COME HITHER MY MUSLIM BROTHERS AND SISTERS!!

[Rodarian]

Now I will say a sermon.....Just Kidding

I've just been wondering about this

First off...Am I the only frequent 'Muslim' poster here...If not then who are the others of the same faith that share the same affection for this site.
Secondly how many of you guys have Muslim friends. Do their personality lean towards liberal like me or are more conservative, and Have you ever even dated/married a Muslim....Do we scare you because of the extremist..... These are things I'd like to discuss here..

My family long ago accepted that I'll be forever be humming final fantasy victory music.
Whats funny is that I actually have met a Former EyesOn right here in Karachi Pakistan... She has long since left the place but it was an amazing discovery that she sometimes use to post here.

[Flying Mullet]

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure what the religious beliefs of most of my friends are.

[Breine]

I don't have any close friends that are muslim, but I know several people that are. I personally couldn't care less if people are Christian, Muslim or whatever... it's all about the person in question

Oh, and nope.. I've never dated someone with muslim beliefs. But who knows, that might happen one day.

[Vermachtnis]

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure what the religious beliefs of most of my friends are.

Me either. I just no one who is super christian and another who is somewhere between Agnostic and Athiest.

And about the extremest question, not at all. I mean yeah they scare me, but its in their name, the extremest. The vast majority is normal.

[Rye]

To be honest, where I live, it's very much equally split between Christians (mostly Roman and Greek Orthodox Catholics, with a handful of Protestants) and Jews (mostly liberal, but we have quite a few communities ranging from more moderate Jews who keep kosher, and extreme Orthodox Jews), but we don't have any communities of Muslims that I know.

So the first time I've really met a great number of Muslims was coming to England. As a result, I've been really interested in Muslim culture and religion. I don't know a huge amount, but I've done some research and it's interesting.

Extremists of anything scare me, honestly; the second most terrible place in the world I could imagine myself living in is Saudi Arabia (the first being North Korea - at least in Saudi Arabia, my sons and male relatives could have a decent enough life if they toe the line. In North Korea, everyone except for gov't officials are screwed). But the more liberal places in the middle east sound pretty cool to live in. You've made me definitely want to visit the middle east some time, Rodarian; your city sounds lovely to visit.

It is a shame to on how many countries in the Muslim middle east have been pushed into extremism because of western interference or recent events; Afghanistan, after all, was a very liberal place decades ago - women were starting to wear skirts to the knee, and were professors and professionals. It was a place that hippies visited! Hopefully they can rise above it within another few decades?

[Madame Adequate]

I've heard it said that there are as many Islams as there are Muslims, and that just about the only thing you will find all Muslims everywhere agree on is the statement "There is one God and Muhammed is his prophet". I obviously can't speak to the veracity of that but it seems concordant with most other religious people I've met.

I don't have many Muslim friends, a couple from uni though. Nobody I know personally is particularly zealous in their religion though. A girl in one of my classes at Reading is an apostate Muslim but she has said that among the community she grew up in there are quite a few very angry, very devout young men. That's a bit scary as she'd know first-hand, but I'm not worried about extremism generally. After all part of the definition is that they're outside the mainstream opinion. They can do damage but they're not going to convince people of their rightness through it.

I knew a lot of Muslim and Sikh kids in high school, and a few Hindu. The only people who I ever saw 'do' anything really religious were the Sikhs and that was only insofar as obeying the five articles of faith, or more specifically, uncut hair.

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

At my current job, there has always been at least one or two guys who were Muslim working there. They are mostly all pretty liberal, though fasted during Ramadan, follow the dietary laws and didn't drink alcohol. Though some of them would have the occasional bit of alcohol, or cheat during Ramadan. They're always fun to work with~

I always feel bad during Ramadan when I eat or drink while at work and the sun hasn't went down yet. :s

[Rantz]

Have you ever even dated/married a Muslim...

I thought that was against the rules for Muslims? That a romantic relationship demands that the other part is also a Muslim, and that marriage is mandatory. Maybe that's just one branch of Islam though, or maybe I'm simply wrong. Oh well.

I have a few Muslim friends, probably more than I have Christian friends, but only one that I consider to be a close friend. I am not one myself.

