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little_details[edit: thank you for all of the kind advice! i am...very embarrassed about my mistakes, and have turned off my notifications for this post so i can look at the comments on my own time. i won't be deleting this post, since several people have said i shouldn't, but i will definitely be taking a while away to work on myself and my characters before i post here again. sorry to anyone i may have offended-- please believe that this post was written in good faith and i'm not as stupid as i may have appeared.]
hello! pardon me if i make any mistakes, i haven't been a forumposter since...2015, maybe?? anyway. i'm writing this story, taking place in modern-day new york, and one of the primary characters is muslim. (i hope that's the correct way to use that?) their name is lillud (weird name, i know, it's left over from when they were a fancharacter for a different fandom and i just got really attached to it), and they're...arguably one of the more normal characters in the story, lol. they're generally a pretty fly-under-the-radar person, excellent at setting boundaries, and not one to start drama but they love hearing about it secondhand. they're also the producer for a one-man radio show by their best friend, who they have been harboring a crush on for YEARS without saying anything.
HOWEVER i did not come here just to talk about my character i also have QUESTIONS! obviously i've already done some research on the basics of writing muslim characters (and one wikipedia rabbithole on the similarities and differences between kosher and halal! it was fun). i suppose mostly what i'm curious about is:
1. where is it common for islamic people to emigrate to the us from? at what times? (for context: i'm jewish, and something around fourth or fifth-generation over here! my family emigrated from somewhere in eastern europe, although for a variety of reasons we don't really know which country specifically. i kind of assumed that most descendants of immigrants also didn't really know which country specifically their family came from, and was surprised (and a bit embarrassed) to find out that that wasn't true, so i'm asking! also, a lot of jewish people in the us's families came over either at the turn of the century (1890s-1910s) or around the 1930s or 1940s, and i'm curious if there were similar waves for other groups. not super relevant to the story (probably??) but i'm curious!)
2. how much do people generally know about their religion? that's gonna sound like a weird question, but, like. many jewish people are pretty secular, but also if you've had a b'nai mitzvah, you had to read the torah and write some commentary on it, so you probably know at least the basics of the story and some random fun facts for parties (also you know what you have to say "actually that's just christians who do that, not us" about, lol). by contrast, i know a couple christians who know a LOT about the bible (came from very religious families) and many who know very little. curious what the range is, or what you perceive as the things "everyone" knows!
3. just kind of anything else you want to throw out there! i'm very open! stuff you don't see often in representation, stuff you DO see but wish you didn't, stuff you wouldn't think to google, etc.
thank you in advance to anyone who replies!!! sorry for my chronic wordines ^^
hello! pardon me if i make any mistakes, i haven't been a forumposter since...2015, maybe?? anyway. i'm writing this story, taking place in modern-day new york, and one of the primary characters is muslim. (i hope that's the correct way to use that?) their name is lillud (weird name, i know, it's left over from when they were a fancharacter for a different fandom and i just got really attached to it), and they're...arguably one of the more normal characters in the story, lol. they're generally a pretty fly-under-the-radar person, excellent at setting boundaries, and not one to start drama but they love hearing about it secondhand. they're also the producer for a one-man radio show by their best friend, who they have been harboring a crush on for YEARS without saying anything.
HOWEVER i did not come here just to talk about my character i also have QUESTIONS! obviously i've already done some research on the basics of writing muslim characters (and one wikipedia rabbithole on the similarities and differences between kosher and halal! it was fun). i suppose mostly what i'm curious about is:
1. where is it common for islamic people to emigrate to the us from? at what times? (for context: i'm jewish, and something around fourth or fifth-generation over here! my family emigrated from somewhere in eastern europe, although for a variety of reasons we don't really know which country specifically. i kind of assumed that most descendants of immigrants also didn't really know which country specifically their family came from, and was surprised (and a bit embarrassed) to find out that that wasn't true, so i'm asking! also, a lot of jewish people in the us's families came over either at the turn of the century (1890s-1910s) or around the 1930s or 1940s, and i'm curious if there were similar waves for other groups. not super relevant to the story (probably??) but i'm curious!)
2. how much do people generally know about their religion? that's gonna sound like a weird question, but, like. many jewish people are pretty secular, but also if you've had a b'nai mitzvah, you had to read the torah and write some commentary on it, so you probably know at least the basics of the story and some random fun facts for parties (also you know what you have to say "actually that's just christians who do that, not us" about, lol). by contrast, i know a couple christians who know a LOT about the bible (came from very religious families) and many who know very little. curious what the range is, or what you perceive as the things "everyone" knows!
3. just kind of anything else you want to throw out there! i'm very open! stuff you don't see often in representation, stuff you DO see but wish you didn't, stuff you wouldn't think to google, etc.
thank you in advance to anyone who replies!!! sorry for my chronic wordines ^^
(no subject)
Date: 2024-02-19 03:50 am (UTC)- The most important thing you have to figure out about your character is where they are from -- the practice of Islam is widely variant depending on both sect and region, and what sect you're likely to be from is influenced by where in the world you are from.
- How familiar strangers are with Islam varies widely, but in my experience, unless you live in a very diverse area or an area with a big population of Muslims, your average American knows very little. In my experience having to constantly educate other people about your religion is part of the American Muslim experience. I think NYC is probably better about this than other places, but I wouldn't know for sure.
I have had to explain:
What the words "Muslim" and "Islam" mean because the person I was talking to didn't know that Muslim refers to a person who practices Islam
What halal is
Hijab discourse ad nauseaum
What Ramadan is
What Eid is
That Eid is not the equivalent of Christmas
Etc, etc.
- I will also add that many Muslims have traditional names in the same way Christians have names of Biblical origin, so it's worth thinking about your character's name and its origin. In the community I grew up it was really common to have three Faridas, three Fatimas, three Zahras, etc.
If you still have specific questions you can feel free to reach out to me.