I don't get Aylin!

AMEN! Same thing with Judaism and Christianity. People use religion as an affliction but it's a choice. You are not held down by any religion you don't even practice. Perhaps your family may have certain views and you may go head to head with them but if you don't want to practice a religion just don't and stop using it as if you're a victim.



I hope you like feminist rants because that's kind of my thing.

Good point, although I think when saying "I'm Turkish Muslim," she really means her background and family.

And you're right about the difference between culture (or ethnicity, although that word has a few too many racist connotations for me to use comfortably) and a religion. But don't forget, there are a lot of people who aren't Muslim who would use the expression to describe the culture. I think that's what they're playing up here, not the religious part of it. :)

As another example, Puck frequently calls himself a "hot Jew," but doesn't wear the yarmulke or speak Hebrew (he mentions "temple" once, I think, not synagogue) and he talks about eating sweet and sour pork, so he's about as non-practising as it gets.

I am exactly in Aylin's shoes and I agree with you. My parents are immigrants from Turkey and are Muslim, though the most Muslim thing they do is fast. Although it does seem like Aylin doesn't practice the religion, we don't know that for sure so it's difficult to comment on her degree of faith. What I do know is that the way she was raised was not purely because of Islam, but of our culture, and she seemed to get it pretty easy. My first impression of her was, "She doesn't wear a head scarf, she's a vocal major in college, was allowed to be on a reality show in California, and her biggest issue with her parents' strictness was not telling them she'd kissed a guy, but she won't stop going on about her strict Muslim life??". Yea, that sounds super strict. I wasn't allowed to be a music major like I wanted, couldn't date till I was 18, and couldn't apply to universities outside of neighboring states. And I complained about my "strict" Turkish parents like Aylin did because that's what teenagers do. But as life goes on, you learn much more about the world and yourself and realize that 1) your parents weren't nearly as strict as other Muslim parents or those of other cultures, and 2) you're not actually Muslim if your parents practice the religion but you don't. I am now very grateful for my parents and identify as being non-religious, and eventually Aylin probably will too (if she doesn't practice, of course). But, the bottom line is, she doesn't represent a stereotypical practicing Muslim and Ryan Murphy will probably Muslimize her up for the storyline when she inevitably wins because of Ryan's obsession with it (and he'll probably put her in a headscarf, so she should get used to it).

Sidenote, no, Glee writer, people are NOT interested in seeing Muslim people portrayed on TV. Does no one remember what recently happened with that TLC show "All-American Muslim"? It was quickly canceled and sponsors pulled out because there was so much uproar that Muslims were portrayed as anything other than terrorists. The Glee community seems much more accepting, but the general US population does not want to see American Muslims.

I don't think we can say if she is practicing or not because we don't know. We do know that she's not a orthodox Muslim.

I really have to say that I do disagree about Islam being only a religion because it's not. Some of the ideas of religion are so ingrained that there is nothing we can do to get past them, even if you convert. Right now we are all using the Christian calender, and at least I am living in a country with it's laws pretty much taken from the bible. Also I find it juvenile and rather insulting to criticize her Muslimness. She identifies with being Muslim so that is all that matters. For me, she isn't playing the muslim card she is playing the 1st generation American card. Her parents have drastically different values than she does because she grew up in the US and they didn't. It would be the same if she had Chinese parents, or Greek, or Jewish etc.

I am not Muslim but I grew up in a community with a lot of Muslims and 3 of my best friends growing up were Muslims. I don't want to offend anybody but this is my take on head scarfs, and espeically burkas. These are clothes that are uncomfortable and confining, there is no benefit for a woman to wear a head scarf in the US, maybe in the middle east it would with the heat, but not here. It's not about modesty because we don't live in a culture where showing your hair is considered immodest. For me, it's a way of a man saying he owns a womans body. Especially with the burka, he owns her face, she is nothing just a walking sheet, she's not a person and she has no identity. She has no control over her body to even show her face to people, that belongs to her husband. It is very upsetting to me that women of the world have to live that way. I am sure that a lot of people think it's upsetting that girls like Aylin dress the way they dress. But the point is she is dressing how she feels comfortable and not in a way to make other people feel comfortable.

I don't know if Aylin feels the same way as I do about women covering their heads/faces, but the point is that a religion is not a static thing. People like to think it is, but religion changes with the times. Why else would there be so many versions of the bible? Aylin can still be a Muslim but there can still be certain things about the religion she wants to be more modern.

(to the OP) I'm glad you said that, because I was a little confused myself. Like you said about the head scarf, saying it's a stereotype she has to fight -- uh, if that's part of the practice being a Muslim, then how is it a stereotype? It's one of the practices. I'm Catholic, so it'd be like "ooh, not eating meat on Fridays during Lent...must fight the stereotype!" Huh? You're either practicing the religion or you're not.

Like you said, it's not a cultural/ethnicity thing. If she was just trying to fight the stereotype of Middle Eastern or Turkish girls...I could see it. But a religion's practices aren't stereotypes, they're...part of the practice.

eh. but I'm not Muslim so I wasn't sure if there are different degrees of it or not that were acceptable. Of course not everyone who believes in a religion ALWAYS does everything the religion tells you...however, it's the "fighting the stereotype of a Muslim" part that is weird to me. Why fight it, just don't be it anymore... (Or maybe once she moves out this'll be the case.)

She is trying to modernize Islam. Take it away from the archaic practice of wearing headscarf for example. And there is absolutely ZERO Quran verse that clearly states headscarf is compulsory. But I know the verse clearly states that, you are only allowed to leave what is neccessary uncovered. This means, the only thing necessary that needs to be uncovered is your eyes. So all those women wearing head scarfs, not covering their faces are still doing it wrong IF we want to follow ancient Islam standards. And I won't be surprise if some of you Muslim women getting annoyed she's not wearing a scarf here are not in the full attire.

I mean, sooo many rules and restriction on women!

For Islam to become a more respectable religion in the world, it needs to modernise and move on with the times. Alot of their archaic sharia laws works in ancient times but are not relevant today. Islam does need to change and evolve.

But it's a smart choice not to choose her, otherwise, Muslim women who covers up will get outrage that she is representing them.

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I want my freedom FROM religion!

She played the Muslim Card because it's the main reason she was on the show and made it as far as she did. It caught Ryan Murphy's attention and they brought it up ever single chance they got. Ryan was obsessed with the idea and the producers edited the shows to emphasize this. She's a talented girl but several more talented and versatile girls were eliminated before her because she played The Muslim Card.

- Tim