I come from a Muslim family. The label 'Muslim' is one aspect of me, but it's not the only part of me.
It might be comforting to assume that intolerance is an aberration within Islam but discrimination against Christians or any other non-Muslim is in fact integral to orthodox Muslim teaching, and the more profound issue to the serious-minded is not the existence of sectarianism but its extent.
My family is Muslim. But I don't consider myself a very devout Muslim, but a cultural Muslim, whatever that means.
You and I are not Muslim, because we are born in a Muslim family. You and I are not Muslim, because you read a book about Islam, or saw a Youtube video and decided to become Muslim. We are Muslim, because Allah chose us. Allah chose us.
My parents were Orthodox Jews but not very regular Orthodox Jews. I was bar mitzvahed and all that. But God was hardly ever mentioned in my family. Franklin D. Roosevelt was.
My grandmother was a nanny for an Orthodox Jewish family, and she would come home and tell us about that.
I come from an African-American family that is predominantly Muslim. I have had to covertly operate in parts of the Middle East and Africa. I've lived a Muslim life and prayed in Mosques, Husseiniyahs, and shrines where needed. One must respect Islam to understand Islam. I've read the Quran through and through a half dozen times.
My whole family was Muslim, and most of the people I knew were Muslim.
I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries.
My mom is a Pan-Africanist. My dad is still Orthodox Sunni Muslim, but he's super fun. He worked in television for years. He was a Black Panther.
I was raised orthodox Muslim. Very sheltered, very conservative.
I did not come into Parliament to be a Muslim MP. And I have never set myself up as a Muslim spokesperson or community leader. Just as ordinary citizens have multiple identities, so do MPs.
I basically look like a lot of modern Orthodox people you know, but I work on a TV show where I sometimes have to kiss Jim Parsons. That's why I don't take on the title of modern Orthodox, but in terms of ideology and theology I pretty much sound like a liberal modern Orthodox person.
'Muslim' is not a political party. 'Muslim' is not a single culture. Muslims go to war with each other. There are more Muslims in India, Russia and China than in most Muslim-majority nations. 'Muslim' is not a homogenous entity.
I'm obviously not orthodox, I don't know how many real poets have ever been orthodox.
Family planning, birth control, no Muslim family can practice such an understanding.