No Old Country? So they are Cherokee? No offense, but if your parents were born in Iowa, their parents probably weren't
Well I mean they obviously are descendants of immigrants, but it's not an easily traced lineage. Like many white Americans don't know exactly where all their ancestors came from. They may know they have English, French, Irish, German etc. heritage, but it's probably mixed. I want my character to be mixed too.
Oh okey, so you CAN have her be a Cherokee Muslim then No, really, as long as the characters religion plays some actual role in the story, it'd be cool. Interculturality is always cool.
An Hispanic Muslim! Living in America??? What an interesting concept - and what a wonderful possibility for blending cultural and religious backgrounds, particularly since Mexico is so strongly Catholic. I did find it curious, though, your assessment that Muslims are not overly religious. It's been my experience that the question of fervor in one's religious beliefs tends to be more of an individual matter. I have know many of many different belief systems some of whom are quite ardent in the practic3e of their beliefs and some of whom are, more or less, just going along for the ride. Most fall somewhere in-between. I do like your concept. But I continue to wonder if the religious differences are the reason you say the relationship would not work. Because, this, too, in my experience is a non sequitur. People are more than what they believe and HOW they practice their beliefs is affected very much by all of those other factors and qualities.
This is fine to do, but I don't believe that there are all that many Hispanic Muslims, so if you choose to make your character's family Hispanic Muslim, you will have to explain how it came about -- somewhere along the line someone converted, intermarried, or whatever.
How many newly converted (post-1980?) Muslims are there in the US anyway? Any statistics, per state? And from what background they converted?
Is it her, or her parents/fear of family repercussions? My MC (who is a lesbian) was raised by a devout Christian family and that's where most of the strain in her relationships stemmed from as a teen/young adult. To the extent where she got married to a man just to maintain the illusion of "playing it straight." She herself is not religious, nor does she even really believe in God, so fear of going to hell wasn't a factor. It was one hundred percent fear of feeling her family's disapproval and probably ending up alone and disowned. (She does eventually "come out" though.)
My character does hold moderate religious beliefs that make her reluctant to do something she been taught is wrong. I don't want to put my personal beliefs in this, but I want to create a romance that she is fighting because of her beliefs. She actually doesn't really have a family, it's all within her. And it's also not really a huge part of the story; she really suppresses her feelings.
The answer is: who cares what we think? That's a plot detail, and it's the people in your stories who make the difference. Is an evil Catholic more interesting than a sadistic Wiccan? Depends on you, because it's up to you to make them interesting and believable. And that's a lot harder than coming up with a plot. Plot is the road map, and no one loves a road map. Story lives in the aspirations, the frustrations, and the joy of the people in it. Unless your writing—not the plot but the writing—makes the reader turn to page two you lose the reader long before they find out such plot details. And that's true on every single page. Spend time informing your reader, instead of entertaining them by manipulating their emotions, and that's it. So drop a body through the ceiling. Lock your characters in a room within a burning building. Turn zombies loose to torment them. Disappoint and frustrate them. Make their lives a living hell. Then who cares what their religion is? Give your reader drama, not social studies 101.
In a novel, unless that drama either moves the plot or is a related subplot, and is necessary to it, no.
I love the world of your novels then - in mine, there is nothing as dramatic (thus: nothing more suitable to raise tensions and create plots) than social tensions You just said "give your readers drama, not social studies". Thus: give your readers drama which moves the plot. And if drama comes from social issues? Use them as elements to move the plot. No need for zombies to corner your characters: greedy landlords are good enough. Yeah, sure you need your characters to be trapped in a falling elevator or on a brink of erupting vulcano : but they can also be caught in a failling marriage or on a brink of exploding family tensions. And frankly, there are themes and plot devices and styles suitable for YA fiction, and those suitable for adults. Creating a bang-zoom-chop-zing drama tension with jumps and strifes and constantly keeping the reader on the edge of the seat - that's cool for kids, really. And 20+ enjoy that occasionally. But you know, that's not the only way to write and plot - it's the easiest one, of course, and the easiest to comprehend - but grown ups know that life and art is not easy... Not easy at all. The whole idea of plot = raise, raise, raise tension reminds me so much of old Star Trek episodes. Kirk is caught in an alien mind-blowing device. And they are pulling the Enterprise to crash on the planet. And there is a medical emergency on a nearby colony. Only 12 hours to go. And a Klingon ship is closing in. And Spock is horny. And Scotty is drunk... It's great fun, really: campy and fun. But it's not literature. Not literature.
