Last night in Smith Hall, the Muslim Student Association hosted My Journey to Islam, one of a series of events for Islam Awareness Week.

Former law student Maria Romero and Ken Stewart, a graduate student working toward his master's degree in Middle Eastern languages and civilization, both discussed their conversions to Islam.

Stewart, a 14-year veteran and an active-duty captain in the U.S. Army, shared a past filled with tragedy and fulfillment, which he said influenced him to become a Muslim.

For the first 19 years of his life, Stewart belonged to the Mormon faith. He traveled to Japan, where he worked as a missionary, only to be disappointed by the ineffective results of his labor.

Stewart returned to the United States unable to obtain a job. He joined the army, where he was supposed to function as a linguist, but was unable to get the necessary security clearance because he was married to a foreign national. He became a medic for eight years.

Stewart moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, were he was first introduced to Islam. He was having serious financial problems and even donated blood to buy diapers for his newborn baby. Stewart refused to use food stamps because of his pride, which he partially attributed to his ex-wife's reason for leaving him.

Feeling lost and confused, Stewart attempted a variety of worship methods. He frequented synagogues, Buddhist temples and even tried "pyramid worship," which he described as "crazy stuff."

During a drive down the freeway, Stewart heard a voice that compelled him to travel to the top of a hill. There he found a mosque and began studying Islam.

Stewart learned Arabic and became a civil affairs officer. By this time, the war in Iraq had begun. Stewart was deployed to Iraq, where his job involved visiting mosques and villages; he tried to convince the local leaders to make peace.

Stewart experienced great hardship as a soldier in Iraq, seeing innocent Iraqis killed in a firefight between U.S. forces and insurgents. The insurgents fired indiscriminately and seriously wounded Stewart's best friend, an Iraqi man who was shot in the stomach.

"What if my bullet hit him?" Stewart asked the audience. "It's possible, right? A stray bullet. Please God; don't let it have been mine."

Beta, Stewart's wife, was kidnapped and tortured by Iraqi insurgents for a month outside Fallujah. Her father was murdered, and insurgents cut her hands.

"My wife said, 'They took my father, they kidnapped me, they cut me with the sword, [but] my God will never leave me', " Stewart said.

Beta's unrelenting faith had a huge impact on Stewart, and from that point on, he has remained fervent in Islam.

Romero also lived a difficult life. As a Mexican-American woman who converted to Islam, she was rejected by her family. Romero's mother had a heart attack when she learned her daughter was a Muslim.

Romero was raised in Tucson, Ariz., and didn't learn English until the first grade. Romero translated for her mother and even for her neighbors, who could only speak Spanish.

"From a very young age, I had a great deal of responsibility put on me," Romero said.

Romero was raised Catholic. She was the first in her family to graduate from high school and attend college. In college, she met a Palestinian man with whom she fell in love and married. Her mother initially believed the man would take Romero away to a foreign country. Eventually, Romero and her husband divorced. Her divorce set her family against her once again.

Romero began to read about Islam. By then, she had a daughter and was attending law school. Romero graduated from law school in 1998 and took the ashaduan, the testimony of faith.

"I think my trials are so small compared to the ones others have to go through," Romero said. "I am thankful that I have a much more extended family. Until I came to Islam, I never stood side by side with people all over the world from every background, every economic status."

Hassan Hatem, president of the MSA, said he hoped last night's dialogue would bring Muslim and non-Muslim students together.

Today, he is encouraging all female students, regardless of background, to take part in Islam Awareness Week by donning the hijab, the religious headscarf representing modesty, privacy and morality.

There will be an event, Experience the Life of a Muslim Woman, today to discuss women's experiences wearing the hijab and the significance for Muslim women in covering their hair.

"Walking a day in another person's shoes," Hatem said. "That experience is the highest education."

Reach reporter Anthonay Shelley at news@thedaily.washington.edu.