There are thousands of different religions in New York. A new Pew Research Center survey shows that religiously mixed households may produce more religiously unaffiliated adults. Religion is something that is not easily defined. In order to even attempt to define it, one has to look at multiple religions. Muslims believe in only one God, those who practice Hinduism, Buddhists and Confucians believe in multiple things and also believe that humanity can be great through education in the way they relate to other peoples. Muslim community have different holidays in the muslim calendar such as, Maouloud (Mawlid), Ramadan, Eid Mubarak etc., which is different from the actual calendar. In this muslim community observation I will be attending to their iftar event, especially observing the environment, the people around me, the foods, decorations, married people and how muslim community interact with each other and with other people who are not muslim. I am outsider in the term of couple itself, but I am an insider in the iftar event and religion community, because I am mulsilm myself. I am doing the Muslim community observation because I want to show, what is iftar mean and the interfaith marriage in the muslim community.
Field Site
Iftar time is a special time all across the muslim country big and small towns, and there no different between them. This is an event that I am familiar with and where I know most of the practice, the iftar event was taking place outside of downtown brooklyn in a large park. The park was very nive and well decorated with some balloons, some girland and the islam star sign in ballom. I arrived at suppertime on thursday evening, with the intention of enjoying the meal in the full service of the event. But before I could consider eating, I had to walk around. In my experience the best way to observe a space or place and a community is to walk around, observing the climate and the social interaction. In the space where the event was taking place, they installed a very big and large dinner table. This is the train to get there.
The dinner table was decorated with the plastic plates, spoons, forks, night, bananas, dates, juice and all kind of cultural foods such indian, pakistan, african and many other….etc. there also two big speaker on the left and right side of the area with a religious music and very 10 or 15 minute someone will come on the stage and give out a little of speech about the religion and how it benefits. Next to the area where the event was taking place there was another park, where people were chilling there with their children, wives, and friends. On the other side of the road there was a subway station where we could have trains A, B, C and D; it was easy to get to the event. In 0.1 mile there was a coffee shop and grocery deli store where people were going in and out no stop and a hotel near to it. The evening had yet to begin and the space was half full of people coming in couples, single,friend, sister, brother and even a non muslin was coming invited by their muslim friend to assisted to the iftar event. But those who I know were legally married because they are my close parents and friends. At 8:00pm people start eating the fruit they have on the dinner table to break their fast, go pray at 8:15pm, the prayer was led by one man called the (Iman) and several of the people raw behind him, the first five raw for men and the rest of the raw was for women. After they finish praying and come back to the dinner table, to have a big dinner which includes ( Rice, bean, lamb, chicken, veggies, pasta, salad, mashed potatoes, and cake….etc). I always attend that event every year. Even if the iftar is every day during Ramadan, this big iftar event is organized twice a month in ramadan. They organize the fifteen days of Ramadan and the last day of Ramadan, which help the community to put all muslin from different cultures together and have fraternity. I try to not miss the iftar event because it is the best event ever and it also helps you to have a new friend, even the one you haven’t seen for a long time. This is the dining table with my friends and I sitting.
