I live in Jordan in the middle east and I used to be a Muslim but now I'm an Atheist. I was in the Jordanian Army and now I'm an architect, so how does it feel to live in a Muslim society? Well, first of all Jordan is considered a country that enjoys peace and stability due to the harmony between it's people. Well my friends, that's a lie. A tourist can enjoy a great time in my country without having any fears of anything, but what about us? The normal people. Most of the Jordanian population consists of Muslims with 4-9% Christians. The people are highly educated but mostly blinded by religious beliefs.
Muslims & Christians
Christians and Muslims live and work together without any problems as long as there are no political problems in the country. In the years of 2011-2014 Jordan had massive protests against the corruption and the regime. The protests started among the University students to create a better future until the "Muslim Brotherhood" saw this as an opportunity to hijack the movement and turn it into an Islamic movement. This led to catastrophic events as the government responded with Riot forces and prosecution to the people among the protesters. The Christians saw the Muslim Brotherhood taking over the protests so they took the side of the government resulting in clashes between Muslims and Christians in the small cities.
Does Islam promote violence in the Middle East?
I'm very sure that Islam does promote violence in many aspects, but in Jordan Islam is not the problem, it's the religious groups who promote violence. I used to be in a schools owned by the Muslim Brotherhood, every morning they had some kind of morning news about Iraq and Palestine. It was more like an insurgency camp rather than a school for kids. Every morning all the kids should say "we are the future army who will free Palestine... death to the Jews". I didn't mind this whole thing until one day a kid asked about what we should do to women and children of the Jews, the teacher said: "we will kill them all!!!!!!!"
In that moment I realized that this is insanity, why would someone teach kids to kill women and children?
Faith is everything....
The faith became a tradition in Jordan, most of the women wear hijab not because god said so but because her father or brother say so. If you started any scientific talk regarding anything in the world if you don't know the answer you simply say: "only Allah knows."
Faith is no longer a motivation in our society, it's more like an anchor. It's more like Europe in the medieval ages. Most of the people are not really religious but they made the religion their culture, and they have a huge respect to the traditions more than anything.
Our society is not safe... a woman gets raped for example and they make her marry the psychopath who raped her because in our society, this is the honorable thing to do....
***please share your opinions without Racism or hate speech.
What It's Like Living in a Muslim Society in the Middle East
Love this take, you're very rational which is pretty rare! :)
Regarding the myTake: Mix culture/nationalism with Islam and it becomes cancer. I'm also a Bengali Muslim and I know how bad it can be. Bring patriotic isn't bad, especially since it's said to be a part of faith in hadith. But overnationalism or culture is totally forbidden, cause prophet Muhammad said that one who is overly in to these stuff isn't a part of the Muslim ummat. Don't get me wrong, I love my culture and other cultures. But Islam abhors racism and nationalism heavily.
Forced marriage aren't a thing of Islam, too. A marriage requires consent of both people and they have to be willing. Getting a girl married with her rapist isn't religion thing, it's culture thing.
I highly appreciate your decency, but I just thought I'd let you know more about this. I'm so sorry to know you left Islam, hope you stay safe anyway.
You seemed pretty mature, knowledgeable and educated. It wasn't only 1 question actually it was gonna be several questions haha (sorry i liedxD)! About you and your knowledge and how did you learn.. etc and if you speak Arabic... just general questions :)
It's rare for me to make friends here, but when i do, they are for sure special people. You don't seem too encouraged to message me, if you don't want to then you dont have to.
Agreed, glad you mentioned all of this. Lots of things that are part of eastern culture have NOTHING to do with religion and yet we claim its the "right thing to do". God help us
I appreciate you writing on this topic. Most of us Americans understand that most Muslims are nor violent and don't want to kill us, but the lunatic fringe terrorist groups get all of the publicity. It is interesting that you are allowed to remain alive in an Islamic country after you have renounced that religion. That restores some of my belief in Islam as a religion.
