Islam: Thoughts about it and experiences with it

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Islam: Thoughts about it and experiences with it

Postby Rifmaster » Wed Feb 20, 2019 2:46 pm

pls no ban

Alright so I wanted to hear the experiences and opinions about islam, from people who live in countries where islam isn't a major religion.
Have you ever talked to a muslim? How radical did they seem? Have you ever seen a woman in niqab/burka irl? What are your opinions about islam and muslims?

I'll share my experiences too, which i have plenty of since I live in a country that's like 50% "muslim"(quotation marks necessary).
So I went (and still go to) muslim religion class in school. There's some stuff about values and morals etc., but we mostly learn about hadith (quotes from mohammad, in which you can sometimes see that they were written by a camel herder in the desert), surahs (basically memorizing small bits of the quran), and just general **** that i dont really listen to much. My teachers love to represent western countries (particularly the US) as wastelands full of drug addicts, ***** and school shooters. Oh yeah, and the jews are a frequent topic. They sure to love to hate jews. There's lots of hadith about how the jews are gonna have a real bad time when judgement day comes. But that's nothing compared to the hatred towards any muslim that does anything differently from them. God forbid a woman puts a cloth on her head the wrong way, she's gonna burn in hell for that!
The thing about my religion class though is that it's in Bosnia, the place where the most liberal muslims in the world live.Lots of here people call themselves muslims yet they eat pork and drink hard liquor. I can't imagine what they teach kids in other places.
I know a few guys who aren't that radical, and they refuse to shake the hand of, or even touch a woman. In fact they don't even want to sit next to women.
My rather informed opinion (i'm around muslims every day) is that islam is not even close to the "religion of peace and tolerance" that it portrays itself as. It is a religion of hate, intolerance and closed mindedness. The more you follow the quran and hadith (the more muslim you are), the more backwards, stubborn and hateful you become.

Also fun fact, my brother sold a pair of sneakers to a guy who a couple of months later would be in Syria, fighting for ISIS, and making a video telling Bosnians to poison the food and bomb the cars of infidels in Bosnia. But that's not all! I know a guy (literally lives like 50 meters from my house) whose whole family (father, mother, and two brothers) went to fight for ISIS. His father and 1 of his brothers are now dead, while the younger brother and mother are god knows where. Oh yeah, this guy also unknowingly drove a guy to Sarajevo, who would a only few hours after being dropped off go on to shoot at the US embassy there with an AK. The father of the guy I know was a member of the communist party in Yugoslavia, and then in a few short years became an islamic terrorist.
You could definitely say that it's not a religion, but an ideology.
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Re: Islam: Thoughts about it and experiences with it

Postby Dallane » Wed Feb 20, 2019 3:02 pm

My experience with islam is mostly from people who are half and not really into religion and neither are their parents. Because of that they are "normal". Generally in america people who claim to be islamic are not actually, however there are area's that they settle in that you don't really want to be around or you will get the full experience.

I'm actually disgusted that you are required to attend a class for islam. I'm going to go ahead and assume that it would be racist of me and mark me as a bigot for asking if they are required to attend christian or jewish classes.
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Re: Islam: Thoughts about it and experiences with it

Postby Chrumps » Wed Feb 20, 2019 3:37 pm

Rifmaster wrote:...
Could you elaborate on financial status and general wellbeing of those people who became ISIS, before and after breakup of Yugoslavia ?

Could you also elaborate how much propaganda along the lines "Muslim good - [Orthodox] Christian [=Serb] bad" was fed to the general population over past 20+ years ?
I mean, I recall a lot of "Serb=bad" style propaganda in my county in late 90s and early 2000s. In propaganda generalizing is easy so it is easy to find some random wrongdoing and then project it on any, mostly unrelated group of people.
Also elaborate about possible "Bosnian = Muslim" style propaganda, which was not so pronounced here but that was general impression one could draw from media coverage.

Could you also elaborate who are people doing islam education in Bosnia, both in schools and in mosques. Are they Bosnians ? Where did they study ? Was that abroad, in the certain fundamentalist country which has totally no relationship to ISIS ? I do not mean Turkey, they are late comers to this game.

