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I believed there was a God, but I couldn’t find God in the Catholic religion, it didn’t make sense for me.
I wasn’t a practising Catholic but I still believed in God, and life was fine but I needed an element of purpose. I started reading the Bible, and felt like their was a total lack of clarity.
BRIGID AYLWARD, A paediatric nurse at University Hospital Waterford, grew up as a Christian, but wouldn’t have given much consideration to what that meant.
It was after she left home that she started thinking more about where she was was going and for what purpose she was here.
She decided that she would travel to a Muslim country where she would work as a nurse in the hope that in isolation, she could reconnect with God, confirming her belief.
“When I got to Saudi Arabia, I realised that I had a very western mindset, a western culture. I had so many questions: ‘What the heck is with these women who covered head; I thought it was sad to look at, and that women had no place in society.”
‘Mothers behind the veil’
Brigid says that working as a paediatric nurse in a Muslim country she got to know the “mothers behind the veil”, and disspelled myths she had about the veil.
“They don’t have to cover – it’s their choice, they prefer to. They’re human, they’re normal. I started to read about Islam purely to do my job better and to understand these women better.
It started to make sense to me – it excited to me. It wasn’t anything I thought it was before.
In November 2008 Brigid accepted Islam. There were some fears she had that were associated with it, about what her mum would say and what her family would say.
Her husband, who she met while working in hospital in Saudi helped her deal with her fears and she says her family have seen the sense of purpose the religion has given her.
“I’ve only ever had positive reactions. I knew people would be surprised at a big change. I’ve only experienced niceness, that’s the great spirit of Ireland.”
Brigid says that the news of Donald Trump’s travel ban saddened her, but that she’d be sad no matter what religion they were.
“What Trump has done is put a mark on Muslims that says ‘We’ve a reason to be afraid of these people’. This is what we’ve been working against, it’s putting fuel on a fire.”
Misconceptions about Muslims
Dr Rachel Woodlock is an Australian Muslim academic who lives in Clonmel, Co Tipperary. She’s been studying attitudes about Muslims and opinions of Muslims themselves, and says that there are many misconceptions around Islam – one of which is not all Muslims are really religious.
“[In Catholicism] you’re meant to fast during Lent, but not all Catholics fast, not all Catholics go to church, and it’s the same with Islam. Muslims are a lot more heterogeneous – there’s no Vatican equivalent that prescribes what you do.”
Woodlock says that a survey was done of a population in Victoria, Australia that showed rates of ‘religiousness’ was the same in the general population as it was with Muslims.
“[Some Muslims] go to mosques the same way some Christians go to church at Christmas time.
Woodlock said that there were different attitudes towards Islam before the Lindt café siege – states like New South Wales started an ethnic force, while Victoria set-up a ‘multicultural liaison unit’.
“The thing about the attacker though, the Muslim community had been saying this guy is crazy, we’re worried about him, he doesn’t represent us. At the Quebec shooting this week, the attacker was called a ‘lone wolf’. Well Man Haron Monis was our lone wolf.”
She says that in Australia, the coverage of Muslims feels moch different compared to Ireland: “It’s as if Muslims make up 2% of the population but take up 30-40% of the media coverage, while in Ireland, about 1% of the population is Muslim and half a percent is covered in the media”.
“I think the history of terrorism in the north means Ireland can contextualise a national crisis a bit better than most.”
‘The veil’ used as political props
In traditional Muslim cultures, both men and women covered their bodies. It later evolved so that it was reserved only for upper class women. This then eventually spread out to all families as a symbol of culture and identity in the 18th century.
“Europeans argued for the emancipation of women,” Woodlock says. “But ironically, people like Lord Cromer who were arguing that these women needed to be set free, were also opposing the suffragette movement in England.”
In the Ottoman empire, women were a representation of the Muslim world; the Hijab was seen as the last barrier of defence. “So the veil took on a political current that it wouldn’t have had in previous eras.”
Even more so now – with burkini bans in France causing a debate over how to deal with the fear of terrorism and a recent ruling by a Swiss High Court that means Muslim girls must learn to swim with boys as part of their education, the issue of how to make room for tradition in a modern setting is becoming more and more tricky.
“Most Muslim women in the west chose to wear a veil as part of their identity – it’s not a fundamentalist act,” says Woodlock.
It’s a part of the religion and there are a lot of different meanings to it, but it all gets collapsed into one symbol of religion.
“It’s the woman who wants to wear a hijab,” says Brigid. “When you actually wear it then you realise the benefits.
“As well as fulfilling the religious requirements, for me I’ve gained more confidence when I speak, they’re not looking at me at what my hair is like, I have an inner confidence.”
Woodlock wears a hijab everyday, but recalls donning a face veil (nijab) when she was visiting a Muslim country, and she says it gave her an deeper understanding of why women wear it.
“I really got a sense of the privacy of it – I feel I’m able to look out at the world and operate in the world without the world intruding on me.
“But I wouldn’t wear it in the West, in case it creates a fear and apprehension.”
Aylward and Woodlock took part in the only registered event in Ireland to mark World Hijab Day last Wednesday at Waterford Institute of Technology. The an annual global event was set up by New Yorker Nazma Khan in 2013 in order to fight prejudice and discrimination against Muslim women.
Article was updated at 23.55
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A time to”reflect on your faith”?…..if people really did reflect on their faith, they’d give that up too!
Gave up on my “faith” when I reached the age if reason. I was a bit slow as a 9 year old
Comment of the week!
Iam going to stop procrastinating, not this lent but the one after maybe.
After spending 40 days starving to near death in the blistering inhospitable desert. . . jesus invented the easter egg as he flew on his magical flying donkey back to bethlahem to avoid the life after death he made up on another one of his crazy adventures
Hey it’s in the bible!!
