A while ago I struggled with whether to wear a hijab to job interviews but in the end I decided to wear my hijab and keep true to myself. Yesterday, I was given a conditional job offer pending a drug test, (I passed that) and a criminal history check. Insha' Allah they call me and confirm my orientation by the end of this week..
It is a bit far but Masha'allah I have good friends that will allow me to stay with them. I truly hope to move down that way very soon.
I have found throughout my journey (which is still very new to me) that most people are accepting and supportive. When I announced my hesitation to wear my hijab to a job interview it was my non-Muslim friends that encouraged me to wear my hijab and said it doesn't or shouldn't matter and to stay true to myself and my religion. Masha'Allah people are wonderful.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
American Muslimah, what does that mean to me? At 44 years of age and having just converted I find that I am deep into my American culture. I know that in Islam women reach paradise easier with a husband but I am not married. Islam also says Muslim women must marry a Muslim man. I am not in love with a Muslim man. At 44 I will not be having any more children and I have discovered I do not need a man for anything. I am self-sufficeint and fiercely independant and that will not change. If I was in love with a Christian man before I decided to convert that would not change either. I was once Christian and married to a Muslim man so I know it can work out. (we did not split due to religious differences)
These things pass through my mind often. As I want to be a good Muslim woman but my independance and my own personal belief systems. As a woman that is a survivor of domestic violence.
These things pass through my mind often. As I want to be a good Muslim woman but my independance and my own personal belief systems. As a woman that is a survivor of domestic violence.
Today’s Muslim Experience:
In light of all the scary hate crimes happening to people of different races, religions and sexual orientations, with all the bullying that happens causing so many to take their own lives making this world such an ugly place to live there comes a light from someone that brightens ones day.
I usually get questions from people such as, “do you wear that scarf because your husband makes you?” “Do you wear that because of your religion?” “Are you Muslim?” or “Oh, I love your scarf that is beautiful.”
...
When I see another Muslim we greet each other with As’Salamu ‘Alaikum or Salam. When I am in public I usually initiate the greeting with non-muslims wearing a huge smile and saying Hi, how are you today?
However, today was different while I was partaking in the great Kroger shopping experience minding my own business looking for some decaf tea (yup coffee and broke up and we are not getting back together). That is when I heard a very bold and intentional “Asalamu ‘Alaikum” as I looked up to see a young lady (about 18 or maybe 20) standing next to me with a smile on her face I replied “Wa ‘Alaikum Salam” with a huge grin on my face.
We ran across each other in a few more isles and even in check out. She was a very happy social young lady that has been the first non-Muslim to greet me with a Muslim greeting with such zest and love and acceptance outside of my friends and family.
Amazing how something so random and unexpected can make ones day and take away, even for the briefest of moments, the ugliness of the world we live in.
In light of all the scary hate crimes happening to people of different races, religions and sexual orientations, with all the bullying that happens causing so many to take their own lives making this world such an ugly place to live there comes a light from someone that brightens ones day.
I usually get questions from people such as, “do you wear that scarf because your husband makes you?” “Do you wear that because of your religion?” “Are you Muslim?” or “Oh, I love your scarf that is beautiful.”
...
When I see another Muslim we greet each other with As’Salamu ‘Alaikum or Salam. When I am in public I usually initiate the greeting with non-muslims wearing a huge smile and saying Hi, how are you today?
However, today was different while I was partaking in the great Kroger shopping experience minding my own business looking for some decaf tea (yup coffee and broke up and we are not getting back together). That is when I heard a very bold and intentional “Asalamu ‘Alaikum” as I looked up to see a young lady (about 18 or maybe 20) standing next to me with a smile on her face I replied “Wa ‘Alaikum Salam” with a huge grin on my face.
We ran across each other in a few more isles and even in check out. She was a very happy social young lady that has been the first non-Muslim to greet me with a Muslim greeting with such zest and love and acceptance outside of my friends and family.
Amazing how something so random and unexpected can make ones day and take away, even for the briefest of moments, the ugliness of the world we live in.
People never cease to amaze me in a good way
I live in an area with very few muslims and quite frankly I have not seen but a few here and there. The most I saw in one day was about four at a childrens even in Flint about three weeks ago and I was amazed. I thought I was alone up in these parts.
My perception of non-muslims is that they are against Islam and really know nothing about Islam. My experience online is different then seeing people in person.
