Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
And I thought, are we haunted by images of covered Muslim women ready to self-destruct in the shopping malls?
I saw a video a few months ago about an anti-Muslim group protesting a Muslim meeting in Orange County, CA. They were pretty rabid..
Perhaps by getting to know better the Muslims living in our own neighborhoods, we can build bridges of understanding. I've been meeting a lot of Muslims here in Italy, and I haven't met one yet who wants to convert me or kill me!
After all, Judaism, Christianity and Islam all worship the same God!
Your thoughts?
Peace!
brian
I know only 2 Muslims currently. During my lifetime, I've met a few more over the years, but none are still acquaintances.
Of the two I know, one is Muslim by default. His parents are Muslim, but he quit practicing his religion as soon as he left the family home. The other still practices, but in all obvious ways, no one could tell him, his wife and his kids from any other family in town. Other than a few dietary restrictions, they look and act just like everyone else here, and practice their faith in their home. The guy prays in a broom closet while at work, and his wife is a stay at home Mom. She does not use the veil, and they both are capitalists to the bone. Their kids look just like the other kids.
I don't even know if they are all the Muslims in town. They could be, or it's possible there are a very few more of them here. For all I know, they may get together with the equally few Jewish folks we have here and they all practice their respective religions in the same house. The Muslims share more holy days and other stuff with the Jews than with the Christians.
But in everything, they have the same feelings and attitudes the rest of us have about the Muslim extremists of the middle east. Ironically, the guy who hasn't practiced his faith in over 40 years, and married a Christian woman happily, has less anger towards those extremists than the guy who practices his faith. If ever called, the second guy would be the first to fight.
And I'm comfortable as a dog around either. They're both friends of mine, and good ones.
And I thought, are we haunted by images of covered Muslim women ready to self-destruct in the shopping malls?
I saw a video a few months ago about an anti-Muslim group protesting a Muslim meeting in Orange County, CA. They were pretty rabid..
Perhaps by getting to know better the Muslims living in our own neighborhoods, we can build bridges of understanding. I've been meeting a lot of Muslims here in Italy, and I haven't met one yet who wants to convert me or kill me!
After all, Judaism, Christianity and Islam all worship the same God!
Your thoughts?
Peace!
brian
Man this OP has been proven naive!
And further I don't have any muslims living in my neighborhood nor am I building any bridges.
In fact, according to the 2013 Pew Research Center report, 88 percent of Muslims in Egypt and 62 percent of Muslims in Pakistan favor the death penalty for people who leave the Muslim religion. This is also the majority view among Muslims in Malaysia, Jordan and the Palestinian territories.
“We’re Americans so we don’t want to single out people, but when you look at that list just since 9/11, then we had the Madrid bombings in ’04, London in ’05, Mumbai, the Kenyan mall, Benghazi, which was one of 20 cities that erupted when that movie Innocence of Muslims was on the Internet, ISIS, Boko Haram who killed an entire village this week, Pakistan last year killing all those kids at the school, Canada parliament, Australia,” said Maher. “What we’ve said all along, and have been called bigots for it, is when there’s this many bad apples, there’s something wrong with the orchard.”
As far as the U.S. is concerned you have Muslims who have adopted to American life like Ruslan Tsarnaev, yet you unfortunately have cases like his nephews who engage in acts of terrorism.
Just thinking about all of the Chinese, Jewish and other groups spread out all over the world who are subject to discrimination, yet do not bring violence to their adopted countries. The Chinese in Belize, for example, found a non-violent way to bring their safety concerns to the majority in that country. Why can't Muslims find more constructive ways of handling social/political problems?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
