Anu Dwarumpudi interviewed Miriam Cole, a interior designer from New Jersey who is currently residing in Houston. Miriam's family is Puerto-Rican and Christian, and she converted to Islam based on her own research. You can read their full conversation here. What are your biggest influences and your decision to cover? When I first researched Islam, I looked into women's rights because I'm a strong character. So I felt like oppression is not right. Some of the things that I've read about or that the media portrayed to be of the Islamic religion, I realize we're actually not. These things were perhaps the cultural baggage that those people came with. Just like I have cultural baggage maybe those people also brought it to the end because they identify themselves as Muslims. So when I realized that when the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, came to the people, he came not just with the Revelation and guidance but he also came to bring rights to people. So he freed slaves. He gave rights to women that they didn't have when it comes down to like the rights of a husband and a wife the rights of a mother the rights of a sister the rights of a neighbor and the rights of inheritance. All of these things were not put in place before Islam. So the first wife of the Prophet Mohammad Khadija. She was a business woman. She hired him to work for her. And when you learn about these stories and you realize What oppression? What oppression! We look up to this sister the first wife of the prophet as an example for us. We learn about her life and how she was and how she treated the prophet. Why? Because we want to use them as example...I must say I don't see myself without Islam. Nobody is perfect but I love my life as a Muslim. I'm proud of it. I speak Spanish everywhere. I want to make a point. I drive around with the Puerto Rican flag hanging from my rearview mirror because I want to make a point. It's about time people start to recognize that not all Muslims are Arabs or South Asians. There are Muslims all around the world. Islam is a religion for everyone.
How does culture influence your religious practices and understanding of Islam such as country of origin or your family members? As I mentioned, I'm Puerto Rican. Puerto Rican is diverse in itself because Puerto Ricans have a mixture of cultures...I was brought up with a diverse palette of different cultural aspects...My culture is something that as a Puerto Rican I can't help but to be proud of course. And then when I became Muslim, I realized there were certain things that I could no longer partake in or certain things that were not pleasing to my board and that was my ultimate goal as a Muslim was to please my lord. ...Today i embrace those good aspects. And when I say good, I mean in accordance to Islam. When I cook, I cook like a Puerto Rican. I omit the pork- that's important. I can't eat pork anymore. If any one of those dishes include an ingredient that has pork in it, I substitute it or I leave it out. It's just basically leaving what's not permissible in Islam out of my life. How do you view other Muslim women who choose not to cover? There are many sisters I know personally that don't cover. Yes. Maybe they'll dress modest though, wear a cardigan or maybe not. I can't judge them because Islam has taught me to look at what's in someone's heart and we can't go around judging people based on their appearance because there might be something really good about that person that's better to me with all of this clothes on. Being modest is more than just clothes. It's more than just fabric. It's what's in the heart. It's how you carry yourself and your values. There's a lot of Muslim women that don't cover. The question is do they worship? You know that's what we should be looking at if they worship God and whatever actions they do.Then that's between them and God. I can't judge. I can't discriminate. I'm not perfect. I can easily fall off. And to think that. That's not something possible for me would be ignorant in itself. I don't want to be arrogant and try and protect myself from thinking I'm better than anybody because I'm not.
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