I'm a hijab wearing Muslim woman, ask me anything!

[hijabijabi]

Happy to answer all questions, but most comfortable with questions about my experiences - I can try to answer questions about Islam but am no expert, and other Muslims may hold different opinions.
I'll only be checking the thread intermittenty, so my answers might not be immediate.

Sorry about the lines no idea how they got there. Hard doing this on a phone.

This is probably quite a thick question in comparison with the others, but how do you and other Muslim people you know feel about dogs? I ask because DDog is quite friendly and likes to trot up to people when off lead in the hope of some fuss. I call her back if people are very obviously not interested (or eating something) but I've never been sure how to handle it when someone is wearing a hijab. There have been quite a few people in hijabs who've been very happy to fuss her, but do many Muslims regard them as unclean? (FWIW I often think they have a point.)

@Ilovehumanity are you serious about women in Turkey having to remove their hijab to get a job? Turkey has been turning into a very Islamic country, shying away from it's secular past. I hope Turkey will never be allowed to enter the EU. Did you hear about an initiative a few years ago to test school girls' virginity? Does this seem moderate to you? Apart from old ladies no one used to wear a hijab in Turkey. Now most women do. The moment Islamic countries chose to become less moderate and embraced Islam in its entirety, they turned their back in progress and returned to medieval times: compare Afghanistan, Egypt, Lybia, Syria back in the 70s and now. They think of themselves as pious, but all they have achieved is to set their own people and countries back by decades of progress.

OP genuine question. And it's not going to go down well, but I have to know. How can anyone choose to support a faith where the main figure is a man like Mohammed? If you compare Jesus to Mohammed, even to an atheist or agnostic it becomes crystal clear that there is no comparison. Jesus has always been about love and forgiveness and Mohammed about killing infidels, enhancing a man's life with many wives and a carnal paradise and constant threat of death. If you decide to ever leave the faith you can be killed. Didn't this scare you shitless? How can a modern woman, with some education I assume and the freedom afforded by a life in a western society reconcile these very serious and scary aspects of her faith?

HawkinsIndiana

It seems to me that the Islamic world is also divided. Naturally, a Christian will range from Sunday visits to church to speaking in tongues.

A friend’s stepson converted to Islam in his teens. Observant. Fell in love with an Asian girl who’s family rejected him outright as he is white. Years on they married but he’s had to jump through so many hoops to prove himself to the family. The engagement was at his mothers house and he asked her to remove all traces of alcohol. Goodness, just because it’s in the house doesn’t mean guests are going to drink it!

This is what I find odd lately. Back in the day when we were more naturally multicultural, no one would hide booze from Muslim visitors. Our religious veggie family would help themselves to snacks from our fridge avoiding the beef.

These days I’d feel pressured not to have beef in view.

immigrants it's true. I have friends that have been refused jobs in Turkey because they wear hijabs.
There is such a lot of misinformation around about Muhammad, (peace be upon him). If you are genuine in your desire to understand then I recommend one of the biographies written by Karen Armstrong (who is not Muslim herself). She gives a fair account using a range of reliable sources.
Muhammad transformed the lives of women and slaves at that time in Arabia.

The difficulty I have with your argument, hawks, is that I know women from the countries you have listed (literally all of them), who struggle under those regimes but are practising Muslims who are happy with Islam and don't want to remove their hijab. That's why it's so important to separate Islam as a faith from the policies of tyrannical leaders.

My children will know that as Muslims we don't enter into homosexual relationships. But to respect others around them who have a different world view. That said, I will love them no matter what choices they make.

Ah OP you do realise you didn't actually answer a single question of mine. All you did is deflect and told me to do research, never giving me an actual response to the very clear questions I asked. So it's quite clear that you are uncomfortable/unsure how to answer. I don't think that you are in a mindframe to factually answer anything truly or debate logically. I realize it can be hard when people query difficult things about your new found faith, but honestly you come across as very blinkered and oblivious to the reality of Islam and the many aspects of cultural embedded traditions that have formed themselves as part and parcel of the religion. It's a pity, because all you have achieved is show people that you are not open to transparency and logical thinking. You sound like you drunk the cool aid.

Hi OP. You've explained that you weren't brought up as a Muslim. What (if any) religious beliefs did you hold before you began to research the Islamic faith?

