Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin – America’s Unfortunate Interfaith Couple
Gawker reported that Weiner complained in a text that he had never been accepted by Abedin’s parents. “A lot has to do with religion,’ Weiner said, ‘”They just believe I should be Muslim or convert… it makes for a lot of uncomfortable meetings.”
Paul Brandeis Raushenbush
Senior Religion Editor, The Huffington Post
“Across the country, Desi moms can barely contain their glee at pointing out to their daughters how Weiner is what you get when you marry out.”
For those who aren’t acquainted with the term ‘Desi’ – it designates someone of South Asian decent. The Facebook page that carried this amusing message last night revealed a sub plot to the Weiner sex chat saga, namely that Weiner and Abedin are perhaps the highest profile interfaith couple in America and the troubles in their relationship have the potential to be used as another case in point of those issuing dire warnings about interfaith marriages.
Anthony Weiner, as you know even if you live under a rock, was exposed (ahem) Tuesday as having continued to engage in sex chatting with young ladies for over a year after he lost his congressional seat due to the last sexting scandal in 2011.
When the news emerged on Tuesday, the mayoral candidate promptly held a press conference. There, standing next to him, was his wife Huma Abedin, to whom he apologized repeatedly. Weiner told the reporters that he had asked for Abedin’s forgiveness and she had given it. Abedin then spoke:
“It took a lot of work and a whole lot of therapy to get to a place where I could forgive Anthony. It was not an easy choice in any way, but I made the decision that it was worth staying in this marriage. I made a decision for me, for my son and my marriage.”
After watching the press conference yesterday afternoon a secular Muslim friend of mine emailed me his reactions: “It struck me, seeing them there together, that here was a Muslim and a Jew, and how hard that might be.”
After watching the press conference a couple times I have to say that my heart went out to both of them. They obviously have been through a lot and are trying to make this marriage work — in part because of political ambition, but as Huma said, for the sake of her son, and the sake of the marriage itself.
Interfaith marriages can be difficult under any circumstances and research shows that people with different religious beliefs tend to have a slightly higher rate of divorce.
Although Weiner and Abedin appear to be more secular in their observance, which probably makes them more similar in their world view than a secular person married to an religiously observant person of the same religion, the religious tension in their marriage was revealed in one text during the original sexting scandal in 2011.
Gawker reported that Weiner complained in a text that he had never been accepted by Abedin’s parents. “A lot has to do with religion,’ Weiner said, ‘”They just believe I should be Muslim or convert… it makes for a lot of uncomfortable meetings.”