[Rodarian]

Have you ever even dated/married a Muslim...

I thought that was against the rules for Muslims? That a romantic relationship demands that the other part is also a Muslim, and that marriage is mandatory. Maybe that's just one branch of Islam though, or maybe I'm simply wrong. Oh well.

I have a few Muslim friends, probably more than I have Christian friends, but only one that I consider to be a close friend. I am not one myself.

Yes and no...

Technically we can marry those who follow the teachings of God from the good books of Quran, Torah and Bible.
However its 'ideal' that 'non-muslim' be converted to Islam (or at the very least take on a Muslim name.

I have a number of direct relatives that are married to non muslim women and they have kept their names intact (only by paper that their Muslim name (after they convert)is written.

The biggest example is my mother's brother... Just last year he married a christian. I really like her a lot plus he really does adore her (My mamoo is a divorcee btw and he was married to a Muslim )

Staunch Muslim would probably follow what you wrote but there are quite number of liberals like me who think on a much broader level.

[Rantz]

Alright, good to hear a second perspective on it.

[Fujiko]

There are Muslims who date, even though it's not something you do as a Muslim; so I guess those who do, don't really care whether it's permissible in the religion or not. One example is there are Muslims who drink alcohol even though consuming alcohol is clearly prohibited in the Holy Quran. So it's up to oneself what you choose to do and not do, but what is prohibited will remain prohibited in the religion, whether or not a Muslim decides to follow the 'rules' in the holy book, or not. =3

I don't know that many Muslims actually, and I know like three Christians and one Jew; the rest are either Buddhists, Agnostic or don't believe in anything specific. And we all get along wonderfully :3 I grew up with ethnic Swedes around me since I was a baby, thus my friends were always Swedes, so I was usually the only one with a belief in a God (except for the occasional Christians in school, among them teachers), even though much of the Swedish culture that has Christian elements remains. Only later in high school and uni did I meet people from other cultures and beliefs.

The Muslims I know are all liberal; I have never known any extremist in any religion and I hope I never will! Bless you all liberals~ Extremists don't even know their own religion, they just use their religion the wrong way to justify their evil means.

And bless Sweden~

[Rebellious Eagle]

I don't mind Muslims at all, as long as they aren't extremist. I don't think any of my friends are Muslim, though. But I could be wrong.

[Fujiko]

... or at the very least take on a Muslim name.

You don't have to change your name to be a Muslim, and changing your name doesn't really change anything about you. It's what you believe in and what rules you live by in life that matter.

But yes, it is 'ideal that a non-Muslim be converted first' in a marriage because otherwise the two will have a difficult time living together. An important reason to why it's 'permitted' for Muslims to marry Christians and Jews is that the base principals are the same in the Torah, the Bible and The Holy Quran (because Muslims share the same God, and same prophets as Christians and Jews do, and therefore many of the basic, important rules in the holy books are the same).

[scrumpleberry]

I have a few Muslim friends, probably because I live in the UK. They're not really conservative at all.

I don't mind and discussing religion and the nature of their belief and shiet with them is interesting. As long as they don't make obnoxious unfounded statements like GAY IS WRONG BLORF DORF because of their religion but all my Christian friends come out with that kind of thing a lot more often tbh. They're not actually anti-whatever-it-is, just a bit silly.

edit: Also I have to say that ramadan fasting makes me anger because I have one poor friend who is just exhausted and pissed off all the time and can't function properly and it's bull imo, but it's none of my business and understand that it's for being closer to got or something so *shrug* She never reports EXTRA SPIRITUAL HAPPINESS during ramadan to me though

[Bunny]

scrumpleberry is getting angrier every consecutive post she makes

[strike]I do not have any Muslim or Islamic friends and I plan on keeping it that way. I don't trust you people and I think you have some serious issues with your wacky "faith". You should probably come together and stop bombing buildings and instead fix your weirdo-bizarre religion or something.[/strike]

Nope. No Muslim or Islamic friends, but not by design. I don't have many Christian, Catholic, Jewish or Atheist friends either. In fact, I'm just completely lacking in the whole friends department right now. Maybe you would like to take up that mantle?