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Relationships

Has anyone else here been in a relationship with someone from a very different religious background?

76 replies

Trying2Heal · 03/12/2020 18:58

I’m supposedly Christian but basically agnostic. I’m most definitely not the preachy bible basher type.
My ex is a Muslim who pretended to be agnostic and to have never have practised Islam.
To give context, he was a vile abusive guy anyway so there’s more to this than religious differences BUT….a year into the relationship he literally suddenly had a total personality change. He revealed he’d been lying about not being a practising Muslim and admitted that he views “non believers” as “unclean” and he would sit there preaching about how much he loves Allah and how “disgusting” and “loose” British women are. He even told me that I am disgusting and “used goods” because I had had consensual sex with him without him being married to me or even proposing marriage. He said that no man respects a woman who would agree to this.

He also said a woman’s place is in the home having babies, breastfeeding, keeping the home up, cooking etc and that he’d never “allow” a woman to have a career once she’d given him children.

Obvs I should have left him immediately but I was actually shell-shocked and sort of frozen.

He said all sorts of increasingly spiteful hateful things to me, including that no man will ever want me because I’m used goods. He also said he’d only been involved with me because the alternative would be to have to go to prostitutes. And he said I should have realised all this because “what man would want to make a commitment to a woman who’s nearly 40 and has already had sex and has her own flat?”

This culminated in him sexually assaulting me and then sort of vanishing. Less than a month later he was married to a teenage Muslim girl he had gone overseas to marry. I learned this via Facebook.

I know that he was arrested and questioned about the sexual assault/rape but in the end I told police I didn’t want to continue with my complaint as the process was traumatising.

I never heard from him again. I forced myself to stop looking at his social media searching for clues as to what the heck happened, as it was becoming healthy. But the last time I saw his social media he’d posted a lot of anti-Semitic and he’d also praised Saddam Hussain and then countless posts about how Muslims should not associate with “non believers.”

To this day I do not fully understand what happened.

Why was it necessary to go through the elaborate pretence of posing as an agnostic and pretending to be progressive and pro women’s rights? What was the point???

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RogueV · 03/12/2020 19:01

Think your ex was a cunt - nothing to do with his religion.

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Bunnymumy · 03/12/2020 19:04

It was to abuse you.

It has nothing to do with his actual beliefs. It's very unlikely that someone like him sees himself as beneath any god anyway or beholden to any religious rules.

Abusers just use anything they can in order to hurt you.

I hope you are ok now op.
And that his poor naive young wife managed to safely escape the monster someday soon.

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SendMeAnAngel · 03/12/2020 19:08

Good riddance to shit

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Trying2Heal · 03/12/2020 19:08

@Bunnymumy I dunno. If he didn't care about religion why specifically marry a Muslim girl and travel miles to an Islamic country to obtain this bride?

I am safe from him now at least.

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SendMeAnAngel · 03/12/2020 19:09

Religious men do tend to have those views which is why i try to stay away

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Trying2Heal · 03/12/2020 19:09

@SendMeAnAngel. In retrospect he is the most unhinged messed up person I have ever met in my life.

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Bunnymumy · 03/12/2020 19:10

Because she was young, vulnerable and presumably will come back to this country with him, without any family to support her (and see his abuse towards her).

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Trying2Heal · 03/12/2020 19:10

@SendMeAnAngel

Religious men do tend to have those views which is why i try to stay away

Yes, I'm not keen myself!!! Maybe that's why he lied and pretended to be non-religious as he sensed I'd run a mile
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SendMeAnAngel · 03/12/2020 19:12

I dated a christian, the guy was very entitled. Women are seen as the helpmate and we must serve and be submissive to them and yes our place is in the home and no we are not meant to have sex before marriage even though most times they are the ones pushing for it. I've experienced it and i kicked him to the curb....he was a nasty piece of work

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Trying2Heal · 03/12/2020 19:15

@SendMeAnAngel

I dated a christian, the guy was very entitled. Women are seen as the helpmate and we must serve and be submissive to them and yes our place is in the home and no we are not meant to have sex before marriage even though most times they are the ones pushing for it. I've experienced it and i kicked him to the curb....he was a nasty piece of work

It's interesting how they claim sex before marriage is wrong and yet they're the ones desperately trying to get their leg over!

I dated this individual 6 months before we even had sex. I think that's actually quite conservative. Interesting that he interprets it as me being similar to a prostitute. If I'm a prostitute maybe I need to invoice him for services rendered?
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Diverseduvet · 03/12/2020 19:15

In alot of cultures and some religions girls have to be virgins on there wedding night and it's almost expected, or at least tolerated for the men to have sex in cultures where sex out of marriage is acceptable. Sorry if you weren't aware of this when you got together with him. Obviously there are cross cultural marriages, but the men are respectful and no way treat the woman like your ex.

