is pittsburgh muslim friendly.... (Monroe: fit in, houses, neighborhoods)

[Samir_Abdul]

im an african american/sudanese muslim from cleveland, and i just wanted to know was there any type of muslim population there and how were they treated, i know philadelphia is a very muslim friendly city, so i was curious..

[creepsinc]

Sorry, there was a troll here a second ago. You saw him.

[Hopes]

I have a close relationship with a couple of Pakistani Muslim families. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, they were afraid to leave their houses, but only due to their own paranoia. They've never been treated badly.

Maybe it's racist of me to say but I think an African American Muslim would encounter less religious prejudice than a Middle Eastern or Pakistani Muslim. And my Pakistani Muslim friends have not experienced any problems.

I would't call Pittsburgh Muslim friendly, but it's not anti-Muslim either. It's sort of an overall "I don't care" attitude. Pittsburghers tend to be that way towards anyone who is different.

[creepsinc]

Originally Posted by Hopes

It's sort of an overall "I don't care" attitude. Pittsburghers tend to be that way towards anyone who is different.

As well they should be. Another thing I love about it here. Also, that was a "troll crossing" sign I posted in response to a troll who was the first responder to the OP, then later deleted. The troll deleted their post, so I'm not sure how it was taken on its own.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by creepsinc

As well they should be. Another thing I love about it here. Also, that was a "troll crossing" sign I posted in response to a troll who was the first responder to the OP, then later deleted. The troll deleted their post, so I'm not sure how it was taken on its own.

I think the m** did it.

[Yac]

The troll's gone, hide yer torches and pitchforks ... i have a feeling we'll be needing them again though ..
Anyway, back on topic folks
Yac.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by Hopes

It's sort of an overall "I don't care" attitude. Pittsburghers tend to be that way towards anyone who is different.

I love that attitude of this area in the sense that no one cares what you are.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by bradjl2009

I love that attitude of this area in the sense that no one cares what you are.

Agreed! The "whateverrrr, I don't care, you are what you are, I'm just going about my day" attitude of Pittsburghers is really amazing.

I don't know how we became an "as long as you're not interferring with my lifestyle, I really just don't care" population.

Some old people might give a look, but most Pittsburghers just don't give a damn if someone is homosexual, muslim, hippy, etc.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Hopes

I don't know how we became an "as long as you're not interferring with my lifestyle, I really just don't care" population.

Just a guess, but I believe the original Scots-Irish settlers had that attitude to begin with, and then Pittsburgh kept getting waves of ethnically, culturally, and religiously diverse immigrants. Meanwhile, the local topography lent itself to lots of microneighborhoods, which often had a particular ethnic/cultural/religious affiliation. In general I'm not a huge fan of such de facto segregation, but it does tend to limit the opportunities for ethnic/cultural/religious conflict.

So my guess is that people in Pittsburgh have just internalized that sense of a city that has lots of pockets of different people going about their business without a lot of conflict. And accordingly if a few new pockets develop, it is no big deal--just part of the same old pattern.

But as an aside, I think the one big outlier to all this is the influx of African-Americans, which led to a lot of conflict (helped along by other issues to be sure, such as de-industrialization), and that dynamic still hasn't been fully worked out today. Still, in a roundabout way that actually helps confirm the hypothesis I am sketching, because that particular influx was much larger in scale and involved a lot more neighborhoods eventually than most, so it sorta makes sense how that particular case would not fit into the overall pattern I was describing.

[fleetiebelle]

I'd think that you'd probably want to stay in closer to the city and also in Monroeville for proximity to the most diversity in the Pittsburgh area. But, like others have said, no one will give you any trouble. I work with several Muslims (Turkish and Pakistani) and they like Pittsburgh.