It is interesting that you comment about Islam being more of a tradition than a religion with so many in your country. In the western world, many people who call themselves Jews maintain their Jewish culture and traditions but do not actively practice and observe their religious beliefs.
my family and neighbors know that i renounced Islam and the don't like it but the learned to live with it,,, i live in a christian neighborhood and believe me no like atheists,, but as long you are not making troubles people forget and life move on
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I live in such society and let me explain it from my point of view as non muslim, most of the time its usual day to day life not much going on no problems or fights or anything between christians and muslims some are even friends, we go to school together, work together and live under the same rules...
that is until religion comes into play, as long as you let them do what they want theyre happy but when what they want is hurting you and you start resisting it that is when muslims start fighting, they want to date christian girls but refuse to let christians date muslim girls, some drink but a lot dont and they refuse to go to weddings or anywhere with pork or alcohol even when they can just sit somewhere far and not even touch any of these things... they talk shit about christians and the their way of life, they make fun of the holy trinity and claim we are infidels because we believe in three gods (ignorance) AND YES SOME EVEN SAY THIS TO YOUR FACE !! usually muslims have their own neicghourhoods and christians have their own neibghourhoods, christians dont really try to live among muslims but muslims try living among christians, in ramadan we dont really go to their celebrations and just stay home cause it doesn't interest us much, but during Christmas they come to our celebrations to pick girls up.
a lot of muslims even the ones who sound educated and open minded will turn absolutly barbaric when they hear the phrase "Allahu akbar" . not to mention the majority of muslims while they wish peace upon the muslim community often shit on other communities and some even are happy when a non muslim dies as sick as it sounds some are actually happy hopefully not the majority. they are brainwashed to the point they dont even want to listen to your point of view and rarely you find a muslim who is really open minded.
in short muslims are nice people as long as you give them what they want even that think is illogical, illegal and can't happen, and the moment you stop giving them what they want you start experiencing the same kinds of thins that happen in the middle east
a lot of Muslims even the ones who sound educated and open minded will turn absolutely barbaric when they hear the phrase "Allahu akbar" .
i totally agree with you except with the matter of "Allahu akbar" it's just a word buddy used for a lot of things,, but other than that you have really described the Muslim society, cheers!
unfortuantely this is how life is like in the middle east, its good and not so bad most of the time but that is if you follow the rules set by the muslim majority, if you decide their life style is not for you then they will fight with everything theyve got to change your mind and force you to live like they do, sad but true and iam glad someone finds this wrong and is agreeing with me.
Usually i look at muslims and iam like "well theyre normal human beings with normal hobbies and lifestyle" and then out of nowhere these same people lose their shit and start committing all kinds of terrorist acts because something is not happening according to their plan, basically they do not care about the law they only care about their own rules which as everyone in this world has figured out does not work well when you're trying to build a civilazation, as for the word allahu akbar, its not bad in itself but they use it as a way of gathering people for good and bad.
In my opinion, islam is extremely violent, hypocritical, self-contradicting and outright backwards religion.
Violence? Just read whole second part of koran, it's basically like an adventure of a psychopath on a killing spree.
Hypocrisy? They sure love adopting all sorts of goodies coming from those "dirty kuffars", heck, even Saudi king calls foreign infidels to help as soon as he gets sick, yet every other time they're constantly looking down on infidels. It gets hilarious when they move to a civilized country (non-islamic one), yet continue to live in a way they used to live back home AND try to make the country more like their old shithole. They outright fail to realize that their behavior/religion/attitude/customs/limitations are *LITERALLY* parasitic -- they left a shithole for a healthy host (country) and are trying to ruin it into a shithole they've left. Ask any doctor, that's how parasite works.
Self-contradiction? Well, they even have fatwas -- basically like a regulation that was created in order to cover up and regulate "proper interpretation" of huge amount of contradictions in koran, where one statement directly contradicts another, which obviously leaves saracens mindfucked.
Backwardness? Every time when I talk to saracens and point out that there are no inventions, no progress, no development etc. coming from islamic countries whatsoever in last few centuries and rely on advancements of those dirty infidels in basically EVERY area, they always mention their "golden age" that happened almost a thousand years ago. When asked that why there's no progress now, why they're lagging centuries behind everything etc., it seems that sudden realization of reality hits the religious brainwashing and it triggers them into rage, which makes further discussion impossible.
My personal opinion on them? On one hand it's good they're stuck in stone age mentally wise, technologically wise (without support of those dirty kuffars) etc., as it would be terrible if over 1 billion people would suddenly become competitive on global market of technology, innovation etc.
