Mona Walter grew up in Somalia, believing in the Islamic faith, but without actually having read the holy book of the Muslims, the Quran.
At age 19, Walter went to Sweden as a war refugee. She recalled getting excited about being in a modern European nation, primarily because finally, she will be able to read the Quran.
"I discovered Islam first in Sweden. In Somalia, you're just a Muslim, without knowing the Quran. But then you come to Sweden and you go to mosque and there is the Quran, so you have to cover yourself and you have to be a good Muslim," Walter shared with CBN.
Walter's excitement, however, immediately turned into sadness and disappointment, when she began reading the Quran. She said that going over the holy book of the Muslims made her realise that Allah, the god she believed in for almost two decades of her life, is a god of hate, and that Islam is not a religion of peace.
"It's about hating and killing those who disagree with Islam. It's about conquering. Mohammed, he was immoral. He was a bloodthirsty man. He was terrible man, and Muslims can read that in his biography—what he did to Jews, how he raped women, how he killed people. I mean, he killed everyone who didn't agree with him," she explained.
Her disappointment with Islam and the Quran prompted Walter to briefly become an atheist, until she discovered another book that will change her life forever: the Holy Bible.
A family member encouraged Walter to read the Holy Scriptures. While leafing through the pages of the Bible for the first time, she read Matthew 5:44, where Jesus said: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."
Walter immediately recognised the difference between Christianity and Islam.
"It was very strange for me to 'love your enemy,' because in Islam it is 'kill your enemy.' 'Kill your enemy and anyone who refuses Islam.' But Jesus Christ was all about love and peace and forgiveness and tolerance, and for some reason, I needed that," she said.
Pastor Fouad Rasho of Angered Alliance Church, a Syrian immigrant who ministers to former Muslims in Sweden, recalled how Walter started to accept Christ, filling her life with joy.
"She started to believe and she came to me. And that was the beginning of her trusting," Rasho said.
