Former Muslim Brotherhood member brings message of peace to Winchester

By Katie Perkowski
The Winchester Sun
12:00 a.m. EDT, July 16, 2011

A¿converted Christian and a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood is bringing his story of conversion and a message — to not fear Muslims — to Winchester.
The Rev. Hicham Chehab, who was born and lived most of his life in Beirut, Lebanon, has lived in the U.S. for about six years and is a pastor at Salam Arabic Fellowship, an Arabic worship service in the Chicago area. It’s associated with the Lutheran Church for Missouri Synod, and its first Arabic language service was in March 2008.
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Chehab, who will speak at Grace Lutheran Church Sunday, described how Beirut, the largest city of Lebanon and its capital, in the days before the Lebanese Civil War was known as the “Paris of the Middle East.” The city lies along the Mediterranean seaside, or “corniche” in Arabic, with palm trees, fishermen and joggers lining the sidewalk along the way. It was deemed the “Paris of the Middle East” because of its thriving tourism, five-star hotels and energetic nightlife that rivaled some of the best tourist destinations in Europe.
Chehab described the city in the 1960s, before the war, as a cosmopolitan town with tourists from all over the world and as a fashion town. The American University of Beirut, where he later attended school, also brought in professors and professionals from all over the world to work.
“The neighborhoods were mixed, and we used to see a lot of Europeans and Americans,” he said.
When thousands of Palestinians were expelled from Jordan in a bloody mass exodus, Black September, many fled to nearby Lebanon. The new arrival of thousands of Palestinians and the Palestinian Liberation Organization caused friction in the country, and, although this wasn’t the sole cause, in 1975, the Civil War broke out.
“Everything became chaotic,” Chehab said, adding that hotels and businesses were looted, shops downtown were looted and burned, and Christian militias began facing off against Muslim militias. “Downtown was a battlefield.”
Tourism halted, traffic laws were not obeyed, gunmen appeared on the streets daily, kidnappings happened and there was a lot of arbitrary shelling between Christian and Muslim neighborhoods, he said.
“So it was like a chaos, however … because Beirut was such a beautiful place, every month, people would say ‘Next year it will be better, next year there will be a solution.’ People had hope in the beginning,” he said.
By 13, he was recruited by the Muslim Brotherhood, and he said the focus was on discipleship and training children to know exactly the Muslim theology and know the Koran partially by heart. Smoking and drinking were taboos.
“However, something very important was we had to kind of dispense ourselves from everything that looked Western, especially the media. They were against watching TV¿or going to the movie houses, and they believed that the media was a tool for Westernizing the Arab and Muslim world,” he said.
When the war began, he fought against Christians, and while he was on his way to becoming a Muslim preacher, he got in a car accident that set him back for a year. After this, he decided to go to AUB to study medicine, and in 1980 during his first semester, a Christian militia killed his brother.
Chehab said when his brother was killed, he couldn’t really hold the course load he had, so he dropped all classes except one — one that included discussion of the Bible. His reasoning for this was to make friends with some Christian militia members so he could know where they moved at night and where they lived.
But then one day he heard the Sermon on the Mount in class, and it began his slow change of heart and long journey to Christianity.
“I¿thought this was really ridiculous, but I can say I used to memorize parts of the Koran by heart, and I never heard something so peaceful like calling for peace and invocation that calls for peace like this,” he said of his first time hearing the sermon. “Peace for the enemy, peace for the human kind, and I¿was kind of distorted … I¿was very kind of leading an unpeaceful life, and I¿needed peace, and I¿thought ‘Maybe this is the answer.’”
He recalls sneaking into churches to hear priests speak about Jesus, and he felt he wanted to be a peacemaker, “the peacemaker that Jesus described in his Sermon on the Mount.”
When the Civil War ended around 1991, Chehab found a nongovernmental Christian-Islamic dialogue association to bring the two religious sects together in hopes of healing the wounds of the war. He said it took a long time for him to completely go to Christianity because he was unsure if it was a step he should take, and he lived like a “secret believer” for a long time.
Chehab earned a master’s in the history of Arabs and a Ph.D. in the history of Islam, and he was baptized in 2000. He then worked with a Lutheran church missionary in Beirut. He tried to do missions for Palestinian-Muslims for six months, but he couldn’t raise enough funds to continue.
In 2004, he came to the U.S. and began attending the Concordia Seminary in Fort Wayne, Ind., and by 2009 completed his seminary studies. Now, he is a pastor for Middle Eastern communities in the Chicago area, and he travels the country spreading his message of peace.
Pastor Thomas Hoyt of Grace Lutheran, said he saw Chehab’s name in some of the church’s district newsletters, and he said the church’s men’s fellowship “had been reviewing some information about Islam and wanted to share some of the information to other churches.” He said he hopes a big crowd comes.
On Wednesday, Chehab said he had done four lectures in 24 hours and was traveling from Missouri by car. He said he only flies when it’s absolutely necessary, because of the changes after 9/11.
“I used to breathe freedom here, especially coming from the Middle East,” he said. “I used to feel everybody is relaxed, everybody is not worried about anything. Maybe this isn’t good, but boarding a plane was like boarding a bus. We didn’t feel we needed to go ahead of time and go through security, but one of those times I¿was traveling from Canada to the U.S. or vice versa … on the Canadian-American border, they discovered my Lebanese passport, and everybody was given a blue basket to put their things.
“I was given a red basket and given an escort like somebody who would hold me if I¿were to attack somebody … and I¿felt like the Scarlet Letter … I¿felt like I¿had a scarlett letter on my coat.”
He recalled that even though he showed he was a “peacemaker,” his word didn’t count at all, and that the word “profiled” is not enough to describe the experience.
Chehab said many Christian converts from Islam and people who work in his field contribute to “fear mongering,” and go around saying all terrorists are Muslim, which he said he agrees with partially.
“But I’m saying those are human beings like us, and they have their own dreams and their own human weaknesses,” he said. “And they are people like us, and I¿believe they need love and forgiveness like we do.”
Chehab spoke to about 200 high schoolers and college students Wednesday, and he said one of his messages was that while some say they should lead people to Christ, “I tell them we should love people to Christ.”
“We should let Christ shine through us and be a light to the people.”
Chehab will teach the Sunday Bible class at Grace Lutheran, 108 Hemlock Road, at 9:15 a.m. and be the guest preacher at the 10:30 a.m. worship service. He’ll also present his testimony through a video presentation, “The Road to 9-11,” at 1:30 p.m.

Contact Katie Perkowski at kperkowski@winchestersun.com or follow her Twitter @TheSunKatie.