On the other hand, their parasitic tendencies, blind zeal, excessive amount of violence and their delusion in "exceptionalism" in their religion makes them really dangerous and unpredictable neighbor that nobody wants to have -- I personally absolutely HATE the fact we have saracens in my country, as I don't recognize them as fully civilized citizens.
Thus in my opinion a person who knows and has experienced civilized world and after that would prefer to live in islamic society definitely has extreme mental issues, as it's outright degradation and downshifting centuries back.
As a Jordanian myself, you got it all wrong. Culture is not anchored to Islam. Islam is anchored to culture. Islam does not promote violence and just because you think that doesn't mean you spread your word as fact, especially when it's a hot topic. I've never heard of a rapist marrying the victim, in Jordan if you do that shit expect the father and brother to take the matter in their own hands. Islam in Jordan promotes a set of morals.
As for the kids, I see no wrong with it. Sure it's a little blunt to say but there's a reason for that. The older ones are aware of the oppression, discrimination, and torture their people go through. I still remember the story of best friends cousin who was beaten by Israelis for no reason whatsoever (US Citizen by the way.) He was 15 at the time and was knocked out with a single hit but they just kept on kicking and bashing his head in. You expect the people to be okay with such actions? Just sit there quietly like nothing is going on? The west exists the way it does today because they were against oppression and torture. Nothing to do with religion.
i didn't attack Islam in anyway as you can see from all my replies as i insisted that islam became more than a culture,, and please dear open your mind,, i was like you defending my religion and country blindly,,, please don't waste your life in the same way i did,,, I've seen things beyond your imagination,, i'm 26 years old and i lived two wars and seen shits nobody should have seen,,, open your mind and start reading, and someday you will thank me.
Well well well!. Thank you so much dude Mr. Arabian
I liked what you wrote. And agreed with you a lot. See I am from Yemen.
And I think we have so much common ground. Especially that you are an atheist. I'd call myself an agnostic at this point of my life.
But isn't so hard living in a society you rebel against. And in the same time not being understood well by other societies.
I think many Muslims are like you and me. If they guarantee safety and someone asks them are you a Muslim? He'll say FUCK YOU. Lol.
God I loved your post, it made me quite happy and optimistic that I have Arab kin who I can be proud of and understand me.
I mean do you see their problems here? In this site? There is so much sexual openness. And how severe is this on their personalities or their happiness? Nothing.
In other hand my friend. What did I found in. A Saudi website where women have to write things without anyone knowing who are they. One of them says she caught her husband fucking her sister. And can NEVER DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT.
And other says she just loves I don't know, her husbands brother. And this is the result of the sexual deprivation.
I mean the sex is still going on in a weird way. Both in our societies and theirs.
The difference here that there is so much pressure. And just sickening lifestyle.
I happened to know by the way my cousin's wife is sexting someone. and sending nudes. Hahaha expressions that will be very disgusting if I said they were OK in front of her husband or her family. Or even her herself!
And a lot of relationships and fucking going on, and teenage pregnancy. In Yemen! Believe it or not.
It is just that it happens with the cost of blood.
Do you notice what I notice.
Peace dude. Your forever single worthless Kafir brother.
Again, this is all about the stereotypes, people tend to believe that someone is like that because of what they are told or see in the news. As you said that you live in Jordan and you believe that Islam does not prompt violence which I agree since there's no way that there's a religion out there that promotes violence otherwise how can they win people with that? Correct me if I am wrong but I have a Muslim friend who told me that the Quran does not talk terrorizing people but it talks about love and frankly that's what the bible is also about isn't it? I myself used to be a Christian but 2-3 years ago I have became an Atheist because I had so many questions and I received no answer. Religion is all about brainwashing people. As a young member of the society, you don't have any options because parents and schoolteachers tell you that you have to believe in this and that since you don't know much of the world. But, growing up, you find out that there are other religions in the world and you either ignore them because you are in your safe zone and support your religion to be the "real deal" or you make some research and find out that there is no "true religion" and "fake religion". I have this Chinese friend that she moved to Malaysia at age of 4 who used to be a Christian but became a Muslim because she told me that Christianity was bs. Needless to say, her parents are still Christian and her younger brother because they sent him to a Christian school instead of a public school (apparently they teach them Islam stuff) so he will not become like their daughter, however she is trying to make him a Muslim. Anyway that's another proof that brainwashing is what is responsible the "choice" of religion.
dear i find every religion unique in some way,, Christianity came in times of oppression and hostility, so kindness and love would be needed,, the Byzantine empire and the roman empire recruited every capable man to fight and die,, so Christianity tried to give a spiritual meaning to life.
