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13. THE STRANGE CONVERSION OF A PRIEST This is another strange story of conversion of a priest and a missionary. His name was Sily. He was a close friend of the late Nelson Mandela of South Africa. This incident happened in the Winter of 1996 in the office of the Muslim World League in Johannesburg. Accompanied by Sulayman, a Muslim convert who had just challenged the famous boxer Muhammad Ali in boxing, Sily came and met the Director of the office, and related to him what he called an important event, namely, his conversion to Islam, as follows: Sily was formerly a very militant priest. He served the Church earnestly. He was also a senior activist of Christianisation in South Africa. For this enormous activity the Vatican appointed him to run a Christianisation program with subsidy. The fund from Vatican was given to him for the project, and he used all means he could to reach his target, converting people to Christianity. He visited regularly madrasahs (Islamic schools) and public schools located in villages and in the hinterland, and distributed funds as contribution, gifts, charity to attract people to Christianity. At the same time, he became very rich, had a luxurious house, a car and big salary, and his position suddenly ascended among other priest. One day Sily the priest went to the market to buy gifts, wearing a white priest robe. It was there where a sudden change started taking place within him. He met a tradesman selling gifts, who had a cap on his head, indicating that he was a Muslim. Islam in South Africa was used to be called “the religion of the Arabs.” It was difficult to convert Muslims who sticked to their religion, unlike poor Muslims who were easily converted to Christianity. Then a conversation between the seller and the priest ran as follows: “You are a priest, aren’t you?” asked the seller.