Noor Saadeh: An American Convert to Islam – Her Story

welcome to plaid for women TV your go-to resource for the business of life whether the CEO of your home or your own business women's struggle with the same challenges at plaid TV we discuss real-life issues affecting real women and offer solutions to help you achieve your goals get connected and be heard together we will change the world let's do this no Mean Girls Aloud hey welcome everybody to plan for women TV I'm Siobhan Palmer in this video we're featuring our women of faith series my guest today is Miss Nora sada she is an American convert to Islam amazing lady with a fabulous information to share with us today about her faith nor welcome welcome thanks very much Sivan appreciate it so excited about this we're very interested in educating our audience and I know there's a lot of misperceptions about Islam too many - too many but before we go directly into explaining the religion just give us some highlights about your own personal story how you came to the faith and where you were born I was born in Appleton Wisconsin and started singing and performing professionally when I was a child as always with singing and worked my way up to studying classical music in college and found myself in New York City eventually where everybody goes and was singing of New York City Opera and in Education Department and making my debut at Carnegie Hall sang with New York City choral artists North is harmonic and some solo works some non solo work but in the city that never sleeps so that was a big accomplishment and something I loved very very much my life not even my religion that time was my music and always like learning about different people and it was always a bit connected to God but in sort of that in a vague way you know I worship God through my music and grew up as a Christian and walked into a coffee shop run by unbeknownst to me at the time ie Gyptian was always interested in getting to know other people and started talking to him and I thought oh cool Pharaoh and pyramids tell me tell me and we got talking and he said he was a Muslim and I was a little bit embarrassed to tell him I didn't know thing about Islam and I had sung many times as a choral singer it churches different kinds of insects of Christianity Judaism and my friends were kind of dabbling in other theologies and isms like Buddhism and and so forth so I was on the sidelines viewing all this and not really grasping one or another but you know believing in God and I was fascinated but embarrassed to tell him I didn't know anything about Islam so he started to tell me and I was fascinated because it wasn't at all I expected you had some preconceived notion yeah very much so yeah like most Americans you know you think it's perhaps a pagan deity Allah is a pagan deity and an Eastern religion which conjures up many gods and it's the antithesis of that it's the most monotheistic religion and it's part of the Abrahamic trilogy if you will of Judaism Christianity and Islam where we all Jews Christians and Muslims look at Abraham as sort of the grand patriarch of our religion okay so let's start at the beginning I'm era I'm you're a layperson yeah non Muslim layperson so talk to me in a ways we can grasp but let's first start with the basic tenets of your religion of Islam well it's very monastic as I said probably the most monotheistic of all faiths and that the worship of one God God is a creator and sustainer of the universe and what drew me to Islam was the the concept that it was one revelation from God the same God everyone worships the same God it was the same revelation passed down through pious men called prophets or messengers and we have the same story of Adam and Eve and Adam was close to God and knew everything about him but subsequent generations fell away from God and from his original message God would send a messenger to bring them back to the original revelation to the original message how to worship Him and this was passed along from Adam to Noah to Abraham Moses Jesus and finally Mohammed and this was people away in America to hear this like what we have all the similarity it seems so different yeah we always race on the differences don't ya yeah so well let's talk about those differences or maybe more importantly the misperceptions that Westerners have about Islam well the big perception is that we're terrorists you know and I see where that's coming from because there's a lot of strife going on in the world a lot of fighting it's if we look at actually the name Islam and just a quick lesson in Arabic Arabic words are made from a three-letter root verb and you hear that it sounds SLM if you listen to Islam Saddam Muslim you keep hearing this SLM combination and it comes from the root word sama which is peace or submission as in submitting to God you find peace ah so the religion of Islam is submission to God and finding peace in that surrender and then a Muslim if it would move in front of something it becomes a person who does it or who does the proper to say yeah so a Muslim not a Muslim or yeah we also may different pronunciations but the most correct is Islam and Muslim Muslim yeah where and now you've got a very unique story being that you're born in this countries you said you grew up Christian so how when you converted to Islam were you accepted just as much as if somebody who had been born into the faith sometimes you're kind of a celebrity when American embraces Islamic I embrace it quite quickly quite strongly once I read through the Quran I was very convinced that I was onto something important and truthful so I came in and I was an older woman I was about 36 I was not a child and I had already been very independent living on my own and so forth and traveling a lot reading a lot so I came in