Positive Islamic Thread

eyeslice

There has been a bit of stick about the negative comments about Islam on this board, so I thought I would start a positive thread.

Towards the end of the 90s, I lived for a year in an Asian country with a population of over 100 million Muslims. All Muslims I came across were honest, decent people.

A couple of years back, I went to work in Iran for a couple of weeks. As a result I had a couple days off at the weekend, which also happened to coincide with a public holiday. There wasn't much to do in the hotel, so I went for a long walk up into the hills on my own. All the people I met were so friendly, enjoying the early spring sunshine with their friends and family. I was offered cigarettes and numerous opportunities to smoke hookahs, which I declined as I am never too sure exactly what they smoke in hookahs.

I met one guy who spoke no English at all but we had a great conversation, if you get my drift, using signs plus a bit of French and Italian. He took me into a little café for a beer (non-alcoholic of course - very much like the alcohol free lagers we get) and insisted that I went back to his house.

Fortunately, his daughters and son-law spoke good English so conversation was a lot easier. They insisted that I stay for the family meal with them. Their hospitality even ran to a glass of wine - proper alcoholic stuff at that - it appears that even in Iran, the prosperous middle classes can put their hands on anything if they want.

I left Iran with a totally different impression of Iran than that we pick up from the news and media. Far from being fanatics, the vast majority of people there are friendly, family oriented people.

under74

There were a lot of muslims in the neighborhood I grew up in. As a JW kid I was pretty much influenced by the times I went out on service where pioneers would knock on a door and upon hearing the words "we're muslim" they'd take me by the arm and high-tail it out of the muslim's vacinty.

By the time I was 11 though most of my friends were in my neighborhood and not JW. Many were muslim. We just did what kids did--played and didn't talk religion. By the time I was 13 I was already a bit embarrassed about being a JW and I remember this kid (who was muslim) asking how come I didn't celebrate Christmas and telling him. As time went on he asked me other questions about being a JW and at some point I remember telling him that JWs believed if you weren't a JW you would die. He told me that was terrible because even though I didn't believe in his religion he didn't think I was going to die...and he thought god was more merciful than I did. That was the first major seed of doubt planted in me.

Thanks for starting this thread eyeslice.

Dansk

Thanks for starting this thread eyeslice.

I agree. It endorses everything I believe in, namely, people are people. I've met some people who consider themselves Christian and yet perform the most unchristian acts. I hate labels. My experience of Muslims is the same as Eyeslice. Of course, there's always some fool who's going to bring scorn on his religion through his zeal and fanaticism - zeal and fanaticism that for most followers has no place in their hearts.

I don't care if you're black, white, yellow, purple or pink. If you're human that's good enough for me. I don't judge a person by his religious persuasion, the colour of his skin or the clothes he wears. Love has no boundaries.

ColdRedRain

As I always believed, the Iranian people themselves aren't the problem. They were never the problem. The only problem were the Ayatollahs.

There are alot of kind Muslims in my neighborhood. The corner store owner that gave me free fried chicken, the various people in high school I knew (My former high school is full of Somali immigrants) and the nice old Pakistani women that gave me free tokens on the bus (Much to the chagrin of the bus driver.)

Muslims are a loving people. Islamists however, should be rooted down, destroyed and hung from the nearest tree. There are pleanty of trees in Arabia now that we've reflooded the marshlands Saddam drained.

Mary

I left Iran with a totally different impression of Iran than that we pick up from the news and media. Far from being fanatics, the vast majority of people there are friendly, family oriented people.

I think you would have come away with a bit different view of Iran, had you been a woman. Sorry, but Muslim women are treated worse than dogs if their husbands feel like it. They've not NO rights whatsoever. If your husband wants to beat you, rape you or murder you, you've got no rights. The culture of Islam is, IMO, extremely backwards. For god's sake half the people over there don't even have toilets. They go to the bathroom in a hole in the ground for heavens sake. I will never forget reading the book Not Without My Daughter by Betty Mahmoody. For those of you not familiar with this book, it's about an American woman who married a Iranian doctor who had lived in the USA for 20 years, but then decided he wanted him and his family to live in Tehran after the Shah got kicked out in 1979. She gives a first hand account of what life in a Muslim country was like and the treatment she received at the hands of her husband and his family. Mercifully, she managed to escape with her child after a year and a half. Yes, she met some nice Muslims over there, but there is something seriously wrong with their entire culture.

under74

hmmm...maybe we should work on our own before we point fingers at others. We have many things wrong in our own Western culture as well.

My aunt lived in Iran for 3 years and she didn't have any bad experiences. She still writes to friends in Iran.

Midget-Sasquatch

For god's sake half the people over there don't even have toilets. They go to the bathroom in a hole in the ground for heavens sake.

You can find pockets of under-developed areas in alot of modernized places.

1992 - Roccamorice, Abruzzi, Italy. I visited my aunt and I stayed for two weeks in the stone house where my mom grew up. In that mountain town, a hole is what anyone up there ever had. The towns in the valley though are nicely fitted. My mom is only in her fifties so I'm not talking about medieval times. :)

Although if you knew how Italian women were treated by the men in her generation, that word "medieval" would be about right.

eyeslice

Mary,

Whilst I understand your concerns, please be careful of stero-typing people.

I work in IT and went to do a job for the National Bank of Iran. The team of 30 people I managed in the UK had one woman in it at the time (incidentally an Asian lady), half the team I worked in Iran were women programmers. My team I UK wasn't particularly typical of IT in general, I lead a team of very technical IT architects at the time, the more general programming teams had a few more women in them but perhaps 1 in 5, no where near the numbers I encountered in Iran.

Yes, the women had to cover their heads at work but nonetheless my general impression was that women there were encouraged in their education and careers.

I am not saying that I personally agree with the general treatment of women by Islam but things will only change with education and prosperity.

On the subject of the 'hole in the ground toilet' that has nothing to do with this. Lack of proper sanitaion and clean water has to with global poverty not religious belief. Also, the water closet, wc, is perhaps the most environmentally unfriendly device ever invented, but that is the subject of another thread at another time.

Eyeslice

Mary

It's not the Muslim people's fault, it's their religion and culture that I find extremely offensive. Like the WTS, it's the people at the top who control everyone else's lives who are to blame.

Dansk

Hi Mary,

It's not the Muslim people's fault, it's their religion and culture that I find extremely offensive.

I find neither the religion nor culture offensive. On the contrary, much adds to the richness of our own.

Like the WTS, it's the people at the top who control everyone else's lives who are to blame.

THIS is more to the point! Remember what Marx said about absolute power! It corrupts absolutely.

Positive Islamic Thread

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