Insight Out

I have been doing a lot of thinking about inter-religious marriages.I have a very dear muslim friend who has been going out with her tamilian boyfriend for 4 years. They now want to get married and she has figured out that the only way to go ahead is for the boy to get converted to islam. That's the way things work here. She has asked him to convert but somehow I have the impression she is not feeling totally comfortable with this idea. This situation is very cruel and is putting a lot of pressure on the couple. I suggested they do a civil wedding and follow their own religion individually but instead got a grudgingly awful look as reply. In my opinion, it's the only thing that makes sense. Apparently not to islam.

Can someone be asked to convert in the name of love? Can a person be whole again after such a thing? If someone chooses to convert out of his own will, then it makes total sense but when asked to do it to prove something, how do you integrate that in your own being? This part needs to be explained to me. Shouldn't anyone be allowed to express his own identity in terms of religion, like a declaration of who you are and how you choose to live?

I am being asked to give my opinion into this matter but there is nothing much to say...les dés sont jetés. Honestly, out of all persons I have, since long, done my coming out as the least religious person ever, so why would anyone ask for my opinion on that subject? I am no voice of reason either. I am just a guy who figures that some things make sense and others don't.Why should everything look so intricately complicated when they are actually so utterly plain and simple? People live in the fear of being rejected by their community or family, in the fear of not being understood,in the fear of not being accepted. They tend to forget that not being accepted can sometimes be the greatest gift ever. It can be synonymous to freedom and connecting to your very own self. In my opinion, this is the ultimate self-realization.