I\u2019m a revert.\u00a0 I accepted Islam almost twenty years ago, standing in the front vestibule of the Islamic Center of Greater Kansas City, gently led through my saying of the Shahadah, my declaration of faith, by the Imaam, Adnan Bayazid, while a vacuum cleaner buzzed in the background.\u00a0 Since then I\u2019ve never looked back, and Islam is firmly ingrained in my mind and my heart.\u00a0 I\u2019m one of those \u201cfundamentalist\u201d Muslims.\u00a0 I dress in long loose clothes, I cover my hair, my husband sports a beard, and I try to keep to the discipline of the five daily prayers \u2013 not an easy thing for someone with ADD, let me tell you!\u00a0 I don\u2019t eat pork or drink alcohol.\u00a0 I don\u2019t go to bars, I don\u2019t engage in one-night stands. I don\u2019t smoke pot or shoot heroin into my veins or snort cocaine.\u00a0 If the cashier gives me too much change, I give it back.\u00a0 I raise my kids to say please and thank you.\u00a0 I laugh at cute kitten videos and enjoy cop dramas.\u00a0 I am a Muslim.<\/p>\n
I know a lot of parents have questions when their kid chooses Islam (for purposes of our discussion I\u2019m talking about adult kids).\u00a0 Sometimes families are torn completely apart, with the revert Muslim being disowned and totally cut off.\u00a0 It\u2019s an emotional reaction born of ignorance.\u00a0 Now, hear me out.\u00a0 It\u2019s born of ignorance because if you are mad when your son or daughter chooses Islam, it\u2019s usually because you don\u2019t like those Ay-rabs who attacked us on 9\/11.\u00a0 Cause they were Moozlums.\u00a0 And they attacked us.\u00a0 So, anything that has to do with that faith has to be bad, right?<\/p>\n
Wrong.\u00a0 To generalize and condemn all 1 billion + Muslims on the planet because of the actions of a few would be just as ignorant as hating all Germans because of Hitler.\u00a0 You know, Hitler?\u00a0 German guy, European, lived in two Christian countries, Germany and Austria?\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s different, you say.\u00a0 He was a Socialist, a damned atheist, even into the occult!\u00a0 Yes, but he managed to get an entire country of Christians to stand behind him and make war on the rest of the world.\u00a0 What about them?\u00a0 What about those good Lutheran and Roman Catholic Germans who blitzkrieged their fellow Christians in Great Britain?\u00a0 Who overwhelmed their coreligionists in France?\u00a0 Well, shoot, you can\u2019t compare the two!\u00a0 Apples and oranges!\u00a0 Hitler didn\u2019t fight in the name of God.\u00a0 His war was political!<\/p>\n
Tell that to six million Jews.\u00a0 Many people justified their oppression and genocide of the Jews of Europe on religious grounds.\u00a0 Hitler didn\u2019t create that hate and that outlook, he just shaped it to his needs.\u00a0 And entire countries went along with him and brought down a war the like of which the world had never seen before.<\/p>\n
Are you mad at me for pointing this out?\u00a0 For trying to get you to stop and think about your prejudices?\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s okay.\u00a0 If being mad doesn\u2019t stop you from thinking, I\u2019m fine with that.\u00a0 But get past the mad and start THINKING.<\/p>\n
Do you even know anything about Islam?\u00a0 Anything beyond what is put forth by the fine folks at CNN and Fox News?\u00a0 Probably not.\u00a0 Well, here\u2019s Islam in a couple of paragraphs:<\/p>\n
Muslims worship the same God as the Jews and Christians.\u00a0 The One God, who created and sustains the universe.\u00a0 We believe that God sent prophets to the many tribes of mankind throughout history to teach them about this oneness, called \u201ctauheed\u201d in Arabic.\u00a0 There may\u00a0 have been as many as 100,000 or more, but their histories are not preserved.\u00a0 Some we know of \u2013 the prophets of the Bible such as Abraham and Lot, David and Solomon, Isaac and Ishmael, Moses and Jesus, may Allah\u2019s peace and blessings be upon them all.\u00a0 We accept them as prophets.\u00a0 And Islam teaches that you HAVE to believe Jesus was a prophet or else you\u2019re not Muslim .\u00a0 We believe in the Virgin Birth.\u00a0 We believe he was not killed, but was taken up alive into the heavens and is the Messiah and will return.\u00a0 The difference we have with Pauline Christianity is that we don\u2019t believe he is God or the Son of God.\u00a0 Heck, neither did most Christians up until the Council of Nicea, and even then it was a close-run thing.<\/p>\n