Interview with Two Stranger’s
Before the event was about to start, I overheard two people discussing interfaith marriage. So, I decided to join the conversation and when I turned to join the conversation, I found out that the two girls that were discussing interfaith marriage, one of them was my oldest friend back in high school. I was so happy to see her. We used to go to this iftar event together. But she suddenly stopped attending it and I lost her, basically she was the one who introduced me to that iftar event. Her name is Sania, she’s Pakistani and muslim, Sania was nicely dress in their traditional which the color yellow and pink mixed match her skin completion, and she had heel shoe on. Sania’s husband’s name is Christopher, he is Christian and he is from Dominica. He was wearing a black suit with a turban rape on his head. When I meet, she was married with two kids and I ask her several question about her marriage, since she is married to a opposite religion, as a muslim I know that everything is not flourish. Sania said getting married to an opposite religion is not an easy thing because it requires a lot of effort. Marriage itself is a huge commitment that requires a lot of thought and planning. Marriage to someone who is from a different religion may require even more thought and planning. Most marriages are based on a core shared set of values and beliefs, and many of those beliefs have a basis in religion. Marrying someone who is a member of a different religion than you could mean they have a different set of values and beliefs. There are many things you should consider before committing yourself to an interfaith marriage. Such as social interaction, analyze future relationship roles. Compare values and beliefs with your partner, discuss if one partner will be willing to convert to the other partner’s religion. Sania and her husband Christopher discuss that, since Christopher’s family were not that religious, which gives Christopher a freedom to choose his own religion. After several month of discussion after their marriage Christopher decide to convert in Islam and change his name to Assan for the health of their marriage, the education of their children and also for the love he has for his wife, he want the best for them. Otherwise, our interfaith was going to affect our two childrens because they will be confused about the two cultures. Both will be taking them to our culture ceremony or prayer session trying to introduce them to it. At the beginning it was not easy because they were arguing almost every day when she was going to the mosque all the time and the cultural ceremony. Even if Sania tells her husband to even go to church as a christian, it is a problem. After a long reflection he decide to change completely after sania give bed to their first child, so their children are going to be introduce to only one religion and culture which is Islam. Sania and her Husband Mohammed are happy ever, he even fast, do the five pillar and do any other thing that a muslim husband does and they are here today to the iftar event together. Which he has never done before. The interfaith is a very big obstacle that cuts the happiness in marriage. According to the Pew Research Center, it mentioned that “Marriage between members of the same faith or religion group may be more durable than intermarriages.” because being in the same religion brings understanding in a marriage, which is beneficial to the couple and their children’s. Sorry I didn’t take a picture so i use that to show the interview.
As an insider of the subculture the process of choosing a marriage partner in muslim community is very different from the others religions. Most Likely the parents choose their children’s marriage partners, however in these days childrens have the opportunity to choose their partners. Muslim seek to protect theit honor and dignity in the society.
As an outsider of this subculture, I believe that religion does influence marriage. Sharing the same faith and love is a very important indicator of a successful marriage, but religiously mixed households can create unexpected consequences for couples, as well as their future children. Children will get lost by choosing a religion or culture they will belong to. As illustrated in The New York Time Journal, Elliot stated “love is an emotion, and that emotion is a part of marriage”. So that means love and religion are connected to the success of marriage. Based on what I learned by researching about married couples and the religion, I learned that in this subculture communication is very important to be in the same faith because that determines the happiness of the marriage together. And after doing this interview I also found out that sharing the same religion is the best thing ever because it helps you to avoid conflict in your marriage.
In conclusion, religion is very important to us as humans, no matter what religion you belong to. Because religion helps us to instill our virtues and values in society. After all this stress I consider myself now as a field worker, which I am very proud of.
Reflection Page
For me selecting my online community for this assignment was not really difficult, because the community that i choose is not really an online community and i am also part of the community, which is the muslim community. The process was a little difficult because I had to attend the iftar event for me to be able to interact with people and visualize things myself. As With the time conflict it was not easy for me to go all the way to brooklyn to attend the iftar event, because of the distance I don’t even attend the community meeting as an insider of the community. I made some adjustments after I started asking people about the community and what they think about the community, which brought up the great outcome because I have gathered a lot of information about the iftar event, the interfaith marriage.
The most interesting thing that I discovered while working on this assignment is that the community that I observe does not allow interfaith marriage which means marriage between two different religions. The community is strict about their religion and seeks to preserve their honor and dignity in the society.
The primary and secondary source that I consult to understand the community is that, before I attend any event, I have an appointment with the vice president of the community. So, I met her, and she was nice enough to sit down with me and give me a brief resume about the community, which helped me a lot and gave me an idea about what subject I should write about this community.
What I have achieved during the process of writing this essay is to make my audience understand the community that I am observing, my pew review classmate and of course my English professor who will be grading the paper. To inform my audience as a writer, I will be sharing the information that I gather into writing. Each homework and activities in this class helped me to achieve this essay and also improve my writing skill.
