The Islamic lecture reframed pressure and nonconformity as honored virtues.

Evidence

“Islam began as something strange, and it’s going to return as something strange, the way it began,” he said, launching into the lecture proper. “Because if there was no test, no pressure, then what are we being given Jenna”—heaven—“for?” he asked. For the next forty-five minutes, he carefully explained the virtues of nonconformity in the name of Islamic principles. “Be strange,” he advised them. “Practice your deen. Dress like this.” He motioned to himself. “Ask the school for places to pray. Do all of that and you will be strange. But this doesn’t come anywhere close to the strangeness of the first Muslims.” — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 939

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the Islamic concept that faith is defined by strangeness and tested nonconformity, with ‘deen’ glossed.
• ADDENDUM: Connects to ‘On Sacrifice’ in that a minority faith presents its trials as honor-bearing, a form of self-chosen distinctiveness.