American Muslim Dating Rules

The best American Muslim dating rules are those rules which seek to preserve the traditional aspect of that time-honored religion of peace with more modern approaches. They are a way of seeking some form of common ground between the ultra-conservative, traditional interpretation of Islam and the American approach to dating and social situations.

1. Meet without getting too personal. The best American Muslim dating rule is the one that stresses social meetings in public without said meetings getting too personal. In the Islamic faith, it is generally frowned upon (which is putting it way too lightly, to say the least) for unwed men and women to even go out together for something as innocent as a movie and dinner. Usually, a man has to get approval from the woman's family for a courtship to occur, and even then, only in the presence of both of their families! Thus, a compromise is sometimes worked out, as in young Muslim men and women (who put their Islamic identity ahead of everything, even US culture, naturally) to get together, but only under the guise of meeting as members of clubs that want to further the goals of Islam.
2. Compromise. Many Muslims who live in the US are beginning to see that the old ways of their parents—meaning the ultra-conservative and very restrictive customs that they practiced in the old world of Arab lands—simply do not sit well with their new American culture. So being good people, they have increasingly assimilated into the American way of doing things regarding dating, which is based on the fundamental realization that things just cannot be as prohibitive with basic freedoms as they are in countries like Egypt, Pakistan or Sudan.
3. Try out Nikah. For Muslims who have acclimatized to the more liberal and free-loving ways of an open society and country like America, nikah is a somewhat effective way that they can bridge the gap between old world, Islamic customs and the more freedom-loving ways of the US. Nikah allows Islamic couples something close to American-style dating by permitting Islamic couples all the benefits of marriage. However, nihak is still more liberal than other Islamic traditions because it lets Islamic couples split up during the nikah if they decide they want to. The social stigma in the Muslim community is also less if the split up happens by way of a nikah.