I've only sorta known 1 muslim person here in the United States. She was absolutely a nice person with western attitudes and not what you would call a practicing muslim...although she WAS one of the most paranoid people I've ever met (claimed Israel was involved with 9/11...weird). Beyond that, I've met many muslim people but only as customers or acquaintances. Its just my experience of course, but folks of that religion or culture don't seem to reach out to outsiders readily. I also knew fairly well a former Iraqi Christian citizen who was an employee of mine. His views of Muslims from his homeland were...shall we say....much, much more distrusting. So much so, he and his family left for America.
Depends on personal experience and era of history , Christian Iraqi post Saddam are victims like many others , but they were there since forever before in peace .it was't Iranian influenced like today despite the dictatorship , Tariq Aziz maybe the most known Iraqi chrstians , Saddam cabinet were from all different ethnics background, it's relatively sort of newthing to classify a person based on ethnicity or relgiuse affiliation Palstainians Christians views aligned with Muslims Palestinians , as a matter of fact ,the resistance movements established by Christians first. Bai'th party that ruled both Iraq/Syria since the 60s ,are both established by a guy name:Michele Malouf, as you can see, the world has changed everywhere since 9/11. As of today deep relgion ( various sectors)intellectual (conservative/liberal) splits that can go to microscopic infinite divides ...so the least to say ...whatever muslim you meet more likely has to do nothing with the next one you see and vice versa
I've met hundreds of Muslims in the U.S., and generally they are sweeter, milder, and less violent than Americans. In China in 1991 a Muslim Miao girl pretended to stab me in the belly with a real knife because of the Iraq war, but it was a joke. We were hanging out on the beach in the shade of a palm tree. She was like 14. In Xinjiang in China, near Afghanistan, the Uyghurs there are kinda scary. They carry knives, knife fight like in West Side Story, and fight the police. They hate the police with a passion and are happy when one dies (coz the police enforce Han majority rule). They smoke hash and are ultra manly and they will get violent. Of course, I was hanging out smoking hash with them, not getting terrorized. Maybe some people just get terrified more easily than other?
I will say that Muslim people I've met that grew up here in Canada have been completely normal, most of them are not that religious at all, they drink, they bang girls, most don't even do Ramadan unless they still lived at home. However, in university, I've met several international students that are kinda sketchy, in that they told me borderline f'ed up things of what they believe. For example one guy told me if he had a gay son he would literally murder him.
This is something that needs to be kept in mind whenever discussing or evaluating 'Islam'. Most of what we interpret to me Islamic is really more cultural, particularly from the Middle East. The Quran's view of women, for example, is almost identical to the Bible's view...yet women are persecuted in the Middle East. That is cultural.
I knew a guy from the conservative province of Alberta who teach in YorkU, he used to say: I would kill my son if he turned to be gay, now that he has a gay son, his attitude is quite different .
I do agree on the cultural inherited treatments but Christianty,Islam and Judaism have slight difference in regards to women rights.islamic perspectives of women was a revolutionary at the time like: -it's not Eve's fault alone, it's both Adam & Eve -taking pride of having daughters. , this is different take than before -rights of education for women -cleanness of women as human, believe it or not that was't the norm -equal accountability, respoosbility of taking oath and promises -women's properties : before none. -right for divorce -inheritance
I sort of agree with this, but with regards to where the vast majority of the Muslim world lives, the cultures heaviest influencer, seems to be ... by far... Islam.
I'm sure I will regret this but . . . Here's me chillin with some Uyghur Muslims in China in 1992. That guy on the right, Ahmed, had clean-ass knife scars up and down his right forearm. He had my back hardcore. They were rock-solid word-is-bond companions. (In China, a pejorative term for foreigners is "big nose." We were big noses together. These guys started calling the Han Chinese "dog nose" in response.)
They would swim like everyone else, not understanding your question. If this was meant to be a joke, good one.
At the time maybe, but how middle Eastern cultures/governments treat women now is shameful. In fact I think how we treat women in the US is pretty bad.
Yes, that is what I mean, the person was not a good swimmer, seems to be struggling with all that cloth. I mean what is the point of going to the pool then?
You saw a person swimming, then you came to ask ClutchFans how the person whom you saw was swimming. . . . And you care because . . . ?
