How does it feel to be a Muslim?
I am quite concerned about the anti-Islamic slant of the majority of the popular media here in Britain so, one of the things to do my bit, is to copy my Iranian friend Saman's reply to a question put to him the other day:
"You asked me to tell you how I feel as a Muslim. I am sure that you think it was an easy-peasy question; well, not at all, it made me think and think and think and imagine and imagine and compare things in the past couple of days!
I was thinking why I’m a Muslim, and the final answer was because my parents were Muslims. They were Muslims because their parents were. The same story goes back up to 1,400 years ago, when the parents of the parent of the parents of ..... my parents were not Muslims. What had been their religion then? Well, they were Zoroastrians. They converted to Islam because about 1400 years ago, their land, Persia, was conquered by the Arabs, the nation that Islam originated from. Who were the Arabs? They were people living in lands neighboring Iran. In fact, Islam was brought by Prophet Mohammad who was born in today's Saudi Arabia. He started practicing it through his tribe, then his city until the time that most of the people of his country were Muslims. He sent some messages to neighboring countries, including Iran (=Persia) and invited them to Islam. They ignored him.
The prophet Mohammad died. As soon as he died, Muslims started to go to branches. I guess the leaders who bring new ideas, also have got the power to keep the followers united. But as soon as they die, this talent disappears! And people start to think about making branches and then sub-branches and then micro-sub-branches. So, the main two branches, as far as I know, were Sunnis and Shiites, and the main source of disagreement was about who should rule (in their world lead to good destination) the Islam world.
What do Sunnis and Shiites share: the belief in the God, the same book and some principles such as there is just one God, there would be another live after death and that the God is fair. What do they differ, well, I don't know. I have friends that are Sunni and it is just now that I am thinking that they are Sunnis; otherwise, we never ever had any problem. Is it the same at the political level? Oh, my Goodness, no! You see, I have got good reasons to hate politics of any kind!
After establishing Islam in the country that today is called Saudi-Arabia, they started to expand it to other areas. Persia was a target. How they managed to beat Persia that was amazingly strong at that time is not very clear. Very strong nations have are very vulnerable as well, it seems. So, Islam came to Persia. It is said that people were not forced to convert to Islam but they got it on their own will. Well, remember, all I know about Islam comes from the courses that they were integrated in our training before college. And they could reflect the interest of the authors, rather than truth. I don’t know. So, Persia as a dominantly Zoroastrian nation, turned to a nation that is mostly Muslim.
But what was the attitude of Islam to other religions. It is clearly stated that followers of those religions that the prophets have been assigned by the God should be deeply respected. The most respected prophets in Islam are Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus Christ. And history says that they have been living in Persia for thousand of years. Living in Iran is sometime difficult. Not due to problems in human rights or nuclear issues. Come on!, people are so busy with daily life and crazy inflation rates and joblessness and heavy traffic and low wages that who cares about those atoms! Have the followers of other fates been happy and treated well, I don't know but may be not too bad. There was a Persian King called Cyrus the Great, who whenever conquered a land, said that the people could stay on their own religion; one he conquered a land that the Jewish people were used as slaves. He made them free and it is said that they treated him as a prophet. He was the first ruler ever who had something written on human rights which is kept in British Museum now. In the United Nation definition of human rights, they refer to what he has stated 2,500 years ago.
Well, coming back to living in the 21st century let me tell you how I feel like being a Muslim. I have been living in a Muslim country for most of my life. Then I have had the honor of visiting people from the other faiths. Specially, as Jay used to say, I am a gregarious person!. The most important difference i have seen between Muslims and let's say Christians is that "Our Sundays are on Fridays!???!!!". Otherwise, we say the same things. We think the same way. The other things that sound different are due to something else. You know, in these days that I am studying epidemiology, we call them confounders! I guess the differences observed are due to our problems in observation and our too early judgments. Let me tell u something, most people, if not all, who play basketball are tall. And lots of tall people play basketball; so if we see somebody on the street that is tall, we may assume that his favorite sport is basketball. It may be the case but it is not necessarily true. So, in these days, being Muslim is now confounded by some other things. So basically, as soon as one knows that you are Muslim, there is background fear in his/her face that may be he is somebody who should be avoided. And, as soon as they know that you are not a practicing one, you can see signs of relief in his/her face!!!??? Well, I have seen that people think that not drinking alcohol and not eating pork are sensitive and specific tests to examine one's Islam. May be they are not that wrong. It could be regarded as a surrogate of how seriously one practices Islam. But Islam is not just what one eats, is it? I don’t know. I am not religious. In fact, when they ask me if I am a Muslim, my answer is "yes, but not a good one" and that usually brings a smile to the face of both of us.
To be short in conveying my message, just imagine that you are in front of your PC and are using the Google Earth. When you zoom the most, you can even see homes. Those habitat of a small alley, they seem the same but if you go and live with them, you find that although they are from the same street, some love each other and some possibly hate and some don't care at all. For those who may hate each other or are a bit mistrustful about their neighbors, you see that they are unaware that all the problems are due to some minor issues. They have so many things in common. if they go to another district, they will be somehow treated based on the serotype that they belong to. Now de-magnify your Google earth to the level of cities, then to the county level, then to province, then to the state. You see, although people of New Orleans may bring a stereotype to the eye of people of other states but they can be quite different from what is believed. They have all faced Katrina tragedy but not all of them have had major damages. when you de-magnify your zoom to a level that you just see the earth, you will see that the habitat of the earth are all the same, but surprisingly, when some seem more relaxed on Sundays, in other parts they are crazily busy as it is the 2nd day of the week; then on Fridays those who were busy on the Sundays, look relaxed! Why? Because, based on their religions, their weekends are different and that's all!"
Saman 23rd Dec 2006
I hought I would add the following link to try to do my little bit to help dispel the swirling hatreds against Islam that one finds in the US and UK these days:
-- DE
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/introduction/woi_knowledge.html
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