[x]

She's coming at this from a Western boutique approach to the religion, becoming a "cafeteria Muslim" who puts together her own idea of the religion, which doesn't correspond to how the Muslims actually live overseas (or even in some ethnic enclaves here), and she married a guy who came at Islam from the same background.

Maybe she was looking for something like Unitarianism but with more structure and discipline. It's hard to say what happens when Theresa goes to a mosque and meets Muslims from a different background. Maybe there's a whole mosque somewhere filled with people like her.

Female genital mutilation goes back to pre-Islamic times in Africa. There's no denying that it's become accepted in the Islamic world, but strictly speaking it's not mandated by the religion itself though many Muslims and non-Muslims make that assumption.

[Yardstick]

Maybe she was looking for something like Unitarianism but with more structure and discipline.

And more exotic and more alien to whitebread WASP types. She's basically using her religion like an extreme piercing or body modification.