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SendMeAnAngel · 03/12/2020 19:16

The experience left me shell shocked. And the worst part is he had a christian image to so his fb was picture perfect, he is on there going to bible school, all scripture quotes, raising money on fund me pages...but what they don't know is that he had a criminal case against him for financial fraud and the money he is raising on his go fund me page is because he left his job because his colleague "was evil"

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Bunnymumy · 03/12/2020 19:16

But he obviously didn't have those views or he wouldn't have got with you in the first place. If his religion was relevant to him he would have known it wasn't one rule for him and a different one for everyone else. If he thought you were a harlet and got with you anyway and stayed with you, then his religion would look just as unfavorably on him as it did you.

Absolutely nothing to do with his beliefs (or lack there of tbh). Only thing people like him believe in is their own superiority. Plenty of people misuse religion to cause others harm.

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Trying2Heal · 03/12/2020 19:18

@Diverseduvet

In alot of cultures and some religions girls have to be virgins on there wedding night and it's almost expected, or at least tolerated for the men to have sex in cultures where sex out of marriage is acceptable. Sorry if you weren't aware of this when you got together with him. Obviously there are cross cultural marriages, but the men are respectful and no way treat the woman like your ex.

The reason I wasn't aware of it is because he pretended not to be part of that religion. If he had been upfront about his beliefs and intentions there'd have never even have been a 2nd date.
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Trying2Heal · 03/12/2020 19:19

@SendMeAnAngel. sounds like your ex and mine had some similarities!

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SendMeAnAngel · 03/12/2020 19:19

I know a lot of men in the church sleep with their girlfriends before marriage......but pretend in the congregation....the whole thing is bizare. You have to be "one of them" to know how it all works

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Tomorrowistomorrow · 03/12/2020 19:19

@RogueV

Think your ex was a cunt - nothing to do with his religion.

Exactly.

My ex was Jewish as were his family. I was brought up with the upmost of respect and tolerance for all. I was shocked to the core, when his family upon meeting me launched into a tirade about me being a "fucking Christian bitch" etc and later livid once we are married that my son wasn't going to "cut" as per their wish. I don't see this as Jewish people or just them. They were bigots, racists, and untolerant. For example, kept a kosher household but Dad (a Rabbi) was eating chicken and bacon in the local pub etc. Really screwed up stuff in my book -but only because they preached about it and put on an entirely different front outside of the family.

Once his mother said to me " We can get out of that. (something illegal) as we will claim the jewish card and that we are being victimised" -this is not my experience of others in the same religion.

Just likes rapists, sexists, bigots exist in all countries, they exist in all religions too, all races, all different types of human beings.

I also know some christians here who are often posting about muslims and terroists and after the NZ attacks -said those were deserved -the crusades and witch trials -just glossed over. I deleted my FB and them and fell so much better for it. Many many despicable acts happen in the name of religion.
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TenShortStories · 03/12/2020 19:19

Religion is often not just about the set of beliefs that a person subscribes to, but also about their culture and the cultural background of their family. Both form a big part of someone's identity and influence how they relate to people around them. So he may or may not believe in the teachings of Islam, but he definitely wants to marry Muslim woman because that is an important part of how he fits in with other Muslims in his community.

His particular brand of abuse may be influenced by his religion (viewing non believers as unclean for instance) but ultimately his abusiveness is all about him - abusers come from all creeds and cultures.

Sorry you've been through that though - it's sounds horrendous.

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Diverseduvet · 03/12/2020 19:20

Sorry these happened to you, but these things run very deep. He sounds like a total creep and I hope you're ok now.

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SendMeAnAngel · 03/12/2020 19:20

[quote Trying2Heal]@SendMeAnAngel. sounds like your ex and mine had some similarities![/quote]
I've been tempted to report his go fund me page, he is actually stealing from the public. I left him in June and i'm still fuming

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Bunnymumy · 03/12/2020 19:20

There are plenty of narcissists and sociopaths in the church too. Again, doesn't have anything to do with the religion. It's just these sorts use whatever they can to try and demean, hurt and abuse people. It's the same as a bully in the workplace who claims to be best mates with the head of the company and tells you the head person doesn't like your work and wants to fire you. That makes their bullying even worse because you think 'what if I actually am bad?'.

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Tomorrowistomorrow · 03/12/2020 19:20

@Bunnymumy

Because she was young, vulnerable and presumably will come back to this country with him, without any family to support her (and see his abuse towards her).

Yes.
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Trying2Heal · 03/12/2020 19:20

@Bunnymumy.

God knows (no pun intended) what he believes or doesn't believe. Nasty toxic piece fo shit. The sheer venom with which he talked about non-Muslim women actually scared me. I didn't understand why he felt so much hatred.

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Diverseduvet · 03/12/2020 19:22

I find it very difficult to believe the local rabbi was eating bacon in a pub.

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Bunnymumy · 03/12/2020 19:22

Just your standard psyco unfortunately. Lots of them around.

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