Let's face it, Islam is a very Arab-centric religion. The Arab customs, habits, food, clothes and of course language of the Arabs has been raised to Divine status as a result of Islam.
How did (does) that make you feel?
I come from a family that has a mix of ethnicities including Arabic and then I married an Arab also. Our families are both Muslims and Christians. Personally I dislike the Arab culture and the Arab ego trip, and always did. I did not like it when people would say that kufta or hummus is "Islamic food." Or that you have to wear a Jordanian style of jilbab to be a real hijabi. But I am so hostile and strong about rejecting the influence of the culture and that in my life that I wasn't really subjected to some of the pressures that other people are as far as people trying to Arabise you. i also was not really accepted in our hometown because of this. If you didn't play ball and become Arabised or Desi-ised, then you were not really welcomed in the masjid or the halaqahs, etc.
Did it play a part in you leaving Islam?
No only in the sense of seeing how intellectually and morally corrupt, on a general level, Arabian society is, and how that contrasts so much to the ideal Islamic bullshit that everyone spouts. How having 'the Arabic tongue' did not turn these people into people who love learning and pursue science or art or anything, but instead, they are wrapped up in the must intellectually suffocating systems of education, the culture is sort of petrified, etc. If Islam is what they said it is, then why are the ones who can 'understand the Quran easily' so far, far off from what they claim it teaches... that sort of thing.
I personally hated the hierarchy amongst Muslims that always placed the Arabs at the top in whatever meeting or gathering one was at - and I am part Arab!
Yes because speaking Arabic, even if it is Egyptian slang Arabic, automatically gives a person some cache.
I also didn't like the way that so many Asians tried to be "Arab" - it seemed demeaning to them and it didn't seem right.
I don't have experience with this too much but more with the Asian superiority complex over the African, African descended, and other Muslims. For example the masjid in our hometown became also the center of cultural celebrations and you weren't welcome to attend because you weren't Asian, or wearing sk was superior to wearing any other type of clothing (and wearing jilbab marked you as a super pious, perhaps Wahabi type who should be respectfully avoided). Or if you go to pray in the line of the jumuah, actually experiencing the Asian women taking a step away from you because they will not stand shoulder to shoulder with a non Desi woman. I kid you not. White, black, African, it didn't matter -- you were not good enough to even stand next to.
The food at our gatherings, that we are all paying for, was always super spicy, laughing at 'Arab's bland food' and of course, the only food we Westerners have ever produced is Mc Donald's. And of course, everything is in Urdu or Bengali. So you don't understand the halaqah or the khutbah and they tell you 'Oh you shouldn't even come, you won't understand it anyway'. Also it was a very affluent community with your stereotypical Pakistani doctors, Indian engineers, etc so there were all these class issues. The working class Asians wouldn't even attend this masjid, they had their own masjid, but the non-Desis were a mix of white collar and working class until it got out of control and there was a big split.
So actually in my hometown our Arab masjid with the whole 'Arabs are the best' mentality came out of that other masjid, where the Arabs were all seen as somewhat backwards, Salafi-types, not really welcome to play ball, join the committees, working class, etc. LOL So one group's ethnocentrism empowered another group to strike out on their own and in turn establish an ethnocentric community. Then in the Arab masjid, being a Palestinian liquor store owner became a mark of prestige - because you may own a liquor store and didn't even finish high school but boy you make money hand over fist selling liquor to 'the kufar'.
It is always assumed that any truly pious Muslim must try and learn Arabic.
But of course. You spend years and years learning it. If you don't know any Arabic it's like 'What's wrong with you?'
Topic: A Question to Non-Arab Ex-Muslims (and Muslims)