by RahimAbdul

Created on: May 27, 2008

The main problem Muslim teenagers would have faced as minorities in any countries is the strength to continue with their faith. It is not easy to practice what you believed, when most of the people around you are believing otherwise. Some who have the wrong concept about Islam would assume that what you're practicing would leads to terrorism.

Being young and not much exposure to the Islamic teaching would make it difficult for the teenagers to explain and defense their own religion. As a result, they rather be quiet and secluded themselves from the majority.

Mosque can be very few or situated far away from their neighborhood. But if they have company, they would have more courage to go to the mosque for their obligatory prayers or religious classes together. But, when Muslims is a minority, teenagers would have difficult time to find peers of the same religion.

Besides the Mosque which is far away, they may not find any Madrasah' (Islam Religious School) where they can learn more about Islam. It's also not easy to find any Muslim organization conducting religious classes. Ustadz (Islamic Religious Teachers) are also hard to find. If there are some, they may be conducting their teaching at a too far away places from the neighborhood or the time is not flexible enough.

In Islam we have few holidays in comparison to most other religions. It's a pity that teenagers in a minority country were unable to feel and celebrates the two major festivals; 'Id Al-Fitr After observing a month of fasting during the month of Ramadhan, and 'Id Al-Adha A celebration after the completion of the pilgrimage at Mecca. They also might have missed out the birthday celebration of the Prophet Muhammad.

Influences from other societies and other cultures are very real, while jeers from the Islamic rival are a norm in some countries. Peers from another races , back ground and religion are also a threat to their believe.The temptation to consume those non-halal foods are just too great, as 'Halal' foods are not easily available. However, if they have a strong basic fundamental teaching of Islam when there were younger - which are the responsibilities of their parents - They wouldn't have many problems when they enter their teens.

Because when they reach adolescence, they should be able to understand and performs their obligations as a young Muslim correctly. They would have a strong faith and Solemnly believed in Allah, and his Angels, and His Books (Taurah, Zabur, Injil and the Holy Quran), and His Prophets, and the day of Judgment, and the power of doing actions good and bad comes from Allah, and believing in Life after Death.

But if their parents are too busy working to make the ends meet, then they would even have a bigger problem. Therefore, teenagers as a minority would depend very much to their very closely knitted family and relatives or closed friends of the family for the guidance and the understanding of Islam.

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