What is your religious background?
I come from a mixed background, as do my parents. My father was a shiite and my mom a sufi, but neither of them were religious and were supporters of the marxist groups in the Middle East. During the wars and civil wars in the area (50's-80's) the muslim movements were generally indifferent, so marxism became popular and islam was people hiding in mosques not trying to defend their homeland. After Khomeini came to power and Hezbollah fought against the israelis, my parents became supporters of theirs, as did I. So my support of shiites and shiism was never for their religion, it was due to their politics, they were anti imperialists, or so I thought.
How did you view sunnis and sunnism before your conversion?
I saw sunni movement as the cowards, much because of the Saudi stance, so I was negative to sunnis in general and salafism in particular. My heart was always with the muslims and Palestine in particular, whoever supported them had my support (including those who faked it)
What caused you to doubt shism?
As I grew older (late teens) and wanted to practice Islam on a deeper and more spiritual level, i read the Quran, the Seerah and started to see all the debates between all the factions. Who was right? they have different sources of ahadeeth, how do you know which one is correct? And it became clear, shias have no leg to stand on, their narrations are based on donkeys and fulan saying this or that is sahih with no isnaad attached to it. I was still bothered about the fitan between the sahabah, I had and still have immense love for Ali RA. I read a lot about the fitan and felt that Ali RA did not get the satatus he deserved, until i read the books of ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Kathir, As-Suyuti, Ibn Qayyim etc. Sunnis today, try to not talk too much about ahlulbayt, which in my opinion is wrong and does shiites a favour, when I read about Ali RA from the ulema of past, It was obvious, the shiites lied.
How did your family and friends react to you becoming sunni?
I countinued to read the books of ulema an Najd and ibn Abdal Wahhab RH (because everyone kept warning me about them), I taught my family and they all accepted it, except my father who does not live with my mother and siblings (they got a divorce when I was a young child). He does not speak with me today. And AlhamdeliLah, we all try to follow salaf as much as we can, so my family was not a hurdle for me.
Do you have any message to shias?
My message to the shias are, your stories have no isnaad and if you do not believe the isnaad of the sunnis, know that your ulema did and copied the sunni method. You are only emotionally attached to your religion, not based on any islamic evidence, they trick you with muharram and you buy it. If you were only to compare the tawheed of ahl ul sunnah to the "tawheed" of shia... everything would fall in to place. Your marjaa talks about Ali RA and the fitan between sahabah 24/7 so you DONT educate yourself about what the Quran describes as tawheed and what the marjaa claims is tawheed - they are in clear contrast!
Dont die in shirk because of your stubborness.