y Dina Rabie, IOL Staff
Matrimonial websites provide a platform for young Muslims to meet and learn about what they expect in a marriage.
WASHINGTON – In America, a growing number of single Muslims resort to matrimonial websites in their pursuit for life partners, seeing the cyberspace as a more accessible way to find Mr/Ms Right.
"We have people accessing our website from all across the US. We have people from Colorado, Missouri, Nevada," Vaseem Ansari, executive director of the Companionships matrimonial website, told IslamOnline.net.
The website was established in 2004 under the direction of Mohamed Majid, the imam of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, to help Muslims looking for marriage partners.
"I got so many requests from young people to help them find the right spouses," recalls Majid.
"When it became so many requests, I reached out to young couples and established Companionships with me and my wife putting the program together."
The goal in Companionships program is to provide a platform for young Muslims to meet and be introduced to Islamic matrimonial education.
"We work professionally," said Ansari, adding that they get many professional, educated and articulate people who just need help finding the right spouse.
"Some of them just do not want to go for traditional marriage and want to try a different thing."
She explained that interested people register online and provide background about them, where they are from and what they are looking for in a spouse.
The matrimonial website then arranges for retreat events where soul-mate seekers get together in a kind of a workshop.
"They meet other participants, do activities together, we ask them provoking questions about social skills, religion and politics so that all participants know each other’s background and priorities in life," explains Imam Majid.
They follow up with those who approach them on proposing to other participants and provide them counseling as well.
"Even if participants do not find spouses, they get to learn abut marriage and what it is about."
Needed, Accessible
"We are creating a virtual community that is more accessible for them," imam Majid told IOL.
Imam Majid says that like Companionships, there are many other matrimonial websites that attract US Muslims.
"There are many Muslim matrimonial websites nowadays and Muslims, especially young people, use them a lot," he asserted.
"They even go to non-Muslim matchmaking websites and participate in it."
Some Muslim organizations like the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) has realized that and created its own matrimonial website too.
Imam Majid believes that such websites help meet a need in the American Muslim community, estimated at nearly seven millions.
"They are very diverse, so scattered across the United States," he noted.
"We are creating a virtual community that is more accessible for them."
Ansari agrees that matrimonial websites respond to the community’s needs.
"A lot of people are immigrants from different countries. They do not have big communities as back home and their families are not together," she explained.
"They need this social connection."
She added that they get in their program many professional, educated and articulate people who just need help finding the right spouse.
"Some of them just do not want to go for traditional marriage and want to try a different thing.
Reference by: http://www.islamonline.net
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