strongly and initially the first community rally treated me like a celebrity and I did a lot of talking about it also trying in the United States here in actually in my community in back in Appleton Wisconsin I went back home to live in my mom and found a Muslim community in my back yard practically in Wisconsin Wisconsin you're speaking of your mother how did she react to the news that you had converted to Islam and you essentially had walked away from your singing career at that point yeah I did Wow that was probably harder than the whole conversion to Islam part most of us say most of us women that converts with lamb our parents would have so much a problem with the religion as they do with this with the dressing yes it's like okay what you believe in your heart is fine but we won't we'd want to know about it on the surface so that's where my mom and I kind of locked horns a little bit which was sad because we're very close always well that's interesting and again in a next video we're going to be talking about women and Islam we will address this like there's making a lot of misconceptions about that so okay said you were set up accept it as a celebrity being a convert which again what's a big deal you don't know what an American woman becomes a Muslim you know people are very happy about that we hear other stories and other communities where people are sort of a fetid when they first become a Muslim but then they're forgotten and that's a big issue in our community that we don't have the programs in place sometimes to take care of the converts or reverts as we sometimes call ourselves Charlie health about Thursday in the community and and the loneliness will send people out in a way again I think as you have a family that you're on the outs with a little bit right because they don't understand what you're doing and again with the social media is really hurting us a lot these days oh absolutely yeah so well let's talk about before we get into that because you know obviously that's a big issue what um what do Muslims believe about other religions in terms of tolerance or this is what's lovely about it what people don't know is how tolerant we must be according to the core WA the Quran which is our holy book which we believe is a divine revelation from God given to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel and each we believe each and every word is from God himself and then we use the Prophet Muhammad as an example of acting out what we're supposed to do and tolerance and acceptance and no man is greater than another man based on color or financial status the one who is the best in the community is the one who has the most awareness of God in his daily life right it's not based on your finances your wealth your relationship who you are in your community all those earthly things yeah and people are people are there will some zero that out the window of course sure but it always comes down to a humanity issue and a humankind issue more than a religious issue absolutely clean our false ours you know we can go two different ways as human beings we can choose the right or the wrong okay well then again let me ask you this about Muslims of views toward Jews you know there's obviously a great deal of tension in the Middle East right now between Israel and a lot of Middle Eastern countries so how would you address them well the Jews and Christians are called in the Quran people of the book in other words you have shared divine revelations with us we believe in the Torah of Moses we believe in the gospel of Jesus I have to say the the original sources of those we believe a lot of it has been changed so but those are our partners in faith because we're all still on that same Abrahamic path yes we revert back to Abraham as the father great-grandfather of our religion and we say that he was pure in faith and monotheistic you're amazing I mean you're very scholarly apparently spent many many years studying the BA and the religion and it's become much more of a scholar and a student of learning and being a Muslim I can't seem to learn enough and study enough and travel enough and that's something I really feel Aslam has given me that's wonderful okay let me talk about the recent events with the extremist groups particularly the horrific acts of Isis yeah so as a Muslim and you're trying to practice your faith and be a good citizen you see this going on in the Middle East everything is horrific it's all over social media all over mainstream media so how in your opinion how our mainstream Muslims dealing with this that's going on right now that unfortunately ties back to your people okay when ducking our heads down you know and refuting it all the time all our leaders everywhere refuting that this is nothing to do with some and again a religion that purports to be a vessel of peace it seems very incongruous that there's all this strife going on horrible acts done in the name of Islam these tend to be more political and what we find and the people who commit these acts when asked about their religion they really don't know it very well there's an excellent book on the market right now called radical about a young man and who was a Pakistani origin who grew up in Britain and he joined a radical element but really didn't know much about his religion he was fighting more for himself as a Pakistani and then as a Muslim and he ended up unfortunately spending some years in an Egyptian prison for promoting this group that he was part of and actually he found his religion and came out of pretty same prison saying I disowned these people they aren't following Islam at all and you tend to find this you know and the stories i we have jokes about finding books you know Islam for dummies in the backseat of cars some of these radicals so but you