Well then it must be true.
Praise jeebus !!
Who doesn’t love a good easter egg making zombie jew man!
http://explosm.net/comics/502/, that is all :-)
Christianity espouses that one should “love thy neighbour”. We’re not in the business of mocking you or your disbelief. We may not agree with you but we must try to love you. That’s not always easy, but that’s the challenge of being a Christian.
How about, for Lent, you try being a bit more tolerant and less dismissive of those who do believe in God? If you don’t it’s no big deal. Christianity was born out of persecution. It thrives when it is among the poorest, the weakest, the most marginalised. It is by giving that we receive, after all.
Be careful now. Don’t forget Ireland’s blasphemy laws
Brian – “Happy those who seize your children and smash them against a rock.” Psalms 137:9
Yep, a whole lot of love going on there!
Brian, where was the intolerance? It was an accurate and humourous comic strip pointing out that there are none of the lent/easter practices in the bible, but Christians have decided to adapt these. If anything it only mocks the comment by the priest in the article who accuses those who give up something as “jumping on the christian bandwagon”, whereas it is the opposite – he is jumping on the tradition bandwagon.
I do hope you show the same level of tolerance ensuring that the church are not forcing ashes on (usually very young) children’s heads in schools today, and then by fasting for 40 days and 40 nights *without food and water* (Exodus 34:28), or do as Jesus did (Matthew 4:1) and visit somewhere where you are likely to be tempted; like a pub, pornhub or a country funeral (free fags!) for the next 40 days.
PS: 40 days from now is the Monday *before* Good Friday. Just saying, you don’t need to wait until Sunday for the Easter eggs if you follow the bible – they are two different parables.
Think I’ll give up reading all the Journal comments.
Do it for Crumlin Children’s Hospital :) http://www.giveitup.ie We’ve a swear jar in work and I’m giving up fast food.
Asked my wife to save the last pancake as I fancied it for breakfast this morning but she said no as its lent – who the hell would want to borrow a pancake….
Lent is a time to sacrifice something you like…. It’s not a slimming opportunity….
What the point of sacrificing something you like? I don’t get it
Desert heat combined with lack of food and water could very easily induce hallucinations due to the physiological effects of dehydration and or sunstroke Anyone of us could converse with the devil if in those circumstances.
It’s cultural… Once a Catholic always a Catholic.
As usual it’s a mixture of cultures – fat Tuesday and carnival were originally Greco-roman days of indulgence before a new harvest period, while ash Wednesday came from rubbing ash on foreheads for Odin’s protection in Norse mythology. Giving up “something/anything” is a recent phenomenon, and Donegal Tuesday is distinctively Irish. Any catholic claim is simply a reinvention to link pagan traditions to biblical stories. The key is in when it occurs – every lent/Easter (a Germanic tradition) is tied into the phases of the moon, a bit animistic for a church that has everything else on specific days?
Thou shalt wear a mark on the forehead without washing it and fast for 40 days and nights.
Except for the Feast of St Patrick’s, on the which occasion thou shalt eat confectionary and consume to excess to make up for the previous few weeks.
I am giving up the past tense for lend.
sure tis good craic torturing yourself for a few weeks
It’s called brainwashing
For many Catholics, it means prayer, penance and fasting?
In my experience growing up as a catholic it means:
- wearing a “holier than thou” smudge on the forehead for a day or two until the dirt forces a wash;
- exactly ZERO additional mass visits until Holy Week itself.
- stupid pressure from school to give up something for a few days until the whole thing is forgotten.
- no prayers.
It’s really just a vehicle for apparently pious celibate old men to preach to the downtrodden.
I guess you just weren’t doing it right.
I played the guitar when I was a young teenager, insofar as I owned a guitar, I went occasionally to guitar lessons (although I never practiced at home). I did like the looks I got from the girls as I carried the guitar around, but that would wain after I figured learning guitar was boring and it hurt my fingers, it was painful.
Looking back now, if I stuck with it and practiced regularly and properly, I may have gotten a lot more out of it than the amount of effort put in.
I suppose it’s never too late to try again.
Lent,from the beginning I gave up my “imaginary friend”,was the time of giving to charity.Nothing more.
“If a man lies with a male as with a women, both of them shall be put to death for their abominable deed; they have forfeited their lives.” (Leviticus 20:13 NAB)”
Another great line from the bible.Hmm…
I gave up giving up stuff.
Long term effects of brainwashing in schools with patronage.
I never did lent as a child, family aren’t religious, but I do it now with the cousins &a siblings and we all place bets on how long we last… Very charitable so we are ;-)
I counted exactly ONE grey haired old lady with a smudge on her forehead in town this morning on my way into work.
Still flying the flag.
Well done.
I wonder has Bertie got the ashes today? When he was Taoiseach he used to make a point of having the contents of the Pigeon House chimneys plastered all over his mush on Ash Wednesday.
He has much more to be penitent about today.
It’s fine to sacrifice something meaningful as long as you pass it on to someone who needs it , religious or not lent is a time to reflect and maybe pay it forward , if you don’t want to do it at this time time of year because of the religious attachment do it some other time, I’m not religious but I wouldn’t mock anyone who makes the effort to be less selfish for 40 days .
Fasting cleanses the body
Farting is more productive than fasting!
Same reason they christen their kids. They’re spas and cowards.
Because people are idiots
“A Catholic Communications spokesperson said that while they have no problem with people who want to “piggyback on an original Christian idea in a respectful way”, the Lenten period is supposed to be about reflecting on faith.”
Lent comes from an Anglo Saxon tradition..Lenctentid or in English the month when the days start to get longer. There are no original Christian ideas the same way there are no original ideas in any religion.
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