Visiting Greece now as a Muslim – I was nervous and excited

 By Stefanie Danopoulos, 28 years old

The last summer I visited Greece was in 1999. That time I was already reading about Islam and did a lot of thinking. When I came back to Holland I decided to convert to Islam. And after a few months I started to wear the veil, hijab.

I lost contact with my family for almost two years. When I had my first child the contact slowly became better.

My parents always told me that it was not possible to go back to Greece with my hijab. And my biggest problem was that I don’t speak Greek.

My father is from Greece (Korinthos) and my mother is from Holland. I was born and raised in Holland but we traveled to Greece every year in the summer. I think that it is really important that you can explain to the people in their language why you dress that way.

A few months ago we had a conference in Holland and then I met Anna, a Greek Muslim sister. I was so happy and I even took her to my mother’s house to show her that there are Muslims in Greece. My mother was very surprised.

A few months later, they had a meeting in Greece for the Muslims Association of Greece. My parents and sisters were all in Greece and Anna told me that I had to come. And I told my parents I had plans to come and they said that I was welcome. So I booked my ticket and finally after 11 years I came back to Greece.

I was very nervous but also very excited.

The first two days I spent at the conference in Athens meeting other Greek Muslims, alhamdulillah! I had a very nice time.

And I thought that everybody would look at me in a bad way but they did not even care. 

Then I met my family in Ancient Korinthos. I was very, very nervous about the reactions. When I arrived some friends of my parents were waiting for me. They were very happy to see me and one friend of my father asked if I came from dancing because of my clothes. So my mother told him that it is a new fashion. I spoke to some relatives and nobody said crazy things.

I noticed that most of them speak English, so thank God, that was very nice. I didn’t really have the chance to tell them something about Islam because I was there only one day and my parents wanted to show me everything. They were so happy that I came.

I had a great time. And, God willing, next year I will go back to Greece with my husband and kids.

I spent my last day in the island of Andros. It was very beautiful and I even swam in the sea.  Also the people there were very nice and I did not feel left out or something.

In Holland, people look at you in a different way, but I think that it is because of the negative media attention. So most people in Holland see Islam in a bad way and they feel threatened by veils and beards and long dresses. In Greece I felt very relaxed.

I had a great experience and I will go back again for holiday, God willing!

New book out by Greek Muslim convert

Jamilah Kolocotronis sure knows how to keep you up all night with a book in your hand. I just finished reading her novel, Silence, and I’m definitely impressed by how unique it is.

She is one brave soul. She tackles many ‘taboo’ issues in her book about religious extremism and social and political injustice in the USA. What I like most is that you feel like you’re reading a novel but deep down, you are being educated about the realities of underground life, religion and politics, or at least of fears (valid or not) that the average public is completely unaware of.

And just because she is Muslim, that doesn’t mean she shows a bias. You’ll meet characters both Christian and Muslim in her book, exposing mainstream vs. extremism in both religions.

I have to mention that some people think that if fiction is “Islamic” than it must be boring, or at the least, preachy. Pick up one of Jamilah’s books and this misconception will be dispelled immediately.

A small minority of Muslims have this idea that it’s haram to read Islamic fiction because it’s considered lying or at best a complete waste of time. If that’s you, you may want to check out this fatwa. As for the issue of time, you just have to speak with a Muslim educator to find out how desperate they are to find these books for their students as an alternative to the trash that’s out there.

Back to the topic. This book is definitely an eye-opener so don’t lose out. Read more details about it here:

 www.MuslimWritersPublishing.com

(also in e-book format)                          

                                                                     

                                                                                                                             

Hotdogs, souvlakia and shawarmas: my life, my culture

A few days ago I was invited to a New Muslims dinner with Canadian converts to Islam.  It was refreshing to see a culture opposite to your typical Arabic culture.

(That means we were eating pasta, deviled eggs, taco dip and banana bread instead of your usual shawarma, rice and hommus mix.  )

It was funny because at one point one of the Canadian-born sisters was sitting next to me and because we were relaxing so much she crossed her leg and the back of her foot happened to be facing me.  We both laughed because she said she was sorry so I won’t take offense.

Right away, I knew what she was referring to.  In the Arabic culture, if your foot is facing another person, that is one of the most demeaning insults you can make to a person.  (Remember the whole Iraqi journalist-slash-Bush-slash-shoe-throwing incident?) I told her not to worry because I’m not Arabic to begin with.

But it was interesting because the other Canadian sister beside me saw us and said, “Oh, that’s why my father-in-law was so angry when I did that to him?!”.  She was a brand new convert and got her first shockwave of Arabic culture.

