Not sure what to believe

Ok so heres the deal, im in an online relationship and have been for quite some time. We’re both fairly young (mid 20’s) and its very long distance. I have the once in a life time opportunity to go there to his country and should everything work out in the time im there we intend to marry. Many of my friends are extremely against this, but they are people who barely know me and know nothing about him (in all honesty I dont consider any of them true friends, more casual aquaintances). It seems that no one will listen to anything I say about what kind of person he is and instead they judge only by his religion and his location. Im so tired of the negative stereotypes and the labels people are using to describe someone they dont even know. Why is it the people who supposedly care about me seem to be trying so hard to make me unhappy. This young man is the only one who has ever accepted me and he is exactly what I’ve been looking for in a life partner. Both our families approve the union (naturally there was a little trepidation at first, but that was only in the beginning) so family acceptance is not an issue, my issue is with the fact that people who claim to be my friend are suddenly completely against me going there now that I have the plane ticket. Why are they so quick to judge what they dont know?