Ask Me Anything: Muslim Edition

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There’s a more indepth answer somewhere up above, but basically abortion is morally wrong in almost all cases except when necessary to preserve the life of the mother.
 
Marrying outside of the faith for either gender is frowned on, although technically under sharia law men can marry Christian or Jewish women while women are obligated to marry a Muslim. The reason for this being that in Islamic marriage the husband is the head of the household and a Muslim woman with a non-Muslim husband may find herself in morally difficult situation. In most places, that has been relaxed somewhat over time, but marrying outside of the faith is still something that most families will find difficult to accept. Like, in my case, my parents are fairly progressive and they would still not approve of me or my siblings marrying outside the faith. Which is one reason I think my mother in particular is upset about my brother’s conversion, because it means he won’t be able to marry within Islam or our particular cultural traditions.
 
What socio-economic system is inherent to Islam?
Is it more like Socialism ? Distributism ?
Are there regions where the winner is the wild capitalism?
Can you quote the Koran or generally accepted regulations regarding price policy in the markets? in shops? regarding food?
As in Istanbul for example lives, not a few billionaire and rumored wealth of the Arab sheikhs , it seems that there is a caste of people living in immense luxury.
No matter how people criticize the United States or the European Union the countless number of immigrants wants to stay there.
Can the Islamic world succeed like the Western world?
Аccording to the mentality of Eastern peoples, there are such things as “baksheesh”
In the Turkish language, for example, there is the word “Khabar”, which in other languages is also translated as a “bribe”.
Is it possible an economic miracle in the absence of “legalism” and “hard work ethics” as we used to see in the Germanic people?
In no way do I want to say that the mentality of Muslims is not conducive to building a prosperous society.
I know for example that the Turks and the peoples of the North Caucasus are very hard-working people, but in both regions , and in many other regions, immense luxury and abject poverty are inherent.
Can you name the Muslim countries that are the socio-economic yardstick for everyone else?
Diaspora (Palestinians, Iranians, Lebanese) really succeeding in the West, but what Muslim state can be called a yardstick for imitation?
 
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shazirah said:
ISIS is totally abhorrent to most Muslims around the world. However they couch their propaganda, they’re heretics and murderers and dangerous to everyone including other Muslims. They’re basically a death cult and have been labeled a vile sect by many imams and muftis.

I think it’s unlikely that we’ll see something like ISIS pop up again soon, but my hope is that the world will learn from what happened with ISIS. Extremism spreads through trauma, ignorance, and fear of “the other”. That’s one reason why I feel like it’s important for people to talk frankly and civilly about religious differences and to have exposure to the humanity of the “other side”.

Saudi Arabia and Israel are not officially cooperating, but they are sort of under the table and that upsets the Palestinians and other sympathetic groups. Saudi Arabia and Iran have been at each other basically forever because Iran is primarily Shia and the Saudis are Sunni and have historically used their status as the custodian of Mecca to irritate Shia.

There were a number of Jewish converts among the generation of Muslims directly after the death of Mohammed (peace be upon him) and they along with Christian converts contributed the Isra’iliyyat, which are pre-Islamic stories and oral traditions regarding the prophets, the history of the Abrahamic faiths, and information on pre-Islamic practices.
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In my opinion, the problem is not ISIS; the problem is the Quran. The Quran gives legitimacy to their activities. On another tread, a Muslim appologist was comparing some of the “babaric” laws in the Quran with some of the “babaric” laws in the Old Testament; according to him or her, they were applied to address the harsh conditions in the Arabian and African deserts (I do not have the knowledge to discuss this). When Jesus came along he revised some of the laws in the Old Testament (see Mathew 5: 38-48). Instead of loving your countryman and hating your enemy as contained in the Old Testament, He commands us to love our enemies and pray for our prosecutors; this is a higher level of theology. He could revise the Law because He had the authority. Muslims believe that the Quran was dictated by God and cannot be changed. Mohammed is dead and claimed to be the last messenger of God. There is no one after him who can revise some of these “barbaric” laws of the Quran as Jesus did with the Old Testament…not you, me, Islamic scholars or imams.

So if you say that ISIS is totally abhorent to most Muslims, you are inadvertantly admitting that those sections of the Quran which give legitimacy to the atrocities they commit are not acceptable to most Muslims. How can Muslims claim that the Quran is the unchangeable word of God and at the same time condemn the atrocities being committed by ISIS in the name of God based on the Quran. If the Quran is the word of God, then ISIS is dutifully following the dictates of the Koran.

Until Muslims admit that the Quran is not the unchangeable word of God, other sects simmilar to ISIS (may be not on such a grand scale) will pop up in the future.
 
If I’m thinking of the same thread, I believe that gentleman is Bahai rather than Muslim.

The theological problem with ISIS is that they have an extremely warped interpretation of the Koran and the Hadith that is not accepted by most other scholars. The Koran does not give them legitimacy because they are not engaging in appropriate practices of exegesis and jurisprudence. They ignore valid hadith and fatwas that don’t support their justification of their own behavior. So, basically, imagine if a group of Catholics decided that everything in the Bible was to be taken entirely literally and started agitating for the death penalty for gay people, adulterers, and rebellious children and insisting that rapists marry their victims. That’s totally bonkers. Not only is that not necessarily an accurate interpretation of how Mosaic law was applied, it’s just not viable in the modern world. That’s basically ISIS in a nutshell.

