Hey, thanks for making this thread! I have too somewhat-lengthy questions about Islam and Muslims in general. 1. Why do some Muslims insist that Islam overrules family, culture, nationality? Growing up where I did in America, I met many awesome Muslim women and men who had their own goals, aspirations, etc. Many female Muslims I got to know didn't wear the hijab, and all of them were fairly practical and liberal about the application of their beliefs. Sometime later, I learned more about Islam and Muslims abroad, and subsequently a very conservative, very segregative groups of Muslims(I'm not just talking about the Wahabis/Salafists, I'm talking about people Sunnis/Shias/etc from Malaysia/Pakistan/Somalia/etc.). A few months after that I learned more about apostasy issues, blasphemy, issues, etc. and it frustrated me that so many Muslims worldwide either do nothing to challenge these corrupt laws, or actively enable them.
Throughout all of this, whenever I pushed the issue as to why so many people stick their head in the sand, I kept getting the same reply: "You're not Muslim, you'd never understand.", "Being Muslim is being part of our Ummah, your [kafir/murtad] petty nationalism and borders being nothing to us! Islam first, our Ummah first!"
I'm aware that not all Muslims share this view, but too often I've come across the notion that simply being Muslim means you're part of a "family/community", and that you should dismiss any emotional/cultural attachments you have to your actual family/culture/nationality/etc.