What are your experiences and how did you deal with rest of the family and community at large. I just read an article about this in Washington Post:
When Muslims intermarry, do they keep the faith? - The Washington Post
Thanks,
Re: Did you marry a non-muslim?
I agree with one point in the article where it says cultural similarity matters more than religious similarity. I am not married but I will consider this point. It will be easier for me to marry and live with a woman from an Asian country with different religion compared to a Muslim woman from countries like UK or USA.
Re: Did you marry a non-muslim?
That means religion doesn't mean anything to you. I could totally be o.k with a good practicing muslim regardless of origin. There is an Islamic culture people. The 5x prayers, the eid, the ramadan, the Haqiqa, the Jumah. Yes people's are going vary depending on region/country. It if were just for culture, all Pakistani muslims would marry Hindus, but often do we see that in the west or elsewhere? Extremely rare.
Re: Did you marry a non-muslim?
My mums mamu married a non-Muslim who converted for her marriage. They had 5 kids; the marriage failed and 4 out of the 5 kids don't class themselves as either Christian or Muslim-they practice a 'blended' faith to say the least.
My own chacha is married to a Christian woman and they have two children. The kids practice Islam; however noone forces Chachi to do so. She's free to go Church as she was practicing her own religion before marriage. Saying that though I've been told by Dadi that she's now learning about Islam. Culture wise they had pretty much nothing in common however MashAllah are doing well. She accepts that my chacha applies his religion to various parts of his life (he tries; and no one perfect) and my chacha accepts his wife is a practicing Christian who after a certain number of years is now looking at Islam and is considering the leap over.
And for what it's worth I don't think Islam has a culture-it's a way of life. The Salaats, Ramadan etc-you can meet a practicing Muslim from Trinidad and they will be doing pretty much the same as a practicing Muslim from India. The culture that seeps in e.g. not marrying out of your own network, only doing certain jobs etc etc I believe is more to do with your families origins. If we take the concept of Islam being a way of life (regardless of how much one applies to their own life)I think we could safely move away from the culture of countries and have more 'mixed Muslim' marriages if that makes sense. Of course language barriers are a hard thing to get over and I don't think it's easy for anyone to marry someone of the same religion if they cannot communicate.
Geezer whereabouts are you based? Just wondering based on your comment about Muslim women from the UK?