Hi everyone,

I was born and raised in the Gulf (KSA/Dubai) and I’m originally from India. I’m currently studying in India and considering moving to the U.S. after college for better long-term opportunities and settlement.

While I’m grateful for growing up in the Gulf, it never really feels permanent and is abhorrently racist towards non-Arabs, so I’ve been thinking seriously about other options for the future.

I wanted to hear from immigrants — especially desis/muslims or former Gulf expats — about what life in the U.S. is realistically like...especially for people of color or wearing things like hijab

How welcoming are different cities for Desi/muslim immigrants? How easy is it to find community, desi stores, mosques, halal food, Eid events, etc. after growing up in a Muslim-majority environment?

I’d also appreciate honest opinions about quality of life, career growth, social life, and whether you feel settling in the U.S. was worth it long-term.

Looking forward to hearing different perspectives and experiences. Thanks!

P.S.- This question is not about How I'm going to come there or Not to explore Pathways to immigration but about life there

Hi/Salam everyone,

I was born and raised in the Gulf (KSA/Dubai), originally from India. I’m currently studying in India, and after college I’ve been thinking about possibly moving to the U.S. to settle long-term.

One reason is that, while I’m grateful for growing up in the Gulf, it doesn’t always feel very welcoming for people of color or offer much permanence/citizenship-wise. So I’ve been seriously considering the U.S., but I’m also really confused and honestly a bit nervous about it.

Most of what I know about America comes from online friends, so I’d love to hear from Muslims/Desis who actually live there — especially people who can understand things from a similar background.

I worry about racism/Islamophobia, and I also wonder how different it feels practicing Islam after moving from a Muslim-majority country to a secular society. How is Muslim life there overall? How are the desi Muslim communities? Is it easy to stay connected to religion, find community, celebrate Eid, etc.?

And overall, how does it feel raising or settling a family there long-term?

Would really appreciate honest insights and experiences. Thank you :)

P.S.- According to my friend from WA I should focus on Blue liberal/desi and muslim populated areas

Background: Born into a sunni family- I now choose to not go by a label cus "I'm just Muslim"... i grew up in Saudi arabia to a consevrative Indian family who taught us things like Shiism is un-islamic ...but i dont understand

When I asked them for difference all they told me about was "Lineage" or "Islamic History"...but thats the last thing that shud be considered important as practicing muslims

So, I kinda researched on this and asked a few people online and here some things that I feel about shias:-

1. The 5 Pillars are the same
To be a Muslim, you must follow the pillars. Shias believe in the Shahada (La ilaha illallah, Muhammadur Rasulullah), they fast Ramadan, they give Zakat/Khums, and they go to the same Hajj in Makkah. If they are fulfilling the core requirements of the faith, how can they be excluded?

2. Shias pray 5 times a day
They pray all 5 daily prayers (Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, Isha) and sound the adhan and pray the Jumuah right?

3. We all have the exact same Quran
We follow the same Holy Book as revealed to the Prophet

4. Bid’ah vs. Kufr
I see people bringing up "bid’ah" (innovation) regarding Shia rituals. But even if you consider a bid’ah, that is a sin, not something that makes a person a non-believer (Kufr). If we started calling everyone who does bid’ah "non-Muslim," half the people in India, Pakistan, or Turkey and countries like the U.S., UK would be excluded because of local cultural traditions, right?

5. Do shias do SHIRK?

This is something that always stays with me some people say that they almost go the point of worshiping imams ....so I kidna hav to agree that associating partner with Allah is wrong

But I really wanna know about the perspective of a shia and the shii'te theology and tell me more about this!

Idk if I'm generalziing but shia architechures are gorgeous like look at some buildings in Iran and Imambara and other stuff in Iraq ...Also Look at the Islamic Center of America, Dearborn Michigan and Masjid Al Hayy, FL

Same goes for the jawdropping buildings of catholicism like - Vatican city , Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC

Is there a specific history or theology tied to it

(THIS IS FROM A NORTH INDIAN (Delhite) NRI WHO HAS LIVED IN CHENNAI AND LOVES KERELAM <3 )

Please stop posting your BJ Pee Hindi and Hindu supremacist bullsh#t RSS propaganda ...like every other second there's a post about "why muslims are in power in kerelam" , "why TN elected a chrisitan"

