"In a mosque, they're like 'is she lost?" - Tipperary woman on converting to Islam

A Tipperary woman has opened up about her decision to convert to Islam after embarking on solo travels around the world.

29-year old Amy Sweeney from Fethard, who was a qualified teacher working in Poland, gave up her job and started to travel solo.

She went to Tunisia despite multiple people calling her crazy and telling her it would be unsafe. 

"Everybody told me, 'you are mad, this is not safe as a woman alone,' but I'm the type of person if someone tells me 'don't do something,' I kind of want to do it,'" Amy said. 

That was roughly three years ago now and she says it was still one of the best trips she has ever been on. 

Amy says everyone was so welcoming and she was intrigued by the culture and religion. 

"What really drew me to Islam in general was seeing the number of young people that practiced, because I was definitely never exposed to people who were my age going to church and reading the Bible and really praying every day. I've never met anyone my age doing this, honestly, so it kind of blew my mind that I was meeting so many young people who had such a strong faith," Amy said. 

Travelling to these countries and the beginning of the conflict in Palestine is what piqued Amy's interest in Islam.

"Something that really blew my mind was seeing all these videos of people being literally tortured, but they all had such strong faith, and they were holding their kids after being murdered and all they were saying was 'Alhamdulillah,' which means, 'Thank God,'" Amy said.

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She couldn't understand how people were giving thanks and having faith despite the pain they were experiencing and this set her down a path of researching the religion.

Amy says the intention was never to convert to Islam but just to educate herself on it and understand it more.

As she continued to travel and learn more, dots started to connect for Amy and she slowly started to consider converting religion. 

"Everything kind of added up. Even with my lifestyle, it all just really made sense with fasting and we pray five times a day. The first prayer is around 5am which is the time I get up. Everything just really aligned. I suppose it wasn't just one thing, it was build up of things over time," she said.

Growing up, Amy wasn't religious but went to a convent school and had a typical Irish upbringing.

Once leaving school, like many others, she stopped practicing religion. 

When she moved to Poland, Amy says her perspective on the world changed slightly and her eyes were opened to a less "sheltered" way to live.

In Ireland, Amy lived in a small village in Tipperary where she rarely heard anything about Islam unless it was something negative. 

"You hear the word terrorist. That's all I ever heard because that's what we're fed from the media. I even remember back to being in university and being on a trip abroad and there was an ISIS attack at the time. We were told, 'If you see anybody like with a scarf on their head, beware'," she said.

When she moved abroad and was around people of different cultures, she was pleasantly surprised to realise they were "normal."

Amy has been in Egypt a year now and says it being a Muslim country is what drew her there as she was at the point where she needed to throw herself fully into the culture and religion to see if it was really for her. 

This was her "make or break" moment.

"I threw myself in the deep end and I really did go searching for groups and people who would actually educate me," she said. 

Amy found a group and told them to describe the religion to her as if she was a child. 

"I said, 'just talk to me like I'm a kid. I want to be told the same way that we teach kids in school these stories and just see if it makes sense to me'," she said. 

After a month, she decided it was right for her and she decided to officially become a Muslim, which involves a process and some paperwork, but also just fully believing in it yourself. 

Amy didn't tell anybody about her decision for a while as she had read horror stories about families turning against other members who had converted. 

Eventually she told her parents and they accepted it, making Amy feel very lucky as she understood that her parents had not been exposed to the same experiences with the religion as she had. 

"I've been very lucky in that they're very open to accepting. I suppose their biggest thing is once I'm not extreme and I'm not pushing it on anyone else, then they're happy for me," she said.

Amy is a nutrition coach with a platform on social media that she wanted to share her journey with.

She said this helped with telling people as it made it easier being able to let everyone know at once rather than on an individual level. 

It was Ramadan that led Amy to sharing her story as she posts about nutrition and her lifestyle anyway. 

She started to share he daily routine during Ramadan showing her pre-fast meal (Suhoor), what she did during fasting hours, and post-fast meal (Iftar). 

This year's Ramadan was Amy's first and she found it easier than expected. 

"Everyone told me Egypt is the best place to be if you're going to do it. The vibe is difficult to describe but your whole life gets turned upside down because your night time is in your daytime," she said.

The community aspect of Ramadan in Egypt was huge for Amy and she felt this really helped.

Even if you are not a Muslim in Egypt, during that time restaurants are closed and people are not eating on the streets.

