Now calm down! this is not a GWB idiotic statement revisited...this is what I have come to learn having spent 20 years in the Middle East. There are two types of Muslims....the Arab Muslim and then all the rest of us. After 1450 years of Islam having been given to our prophet and then passed on to us I have learned that there are two kinds of Islam as well....there is Arab Islam and then theres just regular old Islam that God tried very hard to instill in us. I like to call them Hislam and Islam respectively.
Islam: means peace and complete submission to Gods will...this is followed by an entire book filled with all thats necessary to live a just and God fearing good Muslim life without too much strain or burden. God doesnt say He made it easy for us just cause he likes to hear the sound of His own voice...right?
Hislam: means all the patriarchal mysoginistic b.s. that snaked its way into Islam by way of early Arab culture and which has stuck around so long its practically been canonized and made Holy and therefore must be followed for you to be considered a Muslim....failure to comply leaves you branded either kafir(extreme) or bad muslim(weak adab).
Arguing with an Arab Muslim that something they practice and expect the rest of the Muslim world to practice is based on culture and not the Quran is frustrating to say the least....I might as well argue that the makers of Chocolate hate me and have all conspired to make me fat(they are doing a good job btw). You cannot get an Arab Muslim to believe that culture and Islam are two distinctly different things...they have meshed the two together to such an extent that nearly the entire Islamic concept as given to us by God has nearly been replaced with what Arab Muslims have thought or believed for the last 1450 years. God never had a chance when up against the hyped up ego and male dominated pride concept in that early Muslim community. You can lead an Arab to Islam but you cant make him think....beyond his "I am Arab therefore all I say or believe to be Islamic is in fact Islamic"....no questions asked. One moment while I pause and pull out some hair.....sigh!
It would seem that Arabs just plain do not like to discuss differences of opinions when it comes to Islam...there can be no differences...a different opinion means someone was thinking outside the box(a box predesigned by Arabs oh so long ago...with no escape route apparently)..opinions by nonarab Muslims...or nonarabs in general are hardly ever seen as having any validity in Islam whether those people are learned in Islam or not...simply because they are not Arab...very sad to be so limited in your acceptance of others. Wheres the...:I made nations to know each other" in all this? An Arab will quickly denounce all such differences as being influenced by the West and thus haram...and will refuse to partake in any sort of discussion on that particular subject...might as well bang your head on the wall...the pain is all the same.
I love Arab people in general...my very best friend in the world is Arab...and yet I cannot discuss anything even with her when it comes to Islam...they wrapped up Islam(Arab version) packaged it in a pretty little nonporous box(nothing gets in nothing gets out) and then proceded to shove it down our throats as the only Islam acceptable by God and our prophet...not even a cup of gahwa to make the swallowing easier....if we choke on it then its our fault for not being Good Little NonArab Muslims...try as we might we will never measure up...more on that later.
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