It's 2016: The age of infinite romantic opportunities

Times have changed since the days when a friend’s wedding was a single person’s battlegrounds for love. Many religious millennials feel that the growing diversity of the city is making it difficult to find their other halves while others feel it encourages an open mind.

Denaysh Jaggan and Rachelle Hartley have been dating for 7 years but still find themselves butting heads when discussing their wedding ceremony or how they’ll raise their children. Jaggan, who is Hindu, and Hartley, who is agnostic, say that their common interests and strong communication has kept them together for so long.

“For me I don’t care if I date someone of the same faith. As long as I know they are loyal and trust worthy, the same faith is irrelevant,” Jaggan says.

Meanwhile, those who are dating in faith are battling another obstacle; deciding when to get married.

According to a 2013 analysis conducted by Pew Research of America, 26% of young adults between the ages of 18 and 32 are married. That’s 10% lower than their parent’s generation. A common theory is that millennials are waiting to develop a solid career before embarking on that permanent and financially dependant path.

Shara Kabir and her partner, Adam Shafeek, are a young Muslim couple. They’ve been dating for 7 months and have talked about marriage but don’t see it happening anytime soon.

“I’d like to be married by the time I’m 25,” Kabir says. “For women, age is kind of important. But right now I’d like to focus on my career and get something going for myself.”

The two met through mutual friends and while Shafeek doesn’t particularly seek out a partner of the same faith, Kabir has never considered dating out of faith.

“I think I’d sort of grow further away from religion,” she says. “I wouldn’t practice as much, which is something I wouldn’t want. I’m afraid of converting.”

There are others who have the same mindset as Kabir but are tired of the traditional route and are trying out dating apps. Khalil Jessa launched Salaam Swipe, a Muslim dating app, last summer. He says a majority of users are between the ages of 18 and 25 while 20% of users are ages 25-35.

“I think that when people do come to the this app…they’re on this app because they’re looking for someone who shares a similar faith or outlook. They’re already going to find a more meaningful relationship simply by having that common denominator between them,” he says.

He created the app to combat the difficulties Muslim millennials are facing with finding partners. He’s received positive feedback and believes it’s a sign of feeding the community what they were hungry for.

“In terms of religious backlash from the [Muslim] community, I still have not heard anything,” Jessa says, “I think that speaks to the crisis that we face amongst millennial Muslims. It shows an understanding of our religious [community]. They get how difficult it is out there and they get that technology can make it easier.”

As a sign of the apps success, Salaam Swipe became available to Android users in early September.

With innovated compromises like Salaam Swipe, Canadian millennials can maintain the spiritual values of their elders with the contemporary twists of their peers.