As I mentioned earlier, the Koran is interpreted in terms of historical environment as well as moral principle. The historical environment changes, but the moral principles do not. We look for the principle enshrined in the Koran with the hadith as evidence of the way the Prophet (peace be upon him) applied Koranic law and principles in his lifetime.to promote correct interpretation. That’s why the Sunnah is just as important in jurisprudence as the Koran. People will always try to twist religious texts to justify what they want to hear, whether that’s Muslims with political agendas or people who hate Muslims and want to use poorly interpreted passages to discredit them.
 
I don’t think the original economics of the early Muslims would fit easily into any modern category, but it’s good to keep in mind that Islam arose in a tribal system. Families, clans, and tribes shared resources and an obligation to care for guests is endemic in the culture. The contribution of Islam is that everyone became our tribe because we are all descendants of Adam and we are all the creation of God, and so we have an obligation to the human race to protect the vulnerable and care for the needy as our brothers and sisters. To that end, Muslims who are able to pay zakat and we are supposed to cultivate righteousness by helping others and engaging in a modest lifestyle so that excess can be contributed to the poor. The old saw “From whom much is given, much is required” is sort of the cultural theme in Islamic social structure. Just like with any other religious group, there are some people who are less interested in cultivating righteousness than others. My grandfather has always taught that wealth is more caustic to the soul than poverty. Poverty is grinding and terrible and pushes people to sin out of desperation - and that is one reason why we have an obligation to protect our brothers and sisters from poverty - but someone who has everything they need and sins out of petty indulgence will face a far worse judgement before God.

As an immigrant in an immigrant community, I like living in the US. It’s a pretty cool place and I will probably continue living here unless there’s a compelling reason to move somewhere else. It still has massive problems, the problems are simply different than the ones in Jordan, Syria, or Iran. The economics of the Muslim world is something I am in no way qualified to comment on aside from just having lived and traveled there. The economic landscape of the Middle East is so complex that if you ask three specialists on the subject you’ll get a dozen answers. A lot of it is wrapped up in the history of colonialism and in the differences between individualist and collectivist cultures.

If I were going to take up residence in a majority Muslim country, though, I would probably move back to Jordan. I’ve never felt unsafe there, the economy is decent, the laws are sensible, and it’s one of the more modern states in the Middle East.
 
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Is it true that in some Islamic countries where, in the language of modern man, there is “draconian justice” with amputations, stoning, mostly poor people become officially guilty and the rich can escape justice? Does statistics show that such “Sharia laws” proves that theft and adultery and fornication can be eradicated?
 
Can the Islamic Diaspora in the West influence a more tolerant attitude towards Christians in Muslim countries?
Are there any steps being taken?
 
Some sociologists who are skeptical about religion believe that the time will come and mosques in the West will turn into shops for selling carpets, they also believe that the churches will turn into museums.
Are there any fears of the older generation of Diaspora Muslims that this will happen?
Integration of emigrants of course depends where the emigrants came from.
It seems that for example - Pakistanis, Afghans or Moorish people have very strict conservative views, and quite another thing can be said about Muslim emigrants from more secular countries.
Does the Islamic youth of the emigrant Diaspora in the West depart from faith and become secularized, or is it even more devout?
Is there statistics on how Muslim youth integrate into Western society?
Is there any interest in Christianity among the Islamic youth ?
Are there many declared cases of conversion of Islamic youth to Christianity ?
 
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If Frank Nitti went about telling people that Al Capone was practising the chiefest form of ethics and morals would they have believed him? The so called prophet did not know that it was the angel Gabriel who was the source of the revelation he purportedly received. Only Khadijah and Waraka ibn Nawfal had the PIN. The nonsense that Islam accords Our Lord Jesus a high place of honour must be buried in hell forever. Surah 4:157 denies the Crucifixion, a doctrine so central and crucial (!) to Christianity. Do I need to say more?
 
Hello,

I am wondering about head coverings and modesty. Living in America, in a community where Muslims are a growing minority I see women out and about at stores and such in a variety of coverings and I have wondered if Muslim men and women view me as immodest because I don’t cover my hair. I’m sure they know I’m not Muslim and that’s why I don’t wear a head scarf, but is it similar to walking around in my underwear to Muslims? I guess as more Muslims enter my community I have been thoughtful about the culture and wondered what they thought about that. 🙂
 
Islamic eschatology is a part of theology concerning the day of judgement. It’s a fairly similar concept to the Christian idea of the last judgement. The world reaches a point of maximum corruption, the Mahdi and Jesus defeat the agent of Satan and institute a period of peace before the world is dissolved and the dead are raised for the final judgement, etc.

