Shaun and Lee are two brothers who, by their own account, were “ruined” as youths, spending their days drinking, doing drugs, clubbing and gambling. Sean says, “Let’s just say that every party was at our house, and I was always the host.”
But today Sean has become Abdul, a Muslim convert to Islam who has dedicated his life to his God and strictly follows all the requirements of the Islamic faith. His brother, Lee, travels the length and breadth of Britain, attending anti-Islamic rallies organized by the English Defence League. The two brothers have long since turned their backs on each other, choosing two opposite paths in life, but in an interview with The Observer, Abdou said, “I know that Lee still loves me, and of course, I love him.”
The story of the two brothers, Abdou and Lee, has been reported and broadcast by Channel 4, and their story is part of the channel’s Very British Muslims documentary series. The documentary was filmed mainly in and around Birmingham’s Central Mosque, with the entire shoot taking a full year. According to producer Fawzia Khan, the documentary aims to show the real life of the ordinary Muslim public rather than the negative news they see on a daily basis.
In the documentary, we see Bella and Nayera tying the knot as they search for true love, Waz and Nav suffering from the media’s bias against Muslim youth, Zaidan longing for both the bright lights of the city of Birmingham and finding the true meaning of life, and we see Sidrah wants the world to understand that behind her veil is a living, breathing human being.
As for Abdou, who converted to Islam seven years ago, he says, “I never thought I was a bad person, I did indulge in drugs and so on, but I have never been a violent person.” He says he “discovered” the Islamic faith by chance, and from then on, he “fell in love” with it and was convinced by the way of life and the principles it promotes.
Abdou says, “My first thought was, ‘Wow, this is great! But I was still very much in love with my old life, and I didn’t want to lose the ‘joy’ of it. Anyway, the conversion process was long and it took me three or four years to realize how unreal my past life was.” In the documentary, Abdou also talks about his confusion and wandering before his conversion to Islam, saying, “Islam changed me completely, and I completely rejected my previous life.”
As Abdul’s brother, Lee said he was shocked to hear that Sean had turned into Abdul, saying, “I knew he had some little secrets, but I just assumed he was gay, and I didn’t think he would convert to Islam. In my opinion, if he wanted to convert, I probably would have assumed he would be a Christian, not a Muslim, and as a white man, that’s just extraordinary.”
Lee has attended several anti-Islamic rallies organized by the Alliance for the Defence of Britain, which have had a simple theme of opposing the Muslim community and the way Muslims treat women and children. Lee says: “Personally, I don’t really hate Muslims, I only go to these events when I’m bored.”
Two brothers, Abdou and Lee, were born and raised in Dudley, D.C. Abdou converted to Islam on Christmas Day 2009 and spent the next nine months traveling by car between his home and Birmingham City until he finally decided to move to the city. He said, “I remember the first time I put on a robe, and I opened the door to my house shaking and wondering what the hell people were going to think of me. White people would always stare at me, and sometimes their eyes were telling me that I was a traitor, but I didn’t really care what they saw.”
Soon after his conversion, Abdou met a Pakistani Muslim woman named Hina, and after a week or so, they met, and after another seven days, they were married. “Our marriage was our trust and faith in Allah,” says Abdu. Immediately after the marriage, Abdu was upgraded to a father, as Hina had two sons and a daughter with her ex-husband at the time. Of course, Abdou’s relationship with his children was not a smooth one, and his journey of faith was full of hardships. Today, the couple has two more sons, one named Zahra and Mohammed.
The documentary shows Abdu organizing a party after Mohammed’s birth, inviting local Muslims and his own brothers. The footage captures an awkward moment when Lee, alone in the back garden, observes Abdou and the others eating with their hands, saying, “It felt like they were degraded in general.”
Lee added, “To be honest, I didn’t feel very comfortable going there for nothing more than my brother Sean. He chose his path and I chose mine, but he’s still my brother and I miss the Sean I grew up with.”
In an interview with The Observer, Abudu said, “My brother and I disagreed, but we both respected each other. I still feel close to him – blood is thicker than water, after all – but I’m not sure my brother feels the same way.”
As a producer, Khan spent a full six months trying to convince the mosque management to allow them to make the documentary, saying, “We had to establish a relationship of mutual trust first, and they said that they could trust me, but they couldn’t be sure that the documentary would be outside the knots. Admittedly, it was a challenging project, but I believe it ended well.”
Lee confessed that he decided to work on the documentary purely for his brother, and noted that the documentary made him more tolerant of Muslims.
As for Abdou, he said he decided to get involved because he wanted to make the voices of Muslims heard, and he didn’t want to see people making up so-called “news” about Muslims. He added: “I want people to talk to us, I want to break this awkward impasse, even the skinheads, I want them to come and talk to me, but the British don’t like to ask questions, they prefer to let them sink in. We just need to open our hearts and minds to mutual trust and communication, we just need to break down all barriers.”