CONVERT PERSPECTIVES COLLECTION: SERIES 1 PART 1

Aslaam Aleikum! If you haven’t heard, Striving For Clarity has started a new collection titled “Convert Perspectives”. The goal is to begin an ongoing series about converts. Each month iA, we will have a few questions that we will ask several converts to answer. We will then share these on the 'Convert/Revert' section of the site.  By learning about other people's experiences, we can gain wisdom and build connections. Every month(or less if we get an influx of responses) we will we changing the questions asked in order to offer you various viewpoints on various issues. If you would like to contribute to the next series in the "Convert Perspectives" collection, email us at [email protected]. 

This is the first series in the collection. InshaAllah there’ll be many more to come. Be sure to post comments and ask questions in the comment sections in order to make this series as interactive as possible. The responses posted are the opinions and viewpoints of the interviewees. 

Interviewees: Amanda, Aisha and TasreenKhaldi 

QUESTION #1: ABOUT YOU: WRITE 1-3 PARAGRAPHS THAT INCLUDES INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR PREVIOUS RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND, HOW LONG YOU HAVE BEEN A MUSLIM, WHAT INITIALLY PEAKED YOUR INTEREST IN ISLAM, AND THE REACTION OF FAMILY/FRIENDS TO YOUR CONVERSION.

Amanda: I was raised Roman Catholic, in a Polish-American community. We were real Catholics - Mass every Sunday was a must, Wednesdays were almost weekly for a Latin Mass, first Fridays were tried. No meat on Fridays throughout the year, etc... I'm pretty young, I converted while I was in college. My family did not take my conversion well, and basically we are at a point where we just don't talk about politics or religion because it causes too much tension.

Aisha: I was raised without religion. My parents said religion was for the weak and used to control the masses. We never lived in one place for too long and moved a lot. My family followed the fruit and vegetable crops during the Spring and Summer months and  in the Winter we followed tree planting or wintered in Arizona. My father was paranoid schizophrenia bipolar and he would therefore change his personality like one would change clothes. It was very scary and we never knew what to expect. All of that changed when I was 15 when he killed himself. My mother then moved us to Arizona and I basically raised my little brother and sisters while my mother drank herself into a haze. I got my G.E.D(high school diploma equivalency) and went to culinary school then went on to have 2 children. I slowly started researching religions and none of them really made sense. In 2004 I started researching Islam then something happened; my sister who is 2 years younger than I, got into trouble and went to jail. It was then I decided to accept Islam.  It was hard. I didn't receive a lot of support . I taught myself as much as I could and tried to make Muslim friends in the community but it is sad to say that there was a lot of cliques and it was hard. I did manage to make a few friends and I pulled through. it is slow going and I struggle to learn every day 

TasreenKhaldix: My name is Tasreen and I am 17 Years old. My mother is half English, half Irish and my father is Pakistani. I embraced Islam at the age of 14 years old Alhamdulilah, just as i started my GCSE'S (Beginning of year 10). I took my Shahadah on the 21st September 2011, it has been 2 years and will be 3 this coming September in sha Allah. I was raised by my Mother alone and had no involvement with my Dad up until i was around 9/10. My mother is Christian (catholic) and my father is Muslim. I was born with no particular religion, but I would attend church, especially to celebrate Christmas. Religion was never really implemented into my life and therefore i did not really have any knowledge of religion, however when something bad happened I would immediately turn to God. I had many troubles whilst I was growing into my teenage years. Certain issues arose that made it hard for me to cope. Things such as bullying and depression lead me to become unhappy a lot of the time. I never really felt like I knew who I was, I never felt as though I 'fitted in' anywhere. It's like I  was subconsciously searching for who i really was. How I came to convert is quite confusing. There is no clear reason Alhamdulilah. All my friends at the time were different races and none were Muslim. However, I had one muslim person on my BBM contact list. I would always see this person post things about the religion, really vague things even as little as saying ‘Masha Allah’ or ‘In sha Allah’. This is the first thing that sparked my interest. So the next few days I approached the only Muslim girl I’'d only ever really spoke to or had a connection with. I knew NOTHING about the religion at all, however randomly I told her how I felt and she began to speak to me Masha Allah. A few of the other girls then decided to help me out a bit (ALHAMDULILAH p.s i love these girls). They would text me and always talk about islam with me. However, when I told my mom, she was not so pleased. She felt as though I wouldn't be able to conform to the religion. For example, I used to love to style my hair, and she thought that I  wouldn't be able to handle hijab. That really disheartened me, and then a few events in my life happened and it was a hard period for me, so I dropped the idea of converting. I went on holiday to Spain for  six weeks, and once I returned I noticed I had lots of text's from one particular sister. Masha Allah she tried so hard. At this moment in time I began to question and challenge the religion with really stupid questions just so that I didn't have to convert (embarrassing lol). I started to come up with excuses such as I’ll convert when i leave college etc. To cut the story short, she defeated me intellectually and I eventually took my Shahadah. I knew nothing about the religion but something within me was just yearning for this! The reaction of everybody was not so great. Eventually, I lost all of my friends. What hurt me the most was losing my closest friend with whom I had been close with since year 7. Nobody really knew that I had converted until after 2 weeks, when I started to wear hijab. Everybody began to talk. All this talk was negative, people claiming I had done it just to fit in, others saying that I wanted attention. Alhamdulilah I had my new Muslim girls who gave me the strength to deal with it all. It was extremely hard. My mom at first, was not so supportive and absolutely hated the religion. She had an extremely negative view on it and would moan at the things i would do. However, eventually, ALHAMDULILAH she realized that this is what I wanted, and she was supportive. She now understands a bit more about the religion through me, and her views have changed; In sha Allah, Allah guides her. My mom is the most supportive even though she is not muslim, and puts effort in buying halal meat when she can and even taking me shopping to buy scarves. My dads family were very happy and are still supportive to this day.

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