know that tell you that's exactly right a lot of the people a lot of the wars are in the name of religion but as you said very rightly it's mainly about power its power yeah always has been and we look back to you know Christian history also we have some very corrupt Pope's oh absolutely you know a lot of things done in the name of religion but done for political power for greed for those types they look at the Crusades we were told if you fight in the Crusades we'll buy your parents out of purgatory right and of course they sent the poor people down on this premise but actually it was for land grab and other things not only were they called it you share your time between Amman Jordan you have a home in Amman Jordan you have a home in Dallas Texas how have you been accepted have you ever had any backlash recently particularly in the last few months as a Muslim living in Dallas Texas you know I have to say never I really I'm very fortunate I have never gotten backlash anywhere as a Muslim I never had the name called or said something about my scarf or told to go back where I came from but should be Wisconsin oh uh um I think sometimes too when people sense that you're very proud of who you are I mean I love my scarf identify very much with myself as a Muslim and I'm proud of that identity and I think that kind of sense that absolutely then you know they people tend to prey on some of your menorah walking like oh my scarf my scarf you know only the Muslim are they gonna say and they attack people like that so I think it has a lot to do with it's a self-esteem issue and my confidence you have is who you are which again as women right no Mean Girls got about that got my but none she's one of my really promoter and girls because unfortunately find it in religious groups bab sign my next some of the meanest behavior is done in religious this to be my next blog absolutely give me a high five five all right okay so now let's talk about Sharia law oh okay I get missing a lot of misperceptions about this so would you explain very clearly to us the definition of Sharia law as it relates to Islam well there's there are specific laws that again can sort of change according to culture a change according to time and that's what Sharia law is comprised of basic things that are okay formal cincin and forbidden for Muslims to do where we would like to see it implemented as the Jews have implemented some of their laws and within the political system in America and it's great for women we have some rule things that you know when a man and woman marry her possessions her money does not almond it automatically transfer into a joint account whatever she comes to the marriage is her with her money with her inheritance from her family whatever if she's working she doesn't automatically give that to her husband most women don't change to their husband's name they retain their family name I opted a little bit differently because I wanted that whole Muslim personality sharing so I took my husband's name but so there were machines yeah and it's just again in in terms of marriage in terms of divorce in terms of inheritance we would like the United States to be open to some of our rulings so that people can judges can rule fairly for Muslims so and it is they're great rules I mean that the Sharia has nothing to run away from actually women would be very happy to implement some of our rules and again it's nothing about having to wear hijab or polygamous marriage or anything like that okay but what does the word Sharia mean basically it's it's a law it's the word for law and law yeah so again another misperception the way you've just described it to me it's not a very repressive law no actually for women it's an awesome law okay but then I hear about reports in the Middle East about Sharia law where women are beaten if they don't their heads are uncovered or you know they go out without a male escort you know this is where we have to talk culture versus Islam and how Islam is practiced in some okay so it varies from it really can vary a lot for example Saudi Arabia is very it seems very oppressive to me in certain era and that certain cities not the whole country but you know when they dictate how a woman must dress and there are some religious police that go on and enforce this so this is not a part of Islam at all right so people take Islam and tweak it to their particular cultural oh and it can be tweaked that's the beauty of it there are some verses that are in the Quran that are literal and some that are metaphorical and actually the literal ones are the ones that the laws are based around to some extent for example we don't we don't drink alcohol that's forbidden we don't eat pork that's forbidden relations outside of the marriage bond or forbidden those are forbidden things that doesn't mean we're going to come into a democracy and say hey you got to do what we're doing right we're gonna for your alcohol Ennis and that no no this is this is for us you know we can't impose our law if it's not a Muslim nation a nation that chooses to be Muslim then we cannot impose any laws we're just asking for a few addendums you know that will help us in terms of those legal contracts like marriage and so forth gotcha okay so um let's talk about the 72 virgin deal with the guy haha the vestal virgin yes please explain this to me you know I this is one too I have to I have to research a lot more about but there's a lot of talk about paradise and Hellfire one of our main beliefs and as a Muslim is to believe in a Hereafter and how do you define hereafter would you say heaven like president to you yeah so you do believe in him oh yeah definitely okay like okay so heaven is described and particularly this was an audience the initial audience was Arabia where it's very dry