In 2017, I was involved in a serious accident. While I was in the hospital, a non-Muslim family member came to visit me. At the time, Muslims from various parts of Nigeria were trooping in to see me, and several Islamic organizations sent their representatives. That family member didn’t have to spend a single naira, either before or after I regained consciousness. In fact, despite undergoing surgeries on both my hand and leg, I didn’t spend a dime.

I vividly remember either Dr. Sanusi Lafiagi or Ustaadh Ibn Abdillah As-Sudaisy calling to inform me that ₦200,000 had been sent on behalf of An-Nusrah. In 2017, ₦200,000 was a significant amount. And there was more — support from others that eventually covered nearly the ₦5 million spent during my recovery. The now late Alhaji Isola Adepoju and the entire ACADIP family played the most crucial role.

A Non-Muslim’s Honest Admiration

One day, this non-Muslim family member looked at me and said:

“Samson (that’s me), I love your kind of Muslim people. Ahn ahn! It’s like I’ve never seen Muslims before. You and your friends are very, very different.”

What she admired wasn’t just the sense of brotherhood everyone displayed. It was the neatness. The nice perfumes. The intellect. I, the patient, had even asked for my laptop while still in bed — a strange thing to her, especially considering one of her original reasons for opposing my reversion to Islam: she believed I was too promising a young man to associate with what she saw as backward people, terrorists, and illiterates.

I explained to her that those she met were not some “special class” of Muslims. No — they represent the default standard of what being a Muslim truly means. What she saw was Islam in action, not a rare exception. The only reason it felt so different to her was that she had only ever chosen to see the kind of Muslims that matched her own bias.

The Reality of Stereotypes

In South-West Nigeria — and in many other parts of the world — when a Muslim is wealthy, intellectual, kind, or honest, people often attribute those qualities to the person, not their religion.

But when a Muslim is poor, wears worn-out socks or a hijab/niqab, or is a land-grabbing Alhaji or a drunkard, stereotypes and biases kick in. Such individuals are held up as the standard representation of Islam, and the religion becomes unfairly associated with ignorance, violence, and oppression.

Challenging the Bias

This visit gave me an opportunity to address those assumptions head-on.

I reminded her of a conversation we once had, when I invited her to Islam. She told me that even if she ever considered embracing Islam, she could never wear the hijab. Her reason? A hijab-wearing sister who worked for her had hair that smelled. That one example reinforced a stereotype in her mind.

I picked up my phone, opened Instagram, and showed her photos of several hijab and niqab-wearing sisters.

“Look at these women,” I said. “Do they look like their hair smells? Look at the fabric of their hijabs and niqabs — do they look poor, unkempt, or untidy?”

Final Thoughts

Many biased non-Muslims pay attention only to the kind of Muslims that confirm their preconceptions. Those become their model for what Islam is all about. And so, Islam is falsely reduced to terrorism, intolerance, and backwardness.

Study Islam — not Muslims. And if you must study Muslims, study the right ones.