Online: Experience on youtube alone is amazingly harsh. Many Atheists, Christians and racist bigots are finding courage from behind the keyboards and their attacks are calculating, malicous and horrifying. To think these people interact with the rest of society outside of the computer is terrifying and the actions of people like Wade Micheal Page who recently shot and killed 6 people at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin. Belonging to a white supremiscist group and was discharged from the military for "patterns of misconduct" is all to common.
It really makes one question the good in people and lose faith in humanity and the good in people. Then it happens every now and then, someone says something that totally dispells the notion that all people are against or hate Islam.
As my sister and I shopped at Khols I let out a few huge yawns that grabbed the attention of a woman about 65 or older. She said you can't be yawning right now don't you have to go home and make dinner. I assumed she was talking about Ramadan and I replied, no I can't participate in Ramadan this year so we already ate. She laughed and said no I just meant dinner but isn't Ramadan kind of like our Lent? I said it is very similiar.
I just love it when people surprise me with an open mind and knowledge. So wonderful and makes me feel happy that people recognize what I already know. I struggle with understanding some of the teaching of the Qur'an but I did also with the Bible so it is no different. It doesn't mean I don't want to be Muslim, but it means I have to find the answer within.
My perception of non-muslims is that they are against Islam and really know nothing about Islam. My experience online is different then seeing people in person.
Online: Experience on youtube alone is amazingly harsh. Many Atheists, Christians and racist bigots are finding courage from behind the keyboards and their attacks are calculating, malicous and horrifying. To think these people interact with the rest of society outside of the computer is terrifying and the actions of people like Wade Micheal Page who recently shot and killed 6 people at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin. Belonging to a white supremiscist group and was discharged from the military for "patterns of misconduct" is all to common.
It really makes one question the good in people and lose faith in humanity and the good in people. Then it happens every now and then, someone says something that totally dispells the notion that all people are against or hate Islam.
As my sister and I shopped at Khols I let out a few huge yawns that grabbed the attention of a woman about 65 or older. She said you can't be yawning right now don't you have to go home and make dinner. I assumed she was talking about Ramadan and I replied, no I can't participate in Ramadan this year so we already ate. She laughed and said no I just meant dinner but isn't Ramadan kind of like our Lent? I said it is very similiar.
I just love it when people surprise me with an open mind and knowledge. So wonderful and makes me feel happy that people recognize what I already know. I struggle with understanding some of the teaching of the Qur'an but I did also with the Bible so it is no different. It doesn't mean I don't want to be Muslim, but it means I have to find the answer within.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
So running into the haram police lately
I am finding that my beliefs and support of the gay community is not sitting well with other Muslims as it did not with many Christians.
At first it made me feel like I shouldn't follow any religion but I love Islam. I don't agree with every single piece of its doctrine but I believe Allah has a path for me and I am following it. If he wanted me to feel or think differently he would have guided me down a different path by now. I do not want to be guided by other Muslims because they are not God and I do not conform well to "the majority" mind set or beliefs. I do not follow the popular path and rarely the more traveled path.
I may not follow the path everyone else does but I follow the path God has laid out for me and that's what is important.
At first it made me feel like I shouldn't follow any religion but I love Islam. I don't agree with every single piece of its doctrine but I believe Allah has a path for me and I am following it. If he wanted me to feel or think differently he would have guided me down a different path by now. I do not want to be guided by other Muslims because they are not God and I do not conform well to "the majority" mind set or beliefs. I do not follow the popular path and rarely the more traveled path.
I may not follow the path everyone else does but I follow the path God has laid out for me and that's what is important.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
No word on interviews
Still no word on the interviews. Ugh, get myself so geeked up for nothing. I gave good interviews. If I could bring myself to not to wear hijab I would test it out but I don't like the felling of thinking about not wearing it. Not sure if it has anything to do with it but I can't rule it out.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Mondays Interview with Hamtramk Police Department
I interviewed for the dispatch position on Monday and have yet to hear back from them or Detroits water and sewage department from the interview the previous week.
Oye....back to the application grind. Hoping to find something in Dearborn which is the largest Muslim community in the United States. Hopefully I will have luck there.
Oye....back to the application grind. Hoping to find something in Dearborn which is the largest Muslim community in the United States. Hopefully I will have luck there.
