For this edition of The God Question, Koasara tells Pulse Nigeria why she converted to a new religion after marriage.
Kaosarat grew up the daughter of the typical Nigerian Christian couple.
Growing up, every Sunday, her siblings and her, tucked themselves in the back seat of their father’s car and headed to church. Then she fell in love with a man who turned out to become her husband of three years now.
He is a Muslim and she was a Christian.
People converting from one religion to the other is not a new occurrence. Religious conversion, even long before the Europeans came to Africa and with them Christianity, dates back centuries in Nigerian history. But that doesn’t mean that new converts have over time become immune to the demands of their new religion.
For this edition of The God Question, Koasara tells Pulse Nigeria why she converted to a new religion after marriage.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
How did you find God?
I really don’t know, but I grew up believing that there’s God. I’ve always known that when I pray God answers my prayers. I grew up a Christian.
Why did you decide to become a Muslim?
It was a deeply personal decision. I will say it first, I’m not the most religious person. But I am very spiritual. My husband is a Muslim. Hear me out. I wasn’t pressured by him or his family but I wanted unity in my family. I want a situation whereby when we pray, we pray as one.
I didn’t want a situation where there would be two different religions and our children would be confused. I have heard people who have parents who practice different religions jokingly say “Chrismus” when asked what religion they practise. I didn’t want that to be my children. Also, God is universal. It’s the same God.
If God is universal why did you change religion then?
I just changed my religion, not my belief. There’s only one God. The analogy I like to give people is with food. If for instance I like eating shawarma but then I stop and say I now love eating spaghetti, it doesn’t change anything about me. They are just both food. They have the same goal.
Do you go to the mosque now?
No. I pray in my house. Baby steps.
Have you ever experienced a miracle from God?
Yes, every day. Isn’t living and breathing a miracle? But more seriously, some unexplainable circumstances just can’t be classified as coincidence. When this happens to me, I take it as a miracle from God.
Do you ever worry that religion might have tainted the spiritual part of worship?
To be honest, I feel it’s Western culture that has me more worried when talking about religion really, because these people who hijack religion in Nigeria to say whatever or do as they like, have no real power here. They might have influence, but just among their followers.
It’s the way religion is practised in the West that really gives me a cause for concern. You see a lot of pastors having real power when it comes to things like foreign policy. That is just very scary to me. In Nigeria, it’s just one man with his own opinion versus millions of people.
Even when I was a Christian and attended church, I have always been very firm about what is true to me. Of course, I don’t interrupt the pastor mid-sentence if I disagree with him. I let him finish out of respect. But I always follow my instinct or ask for other people’s opinions on the subject.
What has life as a Muslim been like so far?
Praying five times daily consistently every day definitely does a thing to a person. But honestly, it has not been that different. I just figured out that they are basically the same in truth regardless of what anyone says. We both pay homage to the same God. We just call him different names.
But I will be honest, in the early days it wasn’t easy acclimatising to the mode of praying.
