Hi Hun,

I am an australian maltese reverted muslim,
I can help you out on the understanding side of things if you like, Onyx too will probably shed some light also.
Basically being Musilm is acknowledging that there is one god Allah, and Mohammed is his messenger.
Islam is one of the most known religions for remaining unchanged and untouched in all its years. Even though you have those radicul sectors, they are not goign by the Quaran.
ok your first question.
1. Food: We eat very similar to everyone else, excpet we dont touch pork or any food involved in pork. Its actually Hardom to eat pork.
My Dh family is lebanese, so the foods we eat, Tabouli, Kafta, Fattoush, SHwarma, Kusa, bemeh, etc.
Alot of us eat alot of these dihes with rice and/or lebanese bread

2. Mosques: These are our "church", We go there regularly, some go everyday for prayer, which we do 5 times a day, from dusk to dawn, But fridays is a day you will see all mosques packed out. We do alot of things to do with the mosque, fundraisers, lectures, lessons, of course the funeral. etc. But we do not get married in a mosque.

3. CHristmas Day, Its hard to say, due to everyone being different , but we do celebrate it per say, My family do, being australians and that, we just have a dinner, but my In laws will often have a bbq or just a get together (not unusual we have on eevery week lol). We do ramdan every year, its actually where we fast for 40 days, and at the end we have Eid, were its a huge celebration, but we also have another Eid A month or two afterwards so my kids get basically 3 xmas's lol

4. Non Muslims: No way do we see non muslims in that light, we, well most, are taught not to judge others, what you do, wear, act is how ever you think is right for yourself, as long as it doesnt impact on us, me, personally than you do what ever makes you happy, we have muslims that dress that way too, doesnt make them any better really.. so we can not judge, some dont like it, but hey, thats not their business.

5. That is a question that gives me an answer but doesnt, I feel close to allah, i pray 5 times a day and i live by his lines. I make sure my kids are raised with the love of allah in their heart but i dont brainwash them, hey, my eldest two boys are christian orthodox!! You can definently feel close to him due to the fact you live for the right to be who you are itms?
I dont know maybe onyx maybe able to explain it beter.

6. The best thing? Is that no matter who you are, or what you are, every muslim accepts you as though they have known you their whole life! You can help others understand what they dont, you can guide poeple to the right path and show them the wrongs without patronsing others.

7. The worst thing? Is that we seem to be painted with the same brush, no matter what good is done something bad will always over right it. We do cop abuse, get slandered, get mocked and definently intimidated. You just had to watch today tonight the other night to see some's reactions. But that was to the Niquab. Thing is overseas terrorism and extremists have blackened our name so we will be known for it.