Today’s Muslim Experience:
In light of all the scary hate crimes happening to people of different races, religions and sexual orientations, with all the bullying that happens causing so many to take their own lives making this world such an ugly place to live there comes a light from someone that brightens ones day.
I usually get questions from people such as, “do you wear that scarf because your husband makes you?” “Do you wear that because of your religion?” “Are you Muslim?” or “Oh, I love your scarf that is beautiful.”
...
When I see another Muslim we greet each other with As’Salamu ‘Alaikum or Salam. When I am in public I usually initiate the greeting with non-muslims wearing a huge smile and saying Hi, how are you today?
However, today was different while I was partaking in the great Kroger shopping experience minding my own business looking for some decaf tea (yup coffee and broke up and we are not getting back together). That is when I heard a very bold and intentional “Asalamu ‘Alaikum” as I looked up to see a young lady (about 18 or maybe 20) standing next to me with a smile on her face I replied “Wa ‘Alaikum Salam” with a huge grin on my face.
We ran across each other in a few more isles and even in check out. She was a very happy social young lady that has been the first non-Muslim to greet me with a Muslim greeting with such zest and love and acceptance outside of my friends and family.
Amazing how something so random and unexpected can make ones day and take away, even for the briefest of moments, the ugliness of the world we live in.
I usually get questions from people such as, “do you wear that scarf because your husband makes you?” “Do you wear that because of your religion?” “Are you Muslim?” or “Oh, I love your scarf that is beautiful.”
...
When I see another Muslim we greet each other with As’Salamu ‘Alaikum or Salam. When I am in public I usually initiate the greeting with non-muslims wearing a huge smile and saying Hi, how are you today?
However, today was different while I was partaking in the great Kroger shopping experience minding my own business looking for some decaf tea (yup coffee and broke up and we are not getting back together). That is when I heard a very bold and intentional “Asalamu ‘Alaikum” as I looked up to see a young lady (about 18 or maybe 20) standing next to me with a smile on her face I replied “Wa ‘Alaikum Salam” with a huge grin on my face.
We ran across each other in a few more isles and even in check out. She was a very happy social young lady that has been the first non-Muslim to greet me with a Muslim greeting with such zest and love and acceptance outside of my friends and family.
Amazing how something so random and unexpected can make ones day and take away, even for the briefest of moments, the ugliness of the world we live in.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
New interview
What lady has an interview with a police department in Michigan on Monday? This one right here! yay!!!! So exited about this one in particular. I really want to keep in with criminal justice and I want to expand my horizons to other jobs and skills. Maybe I will be able to do both insha'Allah.
Pleas make dua's for me with this last two interviews.
Pleas make dua's for me with this last two interviews.
Update on Tuesday (07/31/12) Interview
As I had posted previously, I had an interview on Tuesday for Detroit Water and Sewage. I decided to be loyal to myself and my beliefs and chose to wear my hijab. I left feeling good and thought the interview went well. I hope and pray to get a call back for the job.
Dinner at mothers
So my brother and sister-in-law were up from Texas last week. My sister-in-law has been up for the past two weeks and we enjoyed spending sometime together. She is a lovely, lovely woman and is raising my nephews so well. She is very sweet and so open minded. She just looked at me and said she I looked beautiful and was so happy I found something that makes me so happy.
My brother who arrived this past Saturday thinks differently. I love my brother, however, we have never been real close and we rarely talk. We really do not know each other and he really does not know me personally. It doesn't make me love him any less, however, it helps me not take his critical opinions and beliefs to heart when it comes to judging me.
My brother and sister-in-law were late for dinner because they had taken my young nephews to Greenfield Village in Dearborn. When they arrived he walked up and gave me a hug and said hi. He mentioned nothing about my hijab. However, as we were all sitting down outside having ate such a delicious dinner my mom prepared for us and basking in funny conversation, most everyone drinking many large glasses of wine (I don't drink but I enjoyed the fact they all became funnier as they consumed more wine lol) he looked across the patio table at me and said "What are you wearing?" I replied, "a hijab" and he asked "why?" and I replied "because I am Muslim and it is between God and I" and he asked "why?" and I replied "because that's the way it is" and he asked "why?" and I said because I like it!" He then asked "how do you expect to get a job looking like that?" I replied many Muslim women work in America and wear their hijab." and it ended. My stepfather who does not like me and never has then took that as his cue to chime in and take a stab at me, "yes but are you a practicing Muslim? Do you get your 5 prayers a day in?" I replied "I do pray, sometimes I pray only once a day, sometimes more. I am working on it." That ended the conversation...smh....I really do not care for my stepfather either but for my mother I do not say what I would really like to say to him which would probably get me banned from her home lol.
