When I first accepted Islam I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. I didn't realize that it entailed many prayers, five times a day. I didn't realize that I need to fast the month of Ramadan. I was basically na�ve and ignorant.

At the same time I really didn't care what I had to do, because I wanted to become like the people that I had met. I wanted the generosity, the humility, and the charisma.

I grew up in a middle-class Jewish family in New York. My family was Jewish, more Zionistic-oriented than actually Jewish by faith. I grew up in a vacuum basically. I grew up without any religious teachings, instructions or foundations.  

As a result of that, by the time I reached my late teens I felt like I wanted something more out of life than just pursuing a materialistic lifestyle; more than just attempting to purchase a two car garage and television set, etc. So when I went to university, I stumbled into relationships with various philosophers and teachers of religion. I spent time with Dalai Lamas, Buddhists, Hindus, Campus Crusade for Christ members and Jewish Rabies. The only form of religion that I didn't encounter until I was working on my PhD at New York university in the middle 1970s, was Islam.

At first I thought Islam might be some sort of punishment, because it has certain rules and regulations that I didn't feel that I wanted to accept. I have never been a lover of pork, so giving up the eating of pig meat didn't affect me whatsoever. Giving up the drinking of alcohol didn't upset me at all, because I didn't particularly care for the taste of alcohol. I don't understand how anyone can say honestly that they like the taste of alcohol. I find that strange.

There is really not that much about Islam which contains a person in terms of getting on with life. There's the praying, the fasting and giving up 2.5 percent of one�s excess wealth each year, which doesn't count much when one has a limited income.

In Islam, there is no hierarchy. There's no priesthood. There's no intermediary between man and God. Allah or God refers to Himself, He says "Call me Allah or call me al-Rahman". Al-Rahman in Arabic means the Merciful. Throughout the Quran, God is always presented as forgiving. We as Muslims are told that each time we do ablutions before each prayer, we are removing all of our wrong actions. Islam is a very merciful religion, and technically it's the same as Judaism and Christianity.

One Christian came to me at one of my classes and asked me why I did not worship Jesus. And I said to him �If I'm going to worship a man I would worship Adam, because he had neither father nor mother, and he is recognized as a man as Jesus was, so why do you not worship Adam?�. We as Muslims revere Jesus as a Muslim. The word Muslim means in English one who submits to God. Islam means submission to God. What did Jesus do other than that?