A Personal Connection to a Muslim?

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TheAtheist

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First question of the evening…

When people speak about Muslims or Islam, i’ve often noticed they do so in a very abstract manner.

The label starts to take on their understandings derived from readings of the Koran, news reports, blogposts on the internet, etc. etc.

All of this information becomes the lens by which a person starts to say…interact with “Ahmed the Muslim” if I may create an example.

“Ahmed” is assumed to pray 5x a day, to not partake of wine, to not break the fast during Eid, to actually pay zakat.

What i find surprising of course, is that few people actually ask “Ahmed” what he does. The individual gets lost in the data so to speak.

So here’s the question of the evening - do any of you non-Muslims have any sort of personal connection to a Muslim?

I’m defining personal here to be = Close.

So not someone that you encounter on the street occasionally, or your next door neighbor or co-worker you barely talk to…

But perhaps a friend, a relative, an honored rival, a lover.

And if you do possess this personal connection, how would your opinion he or she differ from that Abstract Muslim which often gets addressed by people…
 
TheAtheist said:
First question of the evening…

When people speak about Muslims or Islam, i’ve often noticed they do so in a very abstract manner.

The label starts to take on their understandings derived from readings of the Koran, news reports, blogposts on the internet, etc. etc.

All of this information becomes the lens by which a person starts to say…interact with “Ahmed the Muslim” if I may create an example.

“Ahmed” is assumed to pray 5x a day, to not partake of wine, to not break the fast during Eid, to actually pay zakat.

What i find surprising of course, is that few people actually ask “Ahmed” what he does. The individual gets lost in the data so to speak.

So here’s the question of the evening - do any of you non-Muslims have any sort of personal connection to a Muslim?

I’m defining personal here to be = Close.

So not someone that you encounter on the street occasionally, or your next door neighbor or co-worker you barely talk to…

But perhaps a friend, a relative, an honored rival, a lover.

And if you do possess this personal connection, how would your opinion he or she differ from that Abstract Muslim which often gets addressed by people…
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I’m not sure what you’re getting at I have a really good friend that happens to be Muslim. You put right in your name the atheist but you’re complaining about people referring to folks as being the Muslim you seem a little hypocritical to me.
 
adamhovey1988 said:
I’m not sure what you’re getting at I have a really good friend that happens to be Muslim. You put right in your name the atheist but you’re complaining about people referring to folks as being the Muslim you seem a little hypocritical to me.
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And you’ve actually missed the point of the question…

:sigh: This is probably not going to work out, but i endeavor nonetheless…

Does anyone else want to give it a shot?
 
cath4alltime said:
Why would I want a close association with killers
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Do you honestly think that 1.6 BILLION people in this world are killers? Shaking my head. That is very sad. And honestly, rather frightening.

To answer the OP’s question, my friend’s husband is Muslim, and I have other colleagues and people I know in a circle that isn’t close friends but people I socialize with and feel comfortable with. But it has made me think that I should probably change that, especially since I live in an urban area where there are an increasing number of Muslims.
 
I had several good friends in high school and college who were Muslim, but we’ve mostly fallen out of contact.

I have a relative married to a Muslim, and he and I get along very well.

I will say that they are all very “Americanized” and most were not seriously practicing. Being Muslim is/was a cultural identifier and not much about belief or practice.
 
ComplineSanFran said:
Do you honestly think that 1.6 BILLION people in this world are killers? Shaking my head. That is very sad. And honestly, rather frightening.

To answer the OP’s question, my friend’s husband is Muslim, and I have other colleagues and people I know in a circle that isn’t close friends but people I socialize with and feel comfortable with. But it has made me think that I should probably change that, especially since I live in an urban area where there are an increasing number of Muslims.
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It’s more than clear that those that are not killers also do not s.peak out very loudly about those who are.

Sure makes one wonder, does it not?
 
TheAtheist said:
First question of the evening…

When people speak about Muslims or Islam, i’ve often noticed they do so in a very abstract manner.