I'm repeating again this is NOT a community of gobar eating un-Hindus...Here people actually care about their own religious values as apersonal faith

In Chennai, You would see Adhan going 5 times a day with controlled decibels and then right after the adhan you'll see a person in his traditional attire with a bike and the pictures of all the lords and deities playing melodious tamil bhajans on a speaker...and guess what happens next? after the prayer the mulla from the mosque cracks jokes with the sadhu from the bike unlike north where it almost always ends up ina riot

here you'd see auto rickshaws and trucks having the labels "Jai Shri Ram with a picture of Hindu Godess/God", "Christ is King woth a cross" and "Masha Allah with a crescent symbol" and its just Tuesday cus no one cares about faith

Here you'd see women in Burka roaming the park with women in saris and nothing happens...On Fridays roads will be crowded as muslims arrive to pray their friday congregation and right next to it is a church ehre chrisitans will crowd up on sundays and if u cross the road u see a massive temple where hindus will crowd up ona religious occasion- Again no riot happens no one even gives a single look at the Hndu who was wearing dhoti and a big tilak on his head or a christian wearing a white dress or a muslim wearing a kurta and kufi/topi/cap- the same case in UP wud have prolly ended up with a fight

Here you'd see young women (ALONE!!) wearing western clothes biking and walking happily at midnight (tho a lot of people sleep too early here lol!!)
In Delhi, even as teenage boys our parents would tell us to return by 8 pm let alone girls

I'm not sayign theres no issues here- they also have problems with soem things and maybe some internal prejudice among caste or stuff but I've almsot never even heard ifit and it is nth comparable to the Hindu-Muslim in north

Dear Southies Please dont fall for whatev propaganda the right -wing BJ Pee Hindutva group is trying their best to push their narrative on you!
Do not let hate win <3

So, when I was in an international school in KSA- Dubai...We had 'Islamic Studies' compulsory for all muslims , and non muslims had 'General Knowledge' or something during those periods

Currently in my school (not in the gulf now) we don't have anything like that
but I had religious teachers who told us about biblical and quranic stories about Noah's Ark and all that happened with Prophet Moses during a history class,
During Sophomore year one of our Literature class had a story about King Solomon (which has shared oriigns form the Bible and the Qura'an) and Prophet Muhammad

Does it happen in your school as well? Is it Public /Private and in which country?

Hi everyone!
So I am Muslim...and dont worry cus I'm not here to slander anyone's beliefs and I totally respect your choice for leaving Islam (cus thats what Islam teaches (yea I know they're some controversial hadiths but I dunnno about them) and at the end everyone's a human who deserves respect and love)
But I've two questions to you guys:-

1. What are your views on sufferings and genocidal oppressions like those currently inflicted upon the innocents of Palestine? and other cases like Sudan, Congo, Uyghur, Kashmir?

Or do you side with the opinions of the other side

So, I'll clarify my purpose for asking this question- I wanna know if the issue of Palestine comes naturally with being a muslim (practicing or not) so if it is a religion specific issue you would have a different view from a non muslim lens

2. What are your views on anyone whose religious and specifically people who take Islam seriously and religiously (prolly a person like me) .

so like I dont mind if you guys hate the religion and hate islam for whatever reasons but do you guys also hate a person who practices Islam and minds his own buisness and doesnt push you into it or do you hold unfavorable views of such people

3. Do you support Islamophobia against Muslims?

ok so, I'm not playing victim card or anything I know this ain't a one sided thing but do you support stuff like verbal harrasment of Hijabis or niqabis or discriminating against such people or not giving muslims job...steretyping all muslims as terrorists and the like? since u know much of this is propaganda

I am genuinely curious and I dont mean to troll anything

https://preview.redd.it/x1cg3s9d1ozg1.png?width=890&format=png&auto=webp&s=b24e951feaaaebd03ffdee60d2763f749f29f90e

The muslim students were forced to apologize and hold their ears and were punished...and this is what they think
The comment was later deleted

Is racism really that bad as it is on the TV

And for muslims, is there islamophobia of any sort for wearing hijab or anything...and do we stand out?

