From Washington Post
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Osman Aslam has tried the apps.
On Minder, he wrote he enjoys hiking, going on long drives and spending time with his family. On Muzmatch, another option for Muslim singles, he described his ideal partner as well-educated, ambitious and funny.
But Osman, a 29-year-old insurance broker, has had little luck. For one, he has never actually met anyone from these apps in person.
So on a recent winter day, armed with a pale purple dress shirt and purple tie, he flew 300 miles south from his home in Stockton, Calif., rented a car and booked a hotel room.
Now it was a Saturday night in Anaheim, and Osman and around 60 others were taking their seats beneath the crystal chandeliers of a Marriott ballroom. For many, including Osman, it was their first “matrimonial banquet.”
Every year, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), one of the country’s oldest Muslim organizations, hosts about a dozen banquets like this one in locations across the country. It is a Halal form of speed-dating, as one participant described it — a way to meet other Muslim singles in a country where most people are not Muslim, and in a manner their parents would approve.
