I’m a white woman who married a Muslim man AMA?

[Vielendanke]

As the title says, I’m a white British lady who married a Muslim man, an Asian Muslim man no less. I realise it’s not that uncommon these days but whenever the topic comes up with new people I meet, say at work, or through friends etc people always seem to have a 10001 questions, some that they are quite timid to ask.

so it’s made me think that maybe people have questions on this sort of thing, and some they maybe don’t feel comfortable asking face to face to someone they ‘know’…. Enter MN

Ama and I’ll answer honestly, the good the bad and the ugly

'' You'd think in the UK it being acceptable to be 'culturally Muslim', more would be. But IME many aren't. If they're not that devout they attempt to distance themselves from the religion completely rather than being a 'lax' Muslim''.

Many Muslim communities in the UK are a mix of 'practicing' and 'lax' Muslims, I have friends on both extremes, it's really not an issue we all belong to the same community. There is always that element of 'behind closed doors' which again is something innate in all humans - we all have secrets or partake in things not socially acceptable - no ones perfect. Furthermore, you say the Shahada and you're a Muslim - after that you're either a good or bad Muslim (for God to judge), but you are Muslim.

Many Muslim countries are actually steeped in cultural practices rather than the religion - From Saudi to Pakistan in fact I wouldn't say any country comes close to representing the true spirit of Islam. Regardless of religion and race we are all expected to work with social norms, being too relaxed or too strict both have negative consequences.

Sorry don’t understand what you’re trying to say in the second part

but re circumcision, fundamentally it is surgery to remove part of the anatomy and it isn’t for the greater good for the vast majority or else it would be offered by the NHS but it’s not. It is not common knowledge that’s why its not common practice everywhere, if it were then it would be done (like immunisation)

the studies on the benefits rely way to heavily on sub Saharan Africa and are in no way a direct comparison to the west. Links below. But it is surgery and surgery has risks. This surgery is done on a baby that cannot consent and is not medically necessary. They do no use anaesthetic, that is inhumane and there are risks. That is my issue. Voluntary and consensual circumcision, yes go for it- wonderful. How are we having a conversation about consent in 2024! Ffs

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3253617/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4364150/

heres one from a leading us hospital that says there’s not enough on either side of the debate

https://www.cedars-sinai.org/blog/is-circumcision-good-or-bad.html

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41443-021-00502-y

that is nature- the biggest scientific journal in the UK, they’ve concluded that ‘We conclude that non-therapeutic circumcision performed on otherwise healthy infants or children has little or no high-quality medical evidence to support its overall benefit. Moreover, it is associated with rare but avoidable harm and even occasional deaths’

so yes there is evidence thank you. What you’re looking for is confirmation bias. Look I know this is a common trope of Islamic apologetics, to find proof that this way is the right way, but objectively here, it’s not