Australia, Muslim, and Unapologetic
People keep asking me to choose between my culture and my faith. I refuse.
My mother is from Iraq. I was born in Alice Springs. I carry two passports and a permanent cloud of questions.
Why do you wear that? Why don't you drink? Why do you fast? Why does your food smell like that? The questions are exhausting. Not because they're offensive — most are genuinely curious. But because I'm a 34-year-old who wants to worry about student loans, not conduct interfaith dialogue at every house party.
The turning point was discovering history they never taught us. The Islamic heritage of the Mughal empire. Muslims who were scholars, poets, scientists — not the caricatures I saw on television. I wasn't a guest in this civilisation. My people helped build it.
I'm 34 now. I run a community group about Muslim mental health. The response has been overwhelming. Turns out, there are thousands of us feeling the same way, waiting for someone to say it out loud.
My ancestors knew God before the word Islam reached this land. I'm not borrowing anyone's religion. I'm reclaiming my own.
People ask me if I feel conflicted being Muslim in Australia. I tell them that Islam has been here for ten centuries. It's not a guest. It's home.