In regards to sharia, I don’t think you will ever arrive at a system that can eradicate adultery and fornication. That’s not actually the purpose of sharia. Sharia law exists as a legal system to help society cope with problems and there is a great amount of flexibility in terms of judgments built into it, so rigid interpretations as seen in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and some African states are actually not in keeping with the spirit of the law. A punishment is supposed to be in proportion to the crime and capital punishments are only supposed to be pursued when there are no other alternatives. Since we have many more alternatives than existed in history, Islamic jurists have more of a burden not to resort to capital punishment these days. Amputation for instance was actually not that common in the early and medieval Muslim world and only became more common with modern era states rigidly imposing ultraconservative interpretations of sharia law to preserve the political power of certain privileged groups.

The prevention of sinful behavior has to be accomplished through social good rather than punishment. Fornication has to be reduced by encouraging marriages instead and reducing vectors of temptation. Adultery has to be reduced by helping people resolve issues within the marriage that may lead them to stray. Those things can’t be accomplished with laws.

I think it’s impossible to tell how things will play out between Christians and Muslims right now, but I think we will see a big change in Muslim countries over the next few decades with the younger population become political players. People have to want to change, it can’t be forced from the outside. And I see a lot of people in the Middle East right now that want things to change for the better. Hopefully that will be met by a corresponding change in Western attitudes towards Muslims and Eastern cultures.

I think you see a lot of grumbling from the older generation about the younger generation in every religion, but the major fear in most Muslim immigrant communities isn’t that people will convert, it’s that they’ll become “Westernized”, which entails adopting lax views on sexual sin and a general propensity to self-indulgence, or that they’ll basically become secular cultural Muslims. I don’t know of any systematic studies of Islamic youth in the US, but Pew reports that something like 23% of American-raised Muslims leave the faith at some point, but most of those people become secular rather than converting to other religions. The same percentage of people more or less comes in as converts, which actually doesn’t surprise me much. Weirdly, my mosque community has seen a big uptick of middle-aged white men converting in the last couple of years.
 
In the US, most Muslim people understand that that’s the cultural norm here and there are different standards of modesty, so I wouldn’t worry about it. 🙂 The headscarf is technically an optional part of Islamic dress anyway and you see more women going without the fully covered look in Muslim countries these days. You might get some odd looks if you’re in an area that has a high immigrant population, but it’s probably just curiosity. Most Muslim people I know don’t care about the headscarf so much as revealing clothes. When the spaghetti strap tops and short shorts come out around here in the summer, that’s when things get uncomfortable.
 
I live in Dallas! Now I want to get to know you just so I can convince your brother to attend my fantastic, traditional Catholic parish!
 
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I wonder, besides the fact that we are making inter-religious attempts to co-exist in this world, can we learn something from each other?
What is the most impressive thing about Christianity?
The Christian idea of marriage?
Monasticism?
Christian charity missions?
I certainly have little faith in the success of Evangelical missions in Muslim countries, but I am impressed by Catholic educational projects and charity projects in Islamic countries.
Have you met many Muslims who converted to Christianity?
 
I just wanted to know if a Catholic could visit a Muslim church and feel welcome to discuss faith related issues.
 
Oh, I missed this one! Sorry.

Yes, croissants are fine, but someone actually had to issue a fatwa about it to appease some Muslims who were upset about the historical connotations which I think is hilarious. It’s not sure that the story is totally true and the crescent is technically an Ottoman symbol rather than a Muslim symbol. Even though it’s often used as a symbol of Islam, we’re actually not supposed to treat it as religious in nature. So, croissants are halal.
 
As long as you’re not proselytizing or being disrespectful, you could definitely make an appointment with an imam to arrange a tour and discuss Islam. They would probably be happy to have you there. Most mosques do religious education classes so you could attend one of those if you wanted to a well.
 
I’ve only met three converts to Christianity from Islam, my brother, a girl from another family in the neighborhood I grew up with, and a Saudi colleague of mine who converted several years ago. In the girl’s case, she converted before marrying a Christian guy, but she might have sincerely believed, too, I don’t really know. In my colleague’s case, I know he gave up a lot to become Christian, but I’ve never pried into the details because I get the feeling it’s still a sore subject. Catholicism seems to be a popular choice, though, because all three ended up as some kind of Catholic.

I really do hope that both cultures learn something from each other, because I think we could accomplish so much more in the world if we stopped fighting and got on with it. Christians, Jews, and Muslims should be like family. You can fight with your family, but at the end of the day you should still love them and look after each others best interest.

I too am not much impressed with Evangelical “missions” and I think they’re going about things in the Muslim world in entirely the wrong way. I especially frown on what I like to call “Missionary tourism”, which just leaves things in a worse state than they were to start with. Even if they get a few converts, those people have no support after the mission group leaves and then have to deal with the social fallout alone. In some places its still illegal to proselytize, and so going in with a bunch of Bibles and trying to do it anyway is a bad look for Western Christians since it shows disrespect for the society and the culture of the people they’re trying to win over.

The most impressive thing to me about Christianity is the general resilience of Christians. It’s harder to see in places like the US because almost everyone is a Christian and there are very few actual religious pressures on Christians here, but all of the Middle Eastern and African Christians I’ve met are tough folks and they don’t let it affect their sense of optimism and faith.
 
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