How can Islam, an unanimated entity, influence people? Are Qurans flying around on their own into houses and schools, are dead religious figures sending their souls to influence people? Is god talking to people? No, it's people influencing people, and culture influenced those people first, and like every other example in history nothing influences a culture more than socio economic conditions. It's not Islam that made the Ottomans invade, it's socio economic conditions. That didn't stop them from marketing it as Islam. These people need a savior and all the other books are talking about them like they are animals. Islam will quickly cease to exist when people find another set of ideas that help their socio economic condition. Just like the constitution of the US did for you guys. Just like the magna carte shifted Europe. It's particularly difficult for people to move on from Islam because it contains some distinctly anti-oppression themes and that's exactly what most Muslims are going through. The prophet was a political activist and he overthrew a ruling class that was disconnected from society and marketed itself as divinely righteous despite being interested only in money and control. The first issue he faced was a freedom of speech/expression issue. He was not about to let these guys silence him in favor of stability. This theme is common among Muslims and unite them. The huge majority of Muslims happen to have the same invader/colonial power above their heads. It baffles me when people point to examples of other colonized people who don't resist violently. I'm anti-violence, but to me this is an admirable quality to have towards oppressors (which is different than having that attitude towards foreign civilians). I can not respect ideologies which do not have a culture of rebellion against oppressors and Americans should be the first to understand that. The American ideology, too, is born out of rebellion against a foreign oppressor. The American ideology, too, has given rise to outright violent terrorism against civilians through extreme fringe groups. Until Muslims are given the opportunity to carve out their own social and economic conditions, they will cling onto an archaic form of Islam. Because I watch your media, I know that the programming has already brought your thoughts to "what do Muslims choose when they vote?". Please stop this mental terrorism against Muslims man. Middle Eastern autocrats learned long ago from their Western colonizers the two golden rules of autocracy: 1) Put half the money in another economy, so that if you leave the economy collapses. 2) Murder the progressives and liberals, destroy their organizations immediately so that the political alternative is a dangerous foreign power or the crazy conservatives. So when the time comes, everyone is guaranteed to be ****ed. You might recognize these tactics in your own country btw, though to a far lesser extent of course. It's not a coincidence. These people are friends. It's incredible that from the outside looking in people commonly say things which infer people who are Muslim are MOSTLY Muslim. That's incredible. Of the 1 billion alleged Muslims in the world, most of them would not say "Muslim" when you ask what they are. They would state their craft, like everyone else in the world. And many of them similarly see most Americans as MOSTLY Christian. Does Christianity define you? Is everything you believe a subset of Christianity or a reaction to Christianity?
They swim like everyone else, except at the end of it they can whoop your ass because they've been swimming with weights all the time.
When someone goes about their life peacefully, it usually isn't a news story; which is true regardless of faith. Having said there has been a lot of terrorism and violence recently in the name of Islam. Conflict or tension is to be expected. The vast majority of Muslims, or any other group are NOT terrorists, that is part of what makes terrorism so effective. Have I met any actual active terrorists that are Muslim, not that I am aware of. I have met a few Muslims that supported terrorism. I will give you one example. I had a classmate in college that I got along well with that was Muslim and from Saudi Arabia. He and I would discuss sports mostly, and cars. We spent a lot of time together at school and went to car meets a number of times. I knew that he was Muslim, and it really wasn't ever a topic of conflict. If I asked him about a specific question about the faith, he was always polite and had no issue discussing it. He would sometimes ask me about the Jesuits. On the day of 9/11 I had class and almost everyone in my classes showed up because no one knew the severity of everything happening and we didn't know whether classes would be canceled. I remember everyone not being sure what to do or how to function.As it turned out some professors cancelled classes and others did not. He and I shared a class, which was cancelled. We went to the dinning hall. I brought up the fact that officials were asking for people to donate blood for the 9/11 tragedy. He didn't say much about 9/11; we didn't discuss the cause or anything of that sort. I suggested that he give blood, as I was going to do it in the commons area. He told me that he would not give blood. I asked him why, and he said that he and other some other Muslims did not agree with giving blood and would not support efforts against other Muslims. I was shocked, and pointed out that civilians were killed and injured and the right thing to do was to help, and he was firm (but polite) that he would not support any action that was against another Muslim. There was another student at the table that was very angry and they had words. Honestly I did not confront him, I don't remember if I left or continued to sit at the table. He became withdrawn and did not really speak much to me anymore. When the semester ended I never saw him again. I remember bits and pieces of the conversation, where he claimed the end of the world would be a showdown between Muslims and Jews; and he did not understand why Christians were not aligned with Muslims, because we both believed in the same God. I have also known several Muslims that have expressed sympathy for terrorism.... and have known others that said that we had it coming for supporting Israel. People work on a sliding scale I suppose. No, I do not hate anyone because they are a Muslim. I have really disliked some Muslims I have met, but I have also really liked some of the Muslims that I have met and had long term friendships with. Anyone that tells you what is in your heart should be disregarded. You shouldn't be butchered or torn apart, you didn't say anything objectionable.
