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Okay, gents, please cease discussion of the "Islam is backward" sub-theme. All posters so far have exercised restraint and appear to be making efforts not to offend (thank you for the efforts), but any further posts on this vein are likely only to provoke rather than to discuss. Thank you.
I think Fragony has made a fatal mistake here; he sees Arab and Muslim as the same thing, which is something I have come across several times, not only on forums, but also in daily life.
When I tell people of my Arab heritage, they instantaneously say "Oh, so you are part Muslim", which, if we take a moment to think, is completely illogical. Not every Arab is a Muslim and certainly not every Muslim is Arab.
During my vacation in Tunisia, I have noticed something which I would call "de-Islamification of the society". Something we forget when we look at the Islamic world is that Christianity has had roughly the same influence in Europe. This gradually became less after the Second World War (in the Netherlands at least).
I predict something alike will happen in the Arab world in roughly twenty to thirty years. We have seen the same in Iran, which is known for its "semi-totalitarian" regime and we have seen what the supposed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brought about in the people.
The Arab countries have a great number of youths, which still see themselves as Islamic, but do not literally follow every aspect of the Qu'ran, which I see as very important. My family hails from a fairly conservative part of the Arabic world, the city of Constantine in Algeria. However, they haven't tried to kill me for being a Buddhist, and neither have I felt religiously threatened by any of the Tunisians; generally, they don't really care.
When the muezzin's cry rang out over the city, how many people stopped walking the streets to pray? One or two, out of the thousands perhaps looked over their shoulder and stopped for a moment to think about prayer.
However, at this moment, we have to be realistic;
If I am completely honest, the comparison between Islam and Christianity might not be completely fair; whereas the Christian Bible was composed roughly two to threehundred years after the death of Jesus, the Qu'ran was composed directly, not by Muhammed, who was illiterate, but by his successors, also known as the Sahaba, mostly by Abu Bakr. This, inevitably, will lead to a general view of Muslims that the Qu'ran is unalterable.
Is this truly a problem? I don't think so. Of course, there are instances of Muslims killing other people, I believe this is not a cultural or religious problem, but rather historical; the clearest examples can be found in countries such as Iraq, which was invaded six years ago, a country that we can hardly call stable. Afghanistan and Pakistan suffer from the same problems. But the vast majority of countries that have an Islamic majority to not suffer from these problems. It would be the same as saying that Protestantism is inherently evil due to the circumstances in Northern Ireland.
The last issue I wish to talk about is the term "non-believer" or "heathen". In Qu'ranic scriptures, this word carries the same negativity as the Jewish word "Gentile". It isn't meant in a negative or positive sense, it is just to denote non-Muslims. To finalize this all, this is Qu'ranic verse 10:9:
"Disbelievers! I do not worship what you worship, nor do you worship what I worship. I will not worship what you worship, and you will not worship what I worship. You have your religion, and I have mine."
Kinda true, but it's the arab version of Islam that's most dominant in the Netherlands.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hax
I cannot disagree with that, but the danger lies in the fact that if we stop seeing Arabs as an ethnic group and as a religious group, weird things will happen.
Don't worry so much and enjoy your holiday :balloon2:Quote:
Originally Posted by Hax