Ever since I became a Muslim, I've had to deal with attempts to damage my reputation and countless insinuations seeking to cast doubt on my character and trying to connect me to causes which I do not subscribe to.

It is part of my faith as a Muslim to try to help those who are suffering from poverty or economic or political injustice.

Moderation is part of faith, so those who accuse Muslim schools of fostering fanaticism should learn a bit more about Islam.

Today, as a Muslim, I have been shattered by the horror of recent events; the display of death and indiscriminate killing we've all witnessed has dented humanity's confidence in itself. Terror on this scale affects everybody on this small planet, and no one is free from the fallout.

Generally, Christians have lost the people. So, Muslim schools are lost to the old days when religion played an important part in the lives of the people. They have a lot of darkened energies of what that means and of course, Islam brings light. It doesn't bring dark. That is really why our school is important.

I became very famous, as a teenager, and my name and photo were splashed in all the media. They made me larger than life, so I wanted to live larger than life, and the only way to do that was to be intoxicated.