You really can’t make this stuff up. Well, you could, but few would believe it. And no doubt the mainstream media likes it that way, as they appear to be doing everything in their power to keep it a secret.

It happened way back in 2012, but I’ve only just stumbled upon it.

Arnoud van Doorn, former far-right politician from the anti-islamic Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) of Geert Wilders, became a Muslim, just like me, and it took him only one year to make this dramatic change.

Indeed, just four years before converting, van Doorn had played an instrumental role in distributing the disastrously offensive movie, “Fitna,” produced by Geert Wilders, a 17-minute film so outrageous it triggered violent protests all over the world. The response was so dramatic, it prompted him to visit a mosque and do his own investigating.

“It became clear to me that everything I thought I knew about Islam was wrong,” he said, apologetically, to a crowd full of Muslims at the Maldives Alimas Carnival (below), who had given him their undivided attention.

He went on to describe at length the mixed feelings he experienced as he struggled with his new understandings about Islam, and how he was going to come to terms with it.

After much careful deliberation, he decided to do the only thing he could do, given how he now felt about Islam.

“In April 2012, in the mosque at the Hague – the mosque that I hated before – I recited the shahada [and embraced Islam).”

Straight out of a hollywood movie. A man who, just four years earlier, had led the charge in a war against Islam, had not only converted, but also became one of its most ardent defenders and protagonists.

And that’s not all. Upon seeing the positive impact Islam had on his father, van Doorn’s eldest son, who was also an ardent Islamophobe, also embraced islam!

To this news, van Doorn himself admitted extreme surprise, as like him his son had wholeheartedly embraced extreme anti-Islamic rhetoric. But van Doorn was deeply grateful and relieved that his son had embraced Islam. He had become a different person, he said, more peaceful and at ease with himself.

But, Van Doorn’s talk was not all about him and his son’s conversions. He also spoke of very dark forces at work against Islam and Muslims, in western Europe, and especially the Netherlands:

“Muslims are not safe [in the Netherlands]. If you are a muslim, and you are 16 or 17 years old, it’s almost impossible to get an education. It’s impossible to get a job. Unemployment among Muslim youth is about 70-80%.There is discrimination, ethnic profiling, and for example, as I showed you, with the newspaper, they make it very hard for muslim community and for the young people to organize themselves, to organize events, to speak in public.”

“I was even threatened [because of this event.] They said, if you do that you’ll make it very difficult for yourself. So, probably when I go back to the Netherlands, when I land in Amsterdam airport, I will be interrogated by the intelligence agencies, by the police … why? I don’t know, because I’m a Muslim? because I want to build bridges? because I want to give the right example? because I want people to explain what Islam really is…a message of peace, a religion of peace.

“If you say that, if that is your opinion, if you try to do something positive … you’re an enemy. So I am probably, an enemy of the state.”

“but still, I am hopeful for the future … because I have embraced Islam, I know Islam is a beautiful religion, I know now Islam is peace, and I will continue to bring this message. I will continue to fight for the Islamic community, in the Netherlands, and outside. And I will continue to fight for justice, and I don’t care how many opposition I get, how many threats I get, I don’t care. I go on.

And even in my own family, some of them, they don’t want to know me anymore. They won’t talk to me anymore. Some of my friends and colleagues, [who] I’ve known for 20-30 years, they don’t want to see me anymore. I’m not invited to their parties or holidays or anything. But I don’t care. I got something back that is much more powerful and much more beautiful than everything they have all together. Because the only thing that they know is hate. The only thing they have is fear. And I don’t have fear. I don’t have hate. I feel love for people. I feel love for mankind. Muslims and non-muslims. And I will continue to build bridges [and continue] to invite people to Islam.”

Hearing his devotion and dedication, against all odds, brought tears to my eyes – a truly remarkable man, forever changed by Islam.

“The last two years of my life are the best of my life. I’ve never been as happy as I am now.”