there's very little water it was described as a garden a lot of greenery a lot of flowing Springs you're sitting back on velvet couches and the fruit just comes to you and you think about it and you have people serving you and we know guys you know men okay they have to marry one man one but they're always dreaming of 31 flavors right yes God's talks about paradise in ways you know in ways that we can appreciate and he tells us the things that we would love the most to have so it's almost like a metaphor in a way it could be it could be literal it could be a metaphor but men are promised you know very believing that I promised all these lovely women like sort of 31 flavors you know what a blonde tonight I want to brew it tomorrow I want a redhead okay we're just willing get out of this well we we also get people who serve us and I always joke when I talk about his lambs audiences I say old ladies what do we like to do we like to go out to eat why because we're not cooking we're being served and we're not doing the dishes and we love that don't we love that absolutely and then we get this qti serving us to boot sounds good to me a lot of people say well how come women can't have more than one man I said I'll think of all the laundry think of all that oh okay cooking the dishes the pregnancy's uh so you don't look at it as a double standard then that there were no I appeal to what for each individual I mean we know guys would like to have they'd be very happy to have a different partner every day this is the nature of man it seems like where women tend to be a little more loyal creatures not all but what do we want to end interesting we'd love to get some feedback on social media about this very yelling come okay that's what I that's what I understand for the Quran is the man gets the vessel virgins and we get handsome servers there you go what we do with those handsome services you know Elohim God don't okay let's let's wrap up this particular video because I've learned so much just going through all these this is a big issue what does the Quran or Islam say about homosexuality and more recently with the Caitlyn Jenner situation getting worldwide acclaim which of those in Islam say do they embrace people that are homosexual or people that are born transgender well we again it is very much like what the Bible says - there's stories about prophet lots and his people were destroyed for what they did God condemns the action but you don't condemn the person you know there are a lot of verses in the Quran that say we have all kinds of inclinations from our lower natures but what we're asked for is to choose other directions and for us we believe marriage is between a man and woman and that's the Islamic point on it I have very dear friends that are of other persuasions and I love them dearly and I'm not about to to be a judge or to judge them or whatever else I love them and I would share my feelings with them easily but you know as people I love them very much and they've all added to my life so much it's a difficult difficult subject especially now it's not very fresh we don't talk about sex religion or politics period essentially are you getting about a religion a lot well you know uh the king of Jordan is highly very highly regarded I know he was in the military it was a pilot and so forth it's very interesting the newsworthy event where he actually after the Jordanian pilot was savagely killed by Isis where he actually went out with his um unit yeah and he and his wife are a very progressive people and very quickly he tamed it down with young well I think it behooves the world to keep Jordan as a very safe place politically and to live in it's a home of an awful lot of refugees there's an enormous Syrian refugee community on the border between Syria and Jordan in the desert and I think it stopped about a million people while probably will become a permanent city eventually and of course we've had a Palestinian influx there more Palestinians in Jordan and Jordanians and still some refugee camps of Palestinians so it's been a home to refugees Iraqis and Libyans all the Libyans came over after Qadhafi for health care it's a it's an open society and somewhat Western but again you feel Islam there very strongly sure basically in the month of Ramadan that we're just finishing yes and I know you wrote a blog for plan for women called Ramadan 101 so I highly recommend people go to our website plan for women calm it's a fascinating very easy way to walk through the holiday and I understand you on day 30 today on our last day day can go back to our meeting right yes tomorrow's our is our holiday that's wonderful well Nora it's so fascinating your story and I look forward to talking further if people on a reach out to you get more information please share with our audience how they can get a hold of you or maybe go to your website and talk with our website is nor art calm and oor that's me art a rt.com you can write me at nor at nor art calm and also I'm there unplowed I've whatever women you're going to read the blogs and you're going to connect with me on flat as well nor thank you this has been a fascinating conversation we busted through a lot of misperceptions today so please leave our audience with a final greeting okay I'll say ass enamel add a cone peace be with you all and Eid Mubarak a most joyous Eid tomorrow so now so thank you so my girl power real power all the way no Mean Girls ladies and gentlemen is shabaan Palmer wit plaid for women TV on our women of face series we'll see you next time thanks for watching flood TV see you next time

Channel: Plaid for Women

Views: 183,569

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Id: 3hBX0OpcvK4

Length: 21min 22sec (1282 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 11 2016