I'm kinda specific about big cities/metropolition cities with large indian and muslim population like NYC, Houston, Bay Area

Like hear me out before downvoting me or something

I know about 9/11 and all that my point is not that it is that:-

only 20% of arab americans are muslims

the overwhelming majority is chrisitan and the remaing 13% is secular/atheist/agnostic/jew/baha'ii or soemthing else

so like a jew doesnt hate any ither jew for being jew ...same with muslim so shouldn;t it be the same with chrisitans too

Source: saw this white supremacist on instagram from Texas react to a video from sesame street in which elmo was saying "Happy Arab-American Heritage Month"...and she was being super hateful towards arabs-sayin that they were gna invade .... and she has a huge cross and all chrisitan stuff on her bio

Can anyone explain?

Like hear me out before downvoting me or something

I know about 9/11 and all that my point is not that it is that:-

only 20% of arab americans are muslims

the overwhelming majority is chrisitan and the remaing 13% is secular/atheist/agnostic/jew/baha'ii or soemthing else

so like a jew doesnt hate any ither jew for being jew ...same with muslim so shouldn;t it be the same with chrisitans too

Source: saw this white supremacist on instagram from Texas react to a video from sesame street in which elmo was saying "Happy Arab-American Heritage Month"...and she was being super hateful towards arabs and she has a huge cross and all chrisitan stuff on her bio

Can anyone explain?

SO, just wanted to check in and find out how its going after west bengal officially became a part of H!ndutva's terrorizin cow belt

i'd be definitely intimidated if i were u

I'm a 15 y/o in junior year/11th grade preppin for college rn
AMA and wanna make new friends too

Hi

Salaam
Hey everyone, I’m half Arab and was curious about the experience of Muslim life in the U.S., especially in bigger, more liberal and more muslim populated cities like NYC, Chicago, New Jersey, Philly, the DMV area, Tx ciities etc

How is it day-to-day being visibly Muslim (like wearing hijab, praying or praying jumuah etc.)?
How are things during Ramadan/Eid—do you feel a strong sense of community?

How is the general acceptance from non-Muslim Americans? Is Islamophobia something you still deal with often- Do u try to hide your identity and faith?

Also, do you feel like there are enough mosques/halal options easily available?
And for younger people—does it feel easy or difficult to stay connected to your faith and culture?

Finally, would you say things have been improving over time, or getting worse for the future years (probably 2035s) and the native born muslim americans (future generations) ?

Would really appreciate hearing your experiences.

So, first, I'm from a sunni backgorund but I dont usually go by any label ...Im just a 'muslim'
But here's somethings I find crazy- the so called 'TRADITIONAL' muslims are actually tradiitonal-meaning (in my perspective) just follow traditions told by their dads or moms or the community imam

like they'd tell u not to listen to music (not the haram music) but then if u aks them why they themselves dont know it and only follow it cus their parents prolly told em to...there are other examples too like sit and drink water , women dont go to masjid

So, I've been thinking if i'm liberal-leaning...But I find this kinda weird too
First, Headscarf and modesty is compulsory (for both sexes)but i saw a picture here saying 'Hijab deconstructed' -the quraan clearly says khimar that means covering the body and hair
Do u guys follow prophet muhammad PBUH ...how if u reject hadiths?

praying five daily prayers and fasting, eating halal avoiding alcohol and all the other 5 pillars of islam is also compulsory right ...ive seen some ppl sayin it not to be done etc

Lastly, same-gend relations are haram right...like i suppport diverse S/Os are natural from allah

Please clarify on these

Im specifically interested on religious/hijabi pakistanis (cus that exposes ur faith ig)
how's everythin there? like acceptance, islamic life.],halal lifestyle, islamophobia and stuff

im very specific about large cities/ or big "Blue" cities
how do non muslim ameircans treat you

Im specifically interested on religious/hijabi pakistanis (cust hat exposes ur faith?)
how's everythin there? like acceptance, islamic life.,,halal lifestyle, islamophobia and stuff

im very specific about large cities/ or big "Blue" cities
how do non muslim ameircans treat you

Im specifically interested on religious/hijabi pakistanis (cus much of what ive seen are non reliigous/dress immodest)
how's everythin there? like acceptance, islamic life.],halal lifestyle, islamophobia and stuff

im very specific about large cities/ or big "Blue" cities
how do non muslim ameircans treat you