When it was time to leave my brother could barely bring himself to hug me good-bye and it really wasn't a hug at all. I just said, just accept me for who I am and he replied "this isn't you" and he repeated it several times after I said yes it is me. As I said in the beginning, we rarely talked, maybe twice in the past 7 years. I love him and he is my brother but we don't know each other. We are and will always be family but our lives and beliefs are different.
I would accept my family and love them regardless of their choices, nor would I turn to them and tell them (out side of hurting themselves with drugs or being involved in domestic violence) they weren't who they are. It stings because he is my brother but at the same time it isn't all that painful because our personal relationship is distant and that really doesn't hurt me. It is what it is.
However, my sister-in-law left me so inspired and hopeful and happy. I just have a new found respect and love for her. She is wonderful with the boys and they are so well behaved and communicate at a level well beyond their years.
My brother is a very wonderful father. I had a chance to watch him interact with the boys when they were both upset and he did an excellent job. As parents they have proven that people do not need to spank or hit their kids in order to teach them to behave, to get along and to share and to be kind to others. Very well done! Kudos to both of them.
p.s. my stepfather is a whole conversation on its own and may deserve its own blog, however, I am not going to invest anytime or energy in detail or length on him as he is not deserving of such attention. If you have questions I will answer them but otherwise you may only get little spurts of info her an there and far in between. :)
My brother who arrived this past Saturday thinks differently. I love my brother, however, we have never been real close and we rarely talk. We really do not know each other and he really does not know me personally. It doesn't make me love him any less, however, it helps me not take his critical opinions and beliefs to heart when it comes to judging me.
My brother and sister-in-law were late for dinner because they had taken my young nephews to Greenfield Village in Dearborn. When they arrived he walked up and gave me a hug and said hi. He mentioned nothing about my hijab. However, as we were all sitting down outside having ate such a delicious dinner my mom prepared for us and basking in funny conversation, most everyone drinking many large glasses of wine (I don't drink but I enjoyed the fact they all became funnier as they consumed more wine lol) he looked across the patio table at me and said "What are you wearing?" I replied, "a hijab" and he asked "why?" and I replied "because I am Muslim and it is between God and I" and he asked "why?" and I replied "because that's the way it is" and he asked "why?" and I said because I like it!" He then asked "how do you expect to get a job looking like that?" I replied many Muslim women work in America and wear their hijab." and it ended. My stepfather who does not like me and never has then took that as his cue to chime in and take a stab at me, "yes but are you a practicing Muslim? Do you get your 5 prayers a day in?" I replied "I do pray, sometimes I pray only once a day, sometimes more. I am working on it." That ended the conversation...smh....I really do not care for my stepfather either but for my mother I do not say what I would really like to say to him which would probably get me banned from her home lol.
When it was time to leave my brother could barely bring himself to hug me good-bye and it really wasn't a hug at all. I just said, just accept me for who I am and he replied "this isn't you" and he repeated it several times after I said yes it is me. As I said in the beginning, we rarely talked, maybe twice in the past 7 years. I love him and he is my brother but we don't know each other. We are and will always be family but our lives and beliefs are different.
I would accept my family and love them regardless of their choices, nor would I turn to them and tell them (out side of hurting themselves with drugs or being involved in domestic violence) they weren't who they are. It stings because he is my brother but at the same time it isn't all that painful because our personal relationship is distant and that really doesn't hurt me. It is what it is.
However, my sister-in-law left me so inspired and hopeful and happy. I just have a new found respect and love for her. She is wonderful with the boys and they are so well behaved and communicate at a level well beyond their years.
My brother is a very wonderful father. I had a chance to watch him interact with the boys when they were both upset and he did an excellent job. As parents they have proven that people do not need to spank or hit their kids in order to teach them to behave, to get along and to share and to be kind to others. Very well done! Kudos to both of them.
p.s. my stepfather is a whole conversation on its own and may deserve its own blog, however, I am not going to invest anytime or energy in detail or length on him as he is not deserving of such attention. If you have questions I will answer them but otherwise you may only get little spurts of info her an there and far in between. :)
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