Muslim Convert

So I was thinking today in the shower, it tends to be where I do a lot of my thinking. I have always shied away from the term revert. The are a group of people that says since we were born Muslim those of us who were not born into Muslim families but choose Islam as our faith are reverts not converts. I have never been able to put in to words my dislike of the word revert or why I have this weird distaste for being called a revert. I mean, I'm the person who has a hard time raising their hand if someone asked if there are any reverts in the room, but I would have my hand higher then anyone else if you asked for a show of converts. So, it hit me this morning, the term revert feels like I'm blaming my parents for me not being a born Muslim. That just feels wrong on so many levels to me. It is not like my parents rejected Islam, they grew up in a different time then me. They didn't have youtube to watch videos on, they didn't have google to do comparative religious searches on. I was raised Seventh Day Adventist and I plan on seeing many of the people I went to church with growing up in heaven, inshaAllah if I get there. I don't even really consider myself a convert about half the time. I have all the same beliefs that my church gave me, not to say I have all the beliefs that are stated by the Adventist church, because I don't, but the ones that make me a better Muslim are not new. I always had faith in God, I always believed that faith came from within, and I always asked God before I made big decisions. Islam has just given me a better way to live what it is that I have always believed. I am a Christian in that I follow the teaching of Jesus as I believe he meant them, I am a Jew in that I follow the laws of the Torah as I believe they were meant, but I identify as a Muslim because I want to submit myself to the will of Allah, God, Elohim. Also because Muhammad was a prophet, without him we don't have a prophet that spoke to the whole world, I mean if we don't listen to him we have to do a lot of guesswork to extrapolate messages for certain peoples to the whole world, Muhammad takes the guesswork out and I like certainty. So back to the not blaming my parents bit. They were the ones who raised me not only to believe but to question my belief, they raised me to view new people not as scary and to be pushed away, but something interesting to learned about and from. If I had not been raised by my parents I would be the person I am now, I don't think I would be Muslim. My mom once told me that she looked at all the churches around in order to pick one that she wanted to raise my brother and I in and that she thinks she would have considered Islam very hard if there had been a Mosque around. Well there wasn't so I was raised SDA. I think it is interesting to note that my brother and I are both now things that are not SDA but we also both respect the teachings that the fondation that our church gave us. I know I rambled a bit here but it all comes down to the fact that I a proud of the way my parents raised me given the choices that they had and I am proud that I CHOOSE to be a Muslim. I have not regressed to some pre-birth state, I used the brain Allah gave me, and my parents fostered, and I Converted to Islam.

What do you say?

Yesterday I was asked a question that took me completely by surprise.

"Why in all the time I have known you have you never asked what I know about your faith?"

I didn't know how to respond. I asked "Have you ever asked me what I know about your faith?"

"No, but Methodist aren't under attack."

This is what it has come to the responsibility for the people gaining knowledge is now being placed on Muslims. No longer are people expected to educate themselves before they speak and make assumptions. Muslims are now supposed to throw ourselves under the bus of public dislike, we are supposed to engage people who have no desire to be educated so that we do not lose our rights as United States citizens?

It is becoming the theme all over the United States from capital hill to classrooms.

Muslim live in a constant state of unease about the media. When any fool does something violently stupid the first thought that comes in my head "Please don't let it be a Muslim".

Why has it gotten to that point? Some fool flies a plane into an IRS office and no group gets blamed and beyond that you can still say "I hate the IRS" and no one is going to think you plan to fly a plane into anything. Can you imagine that reaction if a Muslim said anything against the government when they were in company that didn't know them?

I choose to be Muslim because I love Allah, my family, science, animals, feminism and environmentalism. Only in Islam did I find all of those things in one place. But somehow my faith has been perverted so that people think I am oppressed by my husband, don't care about my family because they are not Muslim, hate dogs and pigs, and can't possibly have a sound scientific mind.

When is England only oldest sons got to inherit, Islam had long had laws by which women inherited a fair portion of their parents wealth and got to keep that which was theirs when they got married. In Islam paradise is said to lay under the feet of your mother. Prophet Mohammad (SAW) was once ask who should I listen to after Allah and his prophet and he said "Your mother" "Who next?" "Your mother" "Who next?" "Your mother" "Who next?" "Your father".

Henry the Eight disposed of many wives in the search for a son. In Islam a man is still responsible for the care of a wife he divorces till she remarries, or if she can't have children and her husband loves her but wants children he may choose to marry a second wife providing he can afford to equal homes and any children he may have. Tell me which a women would prefer, to be beheaded, imprisoned or left destitute OR to live a comfortable well cared for life in which she only has to deal with her husband part of the time?

I have more to say on all this but I have to go to work and it is the middle of finals study time.

Just some food for thought.