It's kind of ironic to post this when: http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=7629005
define comfort zone if a comfort zone is a place where im a lot less likely to have my head cut off bc i dont pray to allah...then im in that group that enjoys comfort zones
hmmm... a comfort zone is where people have different ideas than you and aren't afraid to express them. (the last part excludes the "tourist-y" parts of foreign countries where they do there best to recreate America with some local food)
And the probability of getting your head cut off in any part of the world is less than the probability of getting murdered in New York City. And the fact that your view of the world doesn't reflect that statistical fact, is kind of my point.
If you're a hardcore red sox fan? Yes. But I was kind of thinking about more important ideas, and more radical differences.
I'm positive. Have you seen the polls on how many people think Obama's a Muslim? :grin: :grin: And that's not even difficult to understand, like world politics and social norms in other countries and so on.
3rd time asking the OP exactly where he was in Indonesia. This is smelling more and more like a basso-type thread and it stinks.
i can walk around NYC and pray to any God I want....and voice my opinion about it....and while I may be ridiculed or scrutinized by some for my beliefs, i wont be beheaded or killed bc of my actions/beliefs or simply bc I am American and I stand for all that is wrong to muslims in those places outside my comfort zone
Yeah? And what if you were wearing a shirt glorifying the 9/11 hijackers or Osama bin Laden? Would you still feel that safe? That's why we call NYC your comfort zone. Because the people there have the same ideas as you.
u just made my point... wearing a shirt glorifying Bin Laden would certainly make it unsafe....but im not talking about walking around a muslim country with a t shirt that says "allah sux"...im talking about being in a muslim country not praying to the same God as them
No you're talking about being in a Muslim country with ideas about the world that are as repugnant to them as glorifying bin Laden is to you.
No. I was in Battam. I was mostly though at a resort compound but did travel around the island and spent sometime in the main city their and also some time at a rural kampong (village). I also have traveled through Indonesia before including about 13 years ago back packing through Java and some of the other islands. At no time have I witnessed in Indonesia the type of violent and intolerant behavior that many people in the US and Western Europe say are typical of Muslims.
I don't understand the obsession w/ Barack's religion. He says he isn't muslim I accept that...even if he was who gives a s**t? I don't care what being any politicians pray 2. I'm more concerned about what they are doing in their elected positions. Religion, or lack there of, is a personal decision.
Pretentious perhaps but I think it is important to report first hand about experiences that run counter to the perception that you and other posters often present of Islam being inherently violent and intolerant. While there certainly are places where Muslims act that way that is clearly not something innate to Muslims and from my own experience has far far more to do with local culture than it does with Islam itself.
Sorry about that and I apologize for sounding misleading. I had a limited amount of time to post the other day and was in a hurry to get this thread out. As noted I was in Batam which is an island close to Singapore. Although I have been to Indonesia several times and my comments would apply the same for those trips. This thread is in particular was in a response to recent attitudes in the US which was why I dealt with this particular trip. Just to add when I back packed I went alone so my experiences were unfiltered by a guide. Also on this trip when I went to the kampong I went alone too and found the people there to be friendly even after I told them I was an American. For those wondering the people at the kampong definitely seemed more religiously conservative as most of the women there wore hijabs.
HA! Good one! :grin: Anyway that is my point. As FB stated I am not denying that there are problems just that you shouldn't define a whole country, religion or people by those problems. While traveling I have encountered anti-American attitudes, most frequently from Western Europeans, and have told them the same thing. Americans are not all gun toting, greedy, fat yahoos, obsessed with sex (well maybe outside of Clutchfans ) but that is an impression you hear often. In fact a few years ago I had to listen to an Australian and a German debate each other whether the US was as evil or more evil than Nazi Germany. The German said as, the Australian said more so. I told them the same thing I say here when people get worked up about Muslims and / or other immigrants that such talk is just crazy and paranoid. Indonesia certainly has a lot of problems and there are extremist groups like Jemat-a-Islam but that accounts for an almost miniscule amount of the population. Its wrong to tar the religion or the people with the action of those few as much as it is to tar the US based on the KKK.
