Sean Blevins This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. KnoxNews: Religion

   www.knoxnews.com/kns/religion/ - [Cached]

   Published on: 11/6/2004   Last Visited: 11/6/2004

   On Sunday, Ayesh and her husband, Sean Blevins, joined other Muslim families at Bearden High School to have iftar, the breaking of the day's fast with a community meal.
   ...
   Sean Blevins, left, converses with Umoja Abdul-Ahad at dinner. Blevins converted to Islam in October 2001 after studying the faith at length. To Blevins, the terrorism attacks on the U.S. the month prior did not represent the faith he came to accept.
   ...
   It was also the day before Sean Blevins joined her faith community.
   ...
   Blevins sought the men because he wanted to openly profess his faith in front of them.
   
   "I remember praying and asking God if it's okay to become a Muslim," he said.
   ...
   They attend the University of Tennessee; Blevins, 28, is a first-year graduate student in the university's School of Information Sciences. He also has a master's in religion and has taught in UT's religious studies department.
   ...
   Blevins said a higher level of animosity, as evidenced in certain attitudes and language - Michael Savage, Ann Coulter and a recent editorial in the Chattanooga Times Free Press are good examples - directed toward Islam and Muslims is accepted.
   ...
   Blevins said the confusion is further complicated when media reports fail to distinguish affiliation from motivation. Someone who kills and says they are Muslim often cite secular reasons - i.e. nationalism - rather than religious reasons, he said.
   
   "Yet legitimizing it using religious language confuses the issue and further causes people to say, 'Ah ha! Islam promotes violence,' " he said.
   ...
   Raised Methodist, Blevins said he was always a "religious seeker."
   
   His conversion is not a phase.
   
   "As you get older, you get more conservative, and it's harder to be different, to make drastic changes," he said.
   ...
   "When I come to congregational prayer and I see people standing shoulder to shoulder to pray together, that strikes me as being very beautiful," Blevins said.