Usman Khawaja fiancee says the cricketer changed her perspective about Islam

Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja will be tying the knot with his fiancée Rachel McLellan next month in what is supposed to be a grand affair. For the first Muslim to ever play cricket for Australia, religion and its varied principles has always come before anything else. Hence, when he chose to get engaged to a Catholic girl, several eyebrows were raised, and the top-order batsman’s faith was questioned.

Dating since 2016

The couple, who have been dating for quite some time, and never shy away from confessing their love for each other on the social media, are said to have an age gap of eight years. Rachel recently appeared on the show ’60 minutes’, in which she revealed that she initially had misconceptions about Islam, but they were cleared after she met the cricketer.

‘Ussie was the first Muslim I’d ever met,’ Rachel told reporter Allison Langdon.’I was very ignorant around Ussie, I will admit to that. I only listened to what I had heard on the news. All I read was well, terrorists and awful things.’ However, after knowing and falling in love with Khwaja, Rachel converted to Islam soon after their engagement. She also clarified that nobody put any pressure on her to convert and that it was her own call.

‘[I felt] no pressure from him, not any pressure from his family. I just knew it was so important to him,’ she said. Khwaja had himself spoken about the criticism the couple faced from those were against the inter-religion marriage. He had highlighted the issue of hate mails they often received on social media.

‘A lot of times a lot of the hate I get is from other Muslims on social media. We will put up a photo of us two, and it will be like, “Oh she’s not Muslim. That’s haram, you can’t marry her”. Khwaja’s love story should inspire several to break the shackles of religious discrimination.

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