Today I became a Muslim! I think...

I am proud to say to you As'Salaamu alaikum sister

but the one thing I had to question prior to your conversion was your saying:

"I asked him if he knew of a place that I could to go study Islam and he told me all I needed to do was recite the shahada over the telephone and I am allowed to enter the womans section of the mosque."

Did he say before you can study Islam you had to convert? Or did he even answer any of your questions? Was he attentive to your needs in your curiousity of Islam? You kind of left of some parts and that paragraph kinda drew my attention.

I'm not trying to burts any bubbles here but the last thing I want is someone who is curious of Islam have to convert to Islam with some concerns. Sure, everyone here is happy but again we must be clear on something. A religious institution regardless how noble it sounds still is foreign to us especially if we lack knowledge about it. No person, no Muslim especially has any right to say "You cannot come here unless you are Muslim." Part of our Dawah is to be open to people. I hope I am sister in what I'm conveying here but it kinda sounded like forced conversion. I too am an older revert and it took me almost 2 years to really come to Islam. Even though I believed spiritually in its context I want to wholeheartedly except the truth. The reasons why Islam has lost converts is because people do not come into Islam wholeheartedly but weak in spirit. I hope you can elaborate more sister.