The label starts to take on their understandings derived from readings of the Koran, news reports, blogposts on the internet, etc. etc.

All of this information becomes the lens by which a person starts to say…interact with “Ahmed the Muslim” if I may create an example.

“Ahmed” is assumed to pray 5x a day, to not partake of wine, to not break the fast during Eid, to actually pay zakat.

What i find surprising of course, is that few people actually ask “Ahmed” what he does. The individual gets lost in the data so to speak.

So here’s the question of the evening - do any of you non-Muslims have any sort of personal connection to a Muslim?

I’m defining personal here to be = Close.

So not someone that you encounter on the street occasionally, or your next door neighbor or co-worker you barely talk to…

But perhaps a friend, a relative, an honored rival, a lover.

And if you do possess this personal connection, how would your opinion he or she differ from that Abstract Muslim which often gets addressed by people…
Click to expand...
I do. I have Muslim friends, at least two who were quite close to me. We went to high school together and then through college. Except for their religion, Islam, there is not much difference between us. Our friendship was just like among normal people. There were, however, certain things like family functions especially if they were religious in nature, where I did not get to participate. You got the feeling that you could not be totally close and really shared lives together with them, and religion dictated those barriers.

As individuals, they were not different from mine, their aspiration, dreams, values and ambitions were about the same. Later, one of them seemed to be more religious, perhaps the trend in the nineties did influence him somehow, we got less in common and with that contacts also became less.

They observed religious obligation like I did, it was never taken as something alarming or radical. In other word, they were normal nice people, except for religious activities that excluded each other in some ways.
 
jcwit said:
It’s more than clear that those that are not killers also do not s.peak out very loudly about those who are.

Sure makes one wonder, does it not?
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Well, how often do I speak out against Westboro Baptist Church and what they do? I would say that I do not live as a minority in a country, so I don’t know what it’s like to have people stare at me or single me out in public or accuse me of something because of my ethnic background or religion. I guess, personally, I would try to keep a low profile and just live my life the best I could.

Would it really be my responsibility to defend my personal faith all the time?
 
Adam, Pensmama, and Compline, thank you for your participation and your thoughts.

EDIT - And Thank you Reuben.
ComplineSanFran said:
But it has made me think that I should probably change that, especially since I live in an urban area where there are an increasing number of Muslims.
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You may do as you see fit Compline. My inquiry is only an inquiry.

I was just rather curious given the number of threads that tend to pop up on CAF, if…well…anyone on CAF actually knew…anyone who happened to be a Muslim.

To be a little more transparent, i’m asking this question in reverse on another site.

Not going so well over there… already been accused of being a Crypto-Christian (actually i’m surprised that i’ve thus far avoided thelabel of being a Crypto-Muslim on CAF).

The ones answering in the affirmative hit the same age range of pensmama’s friends when she was younger.

Perhaps the children are indeed our future… 😉

This is going to be one interesting night.
 
I have a Muslim family as neighbors. I know the OP said not to include neighbors who you barely talk to but we talk more than barely and I consider them not just neighbors but friends. Almost even family. He and later his wife by an arranged marriage (They spoke on the phone twice to each other beforehand and didn’t see each other until the marriage ceremony) called my mother “mama” when she lived with me prior to her passing. Their young daughter called my mother “grandma”. She and her younger brother who attend an Islamic school call me “uncle”. Their dad has called me “brother”. They have brought Christmas gifts and cards. Beautiful angels one year for the tree. A candle, another ornament. For Ramadan, I have bought cards for them, which were blank on the inside and have written my own words for blessings for them. She brings me some delicious food of her culture. When they’ve visited family overseas, they have brought home for me gifts, a shirt once, a picture of a bird another, because they know I have a pet bird. We have shared meals together in their home and out at a restaurant. They thanked me in the aftermath of 911 for how I treated them. Just recently I asked how their mosque was following another mosque in the area being vandalized. We discussed our shared belief in one God, and whether He is called God or Allah, that we believe one God created us all. And how none of the world’s major religions advocate the killing of other human beings. That a minority makes it bad for the rest.