Islam on the other hand came for people who lacked order and used to drink and mate like animals,, the had no loyalty for their lands or anything else except for the tribe,, so Islam asked people to change their loyalty for something greater a higher being in the sky that will give them the riches of other empires,,
i'm very sure it was more of a motivation that kept these religions alive,,, but now a days it's not motivation, it's brainwashing people mind,, that's why people started to change their faiths,,, people started to think as human being more than a person in a big cult..
violence is not to be blamed on religions,, people use religion to do violence.
media.tenor.com/.../tenor.gif Hmmm... This appears to be particularly one sided. But the you are an Atheist so I wouldn't expect an accurate representation.
Can't say I'm surprised, Jordan is surrounded by Israel, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. I hope the people who aren't familiar with the middle east and it's current affairs don't simply read the word "Muslim" and conclude that all the problems in that area are a result of religion which would contradict what what you said since people aren't even religious.
sir thanks for your opinion,, Islam is more than just a practice in mosques, it's a style of life,, my take was to shed some light on the Muslim society in Jordan and not about Islam it self.
One day a kid asked about what we should do to women and children of the Jews, the teacher said: "we will kill them all!!!"
This comment alone should spell out for everyone where these Al Queda and ISIS people come from. Islamic 'schools', which are funded by the sheiks and rulers of these countries, who are funded by oil that WE buy.
Islamic schools are funded by private groups,, the government doesn't like the idea of an ideological schools but they can't do anything,,, they put this idea in your head that every war in the middle east is a religious war,, they teach kids to hate American soldiers although they are no more than people doing what they are told to do. this king of education build hatred and grudges in the kids so they grew up to become fanatics killing people from their own society.
If this is genuinely your opinion, then you're truly western, regardless of where you live or come from. So, welcome.
And it's people like you who have to educate the other westerners who fall for all the islamist propaganda and apologists that leads them to believe that everyday life for the average man or woman is peachy.
Just be anonymous when needed and don't do or say anything stupid. You're of no use if you're dead. :P
dear I've faced worse than this, I've been deployed to Iraq and Sudan,, so i don't think am an easy target...
the most strange things in the Western countries is how people join ISIS in Syria or teenage girls go to Syria,, either they are too stupid or just brainwashed,, or simply they have never seen a war,,
many Muslims call for war against Israel, but am pretty sure they haven't experienced the feeling of a mortar round next to them, people are ignorant and no one can change that,, if someone is too damn stupid to listen a man promising him 72 virgins in heaven, i think it would be better to let him die.
Omg! I was just reading about Jordanian culture few days ago, and I have the exact same thoughts as you. The society is just too brainwashed to the religion, that common sense or logic isn't a thing there. While i respect their family oriented lifestyle and respect against women (protecting women and not wanting them to mess with bad stuff) i still think they should be more open minded to other religions and cultures. But still, jordanians, especially the new generations are actually pretty well educated and more open minded than the older ones. But i guess this is how it is in the whole middle east..
Well your certainly one of the more rational Arabs I've come across at least you recolonize that there is a problem with Islam in general, most ignore it as if it doesn't exist.
Also there aren't that many Christians in Jordan they only make up 6% or less of the population so that wouldn't be much of an issues either way.
most of the Christians tend to live in around churches and other christian landmarks,,, this behaviors created neighborhoods with a majority of Christians,, that why whenever a problem happens in the streets,, a lot of people get involved very quickly.
Islam is barbaric and is probably about 1000 years, culturally, behind the rest of the world, especially the west.
All the shit the west has gone through over the last several hundred years has created a society that is simply sick and tiered of violence, war, bigotry, zealotry and ignorance.
It has been a LOOOOONG hard road but now it's the best culture, by nearly every measurable standard, the world has ever seen! Islam, in partnership with Marxism/Feminism, is actively seeking to destroy it. To even eradicate or enslave the entire population of the world who is of European decent and has white skin.
