreading in the world

he says that he has done a lot of things

hurt a lot of people

and he has to live with that but he

believes that if he can direct

someone else to the right path he will

be satisfied

with himself he also says that followers

of other faith

usually have a lot of questions about

islam and urges

his muslim brothers and sisters to

address those questions

in a friendly manner without giving them

the impression that anyone

is trying to convert them with that

being said

the heartwarming story of brother

richard mckinney reaches

its conclusion