Does any of that surprise you?\u00a0 Well, if you\u2019ve been allowing yourself to be spoonfed the racist and Islamophobic pablum that TV is dishing out, I\u2019m not surprised.\u00a0 Let me tell you a few other things Islam teaches.<\/p>\n
Islam teaches first and foremost that we are to worship God with no partners, but right after that, in the same sentence, we are told to honor our parents.\u00a0 To never say a harsh word to them.\u00a0 To take care of them since they sacrificed for us when we were little.\u00a0 We are told that we should abstain from alcohol because, even though it\u2019s a useful social lubricant, the damage it does outweighs the benefits.\u00a0 We are told that our bodies are a trust from God and we should not abuse that trust by doing drugs, or overeating.\u00a0 We are told that men are the protectors and maintainers of women and that if a woman makes her own money, or is independently wealthy, the money is HERS and she is not obliged to spend it on her own upkeep.\u00a0 That is about 1400 years in advance of \u201cwestern\u201d laws.<\/p>\n
Oh, and about the whole hijab thing.\u00a0 I know you probably were really upset the first time your daughter came to you with that scrap of cloth on her head.\u00a0 Just think of it this way:\u00a0 Do you prefer the idea of your daughter, your sweetie, the apple of your eye, teetering on high heels, done up with makeup, wearing a short skirt and a tight top, walking down the street with the cable guy, the pizza delivery guy, the guy who downloads porn, the guy who cheats on his wife, and every other guy looking at her, or do you prefer your daughter to dress modestly so that those men, who, like most men, think about sex every twenty seconds or so, don\u2019t have anything on which to build their fantasies?\u00a0 It\u2019s just a bit of cloth; don\u2019t obsess over it.\u00a0 The brain and personality of the woman underneath is still intact.<\/p>\n
And if you don\u2019t like the idea of your son growing a beard, well, would you rather he got a tattoo of Angelina Jolie on his chest?\u00a0 It\u2019s not the end of the world!<\/p>\n
So, take a deep breath, settle down, and maybe sit and TALK to your son or daughter to try to see why he or she felt compelled to become Muslim.\u00a0 Chances are, the answers will run something like this:\u00a0 \u201cI never really understood the Trinity.\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cI always believed in God but couldn\u2019t find proof that Jesus was God.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI wanted to live a moral life.\u201d \u201cI believe that we need structure and guidance in our lives, and Islam offers that.\u201d \u201cI believe\u201d.\u00a0 They believe.\u00a0 It boils down to that.<\/p>\n
Is it such a bad thing that your kid believes in honoring parents?\u00a0 In not doing things that are bad for them, like drinking and drugging and clubbing?\u00a0 That they believe the relationship between men and women should be honorable?\u00a0 That there is something beyond this world that is worth striving for?\u00a0 Once you KNOW what Islam is, I think you won\u2019t fear it so much.\u00a0 And you can maybe recognize the beauty of it.\u00a0 If you know.\u00a0 If you allow yourself to know.\u00a0 If you have the courage to take off the blinders of your preconceptions and learn.\u00a0 Maybe you won\u2019t be pissed off at your kid anymore.\u00a0 And maybe you\u2019ll realize that you want what he has.\u00a0 I\u2019d like that.\u00a0 I\u2019d like that very much.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m a revert.\u00a0 I accepted Islam almost twenty years ago, standing in the front vestibule of the Islamic Center of Greater Kansas City, gently led through my saying of the Shahadah, my declaration of faith, by the Imaam, Adnan Bayazid, while a vacuum cleaner buzzed in the background.\u00a0 Since then I\u2019ve never looked back, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islam-2"],"yoast_head":"\n