Some Advice for New Muslim Converts
We
have received some letters from a number of new converts to Islam who are
either on the verge of abandoning the faith, or have decided to leave it. Their
frustrations are not with the teachings of Islam, which they find beautiful,
but with the behavior of other Muslims and constant admonishment that they get
from them. Islam today includes many burdensome and unnecessary cultural
beliefs and practices that many Muslims the world over have accrued over the
centuries and conflated them with the religion. Muslims from various parts of
the world who migrate to the West are the only connection (in many cases) that
converts have to their newly discovered faith, so this advice is for new
converts to Islam and also for many of those who were born and raised Muslim.
New
converts to the faith need to “creep before they walk,” so they need time to
adjust. There is no universal Islamic or Muslim culture, every community and
nation has its own unique culture that it has developed over many millennia.
While the majority of Muslims seldom differentiate between religion and
culture, the latter does play a very important role in a person’s life, and for
western converts especially, imposing alien cultural beliefs and practices on
them are unnecessary and do more harm than good. Furthermore, gender apartheid
is not part of Islam, and it is unfortunate that most masajid (mosques) practice it.
Even those who are born and raised Muslim are abandoning the mosque and their
faith as they are under constant scrutiny by other Muslims and being
reprimanded over minutiae that has nothing to do with Islam.
Converts
still have non-Muslim relatives, in some cases spouses and children. It is
asinine to suggest that because people have converted to Islam, they have to
divorce their non-Muslim spouses and cut ties with their families, relatives,
and friends. If the mosque is an unwelcoming place for Muslims, then think
about what it is like for non-Muslims! Many Muslims tend to be two-faced as
they have one persona in the presence of Muslims and another when they are no
longer in that environment. For example, many of these Muslims dress and behave
differently in the workplace, and they don’t preach and practice gender
segregation at work. Moreover, these Muslims don’t refuse to shake hands and
even embrace members of the opposite gender, or applaud their colleagues, all
part of western culture that they’ll pretend to abhor as "un-Islamic"
when they are among fellow Muslims. A Muslim’s character should be consistent
irrespective of surroundings, be it the home, mosque, workplace, etc.
It
was once said that Islam is the best religion with the worst followers.
Apparently some Muslims are on a mission to make Islam the worst religion with
the worst followers. Those who exhibit too many dogmas cannot claim to be true
representatives of Islam. It is worth recalling the observation of Muhammad Abduh, the extraordinary Egyptian scholar who spent some
time in exile in France in the 1880s and remarked: “I went to the West and
saw Islam, but no Muslims; I got back to the East and saw Muslims, but not
Islam.” More than a century later, not much has changed. For new converts
and even Muslims raised in the West, if you find it infuriating being around
and interacting with some Muslims, then disassociate yourselves from them, not
Islam.
Posted June 23, 2013