Then, when you talk person to person, most people are quite normal, no matter race or religion, problems begin when group mentality kicks in.

That being said, I do recognize Islamic teachings as a good material for religion-based hatred. I also realized a few year ago that Muslim communities are easier to govern and easier accept despotic government than any kind of Christian community so it is more desirable from government point of view to to convert the population to Islam, which in my perception is being done in Western Europe and to some degree in US.
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Re: Islam: Thoughts about it and experiences with it

Postby Rifmaster » Wed Feb 20, 2019 3:42 pm

Sorry, I worded that wrong. In the place I live, by default Bosniaks (my ethnicity) are signed up for Islamic religion class in school. I can opt out, if I have my parents sign a little bit of paperwork. I still don't think it's ok that I can't decide for myself whether I go or not, however I just go since it's easy to get an A in the class and that's good for my gpa. In any case, if I didn't want to go and my parents would sign the thing, I just wouldn't go anyway so it's whatever.
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Re: Islam: Thoughts about it and experiences with it

Postby Rifmaster » Wed Feb 20, 2019 4:35 pm

Chrumps wrote:
Rifmaster wrote:...
Could you elaborate on financial status and general wellbeing of those people who became ISIS, before and after breakup of Yugoslavia ?

They were pretty rich before the breakup. After the breakup they were doing better than average (compared to other Bosnians)
Chrumps wrote:Could you also elaborate how much propaganda along the lines "Muslim good - [Orthodox] Christian [=Serb] bad" was fed to the general population over past 20+ years ?
I mean, I recall a lot of "Serb=bad" style propaganda in my county in late 90s and early 2000s. In propaganda generalizing is easy so it is easy to find some random wrongdoing and then project it on any, mostly unrelated group of people.
Also elaborate about possible "Bosnian = Muslim" style propaganda, which was not so pronounced here but that was general impression one could draw from media coverage.

Not a lot of propaganda really, there was no need for it when the Serbian army was laying siege to basically every city in the country that was still standing. However there certainly was a lot of hatred directed at the Serbs after the war. It is certain that after the breakup of Yugoslavia, all the nations started becoming more religious, my theory is that it's because people couldn't accept that we are all genetically the same, so they had to find a way to herd up with the folks that fought beside them in the war. A lot of people used religion to achieve this, slowly becoming more and more radical in their beliefs. Most people however simply called themselves muslims and went on with their lives.
And about the Bosnian = Muslim thing, basically history ***** us and the south slavs were split between 3 religions, with the Bosnians being under Ottoman rule for the longest time, not allowing the Bosnian national identity to emerge, while the Serbs and Croats had gotten their autonomy/independence. With the addition of Bosnia to the early pre WW2 Yugoslavia, the Bosnian muslims suddenly were a significant part of the country, but they didn't have a national identity. So they just either called themselves Croats (this doesn't happen anymore) or simply muslims. Nowadays the correct term is Bosniak, and muslim is purely a religious thing. It's all complicated af.
Chrumps wrote:
Could you also elaborate who are people doing islam education in Bosnia, both in schools and in mosques. Are they Bosnians ? Where did they study ? Was that abroad, in the certain fundamentalist country which has totally no relationship to ISIS ? I do not mean Turkey, they are late comers to this game.


They are Bosnians, and mostly they study in Bosnia. Religion teachers are certainly not the ones that are going to turn you into an ISIS militant. They could totally turn you into a conservative muslim though (which i think is bad on it's own). And then, after your prayer in the mosque, you start talking with the wrong people who are probably only there to recruit you into some isolated hardcore muslim community, and before you know it you're in ISIS. That's what the guy with the ISIS family told me anyway.

Chrumps wrote:Then, when you talk person to person, most people are quite normal, no matter race or religion, problems begin when group mentality kicks in.

That being said, I do recognize Islamic teachings as a good material for religion-based hatred. I also realized a few year ago that Muslim communities are easier to govern and easier accept despotic government than any kind of Christian community so it is more desirable from government point of view to to convert the population to Islam, which in my perception is being done in Western Europe and to some degree in US.


I find it very difficult to talk about anything meaningful with muslims who take the religion seriously, I just feel like they bring God into everything, I can't even talk about music because they don't listen to it. Would have 5 Christian friends over 5 equally religious muslim friends any day of the week.

The government islam thing sounds a bit conspiracy theorish to me. Also muslims who take their religion seriously only really want shariah law anyway so I don't see why the current governments would ever want more Islam in their countries in that regard.
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Re: Islam: Thoughts about it and experiences with it

Postby Ronch » Wed Feb 20, 2019 5:10 pm

We all see and hear much about Islam today, several times everyday usually.
But, in the early-mid 1980's (were radicals and terrorist in the Islamic world back then too) during my military service, I had the pleasure of several personal 'meaningful' interactions with practicing Muslim families and also individuals.
...So below are my experiences with the Islamic culture, not just my "thoughts/feelings":

Even before and after my military service, I was blessed to be able to have been introduced by being placed into to many different cultures and sub-cultures on the Earth.
...But by far, my time spent with Islamic folks left me feeling genuinely cared for concerning immediate human needs like hunger, thirst and rest or even being entertained or made to feel welcome while I was on their turf.
They were not easily offended either, and are very forgiving if they are unintentionally offended by a stranger on their turf too.
Nothing like what I expected from my listing and believing what my Government and the main-stream media have portrayed and still portray Islam to be.

My personal experience so far with practicing Muslims has been; that they were more hospitable and welcoming to strangers on their turf than any other culture on the Earth.
Hospitality seems to be a number one priority and very, very, very important to them.
Last edited by Ronch on Wed Feb 20, 2019 6:39 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Islam: Thoughts about it and experiences with it

Postby Rifmaster » Wed Feb 20, 2019 6:06 pm

Ronch wrote:
We all see and hear much about Islam today, several times everyday usually.
But, in the early-mid 1980's (were radicals and terrorist in the Islamic world back then too) during my military service, I had the pleasure of several personal 'meaningful' interactions with practicing Muslim families and also individuals.
...So below are my experiences with the Islamic culture, not just my "thoughts/feelings":

Even before and after my military service, I was blessed to be able to have been introduced by being placed into to many different cultures and sub-cultures on the Earth.
...But, by far my time spent with Islamic folks left me feeling genuinely cared for concerning immediate human needs like hunger, thirst and rest or even being entertained or made to feel welcome while I was on their turf.
They were not easily offended either, and are very forgiving if they are unintentionally offended by a stranger on their turf too.
Nothing like what I expected from my listing and believing what my Government and the main-stream media or trolls portrayed and still portrays them to be.

My personal experience so far with practicing Muslims has been; that they were more hospitable and welcoming to strangers on their turf than any other culture on the Earth.
Hospitality seems to be a number one priority and very, very, very important to them.


Where was this? Were they Shia or sunni? How educated were they?
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Re: Islam: Thoughts about it and experiences with it

Postby Ronch » Wed Feb 20, 2019 6:13 pm

Rifmaster wrote:
Where was this? Were they Shia or sunni? How educated were they?

It was in the Middle-East, their turf.

I didn't inquire if they were Sunni or Shia, but can make an assumption base on geographical location that the majority of the folks that I encountered were Sunni.

That majority were also probably highly educated judging by their composure and visible wealth, while others were obviously not well educated at all in terms of what the western World considers "educated".
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Re: Islam: Thoughts about it and experiences with it

Postby Paradoxyc » Wed Feb 20, 2019 9:00 pm

All my Muslim bros are cool. I've hung out with them when they prayed as well, all around good people that I personally know. Anyone can be evil though regardless of religion - it's character and moral compass
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Re: Islam: Thoughts about it and experiences with it

Postby Heffernan » Wed Feb 20, 2019 9:14 pm

every time people tell me theres not just the Radical Islam but a moderate islam im laughing m y ass off, same for people who call it a "Peacefull religion" instead of a "Radical terrorist organisation" i dont get these people dont they see most of the war in the world are either with or about the islam?

this is probably th most apropriate description of Islam...

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