Interview Questions

For our project on communities, I will be interviewing a Muslim (or two) from the Muslim Student Association here on the Virginia Tech campus...

Possible Interview Questions:

• Are your parents Muslim?
• Is a person who is born into a Muslim family and raised by Muslim parents considered a Muslim?
• Can anyone convert to Islam?
  
  • Can they do that at any time?
    
• How long have you been a Muslim?
• If you can remember when you converted to Islam, or have done so recently, could you describe how that came about?
  
  • Who or what was the primary influence of your decision?
• Are there things about Islam that you still don't understand?
• How might you describe the Five Pillars of Islam to someone who had never heard of them before?
  
  • What might you tell that same person about Mecca?
  • How would you explain Ramadan to them?
    
  • What about the differences between Sunnis and Shi'ites?
    
    • Why do you think differences like this happen, and what do you think causes them?
      
• What are some words (e.g., adjectives) that you would use to describe Muhammed?
  
  • How might you describe Alláh?
• Is there anything you would like the world to know about Islam?
• What do you like best about your religion, if anything?
  
  • What do you like least, if anything?
• Do you ever feel uncomfortable when discussing your religion, or any religion at all?
• Have you ever encountered a situation in which you met conflict because of your religion?
  
  • If so, what was that situation like?
• Have you noticed a difference in the way that people treat you since your conversion to Islam, or because you are a Muslim?
• Have you noticed a difference in yourself since your conversion to Islam? (What affect has your faith had on your life?)
• How different would your life be without your faith?
  
• How might you describe Islam to a curious Atheist? Agnostic? Christian? Jew?
• What do you think of people in other religions?
• What do you think is the most common misconception about your faith?
• Do you feel your belief system is misrepresented by media, groups, etc.?
• What do you feel your role is, as a Muslim?

....."What in the world is going on here??" ;)


(Please feel free to mention anything that you personally would like to know about Islam, etc., and I can add that to my list!)