Schaumburg, IL – Meet Eddie Wallace, a convert to Islam, who is still learning the tenets of his newly discovered way of life.
“I love Middle Eastern women,” Eddie tells us. “They’re so beautiful, so exotic.”
Wallace, who is of Hispanic and Irish descent, has Amblyopia, (also known as “lazy eye”), a condition in which one eye has decreased vision and mobility. The disorder makes it difficult for him to lower his gaze when in presence of the opposite sex, a requirement of both men and women of the Muslim faith.
“I try to make both eyes go down, but it’s so difficult, with me and my lazy eye, and them being so beautiful, you know?”
Wallace says his condition, which affects 5% of the population, tends to confuse and sometimes irritate his fellow community members at the Islamic Society of Anywheresville.
“The Imam at my mosque gets angry with me,” say the 25-year-old Muslim newbie. “He’s like ‘Brother lower your gaze,’ or ‘Take a picture, it will last longer.’ I think it’s obvious he isn’t familiar with my condition.”
The Imam who Wallace refers to is Shaikh Khalid Mabuti.
“It’s like is he looking at me? Is he not looking at me?” comments Mabuti. “I mean which eye do I look at? Is he Dajjal?”
“He told me something about being lazy, and I tells him, you were lazy American before Islam, but now is the time to get off your ass!”
Wallace does have his good eye on a Muslimah in the community he wishes to marry some day.
“There’s this girl Aisha that comes to the mosque for the Friday prayers.” Wallace says as he sighs with love in his eye(s).
“Sometimes all I can do is stare – you know cause the eye thing – of course.”
