Do you know a person that has parents of 2 different nationalities or religions?
By maximax8
@maximax8 (31053)
United Kingdom
November 16, 2011 7:32am CST
I watched an interesting documentary about an English lady. Her parents had both come from Israel and moved to England before she was born. Her mom is Jewish and her dad is Muslim. Now she is grown up she travels to Israel is like. She finds it hard to be allowed into Israel when she arrives at the airport. In Jerusalem they didn't want to let her into the Western Wall or to see the mosque. She ended up feeling that she didn't belong on the Jewish side or the Muslim side. She went to watch a demonstration but when one side threw stones tear gas was let off in the crowd. I have one friend that lives in America. He was born in Germany and moved to California when he was 10 years old. His mom is German and his dad is American. That is why they moved over to America.
What do you think of the girls experiences in Israel?
Do you know someone that has parents of different nationalities?
Do you know anyone that has parents of 2 different religions?
3 people like this
12 responses
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
16 Nov 11
I know many Catholics and Protestant families. It generally wasn't a problem as long as they stayed away from Ireland.
I believe in Shamanism and Earth-based religions. My husband is a Prespretarian Christian. Since most people in my religion go somewhere out in nature to pray and meditate and/or have a meditation room (esp. in winter) and the Bible says, "Do not pray like the Hypocrits do, go to your room and pray." or something like that, we keep to ourselves. We all, including people in my religion, celebrate the Christian Holidays because to NOT celebrate them in our area is dangerous. Besides I grew up with those traditions (I changed religions) so not celebrating them would probably feel like something was missing.
1 person likes this
@iuliuxd (4453)
• Romania
16 Nov 11
You will be in trouble if you don`t celebrate Christmas ? What can happen to you ?
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
16 Nov 11
It's hard telling. We're surrounded by people who are nuts. One person was screaming at someone the other day because they worked on Sunday. "Anything you try to do on Sunday will be cursed!" So if someone asks about Christmas, I tell them we're celebrating it. Most people are nice and would offer to take me to their church and celebrate with them if I had no family. One year my family was all fighting and someone did offer to bring me to church and have dinner at her place. I just celebrated with my husband's family and thanked her for the offer. So most people are nice, but some think that people who aren't Christian are going to hell and some think we're devil worshipers. The ones that think they have to convert us and the ones that think people outside of their religion are evil are the ones you have to watch out for. I live in a weird area, they ask you your name and then what religion you are. I usually tell them that's my business and my husband says he doesn't discuss religion or politics because they're both subjects that people get upset about and have emotional opinions about. One day I asked, "Why are you asking what religion I am?" The answer was, "If you're the same religion as me, I'd invite you to some of our functions like the Ladies' meetings or the working bees, etc." So that I can take. I went with someone to one religious event and it was too weird and scary for me. I'll stick to praying in my room or in the woods, thank you. I'll take my chances with the hunters.
@WakeUpKitty (8694)
• Netherlands
16 Nov 11
My parents are from different countries/cultures/religions and so is our whole family.
Everywhere where I look around me I see the same. To me it's hard to believe that there are no multi-cultural marriages anymore.
But might be I live in a different culture/country or society?
At the school where my kids are going now since summer there are perhaps only 2 or 3 real dutch couples (so both parents dutch) but I doubt they both have the same religion (religion is not important over here).
It's a long time ago that I heard anyone say: 2 geloven op een kussen, daar slaapt den duivel tussen (if 2 relgions sleep on the same pillow the devil sleeps in between. Whatever that may mean).
I have no opinion about the girls in Israel since I don't know any.
@shaggin (71663)
• United States
16 Nov 11
I dont think that this is very uncommon anymore in the united states. My brother in law is from america and his wife is from bolivia. There children have her coloring. They are beautiful kids and are a wonderful couple. The cultural differences dont hurt their relationship at all. My husband was an agnostic and I was christian. That was a bit troublesome until I became an agnostic as well.
@Lore2009 (7378)
• United States
18 Nov 11
I'm from the US so a lot of my friends are half aka mixed race. I know a few parents where one is religious and another is agnostic/atheist... but it doesn't really matter so much to them... especially from where I live.
