Mmm. A “friend” just said to me they don’t think I’m a “real Muslim,” and that I’ve only said this for “optics.”

Let’s get this straight.

I was born and raised a Muslim, by Muslim parents and grandparents and great grandparents. It’s in my ancestry and my blood.

I was taught to pray, fast, give thanks & to celebrate Eid and Ramadan as a Muslim, but I also went to Catholic private school for the education quality.

Being raised one faith but being taught another showed me how to look at faith from multiple views.

As a teenager/pre-teen I did decide that Islam was not the faith for me, just as I decided neither was being Arab.

I tried to assimilate, ignore my roots and called myself Kyle because I wanted to fit in and I didn’t want to be associated with terrorism.

So, yes, many of you met me when I believed that religion is not for me, but through all that time neither the term agnostic nor atheist felt right to describe myself.

I didn’t know why that was until recently. At my core I was always Muslim.

I also didn’t think it was possible to be a queer Muslim until this year when I met openly gay Arabs like @aminelgamal or @Elias_Jahshan.

Amin taught me that Islam didn’t need to be taken as literally as it was taught to me.

Faith is complex, and so are humans.

If I was raised Muslim, taught how to fast and celebrate as a Muslim and have a lineage of Islam in my blood then that is enough to call myself Muslim.

Just because I don’t secumb to what your idea of what a “real Muslim” is, that doesn’t make my identity any less real.

In the years I disassociated myself with Islam I still prayed to God, or whatever Being is up there listening.

I retained my concept of faith even if I didn’t agree with everything I was being taught, even when I said I wasn’t religious.

So, I am a non-religious Muslim.

And the whole thing about “optics?”Clearly, there’s a problem with how people view us.

You don’t believe non-religious Muslims exist, but you laugh with Seth Rogan as he lives a non-religious Jewish, weed-infused life.

Non-religious Muslims exist. Hello!

Yes, I’m extremely new to refamiliarizing myself with the details and the particulars of being Muslim.

I still don’t know the mechanics of praying entirely, I don’t know what is considered haram or what direction Mecca is. I forgot that when I tried desperately to be white.

I am learning. I’m re-discovering an identity I left behind as a child and it’s going to take some time but eventually I will know this faith better.

If there was any time for people to be taught new “optics” of what a Muslim looks like, it is right now.

You have this preconceived notion in your heads that Muslims all pray 5 times a day, that every woman wears a hijab and that we all refuse pork & alcohol.

You think a “real Muslim” is the one you see degraded on tv, the foreigner with an accent that looks and acts different.

So yes, I do want to change the optics of how Muslims are viewed.

We’re not all like Ramy Yousuf. Some of us are like Seth Rogan.

The more you see that Muslims can come in all variations of religiousness and secularness, the more you’ll realize that your entire concept of a “real Muslim” has been skewed from the start.