Islam and Marxism/Feminism are the greatest threats the world has faced since the Nazi's in WW2.
well i agree Islam is behind the the rest of the world so does other religions,, but you can't deny the fact that it's a structured religion meant to take control of every aspect of life,, that's why Islam spread so fast more than Christianity for example,, i admire Islam as a way to take over others but i don't like how does create a relationship based on "slave and his master"
Your description of what life is like in a Muslim-majority country goes a long way in explaining why I believe it makes no sense for Western nations to be importing that culture through immigration. A woman gets raped? She's made to marry the barbarian who raped her? No thank you. I don't want to bring that into my country.
Agree. Therefor it's cons to let immigrants etc. enter our Western countries. But I can understand people wants to help refugees because of war. So it's a dilemma there.
well Islam is very adaptable my friend, Muslims never act the in the same way in the western countries, I've seen Muslims in Germany and in the UK and believe me they are different, so you will never see these behaviors in France for example
@curiousnorway actually i never met any Muslim who lives in Norway but i hear Muslims in Scandinavians countries are pretty much cool about Islam, if u have any past experience with Muslims in your country please share
I've not so much experience with them. Just that women insisting on wearing hijbab and men wearing a big beard, long white dress for men and a weird hat. I've seen them entering the mosque before. Seems a bit conservative for me.
A Somali Muslim woman didn't obey her husband, so he killed her.
The Muslim Brotherhood criticized Saudi Arabia and Salafi sholars because they supported US war against Iraq, But during the so called Arab spring, the Muslim brotherhood scholars supported Nato in Libya.
Some Muslim groups care more about their interests regardless what harm these interests can cause to Islam.
I'm not surprised to be honest. In the news papers in our country it's written a lot about the conflicts in the Middle-east. There's also much news about Middle-eastern countries like Saudi-Arabia, Iran, Jordan, United Arabic emirates etc. and how conservative religious they're. We gets to know how their view on women, non-believers, LGBT etc. is. If you've another opinion than the conservative it's a risk I've heard. Never liked the laws, governments or cultures in these countries.
If you've another opinion than the conservative it's a risk I've heard... well that's in deed true,, you can't say whatever you want,, Islam in Arabic mean submission,, a slave never question the actions of his master,,, so the picture is clear,, Islam started between Arabian desert nomads so it was designed to take control over the most anarchist populations in the middle east , so now we are living in the past
The clause allowing a rapist to marry his victim has been removed from Jordanian law. In many countries of course written law is often superseded by tradition and what people at least perceive as religious law. Honor killings, bride kidnapping, and slavery are illegal everywhere, but still go one with many governments doing nothing about it.
Well I'm just glad that I don't live in a Muslim society. I can wear what I want, do what I want and say what I want. Thank god for Western society. Peace!
@Emmdk ehh I dunno, I mean I hope you're right but it's really not looking good right now. I guess maybe there will be civil war, almost certainly in Europe, possibly setting off ww3 over multiculturalism.. only time will tell. At best Europe will become balkanized I'd wager.
@Emmdk so? whats your point why would i be offended if you insult muslim countries? the west is dumb yes, they are letting muslims in by the muslims and only a handful of them are good people are the rest are there to occupy.
@Z-Spark i assumed you were a Muslim. Regardless, I don't want to make offensive comments toward other countries and people. And you and I have very diffferent angles on the refugee crisis and a situation in Europe in general. Let's just leave it there OK
Yes we do, I never realized how sheltered my life really was till I got a divorce a few years ago and started mingling in the real world and it actually worries and scares me. I honestly thought people where more empathic then what they really are, and definitely thought they were a lot smarter. I was so wrong, I don't suffer fools lightly so I stay away from a lot of people
it's a journey of survival,, i used to live in a sheltered life,, i come from from a middle class family living in a nice calm neighborhood,, i never realized how cruel we are until i joined the army and deployed in Iraq, I've seen people get killed for stupid reasons,, how could a human being do that to another?
i used to do patrols with 2 french soldiers every day for almost a month or so, we developed quite a good friendship,, and we used to come across an Iraqi check point every day, the french soldiers were always nice to the Iraqi soldier, but i used to act as a dick head,, Jordanian forces were not allowed to interact with any Iraqi forces. one day while we where crossing the check point a fucking Iraqi soldier started shooting at our HUMVE,, he was trying to kill the french soldiers,, the kindest people I've ever seen in this whole shit country,,, thanks to uncle Sam no one got hurt, the man tried to kill us for no reason,, the french were too good with him,, it's fucked up!!
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