Amy also found that the community has been very welcoming of her.

"It's funny, like, if you look at me, you don't think I'm Muslim so I don't think anybody really knows by just walking down the street. But then if I'm in a mosque to pray, they're kind of looking like 'is she lost?" she said. 

When praying, you cover your hair, which allows Amy to blend in a bit more.

"Nobody can see that I have ginger hair but my eyes and my skin kind of give it away. If you're in a place like a mosque, everyone's there for the same reason so I don't find that it's judgmental at all from this end," she added.

Covering her hair at all times is one of the aspects of the religion Amy is yet to fully adapt to. 

"There's a lot of your life that has to change when you change religion. It's baby steps for me. Obviously, it's something that I would hope to aim for in the future, but it's a really big step," she said.

"I also need to also think of my family, and if I live in Europe again. It's a huge decision," she continued.

The journey to becoming Muslim has been similar to rebranding herself as there are a lot of things that were normal for Amy that had to change. 

"My nails were a huge thing for me, and people look at me like 'such a first world problem,' but when you're used to having something for your whole life and it's normal, and then suddenly you're being stripped of everything, it is like your own identity is kind of changing in a way," she said. 

Although it was her choice, Amy cannot say that it has been easy and did not realise how much of herself she associated with her appearance. 

"People were like, 'you're so dramatic,' but it is such a big part of someone's identity. I never realised while I had them. I knew I loved my nails, but I felt like, 'oh my goodness, I can't look at my hands. I feel like a man. I feel so masculine.' It took me a long time to adjust," she said.

It wasn't necessarily the nails that was making Amy upset, but more so the fact it was the first visual sign that things were changing.

Wearing a hijab was another huge change for her and she really struggled with it in the beginning. 

"I couldn't look at myself in the mirror because I have long red hair. It's a huge part of my identity. So seeing myself with no hair was like, 'Who is that person?' You don't look the same. Definitely, physical appearance has been a huge part of it," Amy explained. 

"It's been a journey. I'm definitely still on that journey. You know, it's a learning curve, for sure, but yeah, it's been difficult," she added. 

As much as there have been difficulties, there are also aspects that Amy has been really enjoying.

"I've come from both sides. I wasn't born into this religion, but it makes so much sense. It's such a beautiful religion. All these fancy words we hear about wellness and grounding yourself, it stems from Islam," she said.

"If you think praying five times a day, the first thing you say as a Westerner is 'that is so restrictive to pray five times a day,' but actually, what a beautiful way to check in on yourself five times a day. You know, how am I doing? Can I improve something? Am I behaving nicely? It's a privilege to be able to do that, but everyone just jumps to the negatives," she added.

In terms of covering skin, originally Amy thought that was restrictive but she has actually found it to be quite empowering.

"The more you learn about it, it's like you feel more confident. You feel more protected. It should be something that you choose who sees you. Why do I want to walk down the street and have every stranger see every part of my body? If that's what you want, that's no problem, but I personally don't want this," she said. 

"I think it's just allowing yourself to learn about it, because I also had those pre-conceived ideas at the beginning, and now I've really done a full 360 on it," Amy added.

She also compared it to nuns and how nobody thinks twice about them covering themselves. 

If you follow the Catholic religion, you too are supposed to be modest, but Amy highlighted how there are not many younger people practising Catholicism or Christianity in Ireland. 

She is encouraging Irish people to drop these pre-conceived ideas of Muslims and to be more open. 

"A lot of the things that we believe, it's not from anything we've ever experienced ourselves but it's from nonsense that we read online. Unfortunately, I do see a lot of this in Ireland. For example, there was some post I came across a couple of months ago and they were building a mosque somewhere in Ireland.

"Oh my god, the comments underneath it were just disgusting. It makes no sense to me. Unless someone has experience first hand with something that a Muslim has done to them, then just go and educate yourself. Leave people practice their own religion, unless they're intruding on you, there's no need to comment. Just be respectful of other people," she said.

Amy acknowledged that not everyone is perfect and highlighted that not all Muslims are bad.

She is not asking anyone to change religion or forcing hers on anyone, but just asking people to be a bit more kind and considerate. 

"I'm not waiting for people to listen and say, 'I want to be Muslim,' but maybe just think twice when you see someone wearing a hijab, don't think like, 'Oh, my God. They're a monster," she said.