Thirty-five years ago, at age 12, Reymund Nur converted to Islam
while still living in his parents’ Methodist household.
Five years ago, Boni Bee was a young Hindu woman seeking clarity
and purpose in her life.
Last spring, Leilani Downing was reading the Christian Bible and
looking for meaning in Christianity, her birth religion.
Today, all three are Muslims and live their lives according to
the laws of Islam.
A common stereotype is that of the Arab Muslim, when in reality
Islam draws from many different ethnicities.
“The majority of people feel that all Muslims are Arab,
but in reality only a small percent ““ 15 percent ““ are
of Arab descent,” said Faryah Humkar, a member of the UCLA
Muslim Student Association.
The Muslim population, she added, includes people from many
different backgrounds and ethnicities.
Nur, a Hispanic man who was born into a Methodist family, is one
such Muslim who is not of Arab descent, but has lived an Islamic
life.
At the age of 12, when many boys are concerned with sports and
comics, Nur was thinking about religion.
“I was always serious about life and how people are
supposed to be, and I guess I was looking for a way to be and
live,” Nur said. “(Islam) was something that I could
hold on to … with morals, values.”
Rather than reading about superheroes and villains, Nur was
reading about religion, and in his reading he came across
Islam.
“From what I read … it felt like the right thing to do.
It seemed like a good life,” Nur said. After his conversion
to Islam at age 12, Nur began to follow the customs of his new
religion, such as praying the prescribed five times a day, while
still living at home.
And though Nur called the transition to Islam “smooth
sailing,” reconciling his personal beliefs with those of his
family was the hardest part about converting. When he first told
his parents of his decision, he was kicked out of his home for a
week and went to live with his older sister before his mother
welcomed him back.
“Letting the family know that you were no longer part of
that faith is where most of the difficulties were,” Nur
said.
“In the beginning, I got some opposition, especially from
parents,” Nur said. “But eventually things warmed
up.”
For Nur and many other converts, the act of leaving the religion
and traditions of their families is the hardest part about becoming
a Muslim.
Bee kept her conversion from her extended family because she
does not expect that they would understand or accept the
change.
Though Boni Bee is not her real name, she uses the pseudonym to
prevent her family from finding out about the conversion.
The relationship with her family has been the biggest challenge
in converting to Islam, she said.
“Keeping it a secret from my family was always a
struggle,” she said.
Her mother is the only member of the family who knows about her
conversion, and her father died before she could tell him. Her
relationship with her mother and her knowledge that her father
never knew about her religious beliefs have been the hardest steps
in the process of accepting Islam into her life.
“Before I became a Muslim, there wasn’t a thing that
I had done that had ever disappointed my mother. This was
it,” Bee said. “She doesn’t understand why I
would have to change what she raised me as.”
One thing she said she wishes could have been different is not
having told her father about her decision.
“That’s something that also is difficult for me,
because there is a part of my life that he didn’t
know,” she said.
Along with the trials of converting to a new religion, Bee has
experienced the difficulties of being a Muslim in American
society.
“It’s difficult for me because, as a Muslim,
especially in this country right now, I’m questioned on a
daily basis why I wear a hijab, and I’m often stereotyped as
a terrorist,” Bee said.
But Bee has had a somewhat unique experience ““ she has
lived life both as a Muslim and as a non-Muslim, with the
traditional Muslim headdress known as the hijab, and without it.
And she certainly has noticed a difference in the way she is
treated.
“I know how I was treated before I wore a hijab, and I
know how I’m treated now,” Bee said. Now that she
openly identifies herself as Muslim, she receives more respect from
some, but more animosity from others.
Since she donned the hijab, Bee said she has been the recipient
of a hostile attitude some Americans have toward Islam, receiving
cold stares and having people walk away from her upon seeing that
she is Muslim.
But at the same time, she said she is sometimes treated with
more respect from both strangers and people she knows.
Many on the outside may think some of these Muslim practices,
such as wearing the hijab and praying five times a day, would be
overwhelming.
And in the beginning for converts, keeping these practices can
be hard.
One of the most important transitions is praying five times a
day at prescribed intervals, as is Muslim practice.
Downing said that she has still not integrated this fully into
her life and is working toward doing so, as it is a vital part of
being a Muslim.
“I’m still new to Islam. … I’m still
learning how to pray,” she said.
It is particularly hard to fit these prayers into the schedule
of mainstream secular society.
“When I’m at work, it may be a challenge to step out
and do what I need to do to pray,” Downing said.
The key to making this transition, Bee said, is to take the new
practices one step and one day at a time.
Though there were hardships with converting to Islam ““ the
tension it can cause with family or the prejudices a person faces
as a Muslim ““ none of these converts remember the process as
difficult.
They also agree none of the problems posed by family tensions or
outside prejudices dissuaded them from accepting Islam.
“It’s just part of my own daily struggle to become
closer to God and not worry about what other people think,”
Downing said. “I think that Islam is the culmination of my
journey in coming closer to God.”
Nur and Bee will discuss their experiences with Islam at an MSA
event tonight at 6:30 p.m. in Moore 100.