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?