by Dina Temple-Raston
Finding someone to spend your life with can be hard under any circumstances, but young observant Muslims will tell you that here in the U.S., it’s doubly so. They have to navigate strict Islamic dating rules while interacting with the opposite gender in a Westernized world. Now, a handful of young Muslims think that a new app called Ishqr provides a partial solution.
Humaira Mubeen is one of the many Muslim millennials who self-identifies as a “Mipster,” or Muslim hipster. “I became part of this community called Mipsters. It was a bunch of proud Muslim Americans coming together talking about a lot of issues,” says Mubeen. “One of the topics of discussion was always trying to get married.”
Apparently, it’s hard to find someone who is not only compatible, but also shares a mix of Muslim and American values. Mubeen says, “A year into being part of [the Mipster] community, I jokingly said, ‘Why don’t I make a website to connect all of you, because you all seem really cool?’ ”
Then the emails started pouring in with people asking where to sign up. Mubeen tried to explain that she had been joking, but eventually she felt compelled to build Ishqr, a website to help Muslims find each other. “If Instagram and dating apps had a baby, it would be Ishqr,” says Mubeen.
Ishq is an Arabic word for love, and the “r” was added at the end, Mubeen says, to make it sound more hip. More than 6,000 people have signed up on the Ishqr website since it went up just over a year ago. The app went live on iTunes in October.
Mubeen explains that when you sign up, Ishqr asks you for some basic information: a username, your religious preference (Shia, Sunni and “Just Muslim, yo” are all options) and why you’ve decided to join. She says people sign up to make friends, test the waters and sometimes to get married.
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