Do you judge/ pity converts to Islam?

[Candyapplesandhearts]

Firstly I’m a convert to Islam. White European, so more than likely if you saw me you’d assume I was a convert, plus my name would definitely give the game away.

i live in a metropolitan area where converts are yes rare but not too too share whereby it’s shocking.

well keeping this in mind, I bought a block of sessions for a beauty treatment, and the aesthetician was visibly taken back by me firstly, fine it happens because I wasn’t what she was expecting, with my name and I show up in a headscarf.

but the questions, not only were they pretty inappropriate but also steeped in judgment. I was shocked. I could tell that she wasn’t necessarily being malicious or even hateful, but she clearly had a very pre conceived notion about my motivations and my choices. Ie several questions about my husband and how he made me convert, or as she said ‘become Islamic’, lots on clothing and how she often feels sorry for a lot of Muslim women.

truthfully MN, is this a thing? Deep down are these thoughts people have but maybe don’t voice.

in general even at work I do have questions asked but they are more diplomatically phrased- so now I’m wondering am I actually being judged/ pitied?

There's people converting to Jehovah's Witnesses too.

Because I'm an atheist so I wouldn't treat you differently based on your chosen faith, but I'm dismayed that Islam is on the rise in the UK because I had hoped that Christianity, which has been on the retreat for a half a century, would be replaced by a Scandinavian-style general lack of interest in religion.

I don't want anyone of strong faith to be in charge of the country. That's a broad group of people encompassing you, Tim Farron (the former leader of the Liberal Democrats and well-known evangelical Christian), Suella Braverman, and some others in between. Although if it's a straight choice between you and Suella Braverman, then you, OP, can count on my vote.

Please don’t put me in the same box as suella and farron… good grief.

glad to know that in the event of the apocalypse I’ve got your vote

I'm guessing that's not a pork sausage in your case.

What are your views on homosexuality, by the way? Do you support gay rights?

I agree. I was born a Hindu, am no longer a believer and want all religions to decline across the world. I know that's a pipe dream. I try to implement it in my own home as far as I can.

You can be a wild boar artisanal Cumberland or bacon wrapped cocktail sausage for all I care.

my views on anything aren’t up for debate here, and actually I don’t have any strong views on anything lgbtq aside from maybe neo pronouns.

Not the point of this post but I’d love you to do an AMA about your life in Saudi!

"There are different variation in practice in Judaism and Christianity as there are in Islam..

There is quite a wide spectrum of views so why would you assume that a convert has the same views as the taliban or the ayatollahs in Iran. I would actually think the opposite!"

No, there aren't. There is only one 'true path' in Islam. Islam does not allow variance, discussion, adaptation, change.

If you think it does, you have strayed from the faith.

As the women of Iran found in 1979.

I was a child, 10-11, early 00s so it wasn’t the Saudi we see in the media now. It was very conservative, but we lived in a compound so you were in a bit of a bubble. Only lived there for a year, I remember being hot. We were very insular, westerners that lived there, it’s a temporary existence.

id like to go back now to be honest

I honestly think religious women- any mainstream religion- are like turkeys for Xmas. They are all terrible for women.

The irony of a Muslim convert attempting to lecture tolerant women on the subject of gayness or pork sausages is utterly off the charts smh.

What are you on about!

of course there are different streams of Islam, you’ve just mentioned two in your post. The talbian who are deobandi nationalists and the fundamentalist shia regime of Iran- both of whom hate each other btw

Why can't a Muslim woman have views on those things?

And yes, your views on anything islam related are absolutely up for debate. You made the post asking for feedback. You asked for opinions, now suck it up buttercup.

@IvyCardamom oh the irony!

You don't sound very tolerant.

Actually, her original post was only asking if people were judging her. That's not the same as asking for a debate about religion.

I think it's now been established that, yes, some people will be judging.

The sausage comment was a little joke not a lecture on how to craft a sausage

Points for rhyming, but not for reading as my post was on judgement and or pity and if people do it- we’ve safely established now that yes they do. My post wasn’t let’s have a debate on religion

How come you’d like to go back? Please don’t take upset from all the Islamophobia and general hatred of religion on this thread.

Why did you convert? Simple answer please.

Well I’d like to go back for a few reasons, one day hajj and umrah, but aside from that Saudi now offers tourist visas and is trying to establish itself as an opulent holiday destination, I’d quite like to see the change.

so for instance I first when to Dubai in the early 00s and then again in 2018 and the difference was staggering

because I wanted to. That’s as simple as it gets. I did an ama that has a more in depth answer please feel free to read

Link it please.