User:Arthur Warrington Thomas/Khalid Kelly
Khalid Kelly, formerly Terence Kelly, born, was an Irish nurse whom like Yvonne Ridley converted to Islam, in 2002, after being imprisoned in an Islamic country.
Born Terence Kelly in south Dublin, he attended Catholic school there until age 15, when he left to work in pubs. At 23, he moved to London to train as an intensive care nurse and in 1996 took a job in Saudi Arabia, attracted by the tax-free salary.
Years ago he weet to work in Saudi Arabia because the salary was tax free. However, he soon found bigger money in making alcohol -- a strictly forbidden activity in the country.
He was caught and sent to jail, where an Afghan introduced him to Islam. Khalid Kelly, as he is now known, left prison a convert.
"It just filled in all the gaps, you know? It was like the answer to everything I'd every wondered about. There was even a Captain Ali there at the prison, and he gave me a Koran. And I'll always remember it because he wrapped it in a piece of newspaper, you know, because he didn't have any wrapping paper. And he was so happy for me. He was nearly crying, the man. He said, 'I'm so happy you've come to the truth. It will change your life.' And indeed it did," Kelly says.
In 2003 Kelly was deported to London and allegedly soon began attending sermons by the radical preacher Omar Mohammad Bakri.