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By Sara Taylor
DAILY BRUIN REPORTER
staylor@media.ucla.edu
Thirty-five years ago, at age 12, Reymund Nur converted to Islam while still living in his parents' Methodist household.
Five years ago, Boni Bee was a young Hindu woman seeking clarity and purpose in her life.
Last spring, Leilani Downing was reading the Christian Bible and looking for meaning in Christianity, her birth religion.
Today, all three are Muslims and live their lives according to the laws of Islam.
A common stereotype is that of the Arab Muslim, when in reality Islam draws from many different ethnicities.
"The majority of people feel that all Muslims are Arab, but in reality only a small percent – 15 percent – are of Arab descent," said Faryah Humkar, a member of the UCLA Muslim Student Association.
The Muslim population, she added, includes people from many different backgrounds and ethnicities.
Nur, a Hispanic man who was born into a Methodist family, is one such Muslim who is not of Arab descent, but has lived an Islamic life.
At the age of 12, when many boys are concerned with sports and comics, Nur was thinking about religion.
"I was always serious about life and how people are supposed to be, and I guess I was looking for a way to be and live," Nur said. "(Islam) was something that I could hold on to ... with morals, values."
Rather than reading about superheroes and villains, Nur was reading about religion, and in his reading he came across Islam.
"From what I read ... it felt like the right thing to do. It seemed like a good life," Nur said. After his conversion to Islam at age 12, Nur began to follow the customs of his new religion, such as praying the prescribed five times a day, while still living at home.
And though Nur called the transition to Islam "smooth sailing," reconciling his personal beliefs with those of his family was the hardest part about converting. When he first told his parents of his decision, he was kicked out of his home for a week and went to live with his older sister before his mother welcomed him back.
"Letting the family know that you were no longer part of that faith is where most of the difficulties were," Nur said.
"In the beginning, I got some opposition, especially from parents," Nur said. "But eventually things warmed up."
For Nur and many other converts, the act of leaving the religion and traditions of their families is the hardest part about becoming a Muslim.
Bee kept her conversion from her extended family because she does not expect that they would understand or accept the change.
Though Boni Bee is not her real name, she uses the pseudonym to prevent her family from finding out about the conversion.
The relationship with her family has been the biggest challenge in converting to Islam, she said.
"Keeping it a secret from my family was always a struggle," she said.
Her mother is the only member of the family who knows about her conversion, and her father died before she could tell him. Her relationship with her mother and her knowledge that her father never knew about her religious beliefs have been the hardest steps in the process of accepting Islam into her life.
"Before I became a Muslim, there wasn't a thing that I had done that had ever disappointed my mother. This was it," Bee said. "She doesn't understand why I would have to change what she raised me as."
One thing she said she wishes could have been different is not having told her father about her decision.
"That's something that also is difficult for me, because there is a part of my life that he didn't know," she said.
Along with the trials of converting to a new religion, Bee has experienced the difficulties of being a Muslim in American society.
"It's difficult for me because, as a Muslim, especially in this country right now, I'm questioned on a daily basis why I wear a hijab, and I'm often stereotyped as a terrorist," Bee said.
But Bee has had a somewhat unique experience – she has lived life both as a Muslim and as a non-Muslim, with the traditional Muslim headdress known as the hijab, and without it. And she certainly has noticed a difference in the way she is treated.
"I know how I was treated before I wore a hijab, and I know how I'm treated now," Bee said. Now that she openly identifies herself as Muslim, she receives more respect from some, but more animosity from others.
Since she donned the hijab, Bee said she has been the recipient of a hostile attitude some Americans have toward Islam, receiving cold stares and having people walk away from her upon seeing that she is Muslim.
But at the same time, she said she is sometimes treated with more respect from both strangers and people she knows.
Many on the outside may think some of these Muslim practices, such as wearing the hijab and praying five times a day, would be overwhelming.
And in the beginning for converts, keeping these practices can be hard.
One of the most important transitions is praying five times a day at prescribed intervals, as is Muslim practice.
Downing said that she has still not integrated this fully into her life and is working toward doing so, as it is a vital part of being a Muslim.
"I'm still new to Islam. ... I'm still learning how to pray," she said.
It is particularly hard to fit these prayers into the schedule of mainstream secular society.
"When I'm at work, it may be a challenge to step out and do what I need to do to pray," Downing said.
The key to making this transition, Bee said, is to take the new practices one step and one day at a time.
Though there were hardships with converting to Islam – the tension it can cause with family or the prejudices a person faces as a Muslim – none of these converts remember the process as difficult.
They also agree none of the problems posed by family tensions or outside prejudices dissuaded them from accepting Islam.
"It's just part of my own daily struggle to become closer to God and not worry about what other people think," Downing said. "I think that Islam is the culmination of my journey in coming closer to God."
Nur and Bee will discuss their experiences with Islam at an MSA event tonight at 6:30 p.m. in Moore 100.
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