Jihad of the Soul: Singlehood in Muslim America

For the past month, we've run a poll entitled, "Multiculturalism: What do you feel about inter-racial marriage?" 84% responded "Perfectly ok!" 9% responded "OK, but I wouldn't do it." and 6% responded, "Not ok for anyone - people should stay within their own backgrounds."

We know that the story of race is a complex one and this question of right or wrong marriage practices has been asked throughout our history. But most of us don't know that as recently as 1967, it was against the law to marry inter-racially. It's only been within the last few decades that inter-racial marriages have lost some of their tabooness.

Accordingly, an Huffington Post article states multiracial Americans are becoming the fastest growing group in America. Most interesting is that the largest majority of this group is under 20 years old, a key reminder of anti-mixed racial laws on the books.

When I speak to people who feel interracial marriages are wrong, most often their thoughts appear to be centered in a place of fear. Fear of losing status, fear of losing culture, fear of losing power that has become associated with particular "races." I hear statements like, "marrying someone else makes it that much harder." (i.e. I fear marriage and working through differences). "That group of people are not like us, they are not sophisticated" - i.e. I fear my way of life may be lost if we get to close to others.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and we know that opinions are forever changing. Still, interracial marriages are now on the rise and I ask you to consider the benefits of such marriages including:
*Increased cultural literacy
*Possibly increased language capabilities
*Challenging common notions of race

Thank God most of you are open.. at least on paper. For those of you who have reservations, I ask you to examine the reasoning behind your thoughts and consider looking at it from the other side.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/29/multiracial-americans-bec_n_208...