Introduction: A Personal Journal & Cultural Reawakening
Welcome to ‘The Muslim European’, A personal journal. A cultural reawakening. A spiritual conversation rooted in Europe’s past, and looking boldly to its future.
Welcome to the renaissance.
Introducing Myself
“In every sense, I am both fully European and fully Muslim.”
My name is Gavin John — an Indo-European Muslim, born in Ireland to an Irish Roman Catholic father (from a Brehon family descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages), and an Anglo-Catholic mother with English and Northern Italian roots.
There was a time when people could name their great-grandparents and tell you exactly where they were from. Today, modernity has severed that ancestral thread. Between cultural erasure and the distortion of so-called multiculturalism, we’ve seen a dilution of identity.
The kind of multiculturalism we see today doesn’t preserve cultural roots — it replaces them. True coexistence allows people to retain their heritage while living in harmony. What we’ve witnessed instead is displacement, not diversity.
So with all that being said…
Why am I Muslim?
That’s a question I’ll get to. But first, I want to share why I started this space.
Why Start The European Muslim Newsletter?
Islam is often misunderstood in Europe — framed as something foreign, hostile, or even threatening. But that image has been shaped by trauma, misrepresentation, and a distorted practice divorced from its spiritual roots.
The result?
Tension. Animosity. A cultural disconnect between non-Muslim Europeans and Muslim communities, many of whom preserve ethnic traditions while neglecting deeper, universal truths of Islam.
But Europe has always struggled with the new.
Christianity, too, was once a “foreign invader” to Pagan lands. Yet it took root — deeply and indelibly.
Islam is not Europe’s enemy.
It is — and always has been — part of its story.
This newsletter is a call to remember, reawaken, and reimagine that story.
My Conversion Story
“Islam didn’t feel like a rejection of my heritage. It felt like a deeper connection to something ancient inside me.”
I came to Islam not as an outsider, but as someone seeking alignment — spiritually, intellectually, and morally. It wasn’t about abandoning my roots. It was about uncovering something buried within them.
The Crisis That Sparked It
In my early twenties, I experienced what psychologists might call an existential crisis.
For the first time, I truly confronted mortality.
I had grown up religious — drawn to the divine — but adolescence had buried that connection. Where I lived, there were no Muslims. I knew almost nothing about Islam.
So I turned to what I had: the Bible.
In Search of Jesus
I was drawn deeply to the Gospels — especially to the personality of Jesus (peace be upon him). His stillness, compassion, and closeness to God moved me. I wanted to be like him.
When I read theories that Jesus had studied with mystics in India, I followed that trail — curious to understand what shaped his spirit.
Exploring the East
That curiosity led me to study Vedic traditions. The Bhagavad Gita resonated with me — its themes of duty, inner struggle, and detachment made a deep impression.
But I struggled with its polytheism and the idea of the resurrection.
Then came Buddhism — and the story of Siddhartha, a prince who renounced privilege for enlightenment.
I admired him, too.
At that point, I considered myself a spiritual pluralist. I thought: Maybe the truth is scattered across many paths.
And for a time, I was satisfied with that idea.
The Turning Point
Still, I felt drawn to the prophets — the ones chosen by God.
I had read about Jesus and Buddha. But not yet about Muhammad ﷺ.
So I picked up an English translation of the Qur’an, expecting it to read like the Gospels — filled with parables and narratives about the Prophet.
What I found was completely different.
Finding God
The Qur’an wasn’t a biography of Muhammad ﷺ.
It was a direct conversation with the Creator.
The voice of God — clear, fierce, beautiful, immediate.
I didn’t just read the Qur’an.
I felt it.
It spoke not to the mind alone, but to the heart and soul.
It was like remembering something I’d always known.
A return to the Real.
I had found what I was looking for —
when I finally stopped looking.
Alhamdulillah.
Thank God.
The Historical Self on the Spiritual Path
And still — I am Irish. English. Italian.
My ancestors’ voices echo in me through language, poetry, and music.
Islam didn’t erase that — it clarified it.
Before I became Muslim, I wasn’t interested in the history of my tribe or people. Now I am. Islam awakened in me a reverence for my lineage, my heritage, and the Western tradition.
Islam is not foreign to Europe.
It has lived here before — in Andalusia, the Balkans, in forgotten cathedrals and buried libraries.
It’s time we remembered.
The Absence — and the Invitation
In Europe, the Muslim identity is often shaped by external narratives — politics, suspicion, and fear.
Many mosques today function as ethnic centers, preserving foreign customs instead of inviting deeper understanding and integration. That contributes to the alienation many locals feel.
This newsletter is a space of reclaiming:
- To celebrate beauty
- To seek truth
- To be unapologetically Muslim
- To be unapologetically European
What’s Coming Next?
Future issues of The Muslim European will explore:
- ✍🏽 Reflections on tradition in a nihilistic world
- 🏛️ Indo-European history through a Muslim lens
- 🎨 Art, poetry, and sacred aesthetics
- 🎙️ Interviews with Muslim and non-Muslim European thinkers, artists, and scholars
Join the Movement
If this speaks to you — whether you’re Muslim, European, both, or simply curious — I invite you to walk this road with me.
Let’s rediscover the soul of Europe.
Together.
With peace,
Gavin John