Mistaken for a Muslim

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EasternWestern

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Are there any other Eastern Catholics out there who are presumed Muslim? In Michigan (esp. Dearborn), there is a very large Arab population, and sometimes people automatically assume I’m Muslim just because I’m Lebanese.(I can’t believe how ignorant people are!) All I have to do is mention my ethnicity and people make the assumption.

One guy chewed me out because I took the parking spot he wanted so he yelled at me and called me a Muslim out-of-towner! (wrong on both counts since I was born in America)

If only people knew how many Christians there (still) are in the Middle East.
 
I feel for you, my friend. I’ve been mistaken for a Brahmin (not just a Hindu, mind you), despite my Christian name and despite living in India, more times that I’d care to remember. 😃
 
EasternWestern said:
Are there any other Eastern Catholics out there who are presumed Muslim? In Michigan (esp. Dearborn), there is a very large Arab population, and sometimes people automatically assume I’m Muslim just because I’m Lebanese.(I can’t believe how ignorant people are!) All I have to do is mention my ethnicity and people make the assumption.

One guy chewed me out because I took the parking spot he wanted so he yelled at me and called me a Muslim out-of-towner! (wrong on both counts since I was born in America)

If only people knew how many Christians there (still) are in the Middle East.
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Yes, many here are ignorant of the history of the Middle East, including Lebenon. I was ignorant of it myself until the civil war back in the Regan Administration. Unfortunately it is something you will have to live with, especially in Dearborn. But buck up, at least you are out of the Middle East. That is a definite positive, though I know you miss your home country.

Linus2nd
 
I was guilty of being ignorant for quite sometime though I was never insulting to anyone. 😃 that all got cleared up when I meet a friend who is Orthodox.
 
I am from the Mediterranean region near Turkey and I sport black curly hair and a fairy bigger nose and during summer my skin gets very dark. on top of it all I speak Arabic and french. I’ve been asked if I’m Jewish (is that even a race? ) Greek and Arab 😃 I usually get the Jewish question the most even though I’m brazingly Catholic. I find it humorous and always guess which race ill be mistaken for next
 
Linusthe2nd said:
But buck up, at least you are out of the Middle East. That is a definite positive, though I know you miss your home country.

Linus2nd
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I think perhaps you missed the part where EasternWestern said he/she was born in the US. He/she is ethnically Lebanese, but the US is his/her home country.
 
EasternWestern said:
Are there any other Eastern Catholics out there who are presumed Muslim? In Michigan (esp. Dearborn), there is a very large Arab population, and sometimes people automatically assume I’m Muslim just because I’m Lebanese.(I can’t believe how ignorant people are!) All I have to do is mention my ethnicity and people make the assumption.

One guy chewed me out because I took the parking spot he wanted so he yelled at me and called me a Muslim out-of-towner! (wrong on both counts since I was born in America)

If only people knew how many Christians there (still) are in the Middle East.
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I am sorry about the parking lot incident. Sadly people make too many assumptions about the middle east and lump them altogether as one big group. That is true of a number of other areas in the world where people make ethnic assumptions of others. For Hispanics, people want to assume that they are illegal residents when many are born here and fine citizens. In this day and age, I am surprised that someone would take it upon themselves to make a verbal assault on someone else using ethnic and racial comments. Stuff like this only comes back to haunt the person who verbally lashes out at someone else and it wouldn’t take much before someone answers him with a fist in the nose or slashed tires etc.
 
EasternWestern said:
Are there any other Eastern Catholics out there who are presumed Muslim? In Michigan (esp. Dearborn), there is a very large Arab population, and sometimes people automatically assume I’m Muslim just because I’m Lebanese.(I can’t believe how ignorant people are!) All I have to do is mention my ethnicity and people make the assumption.

One guy chewed me out because I took the parking spot he wanted so he yelled at me and called me a Muslim out-of-towner! (wrong on both counts since I was born in America)

If only people knew how many Christians there (still) are in the Middle East.
Click to expand...
that is just racism, stupid and senseless.
 
EasternWestern said:
Are there any other Eastern Catholics out there who are presumed Muslim? In Michigan (esp. Dearborn), there is a very large Arab population, and sometimes people automatically assume I’m Muslim just because I’m Lebanese.(I can’t believe how ignorant people are!) All I have to do is mention my ethnicity and people make the assumption.

One guy chewed me out because I took the parking spot he wanted so he yelled at me and called me a Muslim out-of-towner! (wrong on both counts since I was born in America)

If only people knew how many Christians there (still) are in the Middle East.
Click to expand...
What do you say your ‘ethnicity’ is?

If you say ‘Arab’ ? it might be a fair presumption.
 
EasternWestern said:
Are there any other Eastern Catholics out there who are presumed Muslim? In Michigan (esp. Dearborn), there is a very large Arab population, and sometimes people automatically assume I’m Muslim just because I’m Lebanese.(I can’t believe how ignorant people are!) All I have to do is mention my ethnicity and people make the assumption.