@safety69 (592)
• Taiwan
16 Nov 11
Yes, sometimes is a difficult situation, but , love doesnt have frontiers. I have an non catholic aunt married to a prist from catholic church and they also lived in different countries, when the church found out ,sudenly the priest dissapear of the earth, they looked and looked for him and never found him, He left behind three kids and his wife. Myself, I am married to a man from different nationality and diferent religion and have two kids, but , I am teaching them my believes. My son who is nine years old feels like he is different and doesnt belows to anyplace, because , in my country they call him chinese and in Taiwan they call him foreigner, I have to deal with this because , sometimes he feels down. Have a great day or night my friend.
@paiamoua (5)
•
16 Nov 11
Actually I am a mother of three beautiful girls, and one of them is actually half of one nationality and another. I am Hmong and my husband is German. But I feel that it shouldn't matter if you marry or want to be with another different kind of nationality than what you are.
For our Hmong culture, we marry young, and I was married once before to the same nationality. But our religion and beliefs were different. I grew up as a Christian and he grew up as a Shaman. Of course when we married, I became a Shaman and so did our two girls.
I never liked the idea but anyhow things ended between us and I met my husband now who is German and is a Lutheran. We talked it over many times as to what we were going to do as religion wise. We agreed upon that our girls were going to chose whether if they wanted to attend church, but to never leave our kids in the dark as to what we believe in.
I think it's just the matter of communicating with one another as a parent and communicating with the child. The world is changing drastically and people are beginning to see whats out there, different nationalities and religion shouldn't stop us from loving another and having a family together.
1 person likes this
@ShepherdSpy (8544)
• Omagh, Northern Ireland
17 Nov 11
I Work with a Nepalese Woman Who married an Irish Guy,and married and had their older Family in the US before returning to Ireland..They now have a 2yo who was born here..
My 2 Brothers,Born in Scotland,respectively married American and English Girls and have settled in those countries and have families..
I've lost touch with a Polish Girl I'd worked with who married her Irish BF..it's been a year or so since I saw them last,so they could have family by now..
@salonga (27775)
• Philippines
17 Nov 11
It is a very hard situation for that lady. It's not her fault to have parents with different culture and religion and yet she is having problems because of this. Well maybe there is a good lesson to learn here. Never ever marry anyone of different religion because in the end it is the child who will suffer the consequences. It's okay to marry someone who is of different culture but in most cases it is not advisable to marry one who is of different religion.
I have a friend whose parents are both Filipinos but of different religion. Now my friend is torn between two religion. His mother wants her to attend her church while the father is insisting the child should attend his. You can just imagine how hard and confusing this situation has been to my friend.
@scheng1 (24650)
• Singapore
17 Nov 11
Hi Maximax, over here, it is rather common.
In fact, it is hard to find a family without different religions or nationalities.
For example, our Indians here will marry Indians from India.
Or the Chinese here with marry the Muslim, and have a change in name or religion.
It is so common that the children here learn religious and racial tolerance early in life.
@sjlskl (3382)
• Singapore
17 Nov 11
After reading the first two sentences, I have an inkling that the girl will have a hard time. This is not surprising, if you know how the Jews and Muslims view each other. With the growing mobility, having parents of different nationalities is not longer a novelty.
@boyuancy (1708)
• India
17 Nov 11
This was the thing with Steve Jobs biological parents I guess. Atleast that's what their name suggests. Excuse any discrepency due to lack of information.
@wulania (1524)
• Indonesia
17 Nov 11
te girl's experice is gerat, but hard to me to ceomment it. i am moslem and of course we our opinion about the existnce of israel, even we tolerate jews as a religion. i know someone who have parents from different nationalities. he is my wtusent at my class. his mom is javanese but his fahter is from philipina. and i have a friend and his wife was chritian, but now the divorced. in indonesian it is illegal to marry someone who have different religion. and for marrying foreigner and having husband from other counrties, it is legal even takes much money
