Hi,

Thank you everybody for comments.


Without wanting to dwell too much on the negatives, I have now heard the new low. My friend a few days ago found themselves alone on a microbus heading home, the bus driver took advantage of the situation putting his hand on their leg and offering to take them out into the desert for "you know what". After refusal he then demanded 50LE for the short journey, and being rather afraid at this point my friend obliged and left the bus. Okay, terrible situation but not unheard of, so what makes this a new low - my friend is a thirty-something MALE.

ANYWAY.
Given that Islamic law forbids a Muslim women to marry anyone but a Muslim man, I can only assume that starchief is muslim, or his wife is not. In either case he could not have faced what I consider the most difficult challenges people in these mixed relationships face, the religious difference.

This is what I really want people to understand if they do not. For any women or girls about to enter into a new relationship where they are not muslim and their guy is, I want them to understand that even if their guy seems like a liberal Muslim now (not strictly following Islamic rules) if he really believes his religion the fact that his wife is not will one day bother him. And if he really believes and he really doesn't care about his wife's religious views then he probably doesn't love you and is probably planning to leave you for Muslim wife when he gets what he needs (if he doesn't already have one, which I have also seen happen).

Again I am generalising a lot here, and I'm sure there are cases where the relationship did work out, but I have seen the same scenario all too often. Husband tries to change wife, wife doesn't agree, in these cases where the husband actually did love the wife and he does this it can leave both heart broken - this is often and unfortunately most common after they have a child together, as of course the child should be automatically Muslim, but a liberal mother often insists the child be allowed to choose which religion they want to follow, if any, and eventually splits to give the child what they consider the better or more liberal future. In the preferred cases the husband calls the split before the child is conceived in order to protect his unborn child from the potential sins the non-muslim mother will surely encourage. In any case, if it is really love then unless the mother is really acceptant of all her husbands conditions it will normally come to an end, after all there are not many if any Muslim men who will accept their child to be non-Muslim.

If your partner truly believes in his faith, but does not follow it at all, and does not even insist that you try to learn about the religion and attempt to embrace it, you really need to be questioning his behaviour. If he has no problem in cheating God (which he truly believes he will be heavily punished for) then he would have no problem in cheating you.

Anyway, if I can save just one broken heart or one child from living in a broken family I will be happy.