And it is because of these, the ones I know, that there is no such thing as an abstract Muslim to me. This wonderful family knows what it means to love thy neighbor and the Golden Rule more than some of the people I know who call themselves Christians. I spent most of my yrs in a very small midwestern town. Not at all multicultural. For awhile now I’ve lived however in a much more diverse part of the country. And I thank God for it and for my neighbors. Siblings to me, I believe, as we are all part of one race, the human race.
 
meltzerboy said:
It is a stereotype of a Muslim, including religious and political beliefs, without the benefit of knowing any personally. It is similar to an abstract Jew or an abstract Catholic.
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I’ve noticed that people tend to use ‘they’ and ‘them’ a lot when discussing such people in the abstract.
 
One of my best friends is Muslim, from Bangladesh.

I helped him become a US citizen. He helped me when my daughter was dying.

-Tim-
 
Sy_Noe said:
I have a Muslim family as neighbors. I know the OP said not to include neighbors who you barely talk to but we talk more than barely and I consider them not just neighbors but friends. Almost even family. He and later his wife by an arranged marriage (They spoke on the phone twice to each other beforehand and didn’t see each other until the marriage ceremony) called my mother “mama” when she lived with me prior to her passing. Their young daughter called my mother “grandma”. She and her younger brother who attend an Islamic school call me “uncle”. Their dad has called me “brother”. They have brought Christmas gifts and cards. Beautiful angels one year for the tree. A candle, another ornament. For Ramadan, I have bought cards for them, which were blank on the inside and have written my own words for blessings for them. She brings me some delicious food of her culture. When they’ve visited family overseas, they have brought home for me gifts, a shirt once, a picture of a bird another, because they know I have a pet bird. We have shared meals together in their home and out at a restaurant. They thanked me in the aftermath of 911 for how I treated them. Just recently I asked how their mosque was following another mosque in the area being vandalized. We discussed our shared belief in one God, and whether He is called God or Allah, that we believe one God created us all. And how none of the world’s major religions advocate the killing of other human beings. That a minority makes it bad for the rest.

And it is because of these, the ones I know, that there is no such thing as an abstract Muslim to me. This wonderful family knows what it means to love thy neighbor and the Golden Rule more than some of the people I know who call themselves Christians. I spent most of my yrs in a very small midwestern town. Not at all multicultural. For awhile now I’ve lived however in a much more diverse part of the country. And I thank God for it and for my neighbors. Siblings to me, I believe, as we are all part of one race, the human race.
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Sounds like Awesome neighors 🙂
 
I have two friends that are Muslim, and I know many as acquaintances. They are very nice people and I enjoy their company. I have spoken to my friend about her religion a few times and my opinion is the same as the “abstract Muslim”.
 
I have a close friend who is Muslim. I suppose she fits the stereotype in that she wears the hijab and modest clothing, prays 5 times a day, pays zakat and went to Mecca. She is the kindest, gentlest person I have ever met. She is devout and teaches women at the mosque. She even rises in the night to pray because as a busy mother that is the only quiet time she gets. She believes in a loving, merciful God and we can speak freely together about religion because we have a lot of beliefs in common. I see her skip lunch to find time to pray and in a decade have never heard her say a bad word about anyone.

I should imagine that there is as diverse a population of Muslims as there is of Catholics- look at the diversity of opinions on these forums and yet we all identify as Catholic. Humans is humans. I think all this Them and Us business is a very dangerous way of otherising people in order to excuse violence. Shouldn’t we, as Christians, lead the way in love?
 
My daughter and I see a female doctor who is Muslim. Between the both of us we probably see her almost once a week. We’ve had a number of conversations about Islam. I like her a lot but I don’t like her religion. She says Islam is peaceful and muslims pray 5 times a day. As far as I am concerned, if Muslims pray 5 times a day it’s not working that well for a lot of them.
 
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