To understand The Life, one should remember that Omar Ibn Said was a phenomenon back in his day. First of all, it was unusual that one of the slaves was actually a well-educated Muslim man. But to end up with a Muslim slave who then converts to Christianity? That was news. Except when they came, they only painted one version of Omar's story, the side that made American Christianity look best. When considering these factors, Omar's autobiography shows what it really is. It's the confession of a man who feels misrepresented by his news coverage.
And what exactly might it have been that Omar didn't like about that news coverage? Well for one, they made Omar sound like a Christian evangelist, but in The Life, he never addresses his faith directly. One would think by reading about Omar that he would be avid and vocal about his faith, but instead, he merely explains some nuances between the two world views, and he reflects on the evil, godless men who kidnapped him from his home, murdered his family, and sold him to America in the first place.
Omar's point of view has been twisted into a story defending evangelical Christianity, but Omar opens and closes this short book with selections not from the Bible, but from the Koran. Omar is convinced that these passages still represent his life, even if he does agree with the principles of Christianity. Omar cites that there are aspects of Jesus's teachings that were extremely illuminating, like his intimacy with God as Father, but beyond that, Omar seems not to reject his Muslim heritage. He even seems to celebrate it.
This means that without explicitly rejecting the media coverage, Omar spoke in a way that would be inconsistent with that media coverage. Instead of showing himself as a "born-again" believer, Omar simply states that the religions are different in some ways, similar in some ways, but regardless, the people who enslaved him were evil for doing so, no matter what there religion is.
