Trying to be as concise as possible.
I'm 29, have a four month old baby. I was brought up within the Jewish faith, although I'm largely secular now. As many may be aware, there are various different denominations of Judaism within the UK, from the ultra-orthodox, modern orthodox, reform , liberal, Masorti etc. I was brought up within the liberal denomination. .
The official position is that Reform, Liberal and Masorti Judaism are LGBT supportive/ affirming, ( including gay weddings), whereas the orthodox are not , ( similar to how Methodists, URC , Church of Scotland allow gay marriage whereas other Christian denominations would reject this).
Until recently I have never had much cause to think about this in greater depth.
I have a friend, age 29, who I have known for over a decade, ( we met at university). She is from an observant Muslim family, although when we met she was not personally religious / practicing herself. Over the past couple of years she has decided to start practicing her religion again, ( e.g praying 5x a day, eating halal, fasting during Ramadan, giving to charity etc), as well as intensly studying the religion online.
Some of this has been very positive for her, ( having known her a long time, I would agree that praying 5 X a day has had a positive effect on her mental health).
However she is now wanting to turn every conversation into either an attempt to convert me, or debate religion. It appears to be coming from a good place, but every time she sees me she tells me that as she loves me and my daughter, she wants us to convert to Islam so that we are safe after we die, ( she is worried as some teachings say Jews and Christians will be able to enter heaven but others contradict this).
It does appear to be coming from a place of genuine concern, but it is actually getting quite upsetting that every time I see her, even in passing, she tells me to consider converting as 'you are getting older now and you will be a long time dead/ I want you to be safe when you die.' She is also repeatedly saying, ' I just have a good feeling your DD will become a Muslim when older' which feels quite disrespectful to my own religious herritage.
The LGBT issue is a sore point as she is aware I am from an LGBT affirming denomination , and constantly wants to debate "how can any so called religious leader / group support this when it goes against the scriptures!" She is particularly keen to debate this point, and keeps reiterating that if either her ( currently non existent), children or my daughter entered into a gay relationship in the future she would disown them.
My daughter's baby blessing is coming up, and she is happy to come as we are people of the book. However it is clear from her messages over the past few weeks that she will be using this opportunity to challenge/ debate him re her strong disagreement r.e the denominations LGBT affirming stance, which will make things awkward for everybody.
To clarify, this is not an Islam bashing post, but advice for this specific situation. Islam and Judaism remain very close theologically, and there is a lot to be admired about the religion, ( for example, locally the mosque runs a very successful food bank which is open to those of any faith or none).
But yes, advice needed.