Son's Muslim Faith Divides one family.

[MountainLaurel]

A heartfelt story that sort of comes down to this quote: "My mother has a good heart, Joshua said. “I know she loves me.” It just comes out like “you’re going to hell and taking your wife and daughter with you.”"

Joshua Blackwell finally visited his mother in North Carolina this summer and they talked about his conversion to Islam. The conversation didn’t go well.

Margaret Blackwell had returned at midnight from her factory job making surgical bandages. Joshua, a D.C. public school teacher, was still up. She pulled out her Bible. He opened his Koran. They tried to reach each other but ended up doing battle. It was 1 John and Surah 31, verses and ayats. It was only those washed in the blood of the risen Christ, and the Prophet Muhammad, may peace and blessings be upon him, until after 2 a.m.

And later that morning, they resumed.

“You ever had somebody die in your family?” Margaret Blackwell, 58, asked a reporter quietly. Her hair was pulled into a neat bun, and her face was smooth and unlined. She sat in a straight-backed armchair in the living room of her two-bedroom apartment and stared pensively toward the floor. Big Wheel Gospel — 1510 AM — played softly in the background. She tapped her foot quickly up and down. “That’s how it felt.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/sons-muslim-faith-divides-one-black-family/2011/10/28/gIQATW7KqM_story.html?hpid=z2

[mzteris]

1. what a complete waste

of a relationship and time.

Burn both the damn books and just love each other.

[ZombieHorde]

2. Atheists in the US often have similar experiences with their families.

Children who come out as atheists to their parents are often punished. I know I was.

[Deep13]

7. True. nt

[Warpy]

8. So was I, although I never used the "A" word to them.

I'd just stomped off in sheer disgust from the Irish Catholic church. It was an incredibly sore point with them for many years and caused a great deal of distance between us.

The irony was that they both died unbelievers, arriving at the same conclusions I had some 40-50 years later.

Still, there were a lot of years of distance and painful silences that need not have happened if not for those wretched men in dresses standing at altars.

[AverageJoe90]

3. Good luck to the both of them.

[pennylane100]

4. they need more than luck

they need some common sense.

[msongs]

5. when it comes to superstitions, they oughta skip bibles/korans and stick to snow white lol nt

[Deep13]

6. Sad and unnecessary.

Neither of them has a good reason to believe what he or she does. Both religions are exclusive and condemn anyone who rejects them. The impasse is the logical consequence of their irrational beliefs.

[SheilaT]

9. As someone who tried very hard to raise my two sons

to think for themselves, I'd be extremely distressed if they joined any religion and then started pulling out the holy book as a substitute for their own brains.