One guy chewed me out because I took the parking spot he wanted so he yelled at me and called me a Muslim out-of-towner! (wrong on both counts since I was born in America)

If only people knew how many Christians there (still) are in the Middle East.
Click to expand...
I think it’s a geographical thing. For the majority of the West Coast, at least in polite conversation, very few people make assumptions about the religion of new acquaintances like that. Probably because it’s a lot less homogeneous here. I know plenty of Catholics and other Christians from the Middle East.
 
EasternWestern said:
One guy chewed me out because I took the parking spot he wanted so he yelled at me and called me a Muslim out-of-towner! (wrong on both counts since I was born in America)

If only people knew how many Christians there (still) are in the Middle East.
Click to expand...
The gentleman in the parking lot was pretty ignorant, even if had been correct about your religion.

Hollering at people and attacking their religion over a parking space is ignorant, even if the person guesses wrong about the religious affiliation.

Although I found it just confusing myself when I endured remarks from an irate individual who thought I was a member of the tribe.
 
Kielbasi said:
The gentleman in the parking lot was pretty ignorant, even if had been correct about your religion.

Hollering at people and attacking their religion over a parking space is ignorant, even if the person guesses wrong about the religious affiliation.

Although I found it just confusing myself when I endured remarks from an irate individual who thought I was a member of the tribe.
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A few years ago a couple was outside my apartment building (USA) arguing rather loudly with each other in a language that was not English. They were not dressed in typical American garb - I remember the woman was wearing a sari. I could not be sure of the language, but I can tell you one thing - the man who yelled out of his window that they needed to “shut the $%^& up and go back to Mexico” was probably wrong about where they hailed from. :rolleyes:
 
Havard said:
I think it’s a geographical thing. For the majority of the West Coast, at least in polite conversation, very few people make assumptions about the religion of new acquaintances like that. Probably because it’s a lot less homogeneous here. I know plenty of Catholics and other Christians from the Middle East.
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Detroit area is a very diverse and not at all homogeneous. (I’m from this area). Dearborn has the largest middle eastern population outside of the middle east. But the over all Detroit area has large populations of Arab, Jews, eastern Europeans, Chaldeans etc. for this guy in Dearborn to lash out at someone like this shows his utter lack of brains because in the long run, it only comes back to haunt people like this. he is lucky really that he didn’t get a punch in the nose or something worst.
 
EasternWestern said:
Are there any other Eastern Catholics out there who are presumed Muslim? In Michigan (esp. Dearborn), there is a very large Arab population, and sometimes people automatically assume I’m Muslim just because I’m Lebanese.(I can’t believe how ignorant people are!) All I have to do is mention my ethnicity and people make the assumption.

One guy chewed me out because I took the parking spot he wanted so he yelled at me and called me a Muslim out-of-towner! (wrong on both counts since I was born in America)

If only people knew how many Christians there (still) are in the Middle East.
Click to expand...
Yes, this! Ugh, I have seriously had people ask me “What are you?” in regards to my race (also Arabic Catholic, isn’t it ironic how many people think Arabic = Muslim?), one person several years ago asked me if I was an exchange student, etc. A couple months ago, I mentioned to a girl in class that I thought it was cool that another student came from the same country that my great-grandparents did, and she (for all intents and purposes, a very “open-minded” person) actually said, “But you don’t look the same…” To which I said something to the effect of “Uh, yeah, we’re from the same ethnicity, not the same family. Diversity, it’s a beautiful thing.”
 
Before I began investigating the Orthodox Church I was under the impression that middle-eastern=muslim. I think it is something that Christians have to work on educating the public about. We might not get through to everyone, but maybe we can put a dent in the ignorance. After-all, whether you are a Christian of middle-eastern decent, of British decent, of Italian decent, or any decent, it is where our religion began, and for that reason it is the spiritual homeland of all of us.
 
EasternWestern said:
Are there any other Eastern Catholics out there who are presumed Muslim? In Michigan (esp. Dearborn), there is a very large Arab population, and sometimes people automatically assume I’m Muslim just because I’m Lebanese.(I can’t believe how ignorant people are!) All I have to do is mention my ethnicity and people make the assumption.
Click to expand...
:banghead:
One guy chewed me out because I took the parking spot he wanted so he yelled at me and called me a Muslim out-of-towner! (wrong on both counts since I was born in America)
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:console:
If only people knew how many Christians there (still) are in the Middle East.
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If only people knew that and only 20% of Muslims globally are Arab.
 
EasternWestern said:
I think most people wouldn’t even believe it if told–even so-called educated people.
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Listen, anytime someone promotes themselves as “educated” or a “thinking person” be very very careful.

You may be surprised at their ignorance and intolerance.
 
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