“It took about three years for my own [two] children to accept my decision,” Rahman recalls rubbing his thin beard.

While Rahman’s mother did not support the direction he had taken, his father eventually came round to respecting his Muslim son, shortly before his passing.

After sometime, he married a woman of Pakistani origin. Even that was not without challenges. His wife’s family did not want a white man for an in-law.

“For six months, they did not speak to us. Whenever my wife visited them, nobody would talk to her,” he shares the ordeal with a smile.

Rahman’s wife never gave up until the mom accepted the situation and agreed to meet him. The in-laws found him a good man.

It was a hard time acclimatizing to new life, as not only was he taking up Islam, but also integrating in the culture of Pakistani community.

The number of Muslim converts in Britain passed 100,000 last year with average convert being 27-year-old white woman, reveals a study by multi-faith group, Faith Matters. The report identifies increase in the ratio of young, white Muslim women. The same organization estimates that the figure of British converting to Islam has almost doubled in a decade. Over 70 per cent converts are white, with at conversion was just 27. Dispelling the impression of Islamisation, the survey noted that converts see Islam as ‘perfectly compatible’ with living in the country.

Past all the family issues, Rahman had more to face upon opening a shop, ‘The Essence of Islam’, offering Islamic gifts, fragrances, books and garments.

He had decorated the windows with Islamic mannequins and people started spitting, peeping and hitting on the windows. At some point, protests by a far-right group in Cardiff led police into warning him against opening up the shop for his own security.

Rahman then saw his shop offering an opportunity to dispel misconceptions about Islam and others’ beliefs and cultures, and celebrate diversity.

He toned down the Muslim touch of his shop to show openness all.

“People react badly towards Muslims because of negative media portrayal, and their own follies. It’s only a handful of bad ones, so I try to make people understand that 9 out of 10 are good ,” he says in a convincing tone.

Denis also notes that even in the Muslim community, different groups have diverse views and rituals. “Sometimes it gets confusing what to follow,” says Rahman with a wrinkled forehead. It was shocking for him to see different Muslim groups not getting along well with each other.

“I am trying to pull all these different opinions together and change negative perceptions,” he says. Often, he was advised against serving non-Muslims. “Everybody is welcome in his shop,” he says is his permanent reply.

After years of his work, Rahman notices change in attitude amongst the British people as well as the Muslim immigrants.

Asked why it matters that there is integration between people of different faiths and backgrounds, Denis says: “To me everyone is the same. My religion tells me we are one people”.

Rahman’s message is clear: it is not compulsory to agree on religious faiths or cultural values but its obligatory to respect each other as human beings.

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