ImmigrantSong

I think your last post is unfair and aggressive. This is AMA. It's the OPs personal view not some scholarly debate. She is representing herself not her religion.

OP
It's really sad that your views on homosexuality are so outdated and wrong. People don't make 'choices' to be homosexual or not and it's abhorrent to think they should miss out having relationships because that's what your religion thinks. It saddens me that there must be so many people in our society that think like this.

jesus Muslims consider the saliva of dogs to be unclean, and some opinions also say the hair. That means that if those things got on your clothes you wouldn't be able to pray in them. So I like dogs and am happy to stroke them, as I can wash my hands. But if I see one bounding up to me I try to back off, as its a bit of a pain to need to get changed. I think also because Muslims don't tend to keep dogs, they are less used to them so might be hesitant for that reason.

screaming I would have identified as atheist and particularly opposed to organised religion. However. I was always drawn to religion and I think my outward stance was defensive in some ways.

BTW. Did you have the same views on homosexuality before you converted? Did you have friends who were homesexual then or did you always think think there sex lives were wrong?

immigrant my faith is not new found, I've been Muslim for 16 years. I don't enjoy debating, nor do I think it helps. I've tried to answer direct questions honestly, from my own perspective. I'm happy that posters have presented alternative views.

crystal yes I had homosexual friends and still do.

Can I add that dogs are also highly revered and considered noble guardians. In every other country apart from Saudi I have lived in, this isn't counted. A lot of people I know (apart from Brits) have dogs who live on the house, both handbag dogs and unfortunately Huskies. I find it peculiar that British taxi drivers refuse digs and stuff. Never heard of it anywhere else. Maybe in less modern places but never in the Gulf. And i love the story of how the prophet PBUH saved a dog by feeding him water from his shoe. Its taught in Dubai schools.

I know that Mohammad was an I incredible man, he freed slaves etc and was very progressive for his time. But I don’t understand why anyone would worship a man who , in his 50s , had sex with a child. I understand it was 800 years ago and that things were different back then but would you think it acceptable now for a man in his 50s to have sex with a child? So why worship one now when we know it is morally wrong? Also Islam is much younger than Judaism and Christanity. Didn’t Mohammad and Islam just take ideas from these two older religions?

...and did you have the same views on homosexuality before converting. Did you think it was wrong then?

I feel very sorry for any Muslims who happen to be gay. It must be awful for them.

I think you sound like a caring and warm person but i think you are so, so wrong to have the views you do on homosexuality. They are unkind and outdated. I'm glad that many other Muslims don't think like this.

Fingers crossed that your children aren't gay.

Turmeric, Muslims don't worship mohammad, this would be considered a sin. We see him as having brought a message from God and use his life as a example of how to apply the message.
No, I wouldn't think that was acceptable now, as a 13 year old today is still a child emotionally. They weren't back then.

Crystal, no. I didn't see it as wrong before. It wasn't so much that my views on homosexuality changed but that my whole perspective changed and that had implications for how I saw homosexuality. If you believe the world in random then anything consensual between adults is fine. If you believe the world was made according to a particular order, then that has other implications.

hijabijabi follow/worship same thing.

I read he had sex with her at 9/10 actually. But still having sex with a 13 year old is really disgusting. It’s an outdated practise and I still don’t understand why anyone would follow him now knowing this. How do you know how little girls felt back in then?

Couldn't she at least have been married off to someone closer to her age? What’s a 50 year old man doing with a little girl?

People now would use the term pedophile to describe a man who has sex with a 13 year old child. I don’t think anyone would want to follow that sort of person today.

@crystalcronicles unfair and aggressive? How?

Anyways back to the OP. Can you please answer my questions on why proselytism is banned in Islam? Also how can you follow a faith where it's main prophet is a man like Mohammed? Are you not scared of the repercussions if you ever decide to apostate?

My children will know that as Muslims we don't enter into homosexual relationships. But to respect others around them who have a different world view. That said, I will love them no matter what choices they make.

I find this really sad. You cannot tell your child in one breath that you will love them even if gay while also teaching them not to be and that apparently, it’s a choice? And not to be one themselves. That’s not how it works. I’d say the same if a Christian etc said what you did.