Things Muslims/Christians misunderstand

RE: Things Muslims/Christians misunderstand

Maybe i am speaking over my head - but i was stationed in iraq for about 2 years. muslim/christian/even met a roman catholic.......all from iraq - but there are different versions of muslims just like different versions of christians..

for example...i met a muslimfrom iraq and another from kosovo, asked about ramadan celebration - and i got two different answers:

the one from iraq mentioned that they are supposed to not eat/drink/participate in sexual activitiesfrom sunup to sundownand said if you are sick you should not do it, or for pregnant women and children until a certain age- but they still drink water...they dont pray 5 times a day or wash thier face/ears/nose 5 times a day...

the one from kosovo said the same - but he was the one that told me about praying 5 times daily and washing your face ect....but doesnt participate in ramadan

neither eats pork or pork related meals

but when religion is mentioned as an excuse to do bad things - they reacted this way:

Both said self sacrifice is againt the quran...but niether know the Quran by heart (as all muslims are supposed to)

so - speaking from a open minded spirit, and married to a muslim who is also open minded in spirit i think the reactions of movies are based soley on false knowledge.

this is hard to explain - in middle-eastern culture they dont watch a lot of television - and when they do they think automatically (because of all the press influences as well) that christians are bad people, that do these crazy things - because our countrywas built soley on christianity and the faith in god.

i really dont know where i am going - just wanted to add my two cents......my own opinion is that people have to realize that the press doesnt alwways show everything, expecially the events behind the curtains (ie muslims and christians getting along rythmically and in harmony) they only show the violence toward each other...

i dont eat pork for two reasons - and i am NOT muslim - 1.out of respect for my husband who is muslim and 2.i watched a video that disgusted me (it was of a pig eating humans in wartime) - also not to mention pig farmers who feed thier pigs pig meat....interesting eh?

anywho - this is all my opinion - take it or leave it...

Ada

i forgot to add the difference of ramadan - have edited to add that....

RE: Things Muslims/Christians misunderstand

ORIGINAL: ace88

[link= http://debate.org.uk/topics/theo/small.htm ]http://debate.org.uk/topics/theo/small.htm[/link]

These are some things that Muslims and Christians misunderstand about each other. We just had a missionary from Egypt, Jordan, and other Muslim countries speak to us. What he said Muslims did not understand was that they saw Hollywood movies with violence, sexual themes, drunkeness, etc, and assumed all Christians acted this way. What they didn't understand is that America has become more secular than Christian, and true Christians in middle America don't behave this way.

It's not a religious thing - it's a people thing, amoral thing. Some self-professed Christiansare screwed-up people with no respect for other people who behave in an immoral manner. Same for Muslims. Some people with no religious beliefs lead a blameless life, considering other people's feelings, not murdering, not committing adultery, not stealing, but benefitting humanity with no thought for their own eternal salvation. They do it just because they want to.

Perhapsthe Muslim world will become more aware that theWest has decent people through media and experiences other than Hollywood (although reading kidnapped Westerners experience of listening to their very young and armed to the hilt kidnapperswatching Rambo repeatedly is dispiriting. Perhaps someone should be buying them Brief Encounter or Top Hat or something - anyway these boys are in the minority).

But so much of people's reaction to other cultures is based on ignorance. Hopefully it will get better.

Sharon