I’m Muslim, I’m English, and I’m a Westerner

Monday, 30 April 2012 00:00

I think it’s hard for Muslims if you are brought up within a Pakistani tradition, Arab tradition or Indonesian tradition, you are used to having your faith and your culture interwoven.

But actually they are distinct things: Islam is a faith and a culture is a culture.

Cultures change and evolve, but faith has its permanence; things which are rooted within.

And I think it’s very difficult to imagine when you don’t express it that you can have that faith expressed within a different culture, particularly a culture you are not necessarily used to seeing as a Muslim culture.

So, I’m an English woman, I’m a Westerner, and I’m a Muslim. They are my identities. And at the end of the day God chose to place me in England and I’m not going to question His divine choices!

And so, I’m very English, I was brought up in a very English way. But that is not to say that they are not incompatible with my faith. So I think I’m getting used to explaining it to individuals: “Yes I’m Muslim, I’m English, and I’m a Westerner”. Whereas perhaps for them an English person is a Christian or a westerner is not a Muslim.

And so, it takes time to adjust to that mentality, or to that new paradigm. They usually get very excited by it but it does take again conversation, commitment, time, and energy to sort of say “Ok, I don’t have to be Pakistani in order to be a committed Muslim!”

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