Adventures in Halal Dating

By Asma Gull Hasan
http://www.altmuslim.com/opinion_comments.php?id=712_0_25_0_C19

[...excerpt...]
So how are young American Muslims supposed to meet and marry each other, especially when Islamic religious or cultural events are often segregated by gender? Young American Muslims have come up with creative solutions to dating--and they fall into roughly three categories. The first group are "Strict Muslims" who date halal (in an Islamically permissible style). The second group I call "Eid Muslims," because many are not strict in practice and attend mosques only on holidays. While technically they are dating haram (unlawfully in Islam), without chaperones, they're keeping physical intimacy to a minimum and parental involvement at a maximum. The third group dates "Sex and the City"-style (definitely haram), openly and freely leading a non-Islamic lifestyle, having premarital sex sometimes in a series of monogamous relationships.