When people first convert, some think that they have to become “more Arabic” to become more pious.  Instead of sister, they call you “ukhti”.  Instead of hotdogs, it’s kebabs.  Instead of a baseball cap, it’s the traditional headdress Saudis wear.

I thought like that too at first but with proper knowledge of Islam, I started to realize that I don’t have to be an Arab.  There is nothing wrong with being an Arab, but I can just be myself - a Canadian Greek Muslim- as long as I take the good from each culture.

For example, in the Canadian (and sometimes even Greek) society these days, it’s very normal to see some kids violently swearing at their parents and yelling at them or treating them with no respect whatsoever.  Obviously, this is totally against Islamic principles.

But then there are other cultural things in Canada that I like, like saying please and thank you.  (I was told not to say thank you in Athens, otherwise they will consider me to be a foreigner!)

And then it gets really confusing for non-Muslims (and sometimes Muslims too) to try to figure out what is culture and what is Islam.

For example, my Canadian friend was telling me one of those “horror stories” of a Muslim friend in the Indo-Pak region that is being completely denied of her financial maintenance rights from her husband.  Obviously this is completely unIslamic but without proper knowledge, someone can easily look at that and so, oh, see what Islam does to Muslim women?!

So, in the end, culture and religion is not a black-and-white issue, choose-one-or-the-other idea.  Muslims come from cultures in every country and every continent and they are as different as fingers of my hand. No one is better than the other, but we are one hand and one nation united by one belief,

There is no object worthy of worship

except the one true God (who created everything).

The next time you see one of the 30 million Chinese Muslims, what will you think?

Don’t you just hate Muslims? So did I.

Surrender.  That’s precisely how to describe it.  So many converts to Islam have said the same thing.   It’s not that I wanted to become Muslim.  I hated Islam.  I was running away from it.  But it was this persistent nagging of my soul that kept dragging me back.  While my brain was fleeing far away, my heart was magnetized to Islam and the intense need to get answers to life. 

I couldn’t understand how someone could betray their family, their way of life, their “Greekness” and become a traitor to our civilised culture.

I barely knew anything about Islam but I did know that whoever would sell their soul for some backward religion is wacko.  When I met Muslims in my university program, I was befuddled.  You can imagine the hot debates we had – trinity, salvation, women, violence and on and on.  

When I didn’t know the answer, my arrogance and defensiveness would kick in.  In retrospect, I think my debater could call my bluff, but respectfully didn’t.  So, what did I do?  The only sensible thing.  Go back to the church.  And I did.  I started to open up my dusty Bible that I received after graduating from Sunday school.  The inscription reads,

“Holy Bible presented to …. May this be an inspiration throughout your entire life.  God bless you.”

Signed, my teacher

Little does my teacher know her supplication was answered.  The Bible was the first step that led me to Islam.  I became obsessed with Christianity.  Of course, I was the only young person at church during the week and my mom was really proud of me. But something happened.  Things just didn’t make sense.  There was a clear contradiction between what my Muslim classmates were telling me and what I was studying.  And I needed to prove them wrong.  So, when no one was looking, I would sneak into the library to grab any information I could about Islam to attack them with it (this was pre-Google days people!).  I even met with my priest to see if he could clear up my confusion, but no success there.

After months of studying secretly and debate after debate, continuously searching for loop-holes so I can dismiss this weird religion and get my sanity back, inside me, I knew I was losing, even though I would never admit it, even to myself.  I was fighting a fight that couldn’t be won but I would die trying.

Until one day, I just knew there was no more.  And the only thing left for me to do was surrender to the truth.  Islam. 

No wonder Islam means surrender.

Q. Are there more women converting to Islam than men?

A. Thank you for asking. From my observation, there are both women and men converting to Islam, and plenty of them. The estimate of converts in the U.S. alsone is 20 000 per year.

However, if I were to guess which one is more, it’s probably women. I’m not sure if the difference is that big though.

Many women that I have talked to or have read about online say that one of the reasons they convert to Islam is because women’s rights in Islam is so liberating. Women feel protected and taken care of.

But the biggest reason for them converting to Islam is that all their life questions were answered, everything made sense in life now and the message is so simple and clear.

Hatred for Turks breeds in other countries too

With the recent discussion on Greek-Turkish relations, I think you will find this video interesting. 

Here’s a brother from our city who converted after having ingrained in him the societal acceptance to hate Muslims or Turks.  Although he is from Romania, his upbringing towards the idea of hatred for Turks is very similar to that of Greeks.

Romanian and loving Islam