‘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.

pressured by internet commenters to convert her religion, lmao