Hey Thomas, I'm glad you came to a forum like this to talk to actual muslims rather than listen to the media. Since whilst much of the media is impartial to many subjects, the vast majority has some sort of bias and portray certain views, and specifically in the UK very negativley towards Muslims.
Anyhow, you gave a lot of things to talk about. So I'll start with this whole immigration problem. Its becoming quite clear its a growing concern for many of the 'English' and will become a major talking point. You think immigration is massive problem, but why not, as in Christianity, take it on the chin and pray it works out fine? You may want to stop people from coming, but that won't help anything. Imagine you lived in a country in severe poverty, and you wanted to go somewhere else, but we're not able too? Many people I personally know who move to the UK do it because they have nothing where they live, they have no cash, coming here gives them some money to earn for their families back home. If you're faced with giving the best possible life to your family, you won't care which country you're in. Unfortunately many people think they have some divine right to certain lands and are very wary to 'different' people, although we're all HUMANS. You never know, tomorrow a massive Tsunami could kill all the people of England, and then it wouldn't really belong to anyone.
Next point on the insults taken by using Muhammad or Allah in an abusive way, or something that may seem abusive. Let's take it this way, if someone abused your mother, would you stand for it? The love a muslim has for God should and is greater than anything else. With Muhammad he was a great man, and I think muslims don't want him to be start used in playful terms. What I mean by this is you have programs like the simpsons (which I do watch, by the way) that show and sometimes make jokes with Jesus. I think they would hate to see anything even closely similar becoming the norm with our beloved prophet, and I am glad the strength of the muslims and this Ummah (community) is great enough to stand up against all abuse, no matter how small they may be.
Next I want to make a quick point about prejudicing. In many of your points that you're looking to answers for (which is great) you're using some serious prejudices. Many of them even I fell for, but a quick search made me wonder why I had any doubt in the first place. Simply put, don't go with stereotypes. You talk about muslim women who can't talk English but can vote? Well my mother who was not born in the UK or has English as a mother tongue speaks better English than myself, and works as social worker. I know many many of my friends who have come from different countries but have and many still are making great efforts to learn English. This includes people who came when they are like 13 years old. English lessons at school must've been hell, everyone else learning about stuff like climaxes and oxymorons, whilst you can't even read the alphabet! But they try. You also talk about men controlling women like in other countries. Do you have any experiences of this? Or do you talk about what you get from the media? I repeat this point again, don't go with what the media tell you. If you have personal experience, then that's a whole different matter. My mother practically owns my father haha, so I'd say you're quite wrong there.
Secondly is the whole idea of "Why can others do this, while we can't?". You talk of why the term Paki is a no no whilst calling people Nazi is allowed? Well because the term Paki was used by people who used it in a racist way. Its like the N word like someone mentioned. And calling Nazi to people like Nick Griffin I don't agree with. It should've been censored. But this is whole idea is stupid. Do you know that muslims in Afghanistan, Palestine, and many other places are fighting countries with many helicopters and weapons, whilst they have basic guns? Whilst we live in the comfort of our homes, they are attacked and killed? This makes your points worthless, so don't go with this whole they get treated better than us. In face, don't go with this whole 'They' or 'You' thing at all.
The 72 virgin thing I don't have much if not any knowledge on, so i can't give you an answer too.
Oh just a small note on the lady who went to the college in a burka, she was even qouted as saying she was willing to remove it for identification. Media eh? I personally respect these women tremendously, because even though all the pressure put on them through the media, they still go with what they believe is right. And coverring ones self up has many more benefits than negaitives, trust me. Next point, you must understand that in every faith, there are those who make the rest look bad. But they're always the minority, in every faith.
On the Christmas concert thing, I don't understand that. I go to a school with a large muslim proportion of students, and we still have a Christmas time show, where many of the non Christians join in too. We all join in 'Christian' sort of prayer at the end of every assembly we have. Fasting I don't understand why a muslim would have a problem with someone eating in front of them. The fast is not some sort of personal gratification or ego boost, its to remember those who have no food and also for the love of God. But at the same time it wouldn't hurt for others to be considerate too. Just like how you're saying muslim people should respect your society. That leads me to a story of how back in the time of the prophet, when lands were conquered, the Christians and Jews and everyone were left to be as they were, they were respected as well as their faiths and ways of life. You call Islam a militant religion, but you only see crap like the Taliban representing the muslins. By that sort of stuff I could use the first crusade to represent the Christians. When the Christian emperors invaded Jerusalem and won it from the muslims, they killed all the muslims and jews there. They spared no one. Even those that sought shelter in the holy mosque were found and killed. Not a single child nor mother. But I wouldn't for the life of me think of all Christians as cold blooded murders, and neither would you.
So I've tried to answer anything you've brought up, hopefully they satisfy you. If not, then that's fine, feel free to ask again
I just noted that you mentioned Christianity and why muslims couldn't be like Christians. Muslims generally respect Christians a great deal, as Chrisitans are seen as the People of the Book, fellow believers in God. Here's a qoute from the Quran:
And do not dispute with the followers of the Book except by what is best, except those of them who act unjustly, and say: We believe in that which has been revealed to us and revealed to you, and our God and your God is One, and to Him do we submit. [Qur'an 29:46]
Again I'm very glad you came to this forum. You can learn so much and at the same time can teach many a thing about Christianity too, if you wish to do so. If you have the time, I'd advise watching a few videos of a muslim man called Yusuf Estes, he talks about lots of prominent issues and clears many conceptions up. If you have the time, that is. And just as one more point, I have, even though having the most heartless supplications of all time, prayed for non muslims atleast once.
And ah, just noticed the poster Insane above me. Haha, you have a similar post to mine. Congratulations on being faster. But next time, you're mine.
