I do appreciate her honesty. Plenty of people think like her but dare not say such things out loud. It is actually kind of refreshing. Also, her blog is full of what I call "white convert privilege"... that arrogance many white (esp. female) converts to Islam have, as if they know Islam better than those of us who were born and raised in Muslim families, cultures, countries.
Here is an excerpt from another one of her posts:
I just read on one of my Facebook groups that one of our sisters has left Islam, and it got me to thinking. Here I am, Muslim for eighteen years, well settled in my faith, knowledgeable to a degree, not prone to histrionics. What could motivate a person, once guided, to abandon the faith? What could make me consider leaving Islam, even for a moment?
Wow, what a topic, eh? Why would I leave Islam? Well, part of me would say it’s too damn hard. Waking up at godawful in the morning, having to pray five – five! – times a day. Making wudu. Walking around with my body parts dripping wet is not comfortable. Having to pray every day at set times. I don’t even brush my teeth every day. Not being able to eat bacon. I know I can eat beef bacon or turkey bacon, but that’s at home. I have to be a damned private investigator and quiz every restaurant employee, read every label. Is there pork in this? Do you make the sauce with wine? This eternal food vigilance is tiring and I look at all the great places featured on Food TV and think, Can’t eat there, or there, or there, can’t even enter that country, dang place is full of pork, sheesh. I have to feel guilty or leave if I visit my mom and she has a bottle of beer or a glass of wine with dinner. I pack my kids’ lunch every day in case there’s some sneaky pork in the school menu. It is, frankly, a hassle. It would be easier just to ignore it.
And covering. Wearing abaya and hijab. I’ve been doing it almost since right after I became Muslim. Is it hard? No, not really. I’m no fashionista and most of the time I love the abaya because I can toss it on, throw on a scarf, and I’m dressed for any occasion, no muss, no fuss. No one has to see the sweats underneath. But boy, some days I feel like I just want to rip off the scarf and feel the wind in my hair, the sun baking down on top of my bare head. I want to wear jeans and a t-shirt when I’m playing with the kids in the yard. I want to not trip over the stairs every single time I bring up the groceries. I want to not have to rush to throw something on, fumbling with snaps and wraps, when the UPS guy drops off a package or someone who turns out to be a little kid knocks on my door. I want to go swimming in a normal one-piece suit instead of a burqini.
I want to go out of the house and look like everyone else. I want to be invisible at Wal-mart so that the mean-looking lady doesn’t give me the evil eye. I want to not have to worry about what’s going on in someone’s head when they see me. I’m not super self-conscious about it, but somewhere in the back of my mind is just the tiniest bit of awareness that some day, somewhere, some idiot might confront me or, worse, try to physically assault me, simply because of what I represent with my clothing. It’d be nice to not have to worry about that.
The Muslims. Sigh. Sometimes I want to disassociate myself from Islam just because there are stupid, idiot, ignorant, jackass people who call themselves Muslim who say and do the most idiotic things. Afghans growing opium, honor killings, acid attacks, subjugation of women, female genital mutilation, corrupt governments, bribery, cheating in business, hypocrisy. As Yusuf Islam, the former Cat Stevens, is famously quoted as saying “Thank God I learned about Islam before I met Muslims”. Frankly, sometimes it’s just embarrassing to be identified as Muslim. It’s like someone finding out you’re related to one of the Kardashians or a serial killer. It’s kinda hard to live down. I don’t like having to give the “all Muslims are not terrorists” speech all the time.
I think the hardest thing about being Muslim, at least for me, is being aware of being Muslim all the time. I have a highly refined guilt complex, so I am immediately aware if something I am doing is haraam, forbidden. I keep the radio on the news station. From time to time I’ll check out the local pop music station and listen to a few songs. Wow, they sound gooooood… and then I’ll immediately feel guilty. Why am I not listening to Qur’an or at least nasheeds? But don’t listen to too many nasheeds or that will be haraam too because you should be listening to Qur’an. Well, maybe I’ll listen to some classical music and that will be less haraam…. Oh, and TV. I watch the news and food shows and football. Should I be watching football? All those hunky guys in tight uniforms. Well, maybe if I only look at the offensive linemen, who are over 300 pounds and not really hunky at all. I’ll just listen and not focus on the screen. But here comes a beer commercial. Haraaaaaam!
Ugh, there I go again. Islam is so hard. Islam requires that we be conscious human beings, aware of our surroundings, aware of wasting food, aware of how we deal with the opposite sex, aware of how we behave in business, aware of what we expose our kids to, aware of our environment, aware of how the less fortunate are abused, aware of ourselves, aware of our duty to Allah, aware of the fact that life is short and there’s this big huge thing called Judgment Day. And sometimes it gets to be overwhelming and I feel like I’ll never measure up and I can’t do this and I’m failing and why the hell should I keep trying because I’m tired and I just want to be an unconscious not-thinking-about-the-afterlife-all-the-time normal person. And dammit I just want to go to Burger King and order a bacon cheeseburger and eat it and enjoy it.
So, yeah, I’ve wondered what it would be like to not be Muslim anymore.
So what stops me?
Belief.
More
here.
Topic